I don't know about you, but I sure wish this past weekend would have been a bit better. And by better, I mean about 20 degrees warmer, no rain and lots of sunshine. None of that happened.

This was to be the first full weekend at camp with my wife and Greyhounds. Well it was, but a shortened one at that. It was also the first time I would be firing up my new wood pellet grill. I bought it about six weeks ago, and up until last weekend's camp opening weekend, it sat covered on my porch at home. I didn't want to get the new grill to get dirty and full of soot before transporting it from home to camp, which is about a 45 minute drive.

So on Saturday, I opened up the instruction book to learn how to use the wood pellet grill. Unlike a propane gas grill which you just attach the propane gas canister and light the thing up, the wood pellet grill had 6 step instructions for the initial setup. That took a while to go through. The instruction manual listed each step alongside what appeared to be a six pack of beer. One beer for each step I guess. Okay, a drinking game while setting up a wood pellet grill. I like it.

But that was not all. After the initial setup and before I could begin to grill, I needed to do a 45 minute burn for some reason I can't remember. After that, it would be ready to go. We cooked a cheeseburger, a couple of hot dogs and some portobello mushrooms. The wood pellets I purchased, are mesquite flavored. And it definitely made a difference in the taste of my burger and hot hogs. For my taste, it added a nice flavor to the meat, and everything was cooked evenly.

Although my wife continues to berate me for buying the wood pellet grill with comments like "You don't know how to cook." I'm learning, and I think I made the right choice converting from a gas grill to a wood pellet grill. It's a matter of personal choice. Some people prefer to cook with charcoal, some with gas and some like me, prefer wood pellets.

And I mentioned to my wife that the grill also doubles a a smoker too. She's not impressed. But it's here to stay, and just wait until I take the plunge and buy one of those new portable pizza ovens. The fireworks will be unlike I've never seen. That won't be a good thing.

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