All Up In My Grill Marks

I wrote this yesterday:

Winter won't officially arrive until December 21, but from the looks of the weather forecast for Des Moines, I think winter actually starts tomorrow.

I spent Sunday afternoon getting the yard ready for the temperature drop. I raked and mulched the leaves. I also blew out the garden hoses and stored them in the garage. That means I shouldn't have much to do tonight when I get home. It'll still be near 60 degrees, so I should have one last night this season for one of my favorite activities.

Tonight, I grill!

If I'm outside, I only grill with charcoal, and I only grill with charcoal on a Weber Kettle Grill. I picked up my first Weber grill at a Goodwill (gasp!), and I fell in love with using it. That model was from the 70s, and it looked a lot like this.

I spent one great summer with Ryan and Kiyomi Dughman learning how to put that grill though its paces. If I hadn't moved out of the townhouse and into a condo, I wouldn't have gotten rid of it.

After Daphne and I got married, we lived in that cheap condo for a year, and after 12 frugal months we had saved $15,000 for a house down payment. Before we even moved Daphne bought me a replacement grill, and I used it all the time. Even a snow storm couldn't slow down my Weber. 

Over the course of 10 years the vent covers in that grill rusted, and one broke just one week before we moved to our second house. I should have fixed it, but moving sucks the life right out of you. I left the Weber behind and hoped the new owners of our old house would either use it or give it a respectable burial.

I had a new Weber in the new back yard within a week, but I learned last year not to grill in the winter. I grilled in our old backyard at the bottom of a hill, and the six-foot fence surrounding our property kept me pretty well protected from the wind. Our new place is on the top of a hill, and the winter wind that blows up there is too cutting. Grilling should be fun, not painful.

So, tonight's my grill's last gasp of '14. I was thinking steaks, onions, portobella mushrooms, and olive bread, but then I checked the weather in the afternoon.

Looks like it might be nicer than I thought. Maybe I should go with Iowa Cut pork chops? They take more time...

Three hours later:

When I got in my car at 3:45 the temperature was 60 degrees, and by the time I got out of the grocery store it was 55 degrees. Then the wind picked up, and clouds turned dark. But I was undeterred. I lit the newspaper in my chimney starter at 5:00, and by 5:30 I was grilling.

Too bad I forgot that daylight savings makes 5:30 look like 6:30. I had to use a flashlight to read the meat thermometer, and I think it was closer to 45 degrees when I brought dinner into the house.

The 12 oz rib eyes were great, and I didn't burn the vegetables too much, so the meal was a success. But in a way I'm glad it turned out to be a poor night for grilling. Now when I look at the snow filling the backyard I won't miss my grill as much.

Then again, I can't forget that this is Iowa. There's a chance we'll have a day in December that's 60 degrees. I better not store the charcoal too far back in my garage.