Dear Crabby, How Late in the Year do you Grill?

Dear Crabby, Now that Fall is Here and Many of us are Getting the Yard Ready for Winter, I was Wondering – How Late in the Year do you Grill?

Sincerely, Autumn Girl

 

Well, Autumn, why would you stop grilling at all? You know, you can do it year-round … that is if you don’t mind the cold weather or shoveling a path through the snow to your outdoor grill.

We used to close the grill up too. Each fall, as the temps fell, I would clean it up one last time and cover it up to keep it safe from the snow – which is funny, because we rarely covered it up for fear of rain, and rain is just melted snow, right? Anyway, as I got older and older, I found myself spending more time with the grand kids rather than doing yard work and chores … long story … one year I didn’t get to covering up the grill.

Well, no one noticed except for me and I soon forgot about it. Then Thanksgiving rolled around and Mrs. Crabby and I were hosting the family. Boom! Right in the middle of all that cooking a transformer blew out leaving us in the dark. What to do with a half baked 18-pound bird with no power to our electric oven … ah, I remembered, the outdoor grill is still open for business!

So, on with the winter clothes and out with the turkey I went. We have a big gas grill. We used a drip pan with some water in it and I knew enough to set the grill up for indirect cooking – meaning the bird wasn’t directly over the heat (I watch the cooking channel with Mrs. Crabby). A couple of hours on medium heat and dinner was a go.

Fortunately, we have a gas stove in the house so we were able to finish all the sides as well. Anything that needed to be kept cold went outside in a cooler and we ate by candlelight – the most romantic Thanksgiving I’ve ever had. We tuned in the football game on my trusty transistor radio, and just as I predicted, the Lions lost the game. But we ate like kings and queens and played Monopoly with all the kids with flashlights. We had seconds and even thirds before the good folks at DTE replaced the transmitter and restored power.

So now, we keep the grill open and ready to go all year long. I even did steaks on a warm New Years Day. And fall is harvest time, so try grilling with apples and ears of corn. Squash is good on the grill as well. Read my column on Why do Men do all the Grilling to stay inspired to keep the grill open, because even women can grill too.

If you ever need a taste-tester, give me a call … happy grilling!

Dear Crabby