Wednesday, June 6, 2012

FIRE!!!

I had a shortened weekend this week. I only had Saturday off and was back to work on Sunday. Saturday was a good day until the grill caught fire. More on that in a minute. We went to a plant sale that the Mat-Su master gardeners were having. We got 4 basil plants, an Oregon cherry tomato plant and a strawberry plant all for $8. Stacy and I planted them while Isabella helped when we got home. These are the last plants we plan on getting this year and they were to replace or supplement a few that weren't doing well.
      So my plan for Saturday dinner was London Broil, baked potatoes, stuffed mini peppers, and grilled bread all cooked on the grill. I rubbed the London Broil ( which is a thick cut of beef) with salt, pepper and Pampered Chef Smoky applewood rub. Then put in a ziplock bag with Worcestershire sauce and minced garlic and let it marinade for an hour or so. I heated the grill and put my smoker box under the grill grate with  apple wood chips in it. While the meat was cooking, I took some potatoes and washed and dried them. After rubbing the skins with vegetable oil, I salted and peppered them and put them on the grill. I rotated the meat and potatoes a few times and took the potatoes off when they were fork tender. At this point the meat was almost done, so I was inside getting the peppers out of the fridge and the bread ready. Suddenly, Stacy tells me that there is a lot of smoke coming out from the grill. I don't think much of it, but look outside to make sure things are ok. To my surprise, there are flames shooting out from under the lid and under the controls. I turn off the gas, disconnect the tank and get the meat off. It is still on fire after I get  the meat inside and it doesn't look like it is going to stop by itself. I grab the fire extinguisher and quickly put the fire out. After I knew it was out, I poured 2 gallons of water on it to help cool it.
     I then went back to making dinner. I broiled the peppers and bread in the oven and Stacy and I ate the meat. It was at a nice doneness, just a little extra char. We loved the potatoes. All of us including Isabella ate the potato skin. During dinner, I just kept staring at the grill feeling terrible. We decided to make a chocolate chip cookie in the cast iron skillet after Isabella went to bed to cheer me up. Here is the link to the recipe:
http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/one-pan-dark-chocolate-chunk-skillet-cookie/
It came out really good. We added 1/4 of a cup of Craisens to the mix in addition to the chocolate chips. It came out nice and chewy. This will definitely be one of our go to desserts now.
     This Friday, I will be cleaning and inspecting the grill. Hopefully, it will come back to life. I am having a Pampered Chef Thrill of the Grill party on Saturday. I still have the charcoal side of the grill to use, but I was planning on cooking other things on the gas side, while we cook a pizza on the charcoal side. I also have my little portable gas grill as a backup too. Speaking of Pampered Chef, as part of this party I have an online catalog show going too. It would really help me towards my goal of more grilling tools if people would order online. To order online go to www.pamperedchef.biz/stacyschneider and click "shop online". Enter in Matthew Schneider as your host name and your all set! Your order will count towards my Pampered Chef Grilling Party! I will blog about how I use my new products, so help me out. I get more free product as show host the more people order. 
   Next week, I will post about my party and the grill repair. I will try and figure out what went wrong so none of you have to go through it. I will tell you that I will be doing an inspection and deep clean more often. Have a good week and happy grilling!
Matt


1 comment:

  1. I'm sure the grill will be useable! Just clean it up and test it out. It will be ok :)

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