BBQ

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It’s Nearing BBQ Season And I’m Not Ready

It’s a little early in the year, but lately I’ve been thinking about my BBQ.

Maybe it’s because the hardware stores have pulled them out from winter storage and put them on display for all us meat lovers.

Around here, early April is not really BBQing season, but I have a problem with my barbecue and, if I don’t figure out a solution in the next few weeks, I will miss some of the season.

Our present BBQ is about 6 years old which, in BBQ years, is like 15. It seems that when we take the cover off it after a winter, it has aged at least 2 years.

Metal and harsh winter conditions don’t do well together so BBQs start rusting and deteriorating over time.

In essence, my 15 year old BBQ needs some help. … If it were a dog, I could take it to a veterinarian and pay for an operation to help give it a few more years. But it’s not so easy with a BBQ.

Every grill is a different size. Believe me, I’ve checked out every big box hardware store in my city, and I’ve done it more than once.

It’s impossible to find the size of grill you need for your BBQ. You can replace burners and heat shields because they come in universal sizes, but grills? – that’s a different story.

Actually, you can buy universal grills – I’ve tried them before on other BBQs that I’ve owned – but they’re all the same. They don’t work.

Every time you take a scraper to them they shift and fall down onto the burners. Even flipping burgers can cause these universal grills to move and drop off the supports.

We have a cast iron grill now which I think is the hardest to maintain. You have to season it with oil to keep it from rusting … continually … who has the time to do that?

I should really think about buying a new BBQ this year and be done with it. But it’s one of those 4 burner, all stainless steel models with a cabinet underneath. I just hate to have to toss out all that metal just because I can’t find a grill that will fit it.

What I would really like to get is a stainless steel grill that fits because I think it would be easier for me to maintain. But if there is a place that sells such a thing they are not advertising.

There’s a great business for someone to start: making grills for all sizes of BBQs. It would save the landfills, keep people from having to buy new BBQs every few years, and would prevent a whole lot of wastefulness.

Too bad there wasn’t an old BBQ junk lot somewhere, where you could buy cheap parts for aging BBQs … that’s just wishful thinking.

Here’s the thing: As much as I would like to keep my BBQ and just replace what is absolutely necessary, the reality is the whole thing has got to go. Spiritually the same is true when we come to Christ. You might think you can keep certain things in your old life and only replace a few parts, but the Bible says in Christ you are a new creation. You can’t hang on to those old parts that aren’t working properly because they can make you ineffective. Embrace the new nature, your new nature in Christ.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you hanging on to that you just need to replace? Leave your comments below.

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Why Barbecues Don’t Last

I know it’s getting late in the season – I’m talking barbecue season – but things are starting to fall apart, literally … and what’s falling apart is my BBQ!

Top_Brands_of_Stainless_Steel_Grates_for_Grills_1435759547.13

There are all different shapes and sizes of BBQs out there, ranging in price from around $100 to $2000. But no matter the price, they are all going to last basically the same length of time. In three to five years you will be looking for a new one; it’s just how they’re made.

I’ve had my BBQ for five years now, and it’s actually in pretty good shape. If you looked at it with the lid down you’d think, “You don’t need a new Q; what you’ve got is just fine.”

But when the lid is lifted, and you get to see the grill, let me tell you, that thing is disintegrating!

It’s a cast iron grill and don’t get me started on the maintenance that’s needed to keep these grills in good working order! You need to devote about 40 percent of your spare time just to “season” the grill so that it won’t rust and start to flake off.

I can’t begin to guess how much canola oil I have put on that grill, painting the grid over and over, only to need to do it the next time I pulled back the cover.

I really need a new grill. But when you look at the size of the grill in comparison to the overall size of the BBQ, though it’s a small part, it costs a lot of money.

I would have to spend about $100 to replace it … that is, if I could find a replacement grill!

You see, all the manufacturers have different grill sizes. There is no standard, making it impossible to find your exact size anywhere.

The only thing you can do is get those universal grills that supposedly adjust to fit your size. But I don’t think that’s the answer, either.

The one guaranteed thing about barbecuing is that the grill takes a bit of a beating. You scrape it with wire bristles; you use a spatula to flip meat on it … that grate gets moved from side to side.

Those universal grills they can’t take the workout. They don’t hold the size you adjust them to. After about one use, your universal grill falls onto the burners just because you tried to scrape a bit of stuck on chicken off the grill.

Then there are the burners – they rust out too.

But yesterday I had to roll my barbecue out to the road for our annual street BBQ … one of the nuts on the lid came off and I lost a bolt.

… I may be looking at the season-ending sales on BBQs in the next couple of weeks. I’m just letting you know in advance, Lil.

Here’s the thing: The Christian life is not meant to be started and then left that way. What I mean is you can’t expect your time with God to remain the same without changing. Your involvement in the church will also need some changes over time. Certainly your relationship with God, and how you follow Him will change as you journey with Him. If these things don’t change, you will start to rust and your Christian life will start to decay. We continually need to allow the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into us, and that will mean making changes along the way.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Have you noticed any rust in your Christian life? Leave your comments below.

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How To Save Money On A New BBQ

I made a very big mistake three years ago when I bought my last barbecue. It came with a cast iron grate.

BBQ grill

At the time, I didn’t know the difference between the cooking surfaces. I just thought I got ripped off with a cheap grate that wouldn’t last long. My grate needed some help, and by that I mean some oil (not 10W30) spread on the surface to keep it from rusting.

I wished I had a stainless steel grate, or porcelain-covered grate – nothing sticks to those surfaces. As for my cast iron, everything stuck to it.

And this year when I popped the top on my BBQ, the grate was all rusty. I figured it needed to be thrown out.

But not so fast … I learned something that not only saved my BBQ, but may save yours as well.

You see, you can’t just go out and buy a new grate for your BBQ. No – the manufacturers have plotted together –  the best you can do is get an adjustable, fit-all-sizes-of-cooking-areas grate. … They are useless; don’t bother buying them.

The manufacturers just want you to buy a whole new barbecue. We should all be buying stocks in Weber, Napoleon or Broil King – it’s a good racket.

Actually, I found out cast iron grates are arguably the best. But wouldn’t you know it, the guy who doesn’t like maintenance gets the grill that needs the most maintenance.

The instructions called for my grate to be seasoned. My first thought was to sprinkle Montreal steak spice all over it. But that’s not what they meant.

I found a youtube video from Ballistic BBQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8sRDwbYra8) that showed me what to do and why. The video is 13 minutes long but worth it for me.

I found out the oil needs to bake on to the grill like a protective coating. And to get that coating, you have to apply the oil many times.

So I scraped, washed and towel-dried my grate. Then I started to apply the oil. I used peanut oil like the guy in the video suggested, but you can use canola oil another high heat oil.

It took me two and a half hours, keeping my BBQ on low heat and applying the oil every half hour. When I was done that grate was black and looked totally coated.

… Except I’m not really done. I now have to keep it up! When I finish cooking on my grill, I have to put some oil on it. And when I go to grill the next time, I have to burn off the stuff I put on last time and put a fresh coating on again.

The nice thing is the meat doesn’t stick. It’s like trying to catch a greased pig; the surface is all slippery-like. For a guy like me with an aversion to maintenance, this is a challenge but one that I think I will try to maintain, if you know what I mean.

Here’s the thing: There may be times when you think that you have failed so badly that God would have no recourse but to get rid of you, like a rusty grate. But God can recondition you and season you for ministry, if you’ll let Him. Why not allow Him to apply His treatment to you?

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has kept you from letting God recondition your life?

I’d really like to hear from you; leave your comment below.

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We’re Selling Rabbit Fur Coats, Cheap!

For the last 18 years, my wife has organized a street BBQ with our neighbours. I’d like to say that it’s Lily and I who put this on, but I don’t do much more than clean off a few chairs and roll our BBQ out to the street. She does all the organizing.

Rabbits

What happens is at 5 pm, I roll our BBQ out to the middle of the street (we live on a keyhole cul-de-sac) and, magically, the neighbours start to show up with their chairs, food and drinks.

It’s not a big event; there’s just ten houses on our street. But we do invite past neighbours (alumni) to attend.

We’ve had the police drive by a few times, but they’ve always just joked with us. Maybe it’s because we have a retired corrections officer on the street, and maybe they have a secret signal (like the Masons) that tips other officers to their occupation. Maybe not.

This year a conversation started about the rabbits. You know, those cute little fury things some people keep as pets. Not on our street! Everyone hates them – even the women, especially the women!

It seemed to be unanimous that everyone was looking for ways to keep the bunnies from eating the flowers in our gardens. Some have tried human hair, moth balls, soap, and cayenne pepper. One owner said she put Frank’s Hot Sauce in the garden, but I don’t think that’s right, wasting good hot sauce on those varmints.

One neighbour has put chicken wire around all his little gardens. Sure he has his flowers, but it’s harder to see them through the chicken wire. One guy sits on his deck with a garden hose in hand and spays the little hoppers when he sees them.

As we were talking, we looked over at our house and there was a bunny hopping up our front walk to our door, like he was going to call on our turtle, Winston, to come out for a race or something.

These rabbits are not afraid of us, either. They just look at us with those innocent eyes, and remain very still like they are thinking, “I can see them, but if I remain still they won’t even know I’m hear nibbling on their lilies.”

At the BBQ, there was talk of pellet guns, and setting up a camouflage blind in one of our backyards to hunt them down, but we never got too far with that. We talked of rabbit stew and selling rabbit coats but these ideas didn’t get off the ground either.

In the end, it was still every household for themselves against the rabbit population on our street which is rapidly growing among an aging human demographic.

It was fitting that, as my neighbour and I were returning some things to our backyard, a little bunny, no more than a week or two old, appeared in front of us and then scurried under our deck. I really do think they have plans to overrun us.

Here’s the thing: It’s amazing how we can come together over something as silly as a bunny problem. God wants us to come together around Him, which should be easy. Sadly, in the end, we often end up everyone for themselves. It just should not be.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: How would you deal with a bunny problem? Leave your comment below.