The Deadly Chinaberry BBQ downpour - a sad saga.

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I call this the saga of the soaked steak - so called because we haven't had rain in these parts in months. My yard looks like a hay field, brown, dry, the grass actually crunches when you walk on it. It's pouring rain now. Yes. Nary a drop of rain for three months and everything wilted and dying - but now, black clouds, lightening, thunder and buckets of rain. Yeah, started about an hour ago.

Which, ironically, is about the time I fired up my new homemade 55 gallon barrel grill. I've been itching to use it for several weeks now but been busy with family and such. But today was the day. Went to the store this morning and bought a stack of beautiful steaks. Brought them home and started soaking them in "Dale's" sauce. Wifey prepared corn on the cob, (to go on the grill) and potatoes, (with her own special ingredients) also to go on the grill. It was a feast in the making.

The time for grilling arrives. I grab a bag of charcoal that's been sitting in storage since last year, (first mistake). For the life of me, it would not light. I tried and tried but no dice. That's when I remember all the China Berry wood I have stack up around the corner of the house. I cut a bunch of branches last year and used them for tomato stakes and now, they're just laying up against the fence. I grabbed a bunch, broke them up, started a little fire and in no time, had a roaring blaze that was turning the charcoal white hot. I said to myself, "self, they only made one like you and then they broke the mold."

That's when the first drops started to fall. Big drops. Angry drops. It's pouring so hard now you can barely see out the window and the yard is turning into a lake. So I come inside and figure I'll surf the internet while I wait for the rain to pass. But now my curiosity is peaked and I google, "Cooking with China Berry Wood." Turns out that it a huge no-no, like as in a deadly no-no. I've got a roaring fire in the grill with steaks ready to go and it's pouring rain for the first time in months.

I tell the wifey of my mistake. With a "I wonder sometimes why I married you" look, she calmly says, "I'm putting the steaks in the oven now." Oh the sad taste of failure and disappointment.

Be forewarned my bitog friends, if you decide to party with deadly wood, the Good Lord in heaven will certainly rain on your parade.
 
My gas BBQ hood thermometer read 150'F today.

Except it wasn't turned on.
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Just sitting in the sun.
 
That was an enjoyable read. Not the part about you nearly poisoning yourself, I don't mean, but how you typed it.
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As I sit here on the laptop, wife is grilling ribeye steaks & its close to 100 out. Grill year around and always have plenty of lump coal & kingsford. Must always be ready. At least she has shade.

Just don't start a misc. campfire to cook with poison oak mixed in & and don't ask me how I know.
 
Originally Posted By: Errtt
Just don't start a misc. campfire to cook with poison oak mixed in & and don't ask me how I know.


That much I do know, and I think we both probably found out the same way
frown.gif


Still storming here which is good as we need the rain. Gonna try grilling again tomorrow after Church - hamburgers and hot dogs - oh the humanity. This time I'm going to throw on some orange tree wood, (I know that's safe) and I do have an abundance as "Citrus greening" is killing all the orange trees in my Dad's grove.

On a side note, it's too bad you northern guys don't live closer as in the next year or two, I'm going to have a huge overload of citrus wood. I could keep you guys warm all winter long.
 
Originally Posted By: Errtt
Just don't start a misc. campfire to cook with poison oak mixed in & and don't ask me how I know.


Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
That much I do know, and I think we both probably found out the same way
frown.gif



What happened?
 
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