Hola fire & food grilling fanatics!
As always, I am hoping you are all well and taking your ceramic grilling adventures higher and higher with each meal! I thought I would write some random thoughts about the "GTO" lifestyle that came to me while on a spectacular drive back to my home town last week to see my father in the Laurentians. The color's were still beautiful and the autoroute was virtually empty so it gave me great time to loose myself in thought about food & fire.
As the title of the post suggests, at least the first half, we all live pretty hectic lives today. Wether we are married or single, have children or not or perhaps we have stressful work environments to deal with or more than one job in order to make ends meet, one thing's for sure, life these days is hectic and we all need to disconnect and what better way than with family, friends and food cooked over crackling lump charcoal. I loved the fact that while I was on my drive my cell battery was dead, I don't own a blackberry and there was no way anyone could reach me for those few hours and it really felt great! My mind wondered on to thoughts of our next meal or meals for that matter, pork or beef or perhaps some fresh arctic char drizzled with lemon & honey served up alongside some delicious ginger glazed yellow string beans, topped with smoked malden salt, WHOA! ( note to self! keep eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, thank-you Jim Morrison!)
I guess what I am getting at hear my friends is that even yours truly has to disconnect sometimes even though my work, like my life, revolves around food and beverage and the next deck party and as my wife often reminds me that even though I wish it were Friday, it is merely in the words of "The Bangles", another manic Monday and we have to focus on getting to the weekend, I know you can all relate, I hope!
If you all own a ceramic oven like the BGE or Primo or maybe a GrillDome you all know what I am talking about when it comes to wanting and needing to cook, it becomes part of the daily routine that is the "GTO" lifestyle. It is about forgetting what's in or not in your bank account temporarily, forgetting what you were supposed to do for your boss or the fact that the winter tires have to go on the car at some point or even the fact that the dog has been begging you with her eyes to go for a walk for the last two weeks! No my friends, this is about the ritual of prepping what you need in order to take your grilling game higher and to make your family love you even more!
This is about leaving the office, and jumping in the car as you rip that tie off from around your neck faster than a speeding bullet you jam that crackberry into the glove box until morning and as you "reach down between your legs and ease the seat back" as David Lee Roth once wrote, you gently apply ample pressure to the gas pedal and head for home where your ceramic grilling utopia waits for you at the ready for the magic and alchemy to begin.
I know that cooking takes time and one needs to be organized in order to get proficient at having the luxury of mid week grilling/cooking but it can be done with a few simple steps so I have taken the liberty to put together what I have coined The "GTO" Ten Commandments to Easier Cooking and they go like this!
1. have a plan the night before and know your menu ahead of time
2. make sure you are good on charcoal & firestarter
3. light the fire first to heat up your oven, then get on to everything else
4. spice is nice, have it ready to season your culinary creation
5. cold beverages and ice, locked & loaded
6. wine is divine, decant or chill or perhaps both, you decide!
7. keep it simple, cause simple = delicious every time!
8. if using extra smoke, don't forget to pre-soak your wood
9. timing is key! will it be direct or in-direct on this day
10. Like Sly & The Family Stone said " I want to take you higher" so have that ipod ready and loaded with the best tunes to compliment the deck party and then simply welcome your guests to the "GTO" lifestyle.......
Ok my grilling friends, that's another one in the bag and I hope it helps! Until my next creative drive into the country, keep it real and delicious and remember, feed the fire and the desire to take it higher!
Many thanks to Van Halen, The Doors and Sly & The Family Stone for inspiring my drive on that day!
peace, fire, smoke, food.....
The Grateful One
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