hair dog season

Here in the bay area it can be hard to figure out exactly what season it is. If you landed here from another planet or awoke from one hundred years of sleep in January, June, or October you might find very similar weather. But a surefire way to know that it is spring in our house is the presence of tumbleweeds of dog fluff, hairballs roll across our wood floors, stick to our shower wet feet and appear in our cereal.

Other than the dog fur plague, Bay Area old timers such as ourselves can tell spring is here since we have noticed that it is getting lovely and warm, warmer than it usually is in the summer, in fact, reaching the 70's during the day, with clear fog free skies. Our yard, landscaped at the end of last year, is coming into its own, and another sign of spring, my jasmine, is beginning to bloom. This inspired us last weekend to have our first barbeque of the season, after spending most of the day outside in the backyard (yes, its a tough life, I know!).

Now one thing many non parents do not appreciate is the sheer lack of time to oneself a working parent has. This became apparent when I decided to peruse recipe books for barbeque ideas. I realized that we had three brand new untouched recipe books on our shelves, all generous Christmas gifts from friends and family who recalled the great love of all things food and cooking related that Geekydaddy and I share. Despite calling to me occasionally from the shelves, in the time between now, the end of March, and last December, I had not found a moment to read them!

We fondly recalled lazy Sundays spent reading the paper, scanning recipe books, then shopping and cooking gourmet meals. But between playing with the kids in the bright sunny newly landscaped garden, and fending snotty fingers of the glossy pages of the new cookbooks, I did manage to select an excellent marinade for our Arctic Char and tried a recipe for grilled zucchini with fresh mint both of which turned out very nicely.

I admit to a certain sense of pride when our three year old eats barbequed fish and zucchini with relish, and declares it "really yummy. And it will make your bones grow".