
No problem, just tear out the carpet and nail down hardwood, right? Riiiight. That’s what we thought this first day when we had our flooring “breathing” to adjust to the humidity.
In reality, we had to chip away sections of tile floor, pry up soggy particle board, removed sweet 1970’s parque, remove a few hundred square feet of perfectly good hardwood, then finally, after numerous trips to the dump, we could…
…wait for it…
…install and level plywood. You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you? Did I mention that I was still working in Memphis five days per week?
Chris did his best to work on the floor while I was gone, but between that project and our massive lawn to mow, it was a Herculean juggling act. As summer came to a close and it began to get too chilly for me to appreciate the comfort of our outdoor living room, we were finally able to move into our house for real.
We still like to relax on our back porch, and while I don’t think we will ever again do so with the frequency that we did that summer, I still enjoy grilling extravaganzas like the one we had last Sunday.
Sunday’s all-grill dinner was topped off with none other than a grilled dessert. I’m a huge fan of grilled fruit and this may be my favorite. It had the sweetness of dried fruit, but was juicy like the real deal. An added bonus is that Chris, our house grill master, does the cooking when I come up with (almost) all-grill dinners.
Adapted from Skinny Chef.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp adobo paste from canned chipotles in adobo
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 ripe mangos, peeled, cut into 1-inch thick slices
Directions:
- Heat balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan, boil for several minutes until in reduces by half.
- Mix in olive oil, adobo paste, and salt.
- Marinate the mango slices in the balsamic sauce for 2-3 hours or overnight.
- Heat a grill over medium-high heat.
- Grill the mango in a grill basket, turning once, until browned and slightly softened, about 5 minutes total.
- Serve warm or cold, it is excellent both ways.
Servings ~ 4
Calories ~113 , Fat ~ 3.7g, Carbohydrates ~ 21.6g, Protein ~ 0.5g