Jason and I like barbecues and good food and summer so, not surprisingly, we are fans of eating good food at barbecues during the summer.

One of my favorite barbecued meals is fish tacos made Bobby Flay style. They’re stuffed with goodies prepared from scratch: citrus vinaigrette marinated orange roughy, smooth tomato-serrano chile salsa, and avocado-tomatillo sauce. Mighty tasty! After the tacos have been gobbled we prefer to finish off this dinner with some grilled butter-rum glazed pineapple topped with vanilla mascarpone. Oh the scrumptiousness!

While these fish tacos and their flavorful trimmings aren’t too complicated to create, it’s a pretty time-consuming process. Cilantro, limes, onions, garlic, jalapenos, tomatoes, cabbage, tomatillos, avocados, oregano, scallions, and lettuce make for a lot of washing, chopping, juicing, and roasting. But when you sink your teeth into that harmony of peppery creaminess and crunchy zestiness the hassle of hours of dicing is all but forgotten.

Since Jason and I are quite fond of these recipes many of you have already sampled them hot off our grill. Last weekend Jason’s brother Jeremy, his wife Kara, and our friend Aaron came over to do just that. Our favorite grilling recipes didn’t let us down and the weather was ideal for outdoor libations. A gentle breeze made the evening air perfectly pleasant as we chatted and joked around on the patio. It was nice catching up with the group while hitting our taco spots.

Mmm! Thanks Bobby Flay for making the world a yummier place. The few of you who haven’t been over to gobble our fresh from scratch fish tacos and other grilled delicacies, what are you waiting for? Invite yourselves already. It’s pretty easy to convince me and Jason to barbecue anytime.

I played paintball when I was a teenager a few times and then, like most people, I forgot about it. That was until Jason and I attended a paintball birthday party for one of our friends a couple of weeks ago. Now it’s fresh on my mind and skin.

When I played paintball in high school I did so with a large number of girls therefore I was somewhat surprised to discover that this pastime apparently isn’t too popular with the ladies in general. I turned out to be one of only two girls in our sixteen-person group and definitely the only girl in the bunch that actually enjoyed herself. It’s true that paintball can be a startlingly painful experience; if you get hit in the wrong place or at close range there is usually bleeding involved. This isn’t a tag game for sissies. Many members of our group limped away from our matches with oozing battle wounds. I got a few whelps during the action but I didn’t mind too much. Dishing out punishment to the boys was worth the occasional insults I received.

I’ll admit that I made no heroic attempts to offensively sprint across the arena like a few on my squad did repeatedly but my cowardly sheltered stance provided cover for many of those masochistic darters and served my team well. I took out quite a few of our opposition and made it through the majority of the games without being hit myself.

I would be happy to participate in a paintball showdown again. Who cares about a few bumps and bruises when there are boys to shoot? Next time we play though I’m hoping for a stronger female showing. Come on ladies, surely you are tougher than your wimpy husbands. Here’s your chance to prove your might and hurt them good all at the same time. Even if I do end up being the only woman at our next epic battle, be prepared boys cause there’s a whole lot more paint and pain where that came from!