Life Changes....


 

MikeLucky

TVWBB Pro
Well, it's been a crazy year for everyone on this big rock. I am no different. Between getting laid off in October and all the kids being in college now, we decided it was time to downsize. We no longer needed a house with 5 toilets. lol. So, we put the house on the market and sold it December 30th. For our new phase in life we decided to try something new and rent a house in one of the vibrant, trendy places here in OKC. Within about 10 minutes we can walk to about 50 different restaurants, bars, and stores. But, like most areas similar to this one, the houses are 100 years old and with renting there's a lot of compromise with what you would typically look for in a house, especially when you are looking for a specific, narrow location.

We ended up finding a great house that has 4 rooms that can be bedrooms or offices and 1,800 square feet, which is still roughly half of the square footage we were moving out of, which brought with it a whole mess of its own challenges. But, after about a 3 day move involving 2 trucks, 3-5 moving guys at any given time, and half our stuff coming to our new home and the other half going to storage.... we are thankfully settled in to our new home and already enjoying the new lifestyle and neighborhood.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest compromises I had to make in this move was losing my beautiful, large, covered back patio that was the perfect Weber hangout.

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I could grill/cook/smoke year round and in any conditions and at any time. It really was fanastic.

For all the great things about our new rental, the one big downside is the back patio. We have a nice deck, but no cover. Not only does it restrict some of my grilling due to weather, but I have an unnatural seething hatred for vinyl grill covers. lol. So, without using individual grill covers, it would mean leaving all my Webers to the mercy of the elements. Not acceptable.

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So, for simplicity sake during the move, I only brought my Q1200 to the new house and figured I'd just use that for a while until I could assess the situation better and decide how to proceed. I moved all the other Webers to our "storage" which is actually my parent's house who had a full empty garage and huge empty bonus room upstairs where they can't even go because they are too old to get up the stairs now. Thankfully I have easy access to them all, but just need to figure out how it's all going to end up here at the new house.

I did my first grill January 4th on the Q1200 and it came out pretty great. Filets, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and sautéed mushrooms.

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But, man I was already jonesing for some charcoal smoke. So. Monday I brought over my Go Anywhere Charcoal grill that I keep loaded with a gallon ziplock bag of charcoal, small Weber chimney, firestarters, and tongs. I call it my Charcoal Launch Briefcase.

It was so amazing to get those coals lit....

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I discovered one perk of the new place.... I can monitor my coals from my backyard cam.

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Did another round of filets and they were so good I forgot to take a pic of my plate.

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BTW, sidenote.... The filets I've been cooking are the packs of 4 prime tenderloin filets from Sam's. I gotta say, they are really great steaks. A pack of 4 will run between $35 and $50, but they really are good cuts of meat. I definitely recommend.

Well, I'm over here in OKC adjusting to life changes best I can. It will be an interesting year in the new house and I am working on my full Weber plan for the back patio that will evolve over the next few weeks and months. I'll post pics to chronicle the journey for those of you that are interested to see the twists and turns of my crazy new move.

I hope everyone is having a better 2021 so far than what 2020 gave us. I'm hoping to make it a better year one hot grill at a time. :cool:
 

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Mike,
It is great to hear from you and see that you are settling it to your new place OK. My family and I went through something similar two years ago were we moved out of a rental that we were in for 10 years and moved in with a family to try to "reset". I remember moving so much of "our home" into a storage unit. It was really hard. My family and I have come out the other end and have settled into a life that is a little simpler and a lot more peaceful. I hope you are finding or will fing a similar outcome.
As for cooking for two the Q and charcoal go anywhere will and as you have shown here are doing you well! Great looking cooks!
 
Looks like you're going to eat just fine there, Mike! Since there are only two of you, the Q and GA grills will probably suffice for most of your cooks. Maybe it's time for a OKC style Pigvillion to house all your grills!! :)

R
 
Looks like a fine meal! Having the kids mostly out of the house was the determining factor in my Q1200 purchase. So now at home we have the 145" WSM and the Q1200 and the Smokey Joe as our main bbq tools. I guess when we cap I take all three too. So not only smaller but portable.

I really haven't done any large cooks in a few years. It is nice knowing though that the 14" wsm can handle enough to feed a crowd if needed.

I see though that you have the same issue I have. No covered grilling space. I move to the garage during the winter. Door open and grill just outside. Kind of a pain but makes a difference when its windy, cold, snowing or raining.
 
Feeling for you, Mike. Hope the new digs work out well for you. Really bummed for you that you lost that amazing grilling area in the old place.
Great looking steaks. Stay safe and I hope everything works out.
 
Thanks everyone for the comments.

Mike,
It is great to hear from you and see that you are settling it to your new place OK. My family and I went through something similar two years ago were we moved out of a rental that we were in for 10 years and moved in with a family to try to "reset". I remember moving so much of "our home" into a storage unit. It was really hard. My family and I have come out the other end and have settled into a life that is a little simpler and a lot more peaceful. I hope you are finding or will fing a similar outcome.
As for cooking for two the Q and charcoal go anywhere will and as you have shown here are doing you well! Great looking cooks!

The packing of our stuff for staging the house and then the move really took a toll on my wife. Much more than I expected. "Having her life boxed up" as she put it was something that definitely hit her. Much better now that at least half of it is getting unpacked. And, I am definitely enjoying the simpler life. I loved our big old house but there was never a lack of things to work on or fix and the heartburn of having to keep up so much stuff is gone. Just call the landlord. I don't know how long I'll be happy with renting, but for now it's definitely a nice change of pace.

Looks like a fine meal! Having the kids mostly out of the house was the determining factor in my Q1200 purchase. So now at home we have the 145" WSM and the Q1200 and the Smokey Joe as our main bbq tools. I guess when we cap I take all three too. So not only smaller but portable.

I really haven't done any large cooks in a few years. It is nice knowing though that the 14" wsm can handle enough to feed a crowd if needed.

I see though that you have the same issue I have. No covered grilling space. I move to the garage during the winter. Door open and grill just outside. Kind of a pain but makes a difference when its windy, cold, snowing or raining.

Unfortunately another compromise is that we don't have a garage either. lol. Thankfully here in Oklahoma we have far, far fewer days we can't grill than days that we can. I'm still working on ideas on how to accomplish a nice covered grilling area without spending too much money on a rental that I'll never get back.

Looks like you're adapting well, Mike!(y)

Oklahoma City can be trendy and vibrant? Who knew?;)

We get that a lot here in OKC. lol. The last 15 years have been very good to this city. We have actually become a cool place and I never, ever thought I'd hear or see the things I'm seeing here in my hometown. Getting the NBA here definitely opened the eyes of a lot of people and businesses.

A few years old, but a good article highlighting the growth here.


This was a big one. Having Bon Appetit's best new restaurant in America definitely raised a lot of eyebrows.


"It had been three months since I’d set off on my annual cross-country search for the year’s best new restaurants. I’d checked out most of the places I was “supposed” to. You know, those buzzy spots run by pedigreed chefs or by cooks who used to work for those pedigreed chefs. I’d visited San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and the other noted food cities. I’d checked out the vibrant restaurant scenes in smaller towns
like Charleston, South Carolina, and Portland (both of them). But Oklahoma City? In two decades of covering restaurants, it had never popped onto my radar. And the chefs? Never heard of them."

"I fell for OKC. I dug the low-slung brick buildings and the neon signs advertising laundry services and dive bars. I loved the airy art-filled 21c Museum Hotel where I stayed. I saw the same creative energy I see in Houston or Nashville at a new spot called Bar Arbolada, which was bustling with cool kids sipping cucumber daiquiris and cans of rosé. There was a cultural and culinary buzz beginning to simmer."

We actually live in walking distance to OKC's Asian District.


Every time we have friends or family visit from other parts of the country they are absolutely blown away by our city. Part of it is that most people have low expectations, I guess. Ha. But, we're getting a lot of stuff right here in OKC nowadays. Clearly I'm a proud Okie.
 
That is one awesome plate of food Mike. Hope all will work out for you, just remember one step at a time. Looking forward to your next pictures and cook.
 
Been down that road too Mike. Barb and I sold and bought three homes and moved three times in one year, horrible experience.
Went from a 2600 sq. ft. home and finally downsized to a 1600 sq. ft. patio home which we love. Looks like you got a grip on the grilling part of the move. A couple of real nice cooks there.
 
We have actually become a cool place and I never, ever thought I'd hear or see the things I'm seeing here in my hometown.
So there's more than Del Rancho, Johnnie's Charcoal Broiler and Ann's Chicken Fry?;) I'd picked out those places as possible stops on my way home from Arizona last year, but the Friday afternoon highway traffic was so bad that I just pushed on through to Tulsa.
 
So there's more than Del Rancho, Johnnie's Charcoal Broiler and Ann's Chicken Fry?;) I'd picked out those places as possible stops on my way home from Arizona last year, but the Friday afternoon highway traffic was so bad that I just pushed on through to Tulsa.

3 good choices. Unfortunately Ann's announced they are closed permanently. It really sucks for such an old, classic place.

Del Rancho makes a fantastic chicken fried steak. And, Johnnie's is good, but there are some better burger joints here. But, you would have enjoyed all 3, for sure
 
Well, tonight's cook was a change of pace. Wife wanted tilapia. I went to Sprouts and got the tilapia filets and there was a lonely ahi tuna steak staring at me in the case so I had to bring it home too.

I set up the GA for indirect and put on the tilapia. Simple seasoning with salt and squeeze of lemon.

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I pulled them at 130 internal and put them on the Q to finish while I seared the tuna.

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Steak got salt and pepper and brushed with a soy sauce/sesame oil mix. I put the tuna steak over the coals for about 5 minutes but wasn't getting much of a sear working so I turned up the Q to high and seared the tuna on it.

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It had enough time over the coals to get some good smoke on it and still came out fantastic.

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I had to improvise a bit tonight because I don't think I used enough coals. By the time I pulled the tilapia the coals didn't have enough for a good sear for the tuna. The trusty Q took care of it, for sure. I'm not upset at all with the Q/GA combo setup, so far. I feel a little bit like I'm cheating on my Performer, though. Lol
 
Looks great Mike! Glad to hear and see the grilled meals continuing midst the transition of homes and different grill spaces.
 
Well, my grill situation is still in flux. As you all can probably relate, I'm constantly grinding on the final setup of my grills. I'm still really having a hard time without a covered patio

So, today the wife and I were on our evening walk and we see a beautiful redhead Performer on a covered front porch and of course I thought it was just a beautiful moment. Lol. Much to my surprise my wife actually says, "hey look at his pretty grill. Looks like yours. Why don't you setup on the front porch like that too?" I about fell down. I never thought my wife would ever suggest that. Our neighborhood is full of houses that are all over 100 years old and in a much more urban area than the suburbs we have always lived in so it is actually an area where you see more people enjoying their front patios than you ever would in a suburban neighborhood.

So, now I'm bringing my Performer back home and setting her up as soon as I can. I can't wait. I'm still working on the details and deciding what to do but in the meantime I did a good grill on the back patio tonight.

I've been using the Go Anywhere and it's a great grill, but I just can't get as used to it as I would like. So, I brought my Smokey Joe to do my grilling in the meantime.

Tonight the wife setup a meal of burger patties, grilled eggplant, and marinara. The patties were half ground turkey and half beef but she sauteed onions and fresh diced garlic first and added it into the raw meat before making the patty balls. Wow, did they come out well.

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Congrats on getting the go ahead on bring the performer to the front porch. I remember living in a medium size southern town and going for long runs during early evening and people grilling on their front porches. These smells always make it hard to want to keep running and not just going and getting a burger.
 
Greetings from Copenhagen, Denmark

love it, love to get a peak into another persons life, to see how other peoples lives. Great post. great house, great cooks.
 
Why not just put up a few hooks and a couple of 2x4s with a nice quality tarp over the deck?
I've thought about it, however the wife vetoed that idea. If we owned the house we'd do something more permanent, but at this point the front porch option is probably the best.

Once I get the Performer moved over here and all setup I'll post pics.
 

 

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