Monday, August 16, 2010

Darned Mexicans!

Now if it wasn't enough that we've got this illegal immigration problem, the weather man says the Mexican's are sending us up some warmer weather!  Jeez!  Low 100's today (39+C); another 5 or 8 degrees (42+C) later this week.  Grrrr!  Even the people who've been here a while are getting tired of it.

I was reading that the Mexican President has said perhaps they should consider legalizing some drugs, like marijuana specifically.  His justification is he wants to reduce all the violence that the drug cartels are causing.  I think legalization makes perfect sense.  The country could tax it and we could all go over the border and have a quick joint if we wanted.  Hell, it would probably increase tourism 200%.  (I can just see Croft trying to figure out how to stay there year round.  LOL  Just kidding!)  Actually, we ought to legalize in this country as well.  Logically we'd have to let about 25% of the people out of our prisons (since they were in for something that was no longer a crime) but that savings wouldn't be too painful to the states and the tax income from the weed would be most welcome. 

These hot days I'm spending my energy trying to figure out how to cook things without warming the house.  The crockpot is in use as is the bbq.  I got my first gas bbq about 20 years ago; before that I was a charcoal guy.  Now I've decided to try charcoal again but it's kicking my ass!  I think I've complained about it before but it's still killing me.  Made a real rookie mistake the other night.  Put a pork loin on that I'd made slits in for little pieces of garlic.  I'd done something similar on the gas grill just a couple weeks ago and it was great!  Unfortunately, I forgot that the charcoal grill is much cooler and didn't sear the meat the way the gas did.  Ended up with a fairly dry pork loin.  Bah humbug.  Like I say, a rookie mistake.  Next time I'll just put the garlic on the outside and we should be good to go.

I'm also trying 'real charcoal' aka lump charcoal.  The stuff that doesn't fall through the grate burns pretty quickly and the charcoal I add doesn't really take off well.  It's to the point that I stopped and bought some Kingsford briquettes yesterday.  I've never used lump charcoal before so going back to something that I have at least used before ought to help with this re-learning process.  I spend quite a bit of time on the BBQ forum but some of those folks are really close to professionals!  Not that they aren't helpful, it's just they are on a whole different level. 

Gotta go.  Tonight I'm the garlic bread guy to my wife's pasta cooking.  Hopefully I won't screw that up.  Have a good one.

2 comments:

JoeinVegas said...

Hmmm, baking bread on the charcoal grill. That must be interesting

Croft said...

Mexico legalizing drugs is a great start for the hemisphere but it only a stopgap measure. The huge demand from the USA will keep the cartels operating. Like you say, it must also be legalized in the USA. That is the only way to cripple the cartels.

Marijuana is not technically "legal" in Canada, the courts and police forces have just decided to quit charging and prosecuting people for simple possession. Growing and sales will still get you a pretty good slap on the hand.

The overall result of this effort up here in Canada has probably been a reduction in use. Back in the old days, all my friends used it but now only a couple do.