How to Barbecue – Charcoal Style

There’s something almost magical about a backyard or patio barbecue. Even now as I think about it, my mind wanders and I find myself imagining the very first time a human cooked a piece of meat over an open fire. The sweet, smoky aroma of seared meat, the faint hissing as the hot oil drips off the meat and into the fire, the sudden watering of the mouth and growling of the tummy — that primitive first experience in barbecuing must have produced a reaction that was not much different from the frenzy that a barbecue gets us into today.

Grilling meat over an open fire is still a popular way to barbecue and one very popular method is using charcoal to barbecue your meat, and veggies for that matter.

Advantages of Charcoal Grill Barbecue

Cooking your barbecue over charcoal has many advantages. First, a charcoal bed produces more heat than gas or propane flame, so the barbecue grill gets really nice and hot. The charcoal can enhance the flavor of the meat. You can throw in some aromatic wood into the grill to really amp up the flavor of your barbecue. In contrast to gas or propane, a nice bed of glowing charcoal produces wood smoke, and this further improves flavor and produces that wonderful barbecue aroma that drives people wild. Of course, there is the personal fulfillment you get from being fully hands-on with your barbecue.

On the down side, charcoal grilling your barbecue tends to require much more of your attention, especially as the charcoal can be unpredictable. Charcoal naturally loses heat and needs to be stoked every so often while you cook your barbecue. There is also the safe cleaning and disposal of the ash that needs to be considered.

Preparing the Barbecue Grill – Curing

The first step is to cure your new barbecue cooking grill. Curing helps prolong the life of your grill and improves your barbecue by helping distribute heat evenly across the grill. It is also a simple process. Pour some olive or vegetable oil on a folded paper towel and rub this on the grill and grate surface. Place about five pounds of charcoal into the fire-pan, douse it with some lighter fluid and get the fire started. When the coals get white-hot, place back the grate and cover the grill. Let the grill cure for an hour or until the charcoal burns out. Then empty the fire-pan. Alway have a metal ash can that is specifically for the storage of cold ash. This container needs a lid. Never put ashes directly from your grill into the garbage can. You can sign up for a free e-book on proper disposal and recycling of ash by clicking this link for http://www.firepitboss.com.

Starting Up Your Charcoal Grill for the Barbecue

Now you’re ready to barbecue. The next step is to start-up your grill. Place the charcoal briquettes into the fire-pan. Use 25 to 30 briquettes for every pound of meat you intend to barbecue. Place some crumpled newspapers at the bottom of the grate. On top of this place your charcoal briquettes. Light the newspapers and wait until the briquettes catch fire. Then use a tong to spread the charcoal evenly within the fire pan. You can also use lighter fluid to start your barbecue grill. Pile the charcoal into a neat little mound, then douse this with lighter fluid. Give the fluid a minute to soak into the charcoal, then light them up.

Ready, Set… Barbecue!

Now you can get started with your barbecue. Just place the meat over the smoldering charcoal and barbecue it the way you want it. There are so many variables when cooking meat and it depends ones individual preference. For a rule of thumb, an average rib eye or porterhouse that is about 1″ thick should be cooked on one side until the sides of the meat start to turn grey or brown in color, depending on the heat level, this should take no more than 3 minutes, and in some cases a little less. Then flip it over, you should see some grill marks prevalent. Leave it on the grill covered for the same amount of time as the first side. The trick to a juicy steak is a point of contention and you will find ten different answers if you ask ten different people. A good rule of thumb is to grill it fast and get it off the fire sooner than later. Leaving a nice steak on the fire too long will dry it out and ruin the juicy flavor. A medium rare steak, if grilled right should be grey or brown on the outside. Not burned. Once cut across the center, the middle should be red and juicy, and then pink as you move towards the outside.

Trial and error may be inevitable

While this quick tip is intended to help the beginner, you will find that after several attempts you will fine tune the combination that works great for you. Keeping track of each step and the results will help you make adjustments until you have it down to a science. Alway opt for less time rather than leaving it on too long. If it is too rare for your liking you can always throw it back on for a minute, or even microwave it for 20 seconds or so.

Choosing the proper grill    

There are all sizes of charcoal grills available from a simple round barbecue grill to a massive backyard kitchen style. This is your choice and should fit your budget and your space. If you will be grilling small amounts such as a steak or two, then opt for the smaller variety. A larger grill, in this case would waste charcoal and be much more cleaning and maintainance than necessary.  You may also want to consider a fire pit with a cooking grate. This will allow you to enjoy the ambiance of a fire pit after the cooking is done. A fire will last an hour or two and you might as well enjoy the evening sitting around a fire pit. If you are a sports fan, there are Sports Charcoal Grills that are shaped like a sports helmet. This allows you to show off you love of sports while enjoying a juicy hamburger or steak!

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Campfire Safety – Keep Your Campfire in Your Campsite with a Portable Bonfire Pit

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This photo might be the quintessential example of this well used saying. At first glance this appears to be a beautiful landscape photograph with massive thunderheads rolling in over the lake.  It is actually a photograph that I took from the north side of Sunrise Lake near Greer, AZ, just north of Big Lake, AZ. This is what I encountered while attempting to go fishing at Big Lake. I drove for six hours from my home in Tucson, AZ only to be turned around 7 miles short of the lake. I was unaware that the Wallow fire of 2011 had started. This is the massive smoke cloud from the fire that wreaked havoc on the Big Lake area and Greer.  A portable bonfire pit might have prevented this disaster from tearing through our beautiful forest and threatening so many good people in the towns around Greer, Alpine and Springer Ville, AZ. Campfire safety is not an accident, it is our responsibility.

Unfortunately, this forest fire was caused by someone leaving a campfire burning. These campers were not horrible people. They were average campers just like you and I. They were, unfortunately, careless with their campfire and left it smoldering while leaving for a few hours. Sad to say, their dog was tied up at camp and perished in the fire.

I cannot stress enough the importance of campfire safety and the importance of fully extinguishing all campfires, even if you are only going to be gone for a few minutes. If it is still burning, smoldering etc., someone should always be tending it. If we all make campfire safety a priority, we can avoid unnecessary forest fires.

The Wallow fire consumed over 800 square miles across eastern AZ, and near 25 square miles in western New Mexico. More than 30 structures were destroyed. The estimated cost of the fire was reported to be well over $ 100 million.  

English: Area between Big Lake and Nutioso

A good habit to get into is to carry a portable bonfire pit with you when you go camping. This is the responsible thing to do. Portable bonfire pits have safety screens that arrest errant sparks. Because portable bonfire pits are designed with legs that keep them off the ground, they are much easier to completely extinguish.  The use of portable bonfire pits when camping actually is much more efficient anyway. The heat is projected better as the fire bowl sets up off the ground. The use of the spark screen is an obvious safety feature. If you are an avid camper or just go now and then, I am sure you will agree that we need to be extremely cautious with campfires. The use of portable bonfire pits will help create a much safer experience while camping. Fire is a wonderful phenomenon; it is, on the other hand extremely ferocious when it gets out of control. A portable bonfire pit will not make campfires completely safe, it is up to you and me to be sensible and responsible in the forest. Please adopt a mindset of campfire safety when you enjoy a bonfire whether at home or in the forest.

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Watch Your Face, It Tells a Story With Conviction

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When we were newborn, our parents spoke to us with audible voices. They really didn’t expect us to understand the words, but they spoke them anyway. Of course baby talk is not only verbal, but it is dramatized with facial expression and gestures. This is all necessary to overcome the fact that the words we speak are foreign to the child.

Read more… 404 more words

When You Feel the Heat in the Valley, Get Ready for a Flood of Blessings

We all experience low periods in our life. Those times when is seems that God is as far as the east is from the west. We pray fervently for our needs and it seems that the doors and windows of heaven are locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

I get inspiration from the outdoors. It seems to be a place that I can hear the voice of God. I took this picture about a year ago in the White Mountains of AZ near Big Lake. While going through some pictures, this one stood out to me. It reminded me that even when it is cold and the valley is dry, the beautiful streams have ceased to flow or at least ramped down to a mere trickle, there is a massive snowpack waiting to be released at just the right time. Even in these times, God has His way of storing up much-needed water. Interesting though, when we think of the parallel to our own dry stream of blessing, the only way that the water, or in our parallel, the blessings start flowing down the mountain is when the heat comes.

If you are going through a dry spell and you feel as though you can’t take anymore, get ready, a little heat will be applied. Don’t worry, actually welcome the heat of a trial, because it is a sure sign that the torrents of blessing will start to flow. He knows exactly what we need and exactly when we need it.

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The Prayers of a Mother Aren’t Just Focused on Our Immediate Pain

When a Mother prays, her approach is usually very different from that of the son or daughter that is in need. Her approach however, looks past the personal wishes and wants of her children. She is more concerned about the reason her kids got into the mess in the first place. This is powerful because, in her wisdom, the prayers of a mother go directly to the throne of God and re-direct the errant path from the trailhead.

Mary Magdalene, in a dramatic 19th-century pop...

When I have a need, I know exactly who to call. My Mother is not the saint on Sunday morning or at Tuesday evening prayer meeting, that travails and wails out loud from the upper room. This is not to say that those that do are not in order. It is not her nature or style. She is a prayer warrior non-the-less. Her preference seems to be a more private closet of prayer. In my case, I have learned to trust the prayers of a mother. When I spill my guts about an issue, it could be about a monetary need, I explain to her how badly I need money to rain from heaven. She listens intently, gives me moral support and when I hang up the phone, I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders.

My Mother doesn’t always tell me how she prays. She always assures me that she will pray about it. Knowing that I have engaged the prayers of a mother always reduces some of the urgency of the moment. While she clearly does not enjoy seeing her child in despair, I’m sure she chuckles a bit inside when I wallow in self-pity, and dramatize the situation to let her know just how bad I have it. When I explain that all I need is for God to send someone with a bag of money and everything will be fine, the wheels start turning in her mind. She knows that a bag of money probably will not solve the problem. It will smooth over the pain for a fleeting moment, but the real problem still exists. That is her focus.

When a mother prays she asks God to make a way for the son or daughter to get out from under the mortgage that they shouldn’t have signed up for in the first place. I usually don’t want my mother to pray that way, because I still want the big house and the new car. A mother recognizes that the things we want in life are usually the root of the problem.

I will always cherish the prayers of a mother, whether that is my biological mother, the most precious lady in my world, or the mother figure in a church. I know in my heart that the prayers of a mother are what I need, even if what she asks for is not what I want.

The prayers of a mother don’t stop when kids grow up and leave home. When a mother prays the frequency and intensity are in direct relation to the needs of her kids, even if they are old enough to know better.

How to Make A PI, Version 3.14

Pi constant

To make a PI, as it is spelled here, is not as tasty as the other spelling, make a pie. On the other hand, and probably not grammatically correct, to make a PI is one of the most unique and interesting mathematical concepts. It is the apportionment of the circumference of a circle relative to its diameter.  You may use any size circle to make a PI, and the result will always be the same.  PI does not vary according to changes in the circles size.

Egyptians BOG

The first acknowledgements of PI are documented as far back as Biblical days. I Kings 7:23-26. Ancient Babylonians and Egyptians understood that there was a consistency between the diameter of a circle, and the circumference.  However, they were a bit off in their calculations.  The Babylonians had PI figured at 3.125.  The Egyptians were even less accurate at 3.160484.  Today, PI is accepted as 3.14. It is believed that the Egyptians used PI in the construction of the great pyramids.  Not only did they understand how to make a PI, they certainly did an amazing job, at creating some of the most amazing wonders of the world, even though their calculations were somewhat inaccurate.

This circular constant has withstood the test of time.  Some of the worlds most celebrated scholars, and mathematicians spent large portions of their lives studying the concept of PI.  However, none have ever been able to disprove the constancy of the numbers, neither have they been able to learn how to make a PI that is different with change in circle size.  PI is considered to be the most noted mathematical constant ever known to man.

PI is such an intriguing concept that it has gained great exposure through the years.  It has even established its place among T.V. and movie history.  “Wolf in the Fold”, was an episode of Star Trek where Spock defeated an evil computer, simply by telling it to make a PI. Though he did not actually say make a PI, he instructed it to compute out to the last number of PI. The machine could not oblige, and as a result short circuited. The computer simply did not know how to make a PI. This is because in reality, computing PI is so complicated that it is used as a stress test for computers.

In a comedy act, John Evans gave his version of how to make a PI. The comedian was once noted, as asking his audience what they would get if they were to divide the circumference of a jack-o’-lantern by its diameter.  His answer was of course, was Pumpkin PI. What a way to make a PI!

Whether your quest is to how to make a PI, or to how to make a pie, both are interesting, but I’d bet you’ll get more people over to your party if you make a pie.

If I were having a backyard party, whether I wanted a fresh fruit pie or a delicious pizza pie, I would simply order one or three!

English: A pizza from the oven. Français : Une...

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How To Get Free Time; Feed the Pig

Do you miss curling up in the evening with your favorite book? Have the therapeutic benefits of a fire pit outside on the patio been a thing of the past? Time is one of our most valuable resources. Saving time seems almost impossible. There are always tasks to do and errands to run. We never accomplished what we set out to do, and then we never really have time to sit back and relax. We often wonder how to get free time, but never seem to have the time to find the answer.

Deutsch: Sparschwein der HASPA (damals noch Ne...

When I was a kid, I had a piggy bank. I can remember my Dad explaining that a penny saved is a penny earned. I learned a great lesson with that little bank. I learned how saving a few coins on a regular basis, eventually became a pile of significant change.

I got pretty good at saving. Once I began to feed the pig, he started gaining weight. It took some real courage and discipline for a boy to redeem those soda bottles without spending the resulting handful of change. I was determined and walked right past those baseball cards and penny candy. I remember stopping a few times and considering a RC cola and a bag of peanuts. I just kept repeating to myself; you’ve got to feed the pig, you’ve got to feed the pig. I wasn’t perfect though and I quickly learned how to use a pocket knife to fish out the coins without breaking the bank. I got pretty good at estimating how much money I had saved by checking the weight of the pig. I knew, within a buck or so when I had enough money for that bike down the street or, being the young entrepreneur that I was, a few day old chicks.

The answer to the nagging question, how to get free time, escapes us. Free time is tricky to come by, but not impossible. Time is money. We can make an interesting parallel with the piggy bank. If we feed the pig with a few spare minutes throughout the day, we can end up with a significant amount of free time. We can use that free time to enjoy an evening with our kids, our spouse or our friends. We can actually enjoy a bonfire outside on the patio with all its relaxing and healthy benefits to the body and soul.

It may seem as though you just don’t have any free time. There is however some good techniques you can use for saving time. Organize, organize, and organize. I cannot stress this point enough. It is the likely the single most important answer to the question; how to get free time. This has happened to each of us more times than we would like to admit; We need to write something quickly and waste a couple precious minutes looking for a pen and a piece of paper. I would like to have all the hours that I have personally wasted looking for my reading glasses to simply read the mail. Take the time to organize all your belongings so you know where everything is. Put a pen and note pad by the phone or computer. Buy extra reading glasses, place them around the house. Put a pair in the desk drawer, one by the phone. Get a magnetic clip and put a pair on your refrigerator. The point is; a few minutes of organizing could save you countless hours over a period of time. The pig will start to gain weight. You will quickly start to grasp how to get free time.

English: A pair of reading glasses with LaCost...

You may have heard an old friend caution you; pay attention to the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. This is good advice. In other words, if you are careful to spend even small amounts of money wisely, your good judgment will shine through when larger purchases are necessary. Likewise, if you value your minutes as you would your pennies in this scenario, you can turn small amounts of time into a handsome resource. When you pop something in the microwave, instead of standing around and waiting until it’s done, use that time to do something productive. Wipe down the front of the refrigerator, put away dishes, check the mail, or write a grocery list.

Take a couple of minutes before you drive across town on an errand. Linger in the kitchen for a minute and think about the various things you might need soon. A quick walk around the house might jog your memory. A quick check at your refrigerator to do list is in order. Each trip across town steals precious free time.

Shopping online is a great way to save time.

Use a speed pass at the corner store when purchasing gas.

If possible, shop early in the morning or late in the evening. Here you can feed the pig several minutes. Shopping during the peak hours means longer lines at the cash register wasting precious free time.

On cold mornings, start the shower and then go make the coffee. You can make the coffee in two or three minutes. By the time you get back the shower is hot and you won’t need to wait for hot water.

Make a daily list of things you need to do. Taking 15 or 20 minutes of planning during the morning will result in an amazing amount of free time in the evening.

The boyhood of Lincoln — An evening in the log...

That fire pit outside on the patio is calling your name. That good book you’ve wanted to read is not just a figment of your imagination any more. If you learn how to get free time, if you feed the pig with little deposits of time, you can make these treats a reality. It would be unfortunate to miss this simple lesson on how to get free time, and rob ourselves of the opportunity to unwind.

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Entertain Your Senses with the Beauty of Your Surroundings

Natural Beauty is all around us. Many times we walk right past a masterpiece like this Heart of a Sago Palm. Oh, we enjoy it sitting there in its pot on the patio. But a minute or so to get the camera and shoot a work of art, will allow us to enjoy it even in those unfortunate times when we can’t be outdoors.

  In Tucson, Saguaro cactus are plentiful. It is rare that we get this close to one in bloom. It is also difficult to photograph one with all blooms open. The blooms, as you can se here open progressively. Here are some buds just emerging, some getting ready to open, some in full bloom and some that are ready to drop.

Saguaro cactus in the foothills of Tucson.

At the end of the day, nothing could be more rewarding that kicking back by my patio fire pit and enjoy the views from my backyard. If I choose to look beyond the end of my nose, I can usually catch an awesome Tucson sunset.

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A Look in Natures Mirror with Natures Photographs

I arrived at Willow Springs Lake just before 7 am. The bass boats and tubers had not yet arrived. I was able to capture this image from the east side of the lake. It was so beautiful I hesitated to cast my fishing line, not wanting to disturb the serenity of the moment. I eventually did, and caught a mess of nice rainbows. This is one of my favorite moments of outdoor entertainment. Capturing natures photographs allows me to re-live these memorable experiences and to share them with you.

The great outdoors is therapeutic. It is wonderful and healthy to sit on the edge of the lake and enjoy scenes like this. I only wish I had a camera capable of capturing the moment that took place a bit later. I was able to enjoy watching a couple eagles dive down and scoop up a couple nice fish. Seeing natural events live and in person is awesome, being able to share natures photographs would have made it just a bit better.

While it is not possible for most of us to do this everyday, it is possible to enjoy the outdoors. I love to build a blazing bonfire in my patio fire pit at home. I can enjoy much of the positive aspects of camping by bringing the campfire home. While the view from my patio is no comparison to this, it is very relaxing and I can do it every day if I wish. Natures photographs are inspiring. When I am not able to be out by the lake or in the woods, I can relax by the fire pit on the patio and flip through my natures photographs page and go there in spirit.

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Blue Bird Uses Iced Over Stream to Her Advantage

I captured this image in a stream near Big Lake, AZ. This little bird was standing on the ice and spotting morsels in the stream. She would dive completely into the icy water after her prey. I feel so lucky that she was so engrossed in her hunting that she did not spook when I got close with the camera. Moments like these are priceless. I wish you could have been there to see the entire show.

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