Last week started with a half-foot of sloppy, wet snow and ended with 80°, sunshine, barbecues, patios, ice-cream, pansies, and pink wine. Yes! Spring! Finally!
As you might imagine, after making it through 6 months of cold and snow, everyone in Minnesota goes bonkers on the first warm spring weekend. Puffy down-jackets and boots are traded in for sundresses and sandals. Patio bars overflow with warm-weather revelers. Parks are packed with picnickers. Ice-cream gets scooped like it’s going out of style. You go from living and working in what was feeling like a really depressing ghost-town to being back in a city with a pulse, with people on the streets, instead of the skyways. Everyone you encounter has unsnarled their face and regained the bounce in their step.
As for myself? I celebrated the coming of spring as I celebrate any significant event, with food and drink. Yes, I had ice-cream. Pink wine made an appearance. I ate my weight in fish tacos. Margarita? Heck yes. And I grilled to my heart’s content.
All winter, I’d been dreaming of my first grilling episode: grilled artichokes with garlic aioli. I’m not sure which is better, the charred artichokes or the assertively garlicky, super rich homemade mayonnaise, but together, they’re enough to make life worth living.
