Summer Grilling

I was reading an article about grilling outdoors that settled upon the ubiquitous question of gas vs. charcoal. I thought the answer , given by a bona fide chef, was put pretty well, "I acknowledge that gas grilling is easier, quicker, and safer, but for me, one fundamental reason I love grilling is the excitement that's born from the risk involved: With charcoal grilling, there's a big chance you'll ruin your dinner. I love the challenge of starting the perfect fire, and cooking over live coals is unpredictable and thrilling."

For me it's a no brainer - gas. Since my tastebuds are usually sullied by poisons like cigars and booze, I don't believe I could tell the difference in taste, so I'll take the simplicity of gas.

My pride, however, is in my grill. It was an inexpensive two-burner Home Depot model that I received as a birthday present seven years ago. It has received extensive use, we grill a couple of times a week, and suffered mightily at the hands of Texas weather. To me, it's the equivalent of a twenty year-old car that one is determined to keep running...usually with coat-hangers and duct tape.

1. The hinge fastening the top of the clamshell to the bottom of the clamshell failed. Replaced with random bolt from garage junk.

2. Ignition device failed during first month of use. I currently employ the spark-and-scare method of ignition whereby I spark the gas with a long lighter and it eventually explodes all around my face.

3. Multiple grate replacements as well as many of the other innards.

4. Wooden handle eventually fell to pieces due to exposure. Fashioned a new wooden handle out of random 1x2's from previously cited garage junk. Edges rounded with router. Spacers cut from same stock and attached with more random bolts from garage. Critical design error: bolts should have been counterbored (sunk below the level of the handle). As they now stand proud of the handle, they are heated internally by the grill to the temperature of molten ingots.

5. Shelves on either side of grill decayed due to said exposure. This was my piece de resistance. I had just renovated the master bathroom which involved pulling out the old countertop. I built a new countertop, but being a packrat, the old countertop was still laying around the garage. I occasionally put it on sawhorses to be used as an assembly station because grip drips and paint blotches are easily removed from the formica top (or at least that's the idea.) I keep all this garage junk because I, of course, think I might use it someday. In this case, I cut a notch in the old countertop to go around the grill and pretty much quadrupled the amount of shelf space available on the grill. It's not the prettiest thing in the world - a black grill with a 1967 Formica bathroom counter for a prep shelf, but it's terribly functional.

I think at this rate I can keep it running for another fifteen years or so.