Why am I heeeeeerrrrrreeee???

There isn’t a single event that has led to me making this blog. Rather, it is a culmination of events over several years. But they all come down to the fact that I love to eat, I love to grill, and I especially love to eat grilled food.

• When I first lived on my own, I liked experimenting with food and different flavors. Unfortunately I didn’t have much in the way of spices. So everything I made tasted like lemon pepper and teriyaki.
• I was always jealous of my neighbors who had grills. Mind you, I didn’t see them – I could smell the grills cooking throughout the neighborhood and it made what I was eating taste that much worse.
• My dad is fantastic on the grill. Some of my favorite childhood foods were what he brought in. (I was the umbrella holder when he grilled during a rainstorm.)
• When I cook, I like to go all out, but only when I’m cooking for other people. If it’s just me, I’m usually content with a bowl of cereal or ramen noodles. One of my favorite things is to watch people savor eating something I made.
• I don’t know flavors go with what; I make meals that are a mash-up of anything I happen to see when I’m making it, and it’s a hit-and-miss approach. I want more consistency in what I make.
• Earlier this year we went on a cruise with friends. I attended a wine/food pairing seminar in one of the ship’s restaurants and was blown away at how much better things tasted when prepared and matched correctly.
• My wife bought my grill with gift cards we received from our wedding. She and some of her friends assembled it for me. When we had our deck made we had them custom build a cut-out for it. I want to make sure she’s reciprocated with the benefits.
• I like cooking when danger is involved.
• My wife and I have very different tastes when it comes to food and television. I hope to learn how to make meals that she enjoys as much as I do. She’s big on the Food Network, Bravo, etc. and I pick up things here and there while she’s watching cooking shows and I’m reading Facebook.
• I have to admit, I enjoyed Julie and Julia (at least the parts with Meryl Streep)
• I don’t consider myself an artist, but I have artistic tendencies. I did learn that good artists follow the rules, great artists break the rules; the best artists know which rules to break, when to break them and why.

All that said, welcome to grill-marks.blogspot.com. I don’t know all the rules of this game so I don’t fully know how to play. I’m going to work my way through a grilling cookbook and try to recreate each recipe. I’m going to fight the temptation to add this/that/the other to the meal without knowing the possible consequences. I’m not giving myself a deadline because I have too many of those already. I don’t aspire to be a master chef or grill master. I just want to walk away from this better than where I am.   =o9