Posted by Jon Izzard
What a lovely day we had yesterday. The climate was superb for once so I was able to get outside into the garden and trim the grass. I was only marginally held back by Will assisting me by holding the wire until he remembered that he's got a Fisher-Price lawn mower and he decided to follow me around with that.
I was hoping to have a bbq in the afternoon but that wasn't to be as the first Mrs Izzard wasn't feeling very well. She's been feeling a bit ropey all week as a result of her latest chemotherapy treatment last Tuesday. So I've been endeavouring to keep Will active and out of her way so we had a game of football in the garden and then picked onions, peas and courgettes from the vegetable patch. The courgettes were enormous, quite how I hadn't seen them previously I don't know but there we are.
Once the veggies were cleaned and packed away, I went with him down to the park which is one of his favourite places. It's lovely, has a sizable pond in the middle which is home to a large flock of geese and ducks and a smashing playground for kids. Yesterday the playground was jammed which was fine news for Will as there were lots of children for him to play with. There must have been a big Irish wedding in the village as nearly all of the people there had strong accents and much of red hair was in evidence.
There are plenty of dwellings around the outside of the park and many of the neighbours were taking advantage of the climate and one in particular had got a party round the bbq which was spreading a strong perfume of sizzling meat and smoke across the parish which made me sad that we were not having one ourselves.
It seems to have been ages since we took out my gas bbq from its cover and had a proper cookout. We have used it many times this year so far, we're on our second gas bottle already, but not in recent weeks. If the weather on Thursday is like it has been over the last couple of days then I will be lighting it as we are entertaining the in-laws over to eat. The last time they came was the first time that we needed all three burners and the fats and marinades spilling made sure that it wasn't only the gas bbq that was cooking the food as the extra flames ignited so that it looked like the firebox of a steam locomotive.
I did mess with the idea over the weekend of buying a basic kettle charcoal bbq as next weekend the first Mrs Izzard will be over the effects of the chemo and will be able to go out so I was thinking about taking a trip out to Cannock Chase which has a big area set aside for picnics, games and generally spending a day in the sunshine.
Because we are about as far as it is possible to get in England from the coast, many families go there as an alternative to a day on the sands and take along a charcoal bbq to cook lunch. It's a shame there isn't a lake there but there is lots of areas to explore, walk or cycle as it is a designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There is also the myth of a big cat living in the forests for the truly adventurous.
Want to find out more about bbq then visit 2bbq site on how to choose the best gas bbq for your needs.
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Posted by Jon Izzard
Finally! Fanfare and unfurl the flags, at the weekend we purchased a range cooker. We were originally trying to arrange it in the early spring in order to coincide with the installation of the kitchen. It all went down the river thanks to the British banking institutions, even though the one in question has a Spanish name.
It seems that the Spanish are considerably more accustomed to bbq grills than closing the accounts of former account holders and transferring the balance to a holding account administered by the executors. This is sadly too much for them, such a terrifically technical process the poor cretin charged with the task presumably needed to be sent on a residential course for several weeks as it took in excess of seven weeks. In that time we missed the window we needed to buy the range with adequate time for it to be delivered in time to be installed in the new kitchen.
So we visited the range store in Wolverhampton on Saturday and made the day of the sales lady by telling her precisely what make, model, size, colour and fuel source we were buying. She said she normally has to work for ages to help customers find the right cooker for them but we were sorted in about 5 seconds. But naturally it could not possibly be that straightforward could it? No. In trying to place the order on the Stoves site she couldn't find the model anywhere and I went outside to do some swearing at the banks as if they'd have completed their work in time we could have had the one we wanted. However, when I went back in the problem had been spotted as a fault on the site and we could have exactly what we wanted. The relief was palpable to all I think because to go through all the research again would have been awful and I may have lost it and just asked that we just get a bbq fitted and have done with it.
But in the first week of October, the engineers will be in and all will be well. I am hopeful that the decent weather will stick around long enough so that we can have a proper launch party combining the new unit, kitchen and the bbq grills we got at the beginning of the summer. By then we will also have charcoal grills of some description as we are going for a jaunt down to the beach on the bank holiday and we will have to have one for lunch.
There's nothing I love as much than a bbq with chums, getting the food arranged and getting the bevies in. But I do wonder why it is that it is always the male of the species who does the barbequing? It can't merely be due to of the smoke blowing up off the charcoal grills and the temperature isn't arduous so why? My missus is a brilliant cook, but nothing would get her to stand there and turn the burgers and bangers. Whether they think that it is beneath them, perhaps that is the answer but actually, the bbq chef is a highly responsible job as to not cook the meat correctly risks incurring the anger of micro organisms that may be living within.
Anyway, it seems that we have to rely on the weather if we are going to have a party this year and hope that the meteorological gods will look favourably on us. We could do with a stroke of luck.
Want to find out more about bbq then visit 2bbq site on how to choose the best gas bbq for your needs.
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Posted by Jon Izzard
Absolute joy as BBC4 go on with the Great Outdoors programming, mingling documentaries, travelogues and dramas drawing attention to the practice of people going out into the outdoors and taking pleasure in what our country has to offer.
This is not merely a British thing of course, many countries celebrate their untamed areas, none more so than the Australians whose society is almost entirely founded upon getting away from walls. The majority of this is focused around the beach as most Aussies live within an hour of the coast. And because of this, the custom of the Australian bbq is one of the most famous aspects of life Down Under.
When we lived in Canberra, we were just across the road from a picnic area by Lake Burley Griffin which had public bbq grills built in for anyone to use. This is a frequent feature and makes life easy (if you can find one not being used) as you just need to pack some coals and food and leave behind your own bbq. All you had to do was to bag one of the available bbq grills, lay out and light the coals and then when finished, scrub it down and clear away the mess so someone else could use it. Although, of course Aussies being what they are, it was normal if someone was only needing a small part of the bbq, to invite someone else to jump on as too.
You could also find a public gas bbq in many places. All you needed was to put a coin or two in the slot and a metered amount of gas would be released from the bottle which made things even more straightforward as it meant you didn't have to carry any dirty coals in the car. The gas bbq also meant that there was little to clear up at the end, you would just take a wire brush to the grills to clean off the charred remains and that was all that was needed to make it ready for someone else to use.
I have also seen public bbq grills when on holiday in the Balearic Islands but not as yet anywhere in parks or by the coast in the UK. It could be that I have just not been to the right places, but I think it would certainly attract visitors if they could reduce their loads on an outing to know that they did not need to get or bring a portable bbq with them, and a public gas bbq facility would also help generate some cashflow to go towards the upkeep of the area. The main thing is to have sufficient numbers provided so that long queues for them don't build up as this would lead to anger and reduce the likelihood of a return visit, and make them sufficiently everyday items for people to reasonably expect to find them when they visit, instead of find them and wish to have known before packing and carrying the portable.
We Brits love the open air, it's been a feature of our leisure time for over a century to get out of the urban and into the fresh air but like anything else, you need to persuade more people to take part, and facilities must be continually improved to facilitate this.
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Posted by Jon Izzard
I am collecting Giles annual cartoon books. I started some years ago before we went to Australia and then didn't start again until not long ago. His cartoons were the source of a great deal of my background facts of twentieth Century history as he illustrated the goings on in the news, often dissembling down complicated stories into a simple picture with a humourous caption lampooning the situation. He almost invariably pictured the small man, reducing the story down to the ordinary level that anyone could comprehend. He may be working at the bbq and passing an observation on BSC or other food fright or sitting watching the football and giving his take on a sports scandal.
The key to a large number of his cartoons was the Giles family. This comprised of Mr Giles, the essence little man who was from anywhere suburbia, middle aged, long married and long suffering at the hands of his children. These were chiefly a couple of teenage daughters who, over the years took home a series of unsuitable misfits who morphed from teddy boys to mods and rockers, hippies, punks to new romantics. His son Ernie and his pal Larry from next door who are approximately eight and make all kinds of havoc. Larry is the kind of boy who would attach a turbo charger onto a gas bbq and sit back and watch with a camera while someone went to light it. Then there is Uncle George and Aunt Vera and their baby who live with them. George never speaks, just sits in the corner and smokes his pipe which puffs like a charcoal bbq. Vera forever has a runny nose and is holding a tissue to her nose and bottles of remedies around her. The baby is always being captured for experiments by Ernie and Larry. They couple be in the background at a family bbq with the baby on a spit roast and Larry about to light the fire below.
Greatest of all is Grandma, the fearsome head of the family attired in black with an ostrich head umbrella close to hand with which to beat any scoundrels who stray too close. These may include jockeys whose horse she wrongly backed or a shopkeeper who sold a malfunctioning product. She is regularly the one delivering the punchline or the hub of the story, often as she opines upon a story she's reading in the Daily or Sunday Express. An example would be from the nineteen sixties when the paper published a series of features on sex for youngsters, she is seen reading it and laughing mightily with Ernie saying to his mother "Grandma says she could have written a better strip than that when she was a girl". She is regularly the butt of the boys' pranks, perhaps being provided with a red hot coal from the charcoal bbq in a sandwich being delivered by Larry.
No matter the occasion, from the immediate post war era through the social revolutions and shifts in society, government and anything else, the cartoons of Carl Giles maintained an irresistible humour bringing the biggest emergencies down to the understanding of the man in the street. The Giles family, if at a family event like a caravan holiday, going out in Mr Giles new boat or assembled around the gas bbq at a party, regularly set up the end product of the joke.
The annuals carry on to this day, though Giles himself died in 1995, and still feature previously unpublished cartoons and collecting them all is a worthy aim.
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Posted by Jon Izzard
Gazing out of my window I can see the initial signs of the leaves turning on the trees. We had our first herald of autumn a two weeks ago when a huge house spider ran across the living room carpet. Following that we have had another three and another is hiding near the stairs somewhere. I'm not good with spiders, and I wish I could bbq them all. It was one of my terrors when we moved to Australia as the red back sometimes lives under toilet seats and is known to nip at things that dangle too adjacent. The fact they can be deadly toxic just adds to the pain. But for some reason they don't live above the second floor in a building and we got an apartment on the 3rd in ours.
We lived in a tower called Capital Tower, one of the 2 tallest buildings in Canberra. The other one, Rydges Hotel was next door and was useful for a refreshing srop on the way home on a hot day. The main bar had pictures of all Australian prime ministers including the best, Harold Holt who went swimming in a bay near Melbourne on December 17th 1967 and disappeared.
Our apartment block included a gym which had a sauna and hot tub for relaxing after a session which I used several times a week. Strange, considering it was free for us to use and I had paid a ransom for a membership in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and yet I very rarely went. Outside it also had a garden which contained a swimming pool and a huge gas bbq that you could borrow as long as it was booked and left clean. There was also a smaller charcoal bbq which largely redundant as you had to provide your own coals and have it cleaned and cleared of ash and leftovers. The block also had a pair of tennis courts as well which were usually in use once autumn was done.
Leaving the complex, you could turn right along a path to go into the main business district, known as the Civic, or turn left which took you to a bridge to the side of lake Burley Griffin, called after the man who was the architect for Canberra when the Aussies decided to make a city to be a home to the national government. There was a tiny beach, though swimming wasn't a smart idea, but also a place where you could hirerent rowing boats and pedalos as well as a picnic area which had a public bbq area with anyone could use if there was a free charcoal bbq as long as they used their own briquettes. If they hadn't got charcoals, you could use a gas bbq which were worked by putting in a coin which would expel a standard measurement of gas. These were everywhere in Oz which is of course keen on the bbq as a cultural icon and not everyone wants to drag a portable bbq with them when they go out for the day. They just want to carry the grub and grog they will need to see them through the day.
We should have them in the UK at parks, beaches or other places where groups of people go to spend a day outdoors.
For Weber barbiestake a look at 2bbq This article, Living In Australia Isn't Suitable For Those Frightened Of Spiders But Our Apartment Wasn't Affected has free reprint rights.
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Posted by Jon Izzard
Autumn appears to be fighting to get moving. Perhaps summer has decided that it was a bit unkind to us towards the end of its turn and has come back to make up for it, or it could be it was miffed and just felt that autumn was going too far with the conditions at the Ryder Cup last week and has come to give us one final blast. Out with the barbeque say I!
And for our household it's very welcome as just now we are making do in our own house as the strong men are even now building our new kitchen which means that we don't have hob, oven or sink. Currently, the kitchen stuff is in the dining room with all the items we think we won't need buried in the far corner with the stuff we either surely will and could need closer the front. Out on the patio, ready to be pressed into use if required is the gas barbeque. And if the weather stays good through to around 5 o'clock, I may well press it into employment since for the last three evenings we've been making supper with the microwave as the only option.
We could well have a barbeque on Saturday night anyway, the fantastic cooker has now been delivered but the guy coming to fit it won't be here until Saturday afternoon anyhow and because there is no surety that the cooker will be working, it isn't worth deciding anything other than mixing up some burgers and getting the kebabs in. We would make our own sausages except for two reasons: one, we have not muckes about with the sausage maker yet and 2, we have not got the ingredients or sufficient cleaning apparatus to be able to do it.
It was quite a job extracting the gas barbeque from the garage last weekend as we were creating space for the kitchen boxes to go when they were delivered and so it was convenient to get the big fella out of the way. We could have used the charcoal barbeque but the problem there is that we do not have any charcoal briquettes. And even if we did, I could not be bothered with lots going on anyway, to have to tidy up a charcoal barbeque at the end.
In fact the plan of having the barbeque becomes ever more attractive as the week goes on because we've been eating tinned and processed grub and we're horrified that anybody is able to live on this rubbish all the time. Although it tastes acceptable, there's no feeling at the end of any satisfaction or interest during the meal. We haven't dared to read the ingredients but what is for sure is that we can't wait to return to eating real food again.
And on that subject, we will be trying alternative ways of purchasing food in. As well as looking to have milk delivered regularly, there is also a farm nearby which will provide a bag of seasonal fruit and veg each week which is intriguing. If we have anything left over I can cook soups or chutneys in the new kitchen.
This will happen the moment it's all complete. As of about ten minutes ago, the sink now has working taps so we can finally cease washing up in a tiny bowl on a table. Civilisation is returning!
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Posted by Jon Izzard
When I was a youth I joined the Cub Scouts at the age of 8, and at 10 I went on my first camp as part of the preparation for moving up to the Scouts the following year. It was an eye-opener, I adored it and the best thing was that the site we went to, which wasn't very far from home but distant enough away to feel remote and exotic, allowed open fires to be build by each tent.
The initial thing we had to do was to dig a large hole, a job for the junior campers, naturally, and then we had to go down into the woods to search the surroundings for wood and other suitably burnable material to build the pyre. We were allowed to use matches (I can still hear Baden-Powell's teeth gnashing) but nothing else and the cubs were delegated the job of trying to light it.
Of course we just chucked everything in and set about going through the matches we were given with no joy at all, at which point the patrol leader (scout troops are divided into patrols with a leader and an assistant) cleared everything away and demonstrated to us how to make a little pile of twigs and sticks which were padded with paper and other quick burning materials. The match was applied and as the fire took hold of the wood, bigger sticks were applied and the flames fanned briefly and that was it. After that we were able to keep the fire lit for the whole weekend. We used it for boiling water for drinking and washing up but best of all, when it burnt down sufficiently, we put grills over it and cooked on it.
It was the first time I'd experienced a barbeque which these days sounds a bit silly, but at that time (in the mid seventies) people didn't really do cooking outside.
Our family were quite ahead of the game as shortly after the camp, my dad had gone to America for the first time and had flown home from California where he'd been invited to someone's house for a weekend and they'd had a party which was focused around a charcoal barbeque.
Freshly enthused, it didn't be long after he flew back that he went and found one to buy, which was not an easy thing to do as they weren't widely offered and you could not look them up via the Internet. But he bought one, a charcoal barbeque in a particularly awful shade of orange that was popular in the 70's, and with great ceremony we set it up in the garden. As the freshly experienced fire lighter, I was given the duty of getting the fire lit and so began our first family barbeque.
It was in the family for many years as the charcoal barbeque was the only option, the diversity came in terms of size and shape. They were all the same in terms of being essentially a rectangular pot on legs with slots for placing the grill across the top. Most didn't even have a lid but they did work as long as you could get the fire started in the first place. And that wasn't simple because fuel stations didn't have bags of coals, and the coals you could get weren't treated to make them easy to light or come in a bag that you put a match to. It all had to be done properly using either heating coal or wood. You could get firelighters but the challenge with those was that they tended to linger and very often if one used too many, it could get into the smoke and change the taste of the food.
In later years, the old faithful charcoal barbeque was thrown away, superseded with a gas version but it opened our eyes to the matter of cooking outdoors and we retained a small portable barbeque for trips out.
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Posted by Jon Izzard
Today is my son's[/spin 4th birthday. We will before long be infested by grandparents distributing gifts, but far better is the one on its way for me bourn by the sturdy men from DHL. This is my micro-brewery containing all the gear and ingredients to create my own real ale. For today, a new search begins. BEER!
Nothing enhances a grouping around the bbq grills better than a good beer. And now, along with the search I am currently engaged in for the perfect recipe for the burger and, when my sausage maker arrives, that too, I shall add brewing! It is fully probable that next summer, we could be putting my gas barbeque to use and making meals and grog almost completely home made because I also like to harvest my own vegetables and herbs. And at this moment I realise I could be trying to remake "The Good Life". Oh my.
Well, nevertheless we are where we are, so we shall go on and conjure up magnificent things. I have a starter kit containing all the ingredients I need to brew a batch of beer and learn how all the pieces of plastic and processes work. I may try a few batches and then try to experiment. I did once see Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his friend John Wright the forager, use nettles and make a beer with that, which seems like a wonderfully good plan since I have loads of it near me which means that supply should be unfussed. And if nettle tastes like it smells, then it'll be delicious.
Which seamlessly returns us back to the argument over the gas barbeque and the charcoal barbeque about which cooks the better tasting food? Is it the fuel in the charcoal barbeque that creates the smoke that infuses the food as it burns for the one time in its existence, or the build up of drips of fats, oils other assorted juices that drizzle on the lava coals or the burners of the gas barbeque and create a differently perfumed smoke?
Difficult to say of course, because the conservatives will say that the real flavour originates from the age before the development of the gas barbeque and that the combination of coals, smoke and food is a reminder of a period when all cooking was done over an open fire fuelled with wood, charcoal or other physically flammable material.
"Oh ho, but..." the modernists reply, "the gas barbeque removes the hassle involved in using your dirty old charcoal barbeque since we light our burners instantly with no need for flavour affecting accelerants and afterwards we don't requirement to clear up the ash". Also the issue of economy might come up, since a cost per use of a gas barbeque should be less than a charcoal barbeque, though not necessarily enough to make a huge saving.
However, with a slice of luck and a following wind, so long as the initial attempts are useable, then doing our own burgers, sausages and beer may lead to a substantial saving as well as giving us a welter of fun and amusement as we try recipes and concoctions. What we must hope is that the makers of our delight don't follow the way of the pasta maker and find a dark spot at the back of a cupboard.
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Posted by Jon Izzard
Here we go. The traditional rumours have got going as the Pollannas of the species begin to look speculatively to the sky and convey their total faith that we are about to have an Indian summer. You can see where it originated from, we had bbq conditions last week and now that the children are resuming school (to the relief of most mums and dads I suspect), the improvement is obvious.
The climate is behind so many of our little traditions at various times of the year. The Indian summer around September, one day in November the Daily Express will print a story that we are in for a brutal arctic winter (they were correct last year though, would you believe it?) In December we pay attention to the forecasts in the wishfulness of news of a white xmas. And then around March when the winter skies, heavy cloud, cold rain, frozen cars and freezing winds have got us all thoroughly fed up then we watch out for signs of spring, blossom forming on the trees, daffodils bursting up through the grass, early snowdrops and crocus flowering. And then when the magnolia flowers have fallen and the daffodils fade away, the football season finishes and we begin to think about the summer, where we are jetting away to for holidays, will there be hosepipe bans and how will the conditions affect the Test match series?
In our home the bbq cookbooks get their dusting off and the steel brush is dug out to give the grills a scrubbing around April. This year we purchased a new gas bbq to upgrade the old and too small kettle charcoal bbq which had reached the end of its life, so we will need to examine the gas, the connector and decide if we need a new bottle.
If we consider the weather for the summer on a range from the drought of 1976 to the monsoon of 2007, we can gauge the right bbq to use for those with the choice. The closer the pointer points towards 2007, the more likely you'd need to use a gas bbq as the reliability of sparking the fire will take the advantage over attempting to get charcoal going in inclement conditions.
Whatever the weather, the aroma of the bbq is the olfactory indicator of a summer, along with the grief to be expected with being an England football follower during an international championship year, the horror of using an airport to travel on holiday and the wonder at the tardiness of the airport procedures at the other end in comparison to the United Kingdom and the irritation of getting sunburnt in spite the best efforts to protect from it this time.
I don't know about you, but I forever seem to look forward 6 months and imagine the weather for that seadson as an ideal. I could be stood over a charcoal bbq with the heat of the furnace on my face and the sun on my back and suddenly find myself anticipating biting cold air and the crunch of snow under foot. The true situation will be driving wind, hard icy rain in the face and slippery ice under the shoes.
It's an odd thing, for some reason I can't just make the most of the conditions we have at the moment, I'm always anticipating that which is on the way.
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Posted by Jon Izzard
The schools locally return to normal next week and it seems to be entirely predictable that the weather should take a turn for the better. Ever since the holidays started at the end of July, it's been cloudy and largely miserable. Not wet as such, but absolutely not as hot as the false memories of summer would have us demand they ought to be.
I reckon that suppliers of meat have felt the pain because of the downturn in the bbq cooking opportunities. Going by the number of food ranges which are specially designed to be put on the bbq it's a pity when those who love outdoor cooking cannot do as much as they'd wish.
One of the best things about having a bbq properly is making your own food. Making burgers is terrific fun. You need to use fresh mince, never frozen, throw in a load of breadcrumbs, mix it all together into a big ball and then stir in your favourite ingredients which can be tomatoes, vinegars, spices and anything else you care to try. Experimenting with different things, amounts and finding out what works and what can be left out is very satisfying.
The same is true with marinades. By amending the oils used for the base, making them sharper with spices, seasonings, garlic and other flavouring additives which could or might not work with the meats, is enormous fun. The oils also aidhelp in the cooking of the meat as as they drizzle down onto the fire, whether from a gas bbq or charcoal bbq, the oil will explode with a flare which will help to seal the meat to hold the juices inside.
Something else to attempt for the dedicated bbq anorak is sausages. If you get hold of a sausage maker you can put all kinds of different cuts of meat, herbs, vegetables or whatever else that is brought to mind and mix it all up together. Whether to use beef, chicken, lamb or pork with the choice to make them singly or combinations of any or all together? Why not? How will it taste? Who can say? Have a go, what's the worst that can happen?
Food hygiene is naturally a main concern. Cook too fast and the outer parts can absolutely be cooked, however if the inner is pink then trouble is often not far away. A gas bbq is easier to manage as it can be turned off if the food is becoming too hot on the exterior. This is harder with a charcoal bbq obviously so the skill for the chef must be keeping the food moving to be certain it cooks evenly all over.
A person who is keen on cooking on a bbq should have a good relationship with their butcher who can frequently give suggestions about cuts of meat and what might work better on the bbq grill or have tips about how it might cook better or what marinade would be best.
So if the climate remains into the weekend, which looks likely, just before the children go back to school there is perhaps one last occasion to have a summer, roll out the gas bbq or charcoal bbq, whichever is your choice and get the food on the surface and the beers in the fridge.
Want to find out more about bbq then visit 2bbq site on how to choose the best charcoal bbq for your needs.
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