This weekend we finally bought an outdoor gas grill. We’ve talked about it before, but have been deterred either by price or by the fact we haven’t done much BBQing in ages. Oh sure, we used to BBQ a lot on the ol’ round charcoal Weber’s when we were in our early 20’s. First we had the Smokey Joe…a common staple among young adults who have little space and even less money…and later we bought the much larger ‘normal size’ Weber. Don’t ask me what normal size actually was, I have no idea. Probably a 22-inch grill diameter or something. But charcoal BBQ’s are dirty, and you have to deal with waiting for charcoal to reach the proper cooking state. Thus once our household income soared, our Weber became a black metal yard ornament which the squirrels and birds like to perch on.

Anyway…I hate cooking in the kitchen in summer. It’s often too hot and icky to be slaving over a hot stove. In the past, we’d get around this by ordering take-out food. A lot. We had a little more money to blow back then. Now our bills are bigger, the economy tighter, and our age is such that we’re more concerned about what we eat…so we’re trying to stop doing that. Problem: I still don’t like to cook in the summer. So…outdoor grill. Perfect solution, right? Perhaps. We shall see.

As you can tell in the photo above, we chose a cheap unit that didn’t have a side-shelf on both sides…which makes the thing smaller, something I liked. It does have the side gas burner tho, just in case you wanted to heat a small pot of chili while grilling hamburgers. Frankly, I’d heat the chili in the microwave and doubt I’d ever use that burner, but whatever. Overall what we bought seems fairly sturdy, although for the macho-inclined, the $700-$1200 Weber’s were quite the showpieces. We weren’t ready to spend that much on what amounts to a flimsy-ish file-cabinet-like metal box with a propane tank attached to it, so we opted for a $270ish unit we found at Lowes. That still seems outrageously expensive for what it is, but that’s just the times we live in, eh?

So far we’ve cooked hotdogs and steaks. They were both all right, but the flavor just isn’t the same as charcoal BBQ’ing. I mean, essentially you’re cooking on a gas range/oven. Not much different than what’s in the house. Broiling a steak in the gas oven would taste about the same. However, I did notice that once there was enough heat in the gas grill to cause meat drippings to smoke, it improved the flavor. Smoke - and keeping the lid closed - is the key I guess. There is no leaping, high, open flame to char things over, so closed-lid/high heat charring is the method of gas grilling. At least if you want smoky flavor. Either that or buy those wood chips I guess. At any rate…it’s fun to try out I suppose. Whether it will actually save us money or keep us from ordering take-out remains to be seen.

And tomorrow, it’s chicken.