Monday's Question of the Day - March 30, 2015

April is so close now I can almost taste the BBQ in my future!      So today's question is all things BBQ!

Do you grill (outdoors)?  When do you use your grill?  Charcoal or Gas?  What are your favorite things to grill?

I'm planning a family BBQ for this May.  That seems to be when we first get out our grill; unless April is really nice.  It generally stays out till October.  We haven't grilled more than 4-5 times a summer for the last few years; but I'm hoping to do more grilling this year.  My kids are getting a little bigger so I worry less about them not knowing to keep their distance from the hot grill.  We use charcoal and I love it.  But I do wish for a gas grill too; it seems like it would be easier to grill on weeknights; not just weekends.  DH always has grill duties; unless my step-dad or my cousin's husband is here. They are the grill masters. 

When we are home I love burgers done over charcoal.  Chicken is still tricky; I want it juicy but not under-cooked.  I also need to have  a couple hot dogs over the course of the grilling season.  I also love salmon on the grill!  (My step-dad's specialty!)  We also do potato and veggie packets and shrimp.  Mmm mmm good!   

I love when I visit my family because my cousin's husband grills all the time.  He will literally start the grill just to do bacon for breakfast.  (That is amazing if you've never had it!)  He can do steaks that melt in your mouth.  He also can smoke a brisket like it's nobody's business!  His grilled veggies are great too.  I need to ask him if he does pulled pork.  I make that in my crock pot; but I'm betting he could put mine to shame too.   

Yay BBQ!

We have two, one gas and the charcoal.  Both are Weber's.  The gas one get used a lot more due to convenience - it isn't one of those huge models but you can get a lot more on it than the charcoal kettle grill.  We sometimes use that one if we want a better flavor of smoke imparted onto the meats.  Gas isn't as efficient with that.

We grill year round. Of course it is more fun when the weather is warm.. If not, hubby puts the Weber charcoal grill on the pad outside the garage. He runs in and out with a coat on. :lol3: We grill, steaks, chops, burgers, and chicken. In fact we always grill more than we will eat so we have enough for another meal. Sometimes, if I have the right kind of fish, he will grill that for me. I love salmon cooked on the grill.

We have a large Char-Broil gas grill. We will grill until the snow piles up out back....which is what happened this past winter. Snow drifted over halfway up the sides of the grill and it was just nasty. I wasn't dealing with it. I did get outside about a week or so ago and cleaned the grill out and we've been grilling since.

Once the weather warms up, we'll grill pretty much every night, sometimes on a Sunday morning, Rick will make breakfast. Pancakes on the griddle on the grill, anyone?

Our favorites are LOUISVILLE WINGS!!!!!, pulled pork (takes about 5 hours, but worth it! And don't forget the Espresso BBQ Sauce....wonderful stuff), shrimp skewers, salmon, chicken, grilled stir-fries, pork chops, steaks, and burgers. We also love grilled whole sweet onions (put some baked beans in the hole of each onion!), potatoes, corn on the cob, broccoli, asparagus, apple slices, peach halves, you name it, we like it. Thick slices of sourdough bread, buttered with garlic butter and then with cheeses. 

I am dying for some pulled pork. Dying, I tell you! I hinted to Dear Richard that we should do pulled pork on the grill for Easter, but it did not go over well at all.

One of my favorites is a Caesar salad made with grilled romaine. Yum!

I love to experiment with marinades and sauces for grilling. We do smoke in the gas grill, but it's not the same as having a real smoker. But we have a nice assortment of woods to smoke with. I love apple. And cherry, although that's really hard to come by. 

A good cookbook for grilling and BBQ-ing is Steven Reichlen's BBQ USA. I've made a lot of the recipes in the book and haven't had a bad one yet. He has another one, too, which is nothing but sauces, marinades, dry rubs. I have that, too, and it's good. That one is Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades.

We've been talking about getting a small charcoal, maybe like a Smoky Joe or something like that. Just because we also like the taste of charcoal-grilled meats. 

I grill year round also. I have 2 grills. Actually, I have more that that. Probably 3 or 4 counting the ones that we used for camping. Anyway, I have a gas Weber and a new charcoal Weber that I just got on Friday out in my screen room. I made a rib eye on it that the furkids and I shared. 

I want to do some grilling over indirect heat and some smoking  with it. 

@Winchester  you can get wood chips from Amazon.

We used ours 2 weekends ago for the first time this year. Will probably use it this Friday since it's supposed to be warm. It's just a cheap propane bbq but we plan to buy a better one this summer.

I used to have a weber genesis bbq that I won. My cousin was helping us move and offered me $500 for it so I sold it to him. He had been wanting to buy one but they are expensive.

We have a Weber Q grill and love it a lot. It's such a nice change to switch from roasting and baking winter foods to grilling in the summer. We went through a few charcoal kettle BBQs (they rusted out from the salt air) but I gave up with charcoal since it's too cold here and too hard to keep the coals hot. We have that cold Pacific wind whistling through the yard all year long. The gas grill doesn't have the same taste but is still good, and it keeps a consistent flame so easily! I get so tired of cooking dinner every night so easy is better.

Best recipes are the ones I brought with me from Texas. Second best is the Weber cook book and website <- really, really good recipes.

Wow!  So many people have 2 grills.  I wonder if DH wants one for Father's day?     Actually that's when he got the one we have now.     It was a gift from my Mom and Step-dad for his first father's day.  We upgraded from the little Smokey Joe to a full size Webber.  

blueyedgirl5946 said:

We grill year round. Of course it is more fun when the weather is warm.. If not, hubby puts the Weber charcoal grill on the pad outside the garage. He runs in and out with a coat on. 

 We grill, steaks, chops, burgers, and chicken. In fact we always grill more than we will eat so we have enough for another meal. Sometimes, if I have the right kind of fish, he will grill that for me. I love salmon cooked on the grill.

Click to expand...

We cook extra meats too!  It seems with the charcoal grill it's a waste to get it hot and cook for just one meal.  

I'm going to look up those cook books and recipies!  Maybe I can find something to help me get better results with chicken!

I sometimes throw together few stones and put old oven grille on top of those, then put some firewood in the middle, that makes quite nice grill.

I'm not too passionate about grilling, only few times in summer. Still two months until I can grill outdoors.

Kat0121 said:

 
I grill year round also. I have 2 grills. Actually, I have more that that. Probably 3 or 4 counting the ones that we used for camping. Anyway, I have a gas Weber and a new charcoal Weber that I just got on Friday out in my screen room. I made a rib eye on it that the furkids and I shared. 

I want to do some grilling over indirect heat and some smoking  with it. 

@Winchester  you can get wood chips from Amazon.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I see there is cherry, too. I don't have any trouble finding apple chips and mesquite. Cherry is hard to find. Next time I do an Amazon order, I may have to add that. Thank you!

Winchester said:

 
Thanks! I see there is cherry, too. I don't have any trouble finding apple chips and mesquite. Cherry is hard to find. Next time I do an Amazon order, I may have to add that. Thank you!

Click to expand...

You're welcome    I'll probably get some too. They also have hickory and pecan 

love to grill outdoors when we can  Steaks,hamburgers

We have a gas bbq but its been 5 years since i've used it. It caught fire one year while I was cooking burgers. It just needs to be cleaned out and every year I say i'll get to it but never do. I've been using an indoor grille ever since. We just replaced our old one to the T-Fal opti grill and I love it. It makes it so easy for cooking-illiterate husband to make food for himself. We mainly cook burgers, smokies, panini's, steaks, etc.

We have a red charcoal grill. We bbq on days like memorial day, labour day, and independance day. We grill hamburgers, chicken, and bratwurst. I think the chicken, especially, is good!

We have a Weber gas grill. My husband got to select a service award from work over the winter and he went with what I think is a charcoal type smoker. It's in the cellar.

We grill chicken, beef, seafood, veggies, etc. :nod:

We have a gas bbq. Steaks just don't taste the same in the oven or stove top. Food period tastes better on the grill. 

We like grilling. For Christmas, the BF's brother and SIL bought us a decent sized gas grill for our back porch. Love to grill kebobs, steaks, chicken, etc.