Frank in Colorado
TVWBB Super Fan
It was like a scene from “A Christmas Story” but I did not poke my eye out.
So… living in the High Country at just under 10,000 feet has its foibles. Air is thin, summers are short, hence long winters. It can present some challenges to grilling as well.
Winter, despite the calendar saying otherwise, started several weeks ago for me in terms of realities; I already have a couple feet of snow in the yard. Despite this I can have very nice days that can get into the upper 50’s even in mid-winter. My deck, where the grill is, sits on the south side of my house and after clearing snow it can be clear, dry and quite pleasant at times. It had been a while since I had any snowfall. Blue-sky days made the warmth of sitting on the deck during the days very nice. Since there were no clouds for over a week, the clear skies can regularly turn the temperatures at night falling the mercury into negative digits.
Because the deck is free from surface snow, I can roll the “SS Broadway” Weber right up and close to my sliding door for year-round grilling pleasures. I place it so that I can just slide open the door and voila, grill ready to use. This was the case last week…
Sometimes I will make dinner later than usual. You might find me making evening chow as late as 8 at night. By virtue of working from home due to restrictions I sorta’ make my own hours. Recently I have been waking up later than usual but making up the billable hours well past 5PM. Despite the cold this one particular evening, I rolled the grill over from its normal parking spot to the door in preparation of a late supper. On the menu is a nice rib-eye along with baked potato and broccoli spears.
But I had no classmates to assist or even laugh at me. The thought of needing to call the fire department wafted through my brain, but I did not have the cell close by. What would I do? The wine glass was near but perish the thought of wasting a decent glass of red as if the attempt of adding liquid would break the bond. Maybe the heat of the grill itself when open will break the clamped flesh-to-metal. I needed to do something because the grates were ready and willing to accept the meat that was sitting only a mere distance away.
Thankfully, the fingers frozen to the metal was not so pronounced as to require drastic measures. There was most certainly a bond of the warm and wet skin to the frozen lift handle but nothing that careful prying away did not cause any injury. I was able to pull away escaping unscathed.
With only a few days away from which I normally watch A Christmas Story this incident caused, in an instant, the whole story line to go through my head so much so that I could perhaps forgo this yearly video tradition.
Moral of the story: when grilling in really, really cold weather, do so with dry hands.
Merry Christmas everyone!
-frank.
So… living in the High Country at just under 10,000 feet has its foibles. Air is thin, summers are short, hence long winters. It can present some challenges to grilling as well.
Winter, despite the calendar saying otherwise, started several weeks ago for me in terms of realities; I already have a couple feet of snow in the yard. Despite this I can have very nice days that can get into the upper 50’s even in mid-winter. My deck, where the grill is, sits on the south side of my house and after clearing snow it can be clear, dry and quite pleasant at times. It had been a while since I had any snowfall. Blue-sky days made the warmth of sitting on the deck during the days very nice. Since there were no clouds for over a week, the clear skies can regularly turn the temperatures at night falling the mercury into negative digits.
Because the deck is free from surface snow, I can roll the “SS Broadway” Weber right up and close to my sliding door for year-round grilling pleasures. I place it so that I can just slide open the door and voila, grill ready to use. This was the case last week…
Sometimes I will make dinner later than usual. You might find me making evening chow as late as 8 at night. By virtue of working from home due to restrictions I sorta’ make my own hours. Recently I have been waking up later than usual but making up the billable hours well past 5PM. Despite the cold this one particular evening, I rolled the grill over from its normal parking spot to the door in preparation of a late supper. On the menu is a nice rib-eye along with baked potato and broccoli spears.
- Step one- scrape the grates with the brush, turn on grill to preheat.
- Step two- prep steak with salt & pepper, wash the spud, take bag of broc from the fridge.
- Everything is going normal. As per habit I wash my hands after handling meat. Temperature gauge on the grill took longer than normal to come up because of the cold… ‘prolly about 0 degrees ambient temperature outside, but the grill thermometer says its ready.
- Step three- check on the burners after some 20 minutes or so and do a final brush of the grates before tossing on the beef.
But I had no classmates to assist or even laugh at me. The thought of needing to call the fire department wafted through my brain, but I did not have the cell close by. What would I do? The wine glass was near but perish the thought of wasting a decent glass of red as if the attempt of adding liquid would break the bond. Maybe the heat of the grill itself when open will break the clamped flesh-to-metal. I needed to do something because the grates were ready and willing to accept the meat that was sitting only a mere distance away.
Thankfully, the fingers frozen to the metal was not so pronounced as to require drastic measures. There was most certainly a bond of the warm and wet skin to the frozen lift handle but nothing that careful prying away did not cause any injury. I was able to pull away escaping unscathed.
With only a few days away from which I normally watch A Christmas Story this incident caused, in an instant, the whole story line to go through my head so much so that I could perhaps forgo this yearly video tradition.
Moral of the story: when grilling in really, really cold weather, do so with dry hands.
Merry Christmas everyone!
-frank.
Hmmm.....
