Saturday, June 10, 2006
License to Grill
Summertime...and the smell of igniting charcoal and caramelizing/carbonizing meat is in the air.
I just bought a house last year, with a good-sized back deck. So I succumbed to that old male urge and bought a grill. And I've decided that I really like grilling outdoors, and I've invited people over a couple of times just to have an excuse to fire up the grill for more people than just me.
I recently got a bottle of lighter fluid, to tide me over until I get one of those environmentally-nicer chimney things that you put crumpled newspaper in the bottom of. I found the instructions to be laughable:
"Apply starter fluid over pile of charcoal. Use 1.6 fluid ounces (47 milliliters) per pound of charcoal."
I mean, really. Who weighs the charcoal before putting it into the grill? Who's gonna measure the lighter fluid? What happens if you only use 1.5 fluid ounces per pound? 1.7 ounces?
I can't speak for anyone else, but I pour about enough briquettes into the grill for whatever I expect to cook, by eye. I then splash lighter fluid onto them until it seems like there's enough there to make sustainable fire. None of the "47 milliliter" go se.
Anyway, tonight it's sausages on the grill. Nothing fancy. But Trader Joe's has a wonderful salmon fillet that I'll buy when I have company.
I just bought a house last year, with a good-sized back deck. So I succumbed to that old male urge and bought a grill. And I've decided that I really like grilling outdoors, and I've invited people over a couple of times just to have an excuse to fire up the grill for more people than just me.
I recently got a bottle of lighter fluid, to tide me over until I get one of those environmentally-nicer chimney things that you put crumpled newspaper in the bottom of. I found the instructions to be laughable:
"Apply starter fluid over pile of charcoal. Use 1.6 fluid ounces (47 milliliters) per pound of charcoal."
I mean, really. Who weighs the charcoal before putting it into the grill? Who's gonna measure the lighter fluid? What happens if you only use 1.5 fluid ounces per pound? 1.7 ounces?
I can't speak for anyone else, but I pour about enough briquettes into the grill for whatever I expect to cook, by eye. I then splash lighter fluid onto them until it seems like there's enough there to make sustainable fire. None of the "47 milliliter" go se.
Anyway, tonight it's sausages on the grill. Nothing fancy. But Trader Joe's has a wonderful salmon fillet that I'll buy when I have company.
A Dish Best Served Cold, part 2
Wow...it's definitely a week for "Internet justice." Though apparently there's been no justice in this particular situation yet:
http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/
The brief summary: Narrator leaves their T-Mobile Sidekick (I'm guessing it's some combination of a phone and PDA) in a cab, someone else picks it up, refuses to give it back even when offered a reward, and starts threatening narrator's "white ass" for having the temerity to make the request. The Internet takes over, and now millions of people know what's going down.
Unfortunately, a couple of million Web hits and lots of publicity, online and off, haven't gotten the Sidekick returned yet. So it goes.
http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/
The brief summary: Narrator leaves their T-Mobile Sidekick (I'm guessing it's some combination of a phone and PDA) in a cab, someone else picks it up, refuses to give it back even when offered a reward, and starts threatening narrator's "white ass" for having the temerity to make the request. The Internet takes over, and now millions of people know what's going down.
Unfortunately, a couple of million Web hits and lots of publicity, online and off, haven't gotten the Sidekick returned yet. So it goes.
