Fire up the grill!

My wife and I live in an area that gets a significant amount of snow over the Winter. While the snow makes it more difficult to grill out, we still do it as much as we can no matter the season.

There is something about Spring and Summer though when you can finally start sitting out on the deck while the grilling is actually happening.

Working the grill and hanging out on our deck is one of my favorite Spring/Summer activities.

Please be aware, I am not an expert, I would never claim to be. I am pretty handy around a grill though, and I have honed some techniques over the years that I feel make me pretty adept at grilling.

As you can see in the picture, on this particular occasion we were grilling brats. I know a lot of purists say that you need to boil your brats before you grill them. I have never done that though.

I like to indirect grill the brats on a charcoal grill as shown above. Notice that the brats are away from the coals on the other side of the grill. Cooking them this way takes a bit longer, and also leaves the skin a little "tougher", but it does a fantastic job of sealing in the juices. I have received many positive comments on the juiciness of my brats by cooking them this way.

After 30 to 45 minutes I could tell they were ready so I pulled them off.

When I cook them the way I have described above, they tend to shrivel up shortly after you take them off the heat.

They may look funny, but don't worry, the juiciness is still locked inside and ready for you to savor.

The curved brats are "western" brats. They are made of pork, cheese, onions, and peppers. Just like a western omelette. We get them from a local meat market that makes them in-house. The straighter brats are my wife's since she doesn't really eat pork.

We also pick those up from a different local meat market. They are chicken garlic parmesan and though I prefer pork brats I can testify that the chicken ones are also very good.

I cut into one of my brats so you could see what it looks like inside. They are also so large that it makes it much easier to fit in the bun and eat.

Take note of the pink smoke ring around the outside of the brat and how juicy it still is inside. This picture also gives you a good idea of how much cheese and veggies they pack these with.

Finally, we topped our meal off with some canned baked beans (I plan on learning to make my own in the near future), and some homemade potato salad.

My wife makes a potato salad that is some stiff competition for my late Grandma's. Her secret is she puts a little bit of dill relish in it. I can't tell you how much though :)

Thanks for stopping by. We are just getting started with the grilling season, so I hope to bring many more posts to you over the Summer!

All pictures in this post were taken by yours truly.

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