I've enjoyed this thread but as some of you pointed out, LOTS of men say they grill all the time -- but then you taste what they cooked and it's like shoe leather. There's something about people who don't cook thinking they have to cook the heck out of a piece of meat no matter its size. I think a lot of people say they don't "like" grilled or smoked meat because they've only had dried up or meat literally blackened from too much sugary sauce put on too soon. I laughed at the post that said he watched as people press the daylights (and juice) from a simple hamburger, as we've all seen it. I can't tell you the amount of times we've taken over the grilling at a party or get together when someone grilling was starting to panic.
My mom hosted (Brian and I cooked everything) a huge Thanksgiving dinner about 30 years ago -- we had to rent tables, chairs, linen and set up everything outside in my mom's huge yard under pecan trees. I love smoked turkey (we have it often around here) but always cook a turkey in the oven, too, for the holiday as I want the smell in the house and I want those drippings (I make super gravy). My NY cousins were there and they thought the smoked turkey we had on the table was one I burned and figured I was making another one in the oven. My eldest NY cousin Tommy died many years ago but I only recently found out from his brother that the minute he got back to NY after that holiday meal, he went out and bought a smoker. I was tickled pink to hear that!
When we first started smoking stuff many years ago, most of the people we knew had never even tasted smoked food. If they had, it was a black smoked turkey that came from one of those "cheese stores that sell smoked meat and canned hams" and they hated it. We found people were shocked that smoked food could taste so good. Even though we're in one of the best food cities in the world, N.O. has never been known for its Q so I guess that had something to do with it many years ago.
My father grilled occasionally but since he could actually cook (inside), he didn't overcook stuff and always had a charcoal grill as opposed to gas but he never had a Weber (he died in 1979 at 61). I often wish he was alive for just an afternoon so he could see what Brian and I can whip up on a grill or smoker -- he would be in heaven, as he adored good food and would be gaga over the smoked food and Q we make all the time. He's the reason I loved cooking so much. My mom was a great cook but she rarely ventured from the tried and true Louisiana food (I'm not complaining, mind you, as she let me help her in the kitchen very early in life and I actually started dinner before she got home from work; she was an R.N. and we were latchkey kids and well behaved ones at that). But I wanted to cook things other kids were having for dinner, like lasagna, for instance. My Dad was an voracious reader and I often rode with him downtown at night to the all night bookstore/magazine stand. He'd buy me cooking magazines all the time. So when I expressed a desire to make something like lasagna, he was ecstatic. I'd find my recipe, make the list and he'd shop -- but he went to an Italian grocery to get their housemade Italian sausage, and then he went to another Italian grocery where he could get the fresh grated imported Parmesan, Romano, etc. So even as a young girl, my fledgling efforts were made all the better by the top notch ingredients he'd get me. It was on from there, as he had me making legs of lamb, standing rib roasts, etc. And he'd watch everything I did while I cooked, and couldn't believe I learned so much from reading cooking magazines. (The Internet and forums like this would blow his mind!)
Anyway, loved this thread and hearing all the tales of how you started cooking and how you learned. It's always kind of fun when you ended up teaching yourself, too!
) but when that succulent pork hits my taste buds, OH MY!!
Now, my brother is a good cook. He's creative as heck, and he's been on his own a lot longer, so there's that. He likes to talk, while he drinks, while he grills, which leads to every dish he grills being "Cajun-style", or "blackened" sometimes, if you catch my drift. Also, Dad will use almost a bottle of lighter fluid. He really wanted it soaked in good. I'll give him credit, the man has many talents, but no one is good at everything lol!