Tournament is a no go!

Well, while I have to grade my progress as a "C" for this week, it is irrelevant now. We decided to take the tournament money and invest in a gas grill. After talking about the situation, the wife and I decided that the money was better spent.


As you can see, we went with a big one! It has 474 square inches if primary cooking area, 3 stainless steel burners, side burner and cast iron grates. 36,000 BTU! This baby gets hot! It will go up to 500 degrees in about 10 minutes (which is about the temp that I like to clean it at). St. Pat's day we cooked a 12 pound brisket on it and it barely make a dent in what I can fit on it. Tonight we cooked a few chops and they came out just beautiful.


Some may ask why we went with such a big grill and the answer is easy. We have a big family! We have 5 kids in the house. My best friend, who is married to my wife's cousin (more like sisters really) also have 5 kids in the house. Add my dad (a widower) and Bob's mom (a widow) and the friends of the kids that always seem to show up on the weekends, and its not unusual to be cooking steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers, beans and whatever for 20+ people. And don't even get me started if we're cooking ribs! And all this is just the every weekend folks. On the Fourth of July we can easily bump it up to 30 to 40 people, as we have a decent view of the city fireworks display from the back yard.


All of this requires a lot of yard work, preparation of food, and lost sleep time. But it is all worth it to be surrounded by friends and family and food (and beer...can't forget the beer)!