Happy New Year

Happy New Year!
The Snook and I have been enjoying a pretty low-key holiday weekend. After the debauchery of the first Martini Club session Friday night, we decided to forgo the traditional New Year’s Eve activities in favor of watching TV at home. On Sunday we mainly hid inside the house from the disgusting heat (over 100 degrees F!) while preparing dinner for our friends Leanne and Brendan. Since Brendan’s an apprentice chef (at one of our favorite restaurants), we made a last-minute attempt to impress him by brining and smoking a chicken. We’d never done it before. For the brine we used this recipe, and the only glitch was that we’d decided to do it so late that we only brined it for four hours, not eight. We then smoked it on our barbecue using some apple wood chips for about two hours. It turned out delicious! So that was a success. We also had fresh prawns from the Sydney Fish Markets, grilled squid salad, and green beans from Ma Snook’s garden. The Snook’s homemade summer pudding was the glorious finalé. Man, it really is time to get back on the diet…