Bustin' Out the Grill

Thanks to the oncoming spring weather, we decided to wheel out the grill tonight for the first time this year. I love grilling season - with just a little practice you can get all kinds of easy and delicious meals while enjoying the weather and proving your manliness. Tonight we tried out a new recipe - barbecued jerk chicken wraps. Our goal was to recreate April's favorite meal from the dining halls of Virginia Tech. The Biewengas were so kind as to bring us back some jerk rub and sauce from their recent trip to Jamaica that I used on the chicken. I also cooked some Spanish rice and sautéed some peppers and onions to complete the wrap. I'd say the results were quite delicious!

Philly Cleanup

One of the first things that April and I noticed when we moved here to Philadelphia was how dirty the city is in general. We had never really lived in an urban setting, so maybe it's something that's seen in every city, but we were shocked to see how much trash blows around the streets. Even more shocking to me were the many times we would see people blatantly drop a Tastykake wrapper, an empty bottle, or a Dunkin Donuts cup that they were finished with. I remember being reprimanded many times growing up by my dad for leaving trash and wrappers around the house, so I can't even imagine doing something like that now.

Michael Nutter (mayor of Philadelphia for a couple of months now) is kicking off his pledge to clean up Philly by having a clean up day on April 5th. They are looking for volunteers to clean up many streets, parks, and public places. April and I will be going out with some friends to clean up the beautiful Wissahickon park which is just down the street from us. If you're around Philly and are free that morning, consider taking some time to make the city a more pleasant and livable place. Check out the link below for details and to sign up.

PBS and Philadelphia, do those two really go together?

Growing up we never had cable in my house other than the basic 12 channels, NBC, CBS, ABC, and then there was PBS. I watched a lot of PBS. I'm not ashamed to admit that I would watch Arthur every afternoon when I came home from high school or the fact that my dad would turn on the Lawrence Welk show at least once every Saturday night and I would often find myself enjoying Mr. Welk as he sang his little heart out to the camera.
I write about this because tonight I watched "The Philly Food Show" on Philadelphia's PBS channel. Of course it was part of a donation drive, which it feels like PBS is always doing, however it was an all around enjoyable experience. It took me back to the days of my childhood when I would watch North Carolina now with my dad. I did notice a few differences between the days of yesterday and today, for one North Carolina accents are far better than Pennsylvania/New Jersey ones (at least in my opinion) and of course I disagree completely with the idea that TastyKakes are even remotely comparable to the amazing taste of MoonPies :). Nonetheless with all the lameness of the recent writer's strike I really respect and appreciate what PBS is doing .