I haven't cooked on a barbecue in a very long time

Friday started with a Weber cleaning session. It seems that it had been put away with little or no cleaning,* and there was no way I was going to put foodstuffs on the grill without giving it some serious attention beforehand.

I started out with a wire brush, but it had little effect on  the accumulations of grease and soot. I therefore headed to the workshop and fitted a wire brush attachment to my angle grinder. Twenty minutes later I was inspecting a shiny set of grill bars, before replacing them in to the Weber.

The rest of the morning was spent sorting out barbecue essentials including charcoal, a foil drip tray and the charcoal lighting chimney.

We then took an early lunch, before I grabbed the chainsaw and spent an hour cutting some of the larger pieces of ash tree in to more manageable pieces i.e. small enough for me to be able to lift them up on to the bed of the log splitter.**

At the end of the hour of chainsawing I was very surprised at the size of the stack of wood, prepared for splitting. I am going to be very busy tomorrow.

It was now time for me to put my toys away and get myself cleaned up. B&H were joining us for dinner this evening, and I had decided to roast a loin of pork in the barbecue.  

This is not as straightforward as throwing a couple of sausages on the griddle. It involved getting the barbecue up to temperature, adding the marinaded pork loin, and adding a few blocks of soaked apple wood to the coals, to give the pork a fabulous smoky flavour.  After about an hour of cooking, the pork needs to be wrapped in foil, and fresh coals need to be added to the charcoal baskets. The loin is cooked for another hour, and then rested for a few minutes before serving.

The weather had been lovely all day, and we had a leisurely evening sat out in the garden dining on gravlax, with cream cheese on rye bread, followed by smoky, garlicky pork loin with salad and new potatoes. Strawberries and ice cream were offered as desert, but I'm not sure any of us could manage much after the preceding courses.

There was nothing earth shattering to report from this evening, although it seems that I may be teaching B to ride a motorcycle at some point in the coming weeks.

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* Thanks TP!

** That'll be tomorrow's fun and games.