The weather is seriously warming up around here (90 degrees today!), so we have officially dusted off the grill and our patio furniture, are spending as much time as possible soaking up the vitamin D, and barbequing a delicious Santa Maria Tri-Tip. I know, you who are on the East Coast and Midwest are rolling your eyes or shaking your fists at me right now. Hopefully this weather will make up it's mind and you will all see the beauty that is the sun and green hills that we are enjoying right now.

A gorgeous tri-tip from US Wellness Meats was our inaugural meat for the barbecue season. It had been waiting for me in the freezer for the last few months and I was dying to season it and grill it to perfection. My mom always used to grill up tri-tip for large crowds when we were growing up, but they always came pre-seasoned and definitely were not grass-fed, so I came up with a rub that closely resembled what I remembered from childhood. We are from California, so the Santa Maria style Tri-tip is what we most often ate. The flavors hail from the small city in Southern California and yield a mouthful of flavor with each bite. The traditional rub is just fresh cracked pepper, garlic, and sea salt, and anything added past there is kind of at your discretion. I added a little fresh rosemary and a few other things from my cupboard and we all enjoyed it thoroughly!