I got my new grill tonight. I ordered it yesterday from Lowe's (they had them on sale, and since the one I wanted would never fit in my car, I just ordered online rather than make a trip to the store) and I was expecting a call today to set up the delivery date/time. Instead, about 5 min after I got home from work, I got a call that they were on their way to my house with my order (I also got a new chair and table for the deck for cozy reading while grilling). I wasn't quite ready for it! Anyway, this is a fancy schmancy grill (because of the sale, it was worth getting a better one than I would have gone for otherwise, but either way, my old one was in desperate need of replacement since that was the cheapest one I could buy at the time).
I did manage to get it all assembled tonight, even though it took way more than the 30 min the instructions said it should take (partly because I didn't have a second person to help with steps that required two people)...more like 3 hours by the time I was all done (though that also included all the time to unpack the million little boxes of parts, and a few trips up and down the stairs to retrieve screws and washers I dropped through the spaces in the deck, and that one screw that needed to go in a space that was just WAY to small for my hands to reach). The delivery guy joked that I should have bought it on Friday when they were doing demos of how fast grills could be assembled at the local store.
But, I didn't have time to get the propane connected before dark, and like to do leak testing when I can see. So, tomorrow I'm looking forward to a nice grilled dinner.
I think I'll be doing a lot more cooking outside with this grill. It has the side burner so if I want to just boil up a vegetable to go with whatever I'm grilling, I can do that outside too. Definitely better than running back and forth between the grill and kitchen. And, since I keep tossing around various extremes of kitchen remodeling, if I do anything that requires pulling out the stove and oven for any amount of time, I'll still have a good grill to use.
Aside from the old grill just simply starting to rust through, the other reason I wanted this one is that my old one was so cheap, I couldn't even use wood chips to add flavor when grilling. The new one doesn't even require pre-soaking wood chips, just sprinkle them in and I can add a nice smoked taste to what I cook. And, it also has lots of optional extras I can get, like a rotisserie

.
So, no more cheapest grill money can buy, I'm moving up! I think I'll be digging out my bbq sauce recipes tomorrow. Maybe I'll pick up a rack of ribs on the way home and get them marinating for Wed night dinner.
