Grill Master

Though I am the king of my castle, the queen outranks me.  That much is true.
However, no one beats me on the grill.
NOBODY.
OK, at least at my house, anyway.
Our grill, though only five years, has seen the use of one used perhaps a decade, if not more.
We received it as a wedding present from my in-laws.  This has survived gale-force winds at our former home on top of a hill overlooking the city of Butler, Pennsylvania, which have knocked it to the ground and even off its perch.
Let's not forget the grease and spatter of many a meal. 
Plus the times when no one was watching it as it was pre-heating, pegging the temperature gauge on the front to well over 900 degrees...which is the working temperature of most self-cleaning ovens.
That would be why the paint has peeled off the inside.
And there's the symptom of where it's blazing hot in some areas of the grill area, and barely warm in others.
Oh yeah, and the touch-and-go igniter that sometimes requires the necessary push from a lighter.
The temperature had come to my attention as I was cooking some pork chops over the grill one weekend.
I noticed that some of the flame was coming out of a place too big to be a burner hole.
"What's wrong?" my wife asked as I looked at the burner rather quizzically. 
"Looks like the burner's going to need replaced," I said.
"I think we might need to replace the whole grill, honey."
Mmmm...time to go shopping.
So many to choose.  Fortunately for me, there's plenty of shopping days left until next grilling season.
And I stumbled upon something I never knew existed.
An inline propane fuel tank gauge.
Connected between the LP gas cylinder and the gas line running from the burner, this will tell you how much propane you have left in your tank.
This will save you the $50 you'd have to shell out for a spare propane tank to have in the event you run out in the middle of cooking.
The gauge sells for $10 at Sam's Club.  You may be able to find it at some high-end home improvement stores.
But in the meantime, we'll keep our present grill busy, as there are plenty of grill days left in the season.
And if it doesn't last, I can always cook dinner over a spit I can rig up in the backyard.
The way the caveman intended.


NEXT WEEK:  Rough Roof