I'm actually writing this post as a sort of test this morning. I have a theory which I am going to keep to myself for now, but I wanted to test that theory. I also thought I might try my hand at a poll for the first time. Even if you don't read through the whole thing, please be sure to at least scroll down to the bottom and participate in the poll!
As you may or may not know, some time ago I created the grilling and smoking community here on HIVE. Unfortunately, it hasn't gotten the traction I expected. I know part of it just has to do with how active users there are on HIVE, but it's a bit disheartening to see grilling and smoking communities on Facebook have hundreds of thousands of users and my community here has 30.
I honestly don't know if that is ever going to change, but it isn't going to stop me from posting and curating this community that I created. I think it has a lot of potential.
I've been seeing people post quite a bit lately on those Facebook groups about how the temperatures are finally getting above the freezing mark so people are busting out their grills. I have to laugh a bit at posts like that. If you recall from some of my previous content, I was smoking a brisket when it was something like -2 degrees F outside. Short of a blizzard, there isn't much weather that I won't grill in.
In fact, I am thinking about doing a half rack of ribs this weekend, but they are now calling for rain. I had a discussion with @mrsbozz about it last night and I decided I am going to go ahead and do it anyway. Even if it is raining. With the lid on the Weber Kettle, it shouldn't have too much impact on the outcome. At the very least It might just make it take a little longer.
Now that that snow is all gone (for now), I moved the Weber Kettle from the front of the garage back to its regular place beside the patio in the backyard. I try to keep it just far enough away from the deck that the composite materials don't melt or anything like that. It had been a couple of weeks since we last smoked the turkey breasts, so I decided to grill a couple bratwurst and some chicken for @mrsbozz's lunches through the week.
On this occasion instead of using the soy/honey/garlic/oil marinade that we often use for chicken, we decided to go with a quick and easy solution. We really like the bottled Greek dressing from the Ken's Steakhouse brand. It gives the chicken a really great flavor and it also keeps it moist and juicy.
The bratwurst were some we had left over from a trip we took some time ago. I think I am actually out of sausages now, so I am going to have to go to the store and pick some up to freeze for the future.
At first I thought I just had the bratwurst to grill and I was struggling with the idea of firing up the large Kettle for just two sausages. I was thinking about using our smaller camping grill until my wife pointed out that we needed to grill chicken as well. It's kind of a running joke in some of those Facebook groups I mentioned earlier about people lighting their kettle for just two small hotdogs and things like that.
It's pretty rare that my wife and I ever grill hotdogs, but bratwurst on the other hand we do pretty regularly. As I said, I probably would have just used the smaller grill instead of the larger one if I were just doing the two brats. This weekend there is a good chance I am going to have to fire up both grills so I can grill something for @mrsbozz while my baby back ribs are finishing up.
Hopefully as the weather starts to warm up a bit more, that will lead people to fire up their grills and then maybe we will get some more activity in this community. I really hope that is the case because I love talking about grilling. My sister in law shared a meme with me the other day and by some coincidence I had just seen it the day before in my news feed. It went like this:
"After turning 40, men must make a decision; to either get very serious into World War II history, or really into smoking meats."
I guess we know which direction I went!
So now, without further fanfare, let's get to the poll portion of this post. I'm curious to know how the numbers fall when it comes to grilling and smoking. Please take the poll and let me know what kind of grill you primarily use when you have some food you need to get cooked. There are no wrong answers, but I might look at you a little differently if you choose gas...
Just kidding, there really are no wrong answers.