The Grill Saga's happy conclusion, part two.

As mentioned in the previous post, we got a lovely new gas grill. Which worked perfectly. But I couldn't get the idea of charcoal out of my head, nor the idea of experimenting with barbecue - proper barbecue. And of course I was already watching various grills on eBay.

And, as before, I got a bit over-researched and then I just jumped.

Which is how we ended up with the classic (though in an odd color):


It turned out be not as a good a deal as I thought (it wasn't the model with the thermometer built into the lid, sadly). But it was brand new (ex-display model) and so a little bit cheaper than going out and buying it from a store.

We've taken it for a few spins, and are still working out the best way to use the chimney starter (newspaper donuts are next - I hear it helps), but I think it's great.

On Friday, we tried out some ribs, in a kind of indirect-cooking way. They turned out ok, but I wasn't watching them carefully enough and they got a bit overdone.

On Sunday, I decided to try brisket. I followed a recipe from epicurious, which was actually one of Steve Raichlen's.

It uses a dry rub, then indirect heat and mesquite wood chips.

Here's the BBQ all ready to go, with the charcoal in charcoal rails on the side, and my thermometer in the middle (I can't believe how well used the grill already looks!).


And here it is with the brisket (and some of the smoke, which you can see, if you squint). It took me a little while to get the heat at the right level, so it ended up cooking a bit quicker than it should have. And of course no real barbecuer in their right mind would keep the lid off as long as I did to take this picture, but that's ok.


Despite all that, it looked not so bad, and tasted pretty good, especially for a first try (Dickey's BBQ sauce helped, of course).



The main thing is that it wasn't an abject failure, so I'm all ready to try again. I think maybe ribs next. Or maybe brisket again while I can still remember what I did right and wrong.

But all I know is that there is most likely a Smokenator in my future. Hooray for Cue!

The Grill Saga's happy conclusion.

As I mentioned previously, we were in the market for a barbecue grill. After much to-ing and fro-ing, and questioning everyone I knew about their opinion over gas vs. charcoal and the various brands, things happened the way they always do. I got over-researched and then I ended up buying on on eBay.

I was pretty certain that I wanted a charcoal, since it's the first grill I'll have bought myself. And because I'm interested in trying out smoking and 'low and slow' barbecue, it seemed right. I had been watching several, but then one came along that had what I wanted - in a gas grill. It was three burners, brand new (sold by an individual, but they had never used it) and had a hooded cover with a built in thermometer. It came down to the wire, we put a bid in, and won.

We got a pretty good deal, and we're pleased with it. Here are some pictures from the first two times we used it - once with the two of us, and once with Mark's mum and dad (just so you don't think we normally cook four steaks for ourselves!).

We like it and it works well, so we're happy.

Well, happy, but not quite satisfied, as you'll see from part two of the Grill Saga...

We're growing!

Now that we live some place with a place to have pots outside, I'm trying out growing some food plants. We've been fortunate to have lots of nice weather, which helps a novice like me.

I wasn't holding out much hope for my success, but most things have been growing nicely (I think despite my husbandry, rather than because of it!).

I've been really pleased with my tomato plant, but it turns out that it's too bushy - apparently you get more tomatoes if you pinch out the branches before they grow too big. That's ok, I'm just pleased that I haven't killed it yet and it looks healthy. Any tomatoes it might produce are just a bonus!

I'm most pleased about the strawberries. I remember trying once, when we lived in the house in Richardson, to grow strawberries. We had one of those clay pots with the holes in the side, and I was so excited. But the Texan sun and the neglect of an adolescent (I can't remember how old I was) meant that they burned up and died. And I think that was the last time I tried to grow anything to do with food. Consequently, I was excited all out of proportion when I noticed this:

And fortunately there were two ready to go, so we each got to have one.

Hooray for strawberries!

What next? The Gruffalo joins as Personnel Manager?

If you go to Google Maps and look at the satellite picture of BS8 3RA (or if you've visited, like Dad and Jenny), you'll see that the head office of the company I work for has woodland around three sides of it. (Apparently the house was built by Bristol's first millionaire. Unfortunately, I think he made his money via the slave trade. I haven't yet confirmed this via wikipedia.)

So I'm used to seeing rabbits (there are loads of rabbits) and sometimes deer, either when walking around at lunchtime, or even when driving in.

But yesterday, I was driving out along the road, and saw a couple of cars stopped up ahead. I slowed down and looked at the road, and I saw the most exciting thing ever. The cars had stopped so a momma duck with three ducklings following behind, in a straight line, could cross the road, just like Make Way for Ducklings.

It was the awesomest thing ever.

I think next time I'm out walking near work I'm going to scour the woods, because The Giving Tree must be around somewhere...

Hornucopia 2010 - some photos.

We didn't take that many photos either, but at least enough to show some here, in addition to the highlights I think we're going to put on the Hornucopia yahoo group. So here are some to get us all started...