BBQ Feng Shui
‘Tis backyard embrace time. Sunlight, flowers, birding, and BBQ. Summer is a favorable outdoorsy season.
Alas-lack of planning (and building funds) circumvented creating a deck or a patio and instead a large swath of pea gravel represents our lounging about area. Not ideal, but sufficient.
Over the years additions such as a fire pit, accompanying Adirondack chairs, flower pots, and hammocks (one for shade, one for the sun) have created a welcoming fair weather space (I stubbornly to acknowledge the coming of the long winter by not putting up the summer furniture until frost arrives and warm coat is necessary to sit outside with the fire pit becoming an essential instead of being decorative).
However, granted though all added comfortable touches created a welcome respite, what was lacking was a BBQ area.
Oh, we tried various methods. The ubiquitous red kettle tripod, even the standard propane range, but it came down to this tried and true:
Please no judging here with this observed statement: I thought men are born with a BBQ gene. I grew up with my Dad grilling steaks as often as he could get away with it, and my friends’ fathers also were grill kings, and in my college days the guys I knew worked the briquettes with aplomb even if they were lost in the kitchen otherwise. So I learned how to BBQ by osmosis simply because BBQ skills fell to me if my family wanted BBQ.
I will leave it at that.
So if I was to be the designated BBQer in my marriage it would be on my terms. Hence, I chose to BBQ with my trusty camping kettle. And it works well. Well, it works better now. In its previous life I would haul it to the beach and set it up on a picnic table and after a day of the kiddos playing all day we would wait for their dad to join us after work and we would enjoy a picnic. Fond memories are attached to that little BBQer. My reluctance to part with it even when tempted with other means of grilling should be understandable.
Just recently my little camping kettle got upgraded to having its own stand instead of being plonked on the ground. Empty nester funds do have a purpose. And now that there is a designated BBQ area there should be an actual dining area. Right?
That took a little more effort, yet it happened with panache. A cafe table with chairs and umbrella. No more schlepping over to the fire pit Adirondack chairs eating with plates on our laps.
Perfect.
And then trouble in BBQ bliss when the neighbors moved in.
Stay tuned for PART TWO.
Pam Webb 