what u grillin?

In our house we have always had some grill drama. My father was a gas griller, and his food was always fabulous! Beau's learned from his dad that charcoal was the way to go. During the engagement there was a stand still but in the end I won out.....because we inherited my dad's old gas grill. Shortly after Beau was sold. Although he maintained his charcoal.is.best status he fell in love with being able to start the grill and cook a burger while he was home on an hour lunch. Much less prep time with gas.

For years we considered having both, but that takes alot of space and often our grills don't make it through the move. In alaska we toyed with the combo grill (both gas and charcoal) idea for a bit , but assumed a ton of grilling wasn't going to happen and so we purchased our very own gas grill. It was so pretty, all stainless steel and impossible to clean. made a lovely mess on our back porch too....rarely got used.

In arizona that same grill was murdered. When you have a mastiff and something that smells like meat in the same backyard, one has to go. Peanut worked very hard and spent an entire summer pushing the grill off the porch eventually leading to the demise of our grill.

As soon as we arrived in Colorado we knew we needed a new one. Again we toyed with what to buy and eventually decided we were indecisive.........insert FIL here......

Beau and his father have a "you have it i need it too" relationship. in gen either of them can convince the other to buy just about anything lol. My fil had just acquired a Traeger grill (beau and his father share that same dynamic with the store Costco). Beau was sold, he needed one! ....i wasn't so sure

my first question was, what does it look like (gas always beats charcoal in the looks dep.)


well, its pretty cute right?

my second question, what the heck is it? Well the Traeger is a grill that uses wood pellets to smoke the food. you can get all different kinds of pellets for different flavors (applewood, mesquite etc). It uses indirect heat so less charring and burning etc. It boasts the flavor of charcoal with the ease of gas.

After using the traeger for a few weeks I have to say...um honey can you come home early to grill dinner every night!! I'm not a big meat eater (former vegetarian here) but it is delicious....BETTER THAN BACON...which is the ultimate meat! I'm in love. its tender, cooked perfectly without burning and I have never ever even at the best restaurant devoured so much flavor. We have tried a few things but I was most impressed when we did a roast...you know the tough cut of beef that normally takes all day to make tender...it was delicious in just a couple hours. BEST.ROAST.EVER!




the Traeger has a couple of other benefits...did you know charred meat increases your risks of pancreatic cancer? most grilled meat has some charring. here is a link but in a nutshell they ask many who suffer from pc and they report an increased intake of charred meat hmm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421154327.htm  traegers dont char because the smoke heat is indirect! although you dont get the grilled look but ...meh...i do love black stripes tho :(

also charcoal as we use it in the u.s. is under regulation in Canada....http://www.tns-cf.com/social/impacts/crrcr.html...........in gen the Canadian govt seems to be a little more health savvy than ours so im always interested in their laws concerning consumers. 

fwiw i do not think everyone should stop eating gas/charcoal grilled meats! but i do think a little less of anything concerning at all is a good thing. especially when there are alternatives :)