In the middle of winter my thoughts turn naturally to barbecues.
What? Don't yours?
A little over ten years ago I bought a smallish Weber gas grill to accommodate a largish backyard party I was throwing at our new house.
It is small (350 square inches of primary cooking area) and only sports 26,000 BTUs from the two main stainless steel burners.
But it heats evenly and is made of sturdy construction.
I have treated it roughly, and in return it has served me well.
Well, after failing to clean out the slide out bottom grease catcher one last time, closing the lid, walking away, and allowing the temperature to get over 500 degrees F, I set the whole thing on fire. A grease fire is an amazing thing: hot, violent, and completely unmanageable.
I unloaded my entire portable fire extinguisher into the grill and tamed the beast. By taming it, I mean I poisoned the grill beyond any hope of future use. That, and I managed to scratch the porcelain laminate off the grilling surface and the flavorizer drip bars had rusted completely through.
Hey, I said I was rough with it.
Well, with half a cow in my freezer, not having a grill is definitely a Bad Thing (tm). Even in the dead of winter you can grill if you've got a propane grill. So I went ahead and ordered new grill parts as part of my mother's Christmas present to me: thanks, Mom! We'll be back in the charbroil end of things very soon. Now we're cookin' with gas!
How do you like your steak done?
4 comments:
I remember hosting a party with my wife several years ago in our new home, a barbecue with all the trimmings...including a huge blaze as my grease-clogged grill finally succombed to the reality that heat plus fuel plus oxygen equals FIRE! As the extinguisher dust cloud settled on the snappy casual duds of my guests we suggested ordering a pizza; no one was hungry.
David,
Ouch! Oh, my. Yep, been there done that.
For the record, I would have eaten the pizza. :D
a big grease fire right next to a propane tank? Sounds like a recipe for a KABOOM! Lucky you put it out in time.
Well, that's almost never an issue at our house since wifey likes her steak barely cooked. You know, the style that could be revived with a good visit to the vet.
Enjoy your new grill. There's never a bad season for grilling!
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