The Perfect Summer Barbecue Requires a Few Essentials
Each summer we spend a lot of time entertaining friends and family on our patio. It is one of our favorite things to do in terms of serving dinner. We always prefer the nice weather and having an outside party to winter entertaining in our dining room. We love to grill food and we recently bought several new items for the patio. An ill equipped outdoor space is such a wasted amenity. It is a recreational area of the house that is meant to be enjoyed.
The patio itself is rectangular with plenty of room for a large table. The table is a metal frame with a tempered glass top. There are eight chairs around the table however we can usually fit a few more for big parties. Instead of having the umbrella in a hole in the middle of the table we have one of those offset patio umbrellas so we can position it to provide coverage where it is needed. These types of umbrellas also look a lot more modern and expensive than the upright shaft through the table type. We spent a bit more to get a Sunbrella since it will last a lot longer than a cheaper one.
The grill, of course, is a Weber. We have owned three Weber grills over the past fifteen years and have been pleased with all of them. They have a well earned reputation for being well built and durable. The operational parts of the grill, the burners and the manifold, last much longer than on other lesser brands. I would think that this is due to the fact that it is manufactured to higher quality standards and it shows. Our current grill is the Weber Summit which is one of their higher end grills. It is not cheap but it is well worth the investment. It always does a fine job of evenly cooking food and is always a pleasure to work with.
You name it, we have grilled it on our Weber. From hot dogs and hamburgers to vegetables and everything in between. Our personal favorite thing to do is to marinate meat or fish overnight then grilling it the next day. This works particularly well with skirt steak which cooks beautifully on the grill. Add some warmed tortillas and home made guacamole and you have yourself a perfect Mexican night. All you need to add are the ice cold Coronas.
The party doesn't end when it gets dark either. We recently installed some cool patio umbrella lights which attach to the under side of the umbrella. Everybody loves the way they look at night. People joke that they feel like they are on vacation when they are at one of our barbecues. The lights really do add a festive look to the patio.
The patio itself is rectangular with plenty of room for a large table. The table is a metal frame with a tempered glass top. There are eight chairs around the table however we can usually fit a few more for big parties. Instead of having the umbrella in a hole in the middle of the table we have one of those offset patio umbrellas so we can position it to provide coverage where it is needed. These types of umbrellas also look a lot more modern and expensive than the upright shaft through the table type. We spent a bit more to get a Sunbrella since it will last a lot longer than a cheaper one.
The grill, of course, is a Weber. We have owned three Weber grills over the past fifteen years and have been pleased with all of them. They have a well earned reputation for being well built and durable. The operational parts of the grill, the burners and the manifold, last much longer than on other lesser brands. I would think that this is due to the fact that it is manufactured to higher quality standards and it shows. Our current grill is the Weber Summit which is one of their higher end grills. It is not cheap but it is well worth the investment. It always does a fine job of evenly cooking food and is always a pleasure to work with.
You name it, we have grilled it on our Weber. From hot dogs and hamburgers to vegetables and everything in between. Our personal favorite thing to do is to marinate meat or fish overnight then grilling it the next day. This works particularly well with skirt steak which cooks beautifully on the grill. Add some warmed tortillas and home made guacamole and you have yourself a perfect Mexican night. All you need to add are the ice cold Coronas.
The party doesn't end when it gets dark either. We recently installed some cool patio umbrella lights which attach to the under side of the umbrella. Everybody loves the way they look at night. People joke that they feel like they are on vacation when they are at one of our barbecues. The lights really do add a festive look to the patio.
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