Current location:	glendale, az
Current mood:	hungry
Entry tags:	food, grill, matt

Grillin'
Saturday night, on our way home from work, Matt and I stopped at WalMart to get a small grill. Matt's been wanting to try his hand at charcoal grilling, since he's very good at propane, but never really had a chance to use charcoal before.

So, after a lot of debate, we picked up the least expensive non-tabletop charcoal grill ($20), a small bag of briquettes ($3), and a small bag of hickory chips ($2). We did not pick up lighter fluid, because I don't like the smell or the taste.

The primary reason we picked up the grill Saturday was because I'd found a few NY strip steaks on decent markdown at Safeway, and those were just begging to be grilled.

We got home, and Matt started assembling the grill. He was impressed that all the small parts were blister-sealed to a card backing and labeled. Plus, they even gave you an actual screwdriver, not just a small hex wrench. Not bad for $20. Once assembled, he got to try lighting it without the help of lighter fluid. And...we realized we don't know where the long lighter went. So he's out there, with charcoal, newspaper, cardboard, and matches, trying to get it lit. Wine is not a good firestarter. The vodka didn't help much, either. Eventually, though, he got enough going to get the steaks on.

Wow. Those were so good. The steaks were good, the boiled red potatoes with butter, salt and pepper were good, and the Santa Fe mix of beans and corn was good. All in all, a very good dinner.

But I relented, and let him buy a bottle of lighter fluid for the next attempts. He swears that if used correctly, you can't smell or taste it on the meat. We'll see, as he has the grill going to make some burgers for lunch.