Who Knew?

I haven't blogged about food lately... time to make that right!

We have been a charcoal grill family from the beginning. Suited us. Easy, authentic, flavorful. But over the years, I have watched friends fall in love with their gas grills... and use them year round. I was intrigued. As our family grew, the long warm up time and short cooking time of charcoal grilling became really inconvenient. As I became less content with this method, our very old grill began to fall apart. Piece by piece. Sometimes, this is not a bad thing.

With a little budgeting and some HUGE sales, we finally bit the bullet and bought a gas grill. For what we were spending in charcoal, we could easily do a trade off and quickly offset the cost of the grill. But, then I had to learn.... beyond burgers and dogs, what could I cook?

I quickly found that grilling with gas is very different than grilling with charcoal. As someone who loves to cook and does okay with most foods, it was an awful discovery to find that 25.00 worth of ribs had turned to rocks after 5 quick minutes, unattended. I knew that could not happen again so I needed to do better and learn more.

Since then, I have conquered ribs (Amazing!) and we have used our grill to cook up brats and dogs. Yesterday, I wanted to try something new. Pork chops were on sale at our local grocery, along with fresh asparagus. The wheels in my head started turning... What if I wrapped the asparagus in bacon and grilled that? What if I put it on the warming shelf and then let the still-cooking bacon drip onto my grilling chops? What if I dropped a loaf of store-bought garlic bread onto the grill, as well?

The results were incredible! A whole meal cooked in 10 quick minutes and unbelievably tasty! The kids gobbled up the grilled asparagus... those wrapped and those unwrapped. And I had no mess to clean up afterward.

Turns out grilling is the way to go! Who knew?

Last night, I posted a grilling question on my Facebook page and had lots of folks talk about grilling fruit. Especially pineapple! That, I am going to have to try. What about you? What do you just love to grill? What has worked well for your family? Do you have any tips or ideas for family-friendly barbecued fare?

Tonight, I am going to try Italian sausage... What about you?

Blessings on your day.