The best $20 I ever spent

Our BBQ Pro grill has a 14" grill, 8" legs, and might be the best $20 I've ever spent.

We got it at the Allston K-Mart back when I lived in Brighton, back when B and I were learning how to cook together in a kitchen that was smaller than most bathrooms and in a time when kitchen fires happened so frequently we had a routine to handle them. My jobs were to open the windows in the living room and the door to the apartment, and B's jobs were to extinguish the flames, close the bedroom door (to prevent the smoke from reaching a very sensitive smoke detector), and to detach the electric smoke detector from the ceiling.

A grill--and the opportunity for outdoor cooking--was an attractive item, to say the least.

My third-floor walk-up (more like a fourth-floor walk-up when you consider the steps outside) wasn't the ideal home for a grill--no balcony, no easy way to get down to your grill, and no place to sit while your food is grilling. The fear that a neighbor would sniff our dinner and decide to walk off with our food (and grill) inspired us to get the cheapest model we could find--even if we used it only a few times (and if it happened to walk away one night), we wouldn't be too disappointed. Luckily, disappointment has never been an issue.

The cooking B has done in that grill--that is the true story of the grill. For most commodities, when you can buy a $20 option or a $1,000+ option, chances are good that the $20 option is going to provide a significantly lower experience, but that was not the case with our BBQ Pro. The BBQ Pro helped us realize that home-cooked food is often better than restaurant food. B has cooked everything from pork tenderloin to steaks to chicken to smoked peach salsa and grilled pineapples and peaches--and it's all been wonderful. He's experimented with different charcoals, rubs, sauces, and smoking chips, all to rave reviews from the peanut gallery (that would be me).

Sadly, it's time to say good-bye, BBQ Pro (where the dogs of society howl...? Please forgive my almost-daily need to for a literary or musical allusion--life doesn't feel complete without in-jokes).

While the 14" grill is adequate for cooking for a few, it's too small to use to cook for a group. We need to move on to something bigger. The grill we bought last night is great--it's another charcoal grill, and it's big enough to cook for an army. We both love it already--but it will never take the place of the BBQ Pro.