I overheard several people at work talking about grills. They were mentioning Traeger pellet grills and Big Green Eggs. All three people talking were women and they all had common, cheap gas grills. They wanted to buy an upgrade for their husbands. They saw me listening and said, “We’ve had your food at parties, we want our husbands to do stuff like that.” I told them that everything I have cooked for parties (Ham, Turkey, Chicken, Chuckies, Pulled Pork, Wings, ABT’s, etc) has come off of a 20+ year old Weber kettle. They were shocked. I said you can go to a store and buy a Weber kettle for $100-$180, get a few bags of charcoal and a bag of apple or cherry wood chunks and then could get after it. I then said if you want to go cheaper you could also go the craigslist/marketplace/let go route and get a kettle for $20-40 bucks and clean it up with Easy Off oven cleaner. Then grab a few new grates if needed and then wait for the big box charcoal sales this spring and buy ten bags or so and then cut your own hardwood chunks from a local source. The ladies smiled at me and then said, “We love your food but we want a grill that will look nice when we have people over.” I just mentioned that I have had really good food off of Eggs and Traegers and then said I would be happy to share recipes and rubs/sauces if they ever had the need. Oh well. I thought I was giving them the key to BBQ zen but to each their own. The hobby is great fun regardless of what people like and how they get there.
