Finally, time to break out the grill.

I finally broke out the grill this weekend, for what will hopefully be a full summer of grilling enjoyment. 

Several years ago my wife put aside the money to get be a new grill, since our current one was effectively dead.  It was picked up second had on Craigslist and had a good base to it.  It was a Brinkman stainless steel grill that had been used hard by it's previous owners.  While the exterior was in great shape, the interior was shot.  The burners were full of extra holes, the heat shields for the burners were mostly rust and baked in food remains, the grills had no coating other than rust and the control manifold heated up better than the cooking area.  Generally, it looked pretty on the outside, but the inside was held together by rust and habit.

After acquiring the grill and evaluating the parts list, we established that it would cost almost $200 to replace the parts, not counting shipping, and the parts are only available from Brinkman.  So we went down to Wal-Mart to see what was available for that cost and ended up with a Charbroil unit that cost about the same and had more features. The other grill went to a good home where it will be more useful as recycling.

While I could have broken the grill out earlier in the season (if not just kept it in use all winter) I waited until now because, well...  I can't think of a good reason, really.  While I don't grill in the rain, it isn't really a climate where you would pack up the backyard at first snowfall since we get no snow.  Still, for the last two years, come November I clean the grill.  I make it nice and shiny and then put the cover on for the winter, leaving it until April or May.  I don't know why but it seems the thing to do.

So yesterday we kicked the season off with Hebrew Nationals and hamburgers.  Not stunning, I'll admit, since last year it started with seasoned steak topped with chopped garlic and a tab of butter.  However, this year's inaugural meal was still good accompanied by some baked beans chips and iced tea.  Next weekend will be the steaks.  Or maybe a tri-tip...