A great tri-tip roast

One item we do not find in Florida and I have never found before is a tri-tip roast.  My California and West Coast bloggers mention it often.  I have longed for it for years.  A trip to our Missoula, Montana, Costco, brought us face-to-face with tri-tip roasts.  Of course, I remembered Debbie at A Feast for the Eyes.  We had it twice this summer and enjoyed it tremendously.  I am now wondering what kind of response I will get from my Florida butchers when I ask for a tri-tip roast.  We loved it!!!

I followed Debby's recipe quite closely, and we absolutely loved it!!  Check out Debby here.

Tri-Tip

For a 2 pound roast

6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
2 cups wood chips
1 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon garlic salt

Pat dry the roast and poke 20 times on each side with a fork.  Combine garlic, oil and salt.  Cover with plastic and refrigerate 1-24 hours.

Soak wood chips (we used alder and cherry).  Heat your charcoal briquet's on one side of the grill.

Wipe the garlic off the roast and rub with pepper and garlic salt.

Grill over the coals for 5 minutes on each side.  Scatter wet wood chips over the coals.  On the cooler side of the grill...the one without wood chips, place the roast.  Cover the grill and cook for 20 minutes.  DELICIOUS!!!

Of course, to go with a fantastic main dish like this, you need a great wine.

This Genesis 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon was excellent.  It was rich and complex with bright berry and cherry flavors and hints of clove, cinnamon and cocoa.  It was a well-enjoyed meal with a baked red sweet potato and a salad.  It was also a well-enjoyed meal after the Trout's surgery and his temporary loss of taste.  I think we are back on track.

A Blogger Meeting in Drummond

Well, it is time to get back on schedule.  Even though my balloon went Pftzt...things are getting back to normal.  The Trout is doing well, though full strength is still a few weeks off.  With his staples removed this week and post-op check with the surgeon, he has rules to follow, but we both are doing well.  In fact, I went with him yesterday as he leisurely walked a trout stream for about 1/2 hour.  It's a good thing!!

My week started off with such fun.  I drove to small town Drummond to have lunch with a blogger friend from Oregon who was passing through Montana.  If you were in grade school like me in the 50's, I am sure you also had a "pen-pal."  I had several from Japan, Pakistan and Cuba.  There were long times between letters, but such excitement to read what others, my age, were doing in different countries.

Meeting Diana and Pete was like that pen-pal experience, only I would call it "blogger-pal."  Diana and I have been corresponding back and forth for a couple of years now.  When you read a blog on a regular basis, you really get to know the writer.  We started talking like we had just seen each other a week or so ago.

The Trout was not up to having lunch with us yet, so he missed seeing this friendship grow.  We hope to change that next year and meet up again with these delightful friends.  Diana and Pete are quite the gardeners and live in a beautiful part of our country.  If you do not know her, I hope you will check her blog, "Voice in the Garden" and see the magic they have performed on their property.

Diana and Pete, thank you so much for the friendship.

Handling the unexpected

They say it's a place like home.  Well, almost.  I did spend 3 nights here this last week.  Alone.  Sometimes plans are interrupted and you need to adjust quickly and calmly.

The Trout had been having some abdominal discomfort for a couple of weeks and it finally reached a point where it was out of our hands.  Being ill away from home is not a comfortable situation.  But, we handled it.

We are still in Montana and headed to a small town hospital for help.  What comforted us most was the kind, caring attention showed to both of us.  Dale spent the night and the surgeon did all he could to make The Trout comfortable.  X-rays showed a blockage in the small intestine but it could not be determined as to cause or extent.  The next morning, Trout felt better and went home.  That night things went bad so the surgeon suggested we head to Missoula which had a larger hospital, 1 hour and 45 minutes from the cabin.  Amazingly, he gave me his cell phone number and asked me to call with any questions or concerns.

Missoula admitted him to the hospital and took more x-rays.  The surgeon decided to do a watch and wait because the small intestine was a strange place to have diverticulitis, which is what this looked like.  By Friday morning, surgery was definitely needed.  There was inflammation and the start of perforation.

A 10" scar and 3 inches of intestine removed later, the Trout is doing pretty good.  Getting slowly back to allowing food intake has been frustrating since the fly fishing right now is getting quite good.  He will try to recover at the cabin for a couple of weeks and hopefully we will both be in good health to drive the long drive back to Florida.