If you have ever wined and dined with the Abbotts on specific holidays, special occasions, or times-we’ve-had-lots-of-extra-wood, you must have experienced some of our BBQ. ‘Queing (as the hip people say) chicken has been a staple of the grill (meaning if the grill could eat, chicken would be the most common meat to lay on it’s palette). We make our own marinade and the most common marinade we’ve made is a spicy, soy-sauce–laden liquid. Very salty and spicy but very tasty. There’s no real constant recipe. The proportions vary every time but it’s somewhere along the lines of:

• lots o’ soy sauce
• pepper
• salt
• brown sugar
• rice wine vinegar
• garlic
• ginger
• sprinkle of pepper flakes
• etc,

Well, this year,we’ve decided to do something different. Since Papa got this pulverizer in which he blends green tea and whole lemons to drink, he suggested making a lemony sweet ‘n sour marinade. So we pulverized four lemons and a whole onion. It tasted. . . fine. The lemon rind kinda took away some of the sweetness of the lemon but it was still fine. We added honey and then some mustard (which gave it a real yellow look). After adding garlic, Italian herb seasonings, turmeric, salt and pepper, it was ready to be squished in between 20 drumsticks for five hours. It’s good that we let it soak for that time ’cause the sauce was mild and the time of the constant submersion made for flavor-soaked meat.

After 3 hours, we started the fire. When we got good coals, Pa said we should cover them and go play downtown. I did the sensible thing of playing Devil’s Advocate. Some of my reasons included: 1) But the coals will get cold! 2) It’s so windy downtown! Nobody will show up! 3) Uhh…

Well, we went downtown anyway. There were people out and the wind died down. We made a good chunk of money (all for charity mind you!) and ran into some people we knew. True to my predictions, the coals were dead upon our return. Of course, a couple more logs brought them back up to snuff.

Though admitting something is never fun, it was better that we waited. We got more coals, flavor in the meat and mall moolah (for charity!). Plus, the sun was shining just right.

Now, while it looks like Uncle Molskott lost his cookies all over the chicken, I assure you it’s just the marinade. It sure was more chunkier than I had thought it would be when making it.

Yep.