Backyard grill

Composed salad: Tuna, lettuce, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, capers…
Grilled steak and sausage

THE FIRE BEGAN WITH CHARCOAL briquets but went on to green fig wood, pieces from the recent pruning of several fig trees. I don't think the meat was particularly marinated; probably just salted a bit and laid on over the fire. Lindsey had made this delicious faux-niçoise salad; I especially noticed the grains of sea-salt in it.



The afternoon had been fairly strenuous, with a short hike in new shoes and new back-pack with twelve or fifteen pounds in it; and the Martini had left us thirsty and hungry and ready for a fine evening. Bats overhead eating the mosquitos; big owl flying silently overhead to roost in a nearby oak.

Lou Preston Sirah-syrah; côtes de Rhone Guignal