Beautiful summer day; brined grilled chicken

I've been waiting for weeks to grill some chicken on the MAK. I wanted a nice summer day. Today was that day. First day of 80* this summer; about a month later than normal. Jeff and Sarah came over for lunch today; it was nice to meet her. No way was I going to bust out the camera though.

After they left, I put the chairs on the deck and cleaned them up. Took a seat and listened to the Dodgers on the radio. My routine: read, gaze at the sky, doze; repeat.

Dodgers beat the Reds 11 - 8, scoring 5 runs in the 7th inning to tie it at 7; then scoring 4 in the 11th for the win.

I was excited to do the brined grilled chicken today; I got to use my Grill Grates for the first time. They fit real nice in the MAK.

Early this morning I brined the chicken in a solution of 4 quarts water, 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar. After a walk with Carla, I took them out of the brine and set the grill to 400.

The plan was to grill on direct heat (left side) for about 8 minutes, then move to the indirect side for about 15 minutes.

Take them off and grill a few limes.

While the chicken was grilling Carla made a sauce 

• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 2 Tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil.

The recipe calls for 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, but Carla isn't a fan so we left that out.

Once the chicken was off the grill, it goes into the sauce and then onto the serving plate with the limes.

Dinner is served (we got to eat outside twice today!)

Tomorrow we plan to walk around Fort Vancouver, into downtown Couv, then up the Columbia river a bit to see the high water.