Monday, July 6, 2009

Burning Down the House (July 4 BBQ)

Ahhhh the Fourth of July. It was a beautiful day here. Partly sunny, partly cloudy, mid 70's, a gentle breeze. Around 4 in the afternoon, SP's family arrived for a holiday BBQ and to visit with EPAS and her family. They came bearing food & drink goodies. CSA brother made fruit salad again (it was just as delicious as on Father's Day) and a kind of red pepper sauce for the Italian sausage. SL made a macaroni salad - and I am sooo happy that he made a special Blueeley container of garlic free macaroni salad!!! It was delicious - I haven't had macaroni salad in quite a while. Elbow pasta, cheese, red pepper, green onion and a tasty dressing. Yum!

SP's dad brought some wine. EPAS made up a snack tray of raisin bread and cheeses from the Amish (they live near the PA Amish area). She also brought a pumpkin roll - I love pumpkin roll! Spongy pumpkin goodness rolled around cream cheese filling - delish! YS brought brownies and some crackers and carrots for snacking.

Add to the above goodies the sugar cookies, fruit tart, assorted grilled goodies (Italian sausage, chorizo, kielbasa, hot dogs, burgers), the tomatoes & cucumbers in vinegar, cheeses, buns galore, and a tray of sandwich toppings - I'd say we had plenty of yummy food. And beer. And wine.

It is entirely possible that I had a few too many glasses of Chardonnay. I have a somewhat hazy memory of the grill catching fire - after finishing grilling food, we usually turn the grill up high to burn off the grease. The grease pan caught fire and flames were shooting out the side of the grill. I recall SP frantically running inside for the fire extinguisher and disconnecting the gas tank, pushing the grill away from the wood deck railing, and someone mumbling that the hose was right at the bottom of the deck stairs.

It does no good to panic, right? I kept shoveling in the tasty food, washing it down with wine, and watched SP 'battle' the fire. Sadly, his grill utensils are blackened, charred, torched beyond further use. Also sadly, his bangs are singed. Everyone thought that was just super funny (me included) and for the rest of the weekend we called him Scorch.

SP was pretty freaked out. I suppose I should be more freaked, and believe me, it was scary, but I have confidence in SP and knew he'd get it under control and save the deck/house from burning to the ground. It helps that the EMS and fire station are right down the hill.

It's a sad truth that my wine intake prevented me from remembering to photograph the food as well as from grabbing the camera to record the grease fire. This blog post could really use a photo of the grill aflame and SP standing there ready to discharge the extinguisher.

He conditioned his bangs and they look OK now - plus he's getting his hair cut this weekend, so the scorched part will get cut off. As for the grill, well, we are going to move it down to the driveway. It's seems prudent to have it in the middle of the concrete driveway, in a place where the flames would have to shoot out 4 or 5 feet to torch the house or woods. He cleaned it up tonight - it's nice and clean as all the grease and black crud did indeed burn off - and made sure it still works. All is well.

We did get to sort of see the community fireworks from our deck - we face the direction of the park - but the really tall trees in the woods obscured most of the fireworks. It's entirely possible that I repeatedly said we should have the landscaper trim the trees where the fireworks were (SP says I babbled that several times).

Wine. Too much makes you chatty. And repeaty.

Ahhh, the 4th of July. A time for impromptu fires... oops, I mean fireworks.


  1. The fire looked scary, but it was never really out of control. The accumulated grease in the drip pan managed to ignite, so after moving the gas canister we just left the lid closed and let it burn itself out. I cleaned out the resulting ash today, and the grill hasn't been this clean since we put it together!

  2. The cleansing power of grease?????

  3. Nah, just the cleaning power of a (likely) 1000+ degree inferno. The grease was just the fuel. :D