Cooking devices

When I was an undergrad, I lived in on-campus housing. One of the fire safety rules included a prohibition of toasters. No toasters in our rooms meant no toast, no frozen waffles, no toasted sandwiches ... you get the idea.

When I moved to France, there was no way I was going to buy a toaster to fit in the French outlet system. I did have a conventional oven there, that made due, especially for the sandwiches (I used that thing to bake, broil, fry, rotisserie ... you name it!).

As I moved in to my first real apartment, I was thrilled at the prospect of having a real toaster. I use it so frequently it doesn't even have a place in the cabinet, it just stays on the counter for easy access.

Now, as I am considering my options for the future, I have come to regard another cooking device as ideal. For my next apartment, I am going to actively seek a grill of some kind.

It will be glorious to not have to broil or sautee all of my fish, to not have to bake or fry the chicken, to make a hamburger the way it should be. Yes, I think the cooking device I want next is a grill.

I say this, because I am prompted by the lack of cook-out in my life this Memorial Day. It is quite possibly the first Memorial Day I have spent without the fine American, traditional grilled food. Making hot dogs in the microwave or burgers in the oven just isn't the same, so a grill it shall be.

Then again, let's keep things in perspective: I'm alive and free in the greatest country on Earth.

This Memorial Day ... God bless those who have lost their lives in the service of our country. Bless the families that celebrate without a loved one, lost in defense of our freedom. Bless those who stand on the front lines and defend liberty and justice; America is beautiful because of them.

Celebrating Memorial Day is celebrating the lives and sacrifices of those brave men and women. Let us never forget how they gave "the last full measure of devotion" in the name of the Stars and Stripes.

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day, eat some grilled food for me, and God bless America.

Love always, ~Heather


This was taken at the Oise-Aisne Cemetery in France. There were too many soldiers killed there during WWI to bring their bodies home. It is a strange feeling to be standing in a foriegn country, on American soil; American by the blood shed on it and the brave patriots buried beneath it. May we never forget. ~HB