When I heard Miguel say through the bathroom window "Linnea, remind me to listen to your mother", I didn't know whether to worry or say "I told you so".  This, along with the smell of smoke emanating from his sweatshirt could only mean one thing...lighting the briquettes wasn't going as planned.  Earlier in the evening I offered a snyde comment when Miguel said he was going to cook our steaks using the briquettes in our yuppy portable fireplace.  I said "Isn't that going to take forever?"  It was already past 6pm and I've learned that on weekdays, dinners need to be started before 6pm in order to eat at a decent hour.  I didn't harp on the subject though, and I said that if he thought it was a good idea, he should go for it.  Meanwhile, our gas grill was sitting in the corner. 

Once Linnea was tucked into bed, I came outside to find Miguel with the briquettes actually on the gas grill and he filled me in on the sequence of events.  He started with the briquettes in the fireplace and lit some wood shavings underneath - only to be covered in a swath of smoke.  He tried newspaper, white gas, the blow torch.  Nothing was moving him any closer to dinner.  In admission of defeat, he pulled out the propane grill and decided not to waste the briquettes, so he put those on the rack underneath the steaks.  Next time he checked, the plastic knobs on the BBQ were practically melting off of of the front panel because so much heat was being generated inside.  Thus, the steaks are smoldering nicely above open flame.  A good ending to the story though, the steaks were wonderful and not burned or dropped into the briquettes.  It is no wonder we don't use those things anymore.  

To his credit, our gas grill was not a man's grill.  It was cheap to begin with and we were the 3rd people to own it.  The racks were thinning out and barely holding onion rings anymore.  Needless to say, Father's Day this year was not a difficult purchase.  Unfortunately, I don't have the photo documentation to show you, but once we got our neat box (grill in a box) home, we didn't account for the dismantling of the packaging and backyard chaos of putting together a BBQ before dinner.  We planned a lovely dinner of tuna steaks and scallops just for the debut of the Father's Day BBQ.  We had styrofoam, cardboard, nuts & bolts, doors & stainless steel parts scattered througout the lawn at 7pm.  Never fear though, we busted through those mind-boggling instructions and 2-D figures to produce a spitting image of the BBQ that was already put together in the store.  At some point, you've got to wonder how this was a "gift".    We had our tuna steaks breaded with sesame seeds over salad and 2 giant scallops each with butter, lemon and salt - a perfect meal to reward our effort.

We now have a beautiful (large) functioning, 4-burner gas grill that can stand up to any man's man.   Happy First Father's Day Dad - let's figure some way to donate those leftover briquettes - or maybe smoked smores would be good someday!