RyeBlog

There are a few things that have been keeping me from posting to my blog as frequently as you might want me to. One of them is my newborn son. Another one is my new job. Both of those are probably things that you could have guessed would keep me from blogging… but the one that you may not have been aware of is this month’s entry in RyeBrye’s Favorite Things - the Weber One-Touch Silver grill.

Why Charcoal?

You may be asking… in the age of 20th century gas convenience, why would anyone use prehistoric technology to cook their food? Well - let me tell you.

1. Taste:

I don’t care how many people tell me that you can’t taste the gas when you grill on a “good gas grill” - I hate the taste of propane enough to avoid the possibility. Sure, it might not always end up tasting like gas - just like your neighborhood child molestor might not always violate your children. It still doesn’t mean I’m going to let my kids go to his playgroup. I have heard rumors that really expensive ($1500+) gas grills don’t have that problem - but that leads me to my next point.

2. Price:

The grill that I got was a gift for Father’s day from Rhett - but since he bought it for me a few days before he was born, I was at the store with him (in utero) and can tell you that he paid $85 for it on sale. In order to touch the quality of food that this $85 grill can put out, you would have to spend well over a thousand dollars on a gas grill that doesn’t spit gas on your food… and even then - I would still (along with all the other charcoal purists) look down on you slightly as some kind of yuppie know-nothing because of my next point

3. It’s all about the experience:

Grilling is just as much about the experience of the grilling as it is about the food. Yes, you could probably cook your food over an open flame and get some good results using a high-quality gas grill… and hunters could probably get good meat by growing a bunch of deer in a fenced-in field and harvesting them when they wanted to eat them. It’s not the same thing.

The other secret to grilling is to get Weber’s Big Book of Grilling - which is loaded with both instructional information, stories, and some amazing recipies to keep you busy for a long long time. While you are at it, you can pick up Weber’s Real Grilling. If you are only going to buy one - get the Big Book. Real Grilling has some things that the Big Book doesn’t have - like pictures for every recipe - but it of the 200 recipies in the book, only about 25% of them seem like something I’d want to try. 80% of the recipies in the Big Book, however, beg you to get your grill on.

Some of the things I’ve made on the grill this summer

• Maple-Smoked Corn
• Hickory-Smoked Corn
• Seasoned burgers
• Garlic and butter stuffed burgers
• Baby Back Ribs with a Spice Apple Cider Mop
• Honey-Lime Glazed Cornish Game Hens
• Hickory-Smoked Country Style Spare Ribs with Red Wine Vinegar Sauce
• Hickory Smoked Turkey Legs
• Pineapple (3 different ways)
• Roasted Garlic
• Asian-style Chicken
• County-Fair Style Chicken
• Peaches

I don’t have pictures of all of the things I’ve grilled - but here are some images of the last few things I’ve grilled.

The Hickory Smoked Country Style Spare Ribs were given a five-star review by Pace

These grilled Turkey Legs were extremely juicy. The sauce they have on them tastes like a tangy apple sauce. (Yes, the sauce was homemade too)

One more thing

If you do decide to get into grilling, and want to do some indirect-heat cooking - you really will want to get a meat thermometer. I decided to go with the wireless variety - but mainly because I found an excellent model that had two probes. This lets me use one probe dangling down from my air-vent hole to accurately monitor the internal temperature of the grill, and another probe to monitor my meat. Towards the end of cooking, I can put both probes in to ensure that the food is cooked exactly the way I want it - and not burn it and frustrate myself, or undercook it and kill my family.

After a bunch of searching around, I decided to buy the Maverick ET-7 from a marketplace seller on Amazon. Unlike the Weber wireless thermometer, this one can go up to 500 degrees and not break. If it goes out of range, it merely says “HHH” on the screen and will still function when you cool it down. If either of my probes ever goes bad - I can mail them to Maverick and get a replacement for free. At $35 from the marketplace seller - it’s an insane deal. Especially considering that if you find the page that Amazon is selling the exact same model for $60.

In RyeBrye’s Favorite Things, RyeBrye will blab on about something that he loves.

Sure, I know what you are thinking. “Why would a HELMET qualify to be on the same list as a Space Blanket… What makes it deserve it’s place in RyeBrye’s Favorite things???”. Let me begin with an illustration of one of my canyoneering buddies, who shall not be named here.

This friend of mine has a history of causing rock avalanches that engulf tiny villages. Sure, that’s a big claim to make - but let me back it up with some stories…

Story #1: One day I am coming down a very steep trail leading away from a climbing area. All of a sudden I hear someone yell “ROCK” - and I immediately get off of the trail. A split-second later, a small boulder tumbles past me and onto oblivion. In the far distance, I see my friend smiling like the cheshire cat.

Story #2 A group of us are coming down from the Grand Teton. While we are making our descent, one member of our group is lagging behind slightly. Two of us stop to wait for him. No sooner do we turn back, but we hear him yell “Rock” but a small, thin, fist-size rock comes whizzing by us. It was going so fast the noise it made sounded like it came straight from a special effects CD. And yes, there is my friend… smiling like he just beat Super Mario III or something.

Sure, so ANY helmet would do, right?

Well… no. Not necessarily. There are lots of climbing helmets out there, and just about every helmet model has people who swear by it. Lots of people swear by the prehistoric design of the Petzl Ecrin for instance. Take one gander at the thing and you will understand why it’s not my favorite. Some things are worse than death.

The CAMP Silver Star is unique because of a few things. First - it is lightweight. Second - it has one point of adjustment. (You merely adjust the back of the helmet to fit your head, and the straps miraculously change their angles so they are in the right spots… This is a major improvement over other helmets.) Third - it’s got lots of ventilation so your brain doesn’t start to boil. Fourth, it likes water. (This is important for canyoneering applications).

If you really want to get one, you can go pick one up at Backcountry.com.

Oprah has her Favorite things - so why not RyeBrye? This is the start of a random section where RyeBrye will fill you in on some of the finer things in life. Then you - like Oprahs readers - must go mindlessly buy up all of these items that exist.
The Space blanket has a strange name. It has little to do with space - and it’s really not big enough to be called a blanket - but if you are ever in a bind and you have nothing else - you will be glad you have one. (Unless, of course, you are in Space - because then your body would explode).

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