Look, Daughter, All Grown Up

Last month, The Husband and I splurged. We bought a new barbecue grill. Now, to many, this doesn't sound like a big deal, but it was to us. First, you have to understand that I hate to buy something new, if I already have something that will do the job, and we already had a grill. In fact, we had several. This new grill brought the grand total of grills in our household up to 5. Five?

Well, we started off with two (my little Smokey Joe and his standard charcoal grill) when we got married and combined two separate households. The number quickly jumped to three when we found a full-size Charbroil charcoal barbecue awaiting us in our apartment when we arrived back from our honeymoon. It was a wedding present from some of our friends. The number rocketed to 4 when The Husband finally talked me into mixing technologies for camping. Now, I'm a "white gas and charcoal" kind of gal. But, eventually, even I got tired of watching our camping friends cook, consume, and clean-up their evening meals, while we were waiting for our coals to get ready. So, about 5 years back, we bought a little propane Weber. It was perfect for camping and, as I got spoiled to its quick cooking, I found that it was perfect for home. Actually, we have been cooking on this (at home and in the wild) ever since.

But, last month, we saw the coolest grill at Costco. It had enough BTUs to heat the house. It had a back burner that you could use with the rotisserie to provide even cooking. It had a side table to prep food on. It had a side burner to cook things on. It had a rack in the front to hang things on. It was definitely the "Cadillac of Grills". It was also $399.00. We were so in love with it that had we driven the truck that day, it would have come home with us right then and there. Instead, we had to drive back home to get the truck. And, before we had a chance to drive away, our daughter called. We were so excited. She and the grandson were coming for a three week visit and, now, we would have this magnificent grill to use for meals. We simple bubbled over with praises of this glorious piece of equipment. Oh, she made all the proper positive noises as we described its features. But, you got the distinct feeling that she wasn't as impress with the grill as we were. In fact, it started us thinking. Did we really need all those BTUs? I like my steaks rare. Shoot, even to cook The Husband's meat to his liking (burnt to a crisp), I didn't need enough heat to cremate a cow, just his steak. Did we really need a rotisserie? I can't remember the last time we cooked a whole hog on a spit, it's usually just pork chops. Did we really need the side burner? Let's face it, if I'm going to cook beans to go with my weenies, I'll do it on the stove in the kitchen. So, instead of buying the ultimate grill, we made the "grown-up" decision to buy only what we really "needed"....a simple gas grill.

Oh, what happened to the other 4 grills? We trashed my old SmokeyJoe. We donated The Husband's grill to our church's rummage sale. We gave the Charbroil to a friend. And, we kept the little gas grill for camping.

Here are some tried and true recipes for grilling. I'm pleased to say that they taste as good coming from the new grill as they did from the old ones.

Meal on a Stick
Serves 4.

1 1/2 pounds steak
4 medium red potatoes
2 medium jalapeno peppers -- seeded
2 medium red bell pepper -- seeded
1 large red onion
12 small mushrooms
3 cloves garlic -- crushed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon rosemary

Mix crushed garlic and rosemary in the olive oil and set aside. Scrub potatoes well. Place potatoes in a pan of water and boil until potatoes are knife tender. Remove from heat and cool potatoes in ice water. Cut each potato into 3 chunks. Cut steak into 12 chunks. Cut jalapeno peppers, red pepper, and red onion into 24 chunks.

Assemble "meal on a stick" by placing skewering one chunk of steak, potato, and mushroom and 2 chunks each of jalapeno pepper, red pepper, and red onion on a metal or bamboo skewer. Brush with garlic/rosemary olive oil.

Grill over medium hot coals or set gas grill on medium. Turn every 5 minutes. Brush with garlic/rosemary olive oil each time you turn. Grill for 20 minutes or until steak is done to your taste.

Throw Another Shrimp on the Barbee
Serves 4.

12 large shrimps
1 can pineapple chunks in juice
2 medium green peppers
1 large red onion
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes in oil
1 tablespoon butter

Pour pineapple juice from can into a ziplock bag. Add shrimp and marinate overnight. Pour pineapple juice from bag into a small sauce pan. Add lemon juice and red pepper flakes in oil and simmer until reduces by one half. Take off heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of butter.

Cut green peppers and red onion into 24 chunks. Using metal or bamboo skewers spear a shrimp, some pineapple, and 2 chunks each of green pepper and red onion. Brush with pineapple sauce.

Grill over medium coals or set your gas grill to medium. Grill turning every 3 minutes until shrimps are a nice pink. Brush with pineapple sauce each time you turn skewers.

NOTES : If you use bamboo skewers, be sure to soak them in water for 30 minutes before skewering food. This prevents them from burning while cooking food.