4 minute read
T+Co June Editorial
T H E G R I L L I S S U E
Go Outside + Play
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by Paulette Wooten
I’m often asked, “What’s your favorite thing to cook?” My answer, “Grilling is my favorite."
Since this is the grill issue... I felt compelled to retrace the origin of my love for grilling.
It was 1979, and every day after school, I hopped in my Dad's muddy brown Chevy to head over to the building site. My Dad built our house along with his brothers by hand, brick by brick. I can't believe how he'd let me play, never seeming to get irritated with my questions or requests playing make-believe while he worked so hard. The homestead is still there. It stands steady like like the sixty feet tall pines, planted as saplings. Every Easter, Daddy reminds us to look up, to see a cross forming at the top announcing new life. The closest town is about a ten-minute drive. Growing up, I felt like the drive was as neverending as a waitin line for Disney World's Splash Mountain.
You know you're raised in the country when there's not another house in sight for at least 5 miles. And when you're bored, everyone responds the same, "Go outside and play." (A profound truth many have reconnected with during Covid.) I’m thankful to be living in Appalachia country and waking up surrounded by the Blue Ridge calling, "Come out here. " I'm thankful for my country life upbringing. It produced lessons you can't learn anywhere else, and I know red dirt roads as a real thing, not just a Brooks & Dunn lyric.
A few years after the house was finished, Daddy decided to build and addition with the heaping pile of leftover bricks. Not only did he build a smoke pit in our backyard but also an adjacent brick side table with a concrete counter for prepping food, way before concrete countertops were popular. My eight-year-old brain was blown! I thought the pit was the coolest thing I had ever seen.
Here's where the real mark settles in: watching my Dad prepare the whole wild hog he hunted in the woods down the road. From start to finish, I was mesmerized. Of course, at the time, I didn't know about "the importance of respecting the lives of the animals we eat" until Dario Cecchini's episode on the Chef's Table. My Dad was aware but never spoke of it. I learned by watching him on countless occasions with various game. When he smoked the meat all day, everything in my world was alright, the perfect scenario, having my Dad in my view, running around, riding my bike in circles around him. He didn't have to play with me; having him close by was enough.
I didn’t realize it was Father’s Day when we started planning the June issue. Selfishly, I was thinking only about how excited I am to invite friends over and grill out. Covid has taken a lot from us all. The collective yearning for normalcy is real, and what better way to fill the craving than with a BBQ and bourbon.
Paulette Wooten
Co-Founder, The Treehouse + Co
I know there’s a difference between grilling and barbecuing, but why get caught up in barbecue semantics? Let’s get our grill on. Get outside for some sweet, salty, tangy, spicy good times. Here are a few grill master hosting tips I’ve learned along the way for a successful backyard BBQ. Have a little some-some to sip on, pick an upbeat playlist, invite some funny friends or at least a few that don’t take themselves too seriously, and of course your favorite cut of meat and veggies to throw on the open fire. This issue has it all covered. (Visit www.thetreehouseandco.com for your copy of The Treehouse + Co Online Magazine packed full of summer grill recipes.)
What A Woman! features some of our favorite female pit masters and BBQ Divas famous for stoking the coals and bringing the heat.
Rachael Sykes, Distiller at Nashville Craft
https://www.nashvillecraft.com Nashville , TN
One of Music City's only female whiskey distillers, Rachael Sykes, gives us a peek behind her mash and her road to Nashville. We knew our favorite comedian, Heather Land, "I Ain't Doin' It!" before she was selling out the iconic Ryman Auditorium, and she brings her saucy self to this month's Top It Off.
Heather Land
https://www.heatherlandofficial.com
While the pine trees continue to grow down in Georgia, it seems fitting for this Father’s Day to keep unpacking the 40 year memory I stashed away. Unfortunately, the beloved smoke pit didn’t survive. One summer, Daddy decided to build a big fire, not for cooking but for fun. The pit overheated and cracked. That was years ago. Last year during Covid, my older brother and his youngest son removed the dilapidated pit to create more open space in the backyard. It’ s beautiful, but my 8-year-old self is sad Daddy's handbuilt pit is gone. I had such fondness of the red brick pit, but I’m grateful for salvaging and stoking the fire of where all the love began. Thank you, Daddy, for showing me how to build a home, a fire, how to cook, and especially how to create a safe space to allow others to be who they are.
