adventures in grilling

We left our not-so-great propane gas grill in California when we left. When we got here, we acquired the one pictured above when we bought our house. It is teeny tiny, and charcoal grilling is a pain in the butt. We weren't ready to fork out the cash go grill shopping just yet though, so we were making due.



Then my mom & dad surprised us with their blessings to choose a new grill and have the gas line installed, on them. What a fantastic housewarming gift! We were thrilled (even though it took us sort of a long time to research grills, find a local dealer, and actually place the order...) at their generosity, and now that it is here we are even more thrilled!



We had the natural gas line run to the deck, so no more lugging propane tanks to the store for refills. And we chose a model with a side burner so that we can cook outside as much as possible to avoid heating up the kitchen during the summer. This one also has a good bit of storage underneath for our grilling tools and whatever else we find we want handy during our cookouts. (Bottle opener? "Kiss the Cook" apron? The possibilities are endless.)



Once we got it home and hooked up, we made a bee line for our new local meat market, Simply Meats. Athens folks: if you are a carnivore, you need to stop in and check it out. We will be returning regularly, I'm sure. They have some great deals on freezer packs, which I plan to pick up very soon. For this weekend though, we picked up several kinds of steak to try (the Porterhouse was out of this world!) as well as some pork chops and Italian sausage. We do not normally eat large quantities of meat at every meal, but we had been wanting to try out the shop and we also wanted to break in the grill and get those grates good and seasoned!



And now for the adventurous part: I cooked breakfast on the grill Sunday morning! Well, I suppose you might call it brunch since we didn't eat until after 10:30. But I heated the kettle for coffee and then the water bath for the maple syrup on the side burner, and did pancakes on my cast iron griddle and sausages right on the grate. Everything turned out great- the top shelf of the grill even worked well to keep the pancakes warm while the rest finished up. And the best part: the kitchen wasn't full of heat from all that cooking, which means less air conditioning required to get it back to a livable temperature. Plus, it was just good to get outside in the morning before it got hot. I think I might start making my coffee out there a couple times a week.



Thanks, Mom & Dad! I know we will enjoy cooking on this for many years to come. And the whole family can enjoy being out on the deck more now too, with our new gates. We love them! (Did everyone see the gates in the pictures? We have three stairways on the deck, and Lyle loves stairs. My dad fashioned these awesome gates for us to keep Lyle nice and safe so we can all relax on the deck, and he really went above and beyond with the workmanship. They are great.)