When we bought our house 2 and a half years ago, I always imagined having a gas grill on the back porch. I've never owned a grill, not even a cheap little charcoal grill. My parents had a gas grill when I was in high school, but that doesn't count. Now that I had my own house, I wanted to complete the package by grilling food for the family and friends in my own back yard.
Yet, two and a half years after moving into our house, we still had no grill. It was just too extravagant of a purchase. There was always something else we needed more, needs that were more pressing (for example, if Sofia is going to take piano lessons, we need to get her a keyboard).
With our new focus on debt reduction, it seemed even less likely that a grill would be in our immediate future. But then I got an idea.
In May, the government will be mailing out checks. The Economic Stimulus Package. The injection of cash intended to jump start our sagging economy. When I first heard about it, I thought we'd just put it towards our debt. But then I realized that it was my patriotic duty to spend at least some of it! After all, saving it or paying a credit card with it will not help the economy. So I decided (with Cristina's okay) to spend a quarter of the "free money" on a grill.
After extensive research, I made my choice. Monday, I picked up my Blue Ember.
I know what you're thinking. They don't mail those checks till May. Why did you get the grill now? Well, by May, it's starting to get pretty hot here. Right now is prime outdoor time. Highs in the upper 70's/low 80's. It would be a shame to wait until May and miss out on these 2 months of beautiful backyard grilling weather. It just so happened that the grill I chose is sold at Home Depot. I have a Home Depot credit card. If you make a purchase over $300, you get 6 months of no payments and no interest. Bingo! I can charge it now and when the check comes in May, I pay off the card.
I chose the Blue Ember by Fiesta for a few reasons. For one thing, it had all the features I could possibly want plus some bonus stuff that was just icing on the cake. I mean, it even has a bottle opener mounted on it. But more impressively, it's made with 304 quality stainless steel, which is better than you get in most grills of this relatively low price.
I decided to buy one in the box instead of one that was already assembled. Something about putting it together myself was more appealing. You get intimate with your stuff when you assemble it yourself. You know how it works, how it's built. I like that.
The only problem I had in assembly was in taking off the big stickers that they put on it for demo-ing all the features. They didn't come off cleanly and I had to use my fingernails and Goo-Gone. It was very anticlimactic to the whole assembly process.
I inaugurated it Tuesday night with some boneless chicken breasts and a big thick ribeye. It worked great and I didn't do too bad considering my lack of experience with grilling. I even got the cross-hatch grill marks down pat. Today I tried out the rotisserie and cooked a whole chicken. It also came out very nice. I grilled some zucchini and squash, as well as some garlic bread. Sofia made a comment about how I almost cooked the entire meal on the grill. Aww yeah.
My aunt and uncle arrived tonight for a short visit. Tomorrow I will grill some brined boneless pork chops. I can't wait!
I intended on taking lots of pictures of me building the grill, grilling my first meat, etc. But I couldn't find the camera for a few days (Cristina finally found it in my jacket pocket. Oops!). So for now, I'll just stick on some stock photos so you can at least see the style of it.
And if you want to come over to my house, I'll grill you up something to eat.
For any gadget freaks out there,
click here for a list of the features!
