Ill Grill Thrill with Molten Spill

My most practical advice piece yet. (my only one, actually) Here's my "I almost burned my house down and killed us all this month, but I didn't, and I lived so I can help you not almost burn your house down and kill yourself too" advice blog. (I'm thinking of making this a weekly series)

A friend donated us his old gas grill which we've enjoyed. Little did he know I'd be melting parts of it down to it's base metals. But we love it.

Oh - a word about the pleasures of having gas. (in my grill, that is) We had a charcoal grill which some people simply swear by. "You just can't get flavor from gas like you can from charcoal." I am willing to concede them this point, if they are willing to concede that the time to flavor increase ratio is too low. When I have time to go through the charcoal process, it will mean I've got lots of free time - during which I'm going to go out on a date or something. When you have 40 minutes to do dinner before you've got to be somewhere charcoal just won't do it. Imagine cooking directions like this; preheat oven for 45 minutes, then bake xxxx for one hour, but don't wait too long to start or you'll blacken it, or wait to long and run out of heat. So since I have gas (hee hee) I save meals and make up for what I lack in precision timing.

As you probably know, when you grill you need to burn off the stuff from the previous grilling. (unless you like grill jerky) Last time I decided to invest in the future; I'll burn off that stuff now! said I. So I took the meat off and cranked up the heat. In I went, ate, played with the kids, relaxed...etc.

Just before bed we were cleaning up the kitchen when it dawned on me: the grill.

It was no longer on. I was wondering how much propane we had left - and had it not been for the fact that it must have went out after just 3 hours, I'm sure I'd be blogging about what we salvaged from the ashes of our home.

I now have liquid metal (solder?) which dripped down onto the deck. The logo thing on the grill melted down half around the thermometer - which cracked from the heat. This sagged because the bolt and screw that held on melted! Plastic tray to the side? Melted away from the grill. Here are some pictures.





Anyhow - we're glad to still be alive. My advice to you is - be lazy. Wait to clean your grill until the next time. Or, I guess some of the non-flavor merits of charcoal: non-explosive, self-extinguishing.

Those aren't bad.