Mialkowski Family News

Yes yes folks (and people [Chicago-ese]), today is World Turtle Day.  Luckily, we in the northern part of Georgia have the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center which teaches everyone about the importance of sustaining our environment. Think of it this way, when you were younger, you may have had a gerbil (google “Richard Gere gerbil”), well, you were certainly told that you have to take care of that gerbil because it or he or she can’t take care of itself. That means giving the gerbil more food, water, and cleaning out the bedding area along with the area it likes to poop and pee in. Ah, the area that the gerbil likes to poop and pee in. In human terms, the toilet! Now I’m getting it. In Gwinnett County, Georgia, the Department of Water Resources comes to the rescue by providing us with water and a way to get rid of our wastewater (which includes sink sludge, tub turnout, and toilet tur[d]bulance).  We’ve had a drought in the past couple of years so water shortages have been a big concern. It’s also been a concern with our main supply of water which comes from Lake Sidney Lanier has been down over a dozen feet of full pool. Things are looking up now as the water supply is slowly starting to replenish. Let’s see how everything works out.

World Turtle Day 2009

Since this past Saturday was to have real nice weather, I set that day aside for cleaning out the gutters on the house. It’s been years since I did it last, and I really want the mosquitoes to be at a minimum this year. I have those metal screens that clip on the gutters, but debris still gets in there, mainly pine needles and pollen and stuff like that. So I threw on my work gloves and climbed the ladder. I would end up scraping over 1/2 of real black dirt from the gutters that the leaves have broken down into the past several years. Fine dirt, I should market “Roger’s Gutter Dirt” or something. Afterwards I would flush the gutters with my garden hose to give me that bare metal look inside the gutters. The night before we went food shopping so I picked up a $7 clearance T-Bone steak. Once I got done with the roof, I sparked up some charcoal. While that was catching in my charcoal chimney, I prepared some potatoes. I speared up some red potatoes so I got 6 spears from each of the 4 tots. I spread them on some foil and sprayed them with spray butter. I wrapped up the foil and that’s what you see on the grill along with the T-Bone, some chicken, and a few hot dogs.

Saturday Slaughter

While the food was cooking, Katherine decided (great idea) we eat outside! The weather was go and the bugs were no. I found a fold-up table and got some camping chairs together along with Lily’s high chair so she can partake in the festivities. Of course, this whole time, I have the radio playing some rock-n-roll.

Lily Can't Wait

Finally, the meal was cooked, the meat was done, and the potatoes were melt-in-your-mouth with a buttery texture. I shared my T-Bone with Katherine & Lily. Lily loved it sooo much that…

T-Bone Tear-up

It was right around 72 degrees last evening and I had planned to get some red meat sizzling on the charcoals. I went to this butcher shop called The Meat Man and picked up an inch thick top sirloin which I had them sliced into 2 – 1/2 inch steaks. Each steak was over a pound in weight. I marinated it for an hour or so (wish I could have done that longer) in a mixture of ketchup, Hickory Smoke flavored BBQ sauce, Worchestire sauce, water and some herbs and spices. This crappy camera I used doesn’t do the below pictures any justice. Go ahead, click on each of the pictures in a futile  attempt to savor the tender meat.