Crispy Bits

This fall, the Gentle Barber invited a motley crew up to his cottage on the shores of Lake Huron for a big bear weekend.  Never one to turn down an opportunity to escape the city, we hopped in the Sweet Babboo’s brand new Nissan Versa and hightailed it out there, Google map in hand.  We arrived at Southampton after sunset and spent the rest of the evening on the deck, enjoying beer and company. 

The following day, after a bracing splash in the icy lake and a long warm-up in the hot tub, we made our way into Saugeen for a bite to eat and a grocery shopping expedition.  Apple&Jacks volunteered to make a late lunch and perogies were on the menu…barbequed perogies.  Now the Ukrainian in me was having a hard time comprehending this.  I grew up with one tried-and-true method of perogy preparation: cook in boiling water until they float.  For an added bonus, fry in pan to crisp up.  This last step is usually reserved for dealing with leftovers, but I preferred them this way.  With roasting pans in hand, however, Jacks confidently set forth to demonstrate this little bit of magic and thumb his nose at generations of Slavic tradition.  Here’s a rundown of what he did:

That’s it.  Done.  Easy peasy.  And as you can surmise from the photo above, they were mighty tasty.

 That evening on dinner duty, I prepared a dinner of barbequed chicken and lamb souvlaki with vegetable skewers and a warm potato salad.  I was too busy cooking to take pictures, and it was so dark by the time we ate that I was at the grill wearing a headlight.  Brought back memories of camping.  And the food wasn’t bad.  The sunset was really nice, though.

Oh, and I still get a chuckle about the neighbour who was struggling with the concept of the bear flag: “Now is that pro-bear, or against bears?”  I guess the ten bearded, burly, beer-drinking men didn’t offer her a clue.  Too funny.