I’ve had my head in the clouds for the past few days, languishing in cyberspace, and avoiding all types of involved cooking or baking.  We haven’t had to deal with the weather so many of you are melting in, so I can’t use that excuse.  In fact, we’ve been experiencing our usual “June Gloom” in July and rarely see the sun until after noon, then only for a couple of hours before the clouds cover it again.  It’s a whopping 75 degrees right now, with the warmest part of the day behind us.  Still, I haven’t felt like baking.  And lately, dinner has been a quick piece of meat or pasta with a salad.  Tasty, but not necessarily anything to get worked up over.

What there is to get worked up over is having Jenny of All Things Edible deem me worthy of the Brillante Weblog Premio-2008 award days and days ago, and I’ve not taken the time to say thank you to her here, and to recognize the efforts of other food obsessive bloggers whom I depend on for my dose of daily drool.  Thanks, Jenny!  It’s great to receive something sparkly from another foodie and to do so in the company of others you’ve named, well all righty, then.  Definitely an occasion to put on my eyebrows!  Having said that, Ben of What’s Cooking?, Kit of The Kittalog, Cathy of Noble Pig, Elle of Elle’s New England Kitchen, Grace of A Southern Grace, and peabody of Northwest Noshings (who has an amazing new and and droolworthy savory packed site featuring ingredients from the upper regions of the Left Coast) are whom I deem worthy of this recognition as well.  What I enjoy about all of these talented people is that their blogs are full of a variety of yummy food, both sweet & savory, and with a few other things thrown in for good measure just to keep me on my toes.

As far as being on my toes is concerned, like I’ve said, I haven’t been.  That’s given me some time to practice being less chained to my recipes than I normally am.  But I have seen about eight million watermelon recipes this summer, so clearly I had to try one myself.  And even though we’re sans sunshine, it is summer, and that means giving the grill a workout with an impromptu tri-tip roast and an easy herby dry rub.  Nothing could be easier if you want flavor with not much effort.  I even had to man the barbie by myself this time which is always quite the adventure, since I don’t always pay attention like I should when it comes to the grill.

Bear in mind this experience was most likely made a bit more challenging than it should have been because I finally opened a bottle of Trader Vic’s Mai Tai mix we’ve had for quite some time and poured a cocktail for my mother and I to swig while trying to figure out whether the temperature reading for the meat read “done” 15 minutes after putting it on the grill.  Clearly something was already not quite right, and it was no wonder considering the punch those Mai Tais had.  Yowzah.  With some easy adjusting and a few winces caused by my attempts to grasp the metal thermometer with my bare hands, I was able to get an accurate read and get the roast back on track.

I think I’ll stick to my white wine from now on.  Seriously.

Continue reading Herbed Tri-tip on the Grill with Watermelon Salad