The Wooden Spoon Trick

We had the guys (Dave, Jay, Randy and Larry, plus Larry's kids Kyle and Tyler) over Saturday for a cookout...it was our first (FINALLY) successful attempt to have people over and eat out that didn't get rained out this year... Seriously - I can think of two times this has failed, and there might've been a third?

Funny thing is - I didn't get ANY pictures of the food, and if I may say so, it was GOOOOOD! I made a HUGE batch of gumbo, a double batch (all in one skillet) of sizzlin' skillet cornbread (several folks had second helpings of the way-too-large slices I'd cut), corn on the cob, and grilled zucchini and summer squash, and three spatchcocked Ohio-grown bone-in marinated chickens that started on the grill but kept catching on fire so, after they were sufficiently grilled on the outside (with cherry wood from Brett's folks for smoking) I finished them off in the oven. They turned out VERY juicey and tender (and I'm sure we all smelled like smoke!)!

We were all so full I don't think anyone even had dessert...we didn't cut into the watermelon, and had plans to get snacks at the movies later than night. We saw the 9:50 showing of Batman: The Dark Knight, which was reallllly long, but really very very good! MUCH better than I expected - which was a pleasant surprise.

In addition to dinner and a movie, we had lots of fun just hanging out with the guys, checking out the garden, comparing notes about landscaping, playing The Wooden Spoon Trick (see below), etc.

Here's Randy showing Kyle and Tyler (behind Kyle) what a weed is. Ok, technically he's giving them the latin name for Queen Anne's Lace. Randy and I were both botany geeks, and had a fun time comparing notes on what we knew and trying to imress each other years ago... Now I think we just accept we're nerds that no one else understands. LOL


Hmmm....I didn't realize it as we were goofing around and I took this next picture, but it almost seems like we're going to have to make a trend of taking fun cheesecakey pics of Dave! (And yes, Dave, I think we're going to need to Photoshop this picture and add a pile of Carmen Miranda-esque fruit on your head! LOL!!)


And I threw out an idea that I figured would get shot down, but it actually went over really well. We don't really have any great pictures of "our family" here with The Guys, and it seems we all liked the idea of a group shot. Now TAKING that group shot when you can't find the damn tri-pod - that's not always so easy. (It helps when you've got kids around to take the photo!) This was the best of the photos, but I'll be hooking the guys up with their own copies to pick and choose from soon...


And finally, as promised above, the wooden spoon trick. I just found out about this from Jared at work the day before, and KNEW I needed to try it out soon. Turns out Kyle, Tyler's older brother, ALSO knew about the trick and wanted to participate. So after I played with Tyler a short bit, and he couldn't figure out how I was supposedly whacking him so hard on the head with the spoon in my mouth, Kyle and I traded off - I told Tyler I'd video them playing and then after would show him so he could see what they were each doing differently - maybe he could learn a new technique. LOL Talk about fun!!




And, man, that kid can really take a beating to his noggin'! I hope Brett wasn't smacking him TOO hard! ;-) (And no, no one lost teeth doing this)