FirstGrill 2012 : What we will be serving
FirstGrill this year should be an especially tasty one. Besides the typical ribs, chicken, sausages, and other grilled meats, we will be featuring top quality steaks from two of America’s premier ranches: Good Land Beef and Morgan Ranch. In addition, we will be introducing four new soda flavors from Sodastream to our guests.
Good Land Beef is the creation of ranchers Ken Klemm and Peter Thieriot. They ranch in Western Kansas and raise their animals in a sustainable way. Their goal is to offer healthful, tasty, grass-fed beef to consumers. Grass-fed beef is much higher in Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E than grain-fed beef. Of course, none of their cattle ever receive antibiotics or hormones to promote growth. It is more work to raise cattle this way, but Ken and Peter feel that the benefits are well worth the extra effort. We will be offering a taste of the following from Good Land Beef to our FirstGrill guests:
Morgan Ranch sits in the heart of the Sandhills of Burwell Nebraska. With its abundant grasses, perfect climate, and plentiful spring-fed streams, the region is widely recognized as among the best cattle producing areas in the world. Morgan Ranch is a fourth generation family owned and operated ranch known for owning one of the largest Wagyu herds in America.
The Wagyu breed is prized for its marbling characteristics, taste, and juiciness. Morgan Ranch American Wagyu/Kobe beef is currently one of only seven US producers certified to export to Europe. The cattle are all range-raised and hormone-free. FirstGrill guest can look forward to sampling the following:
Along with the usual range of Sodastream flavors, we will be featuring four new ones at this year’s FirstGrill. Country Time and Crystal Light have paired up with Sodastream to offer some very tempting flavors for 2012:
- Country Time Lemonade
- Country Time Half Iced tea/Half Lemonade (known as an Arnold Palmer)
- Crystal Light Fruit Punch
- Crystal Light Peach Iced Tea
There is nothing more annoying than running out of CO2 when you want to make more soda. The Sodastream FIZZ solved that problem by incorporating a handy indicator right into the unit. It is now easy to see how much CO2 is left. Ours is running a bit low, so to ensure that we don’t run out of gas in the middle of the event, we got a couple of extra canisters as back up. The nice thing about the FIZZ it that will take either the larger 120L or the smaller 60L canisters. If you make a lot of sodas, it is more convenient to go with the bigger cartridge.
We don’t have a screen door out to the deck because we like the clear view out to the garden. However, the recent wet weather has given a boost to the flying insect population and it would be nice to have something to prevent them from flying inside at will. The Gardener’s Supply Company has a nice solution to keep them outside where they belong. It is called the BugOff Screen. The BugOff Screen uses a tension rod to hold the screen up and thus can be quickly installed and easily removed. The interns managed to put one up in less than five minutes.
The BugOff screen will hopefully keep the bugs out, but to keep the bugs away at dusk, we’ll have a few ThermaCELL lanterns on hand. Each lantern releases a bug repellant which will protect a 15’x15′ area. Should anyone get bitten, then it will be a good opportunity for us to test the TheraPik. We got the TheraPik a few months ago, but have yet to check out its claim of being able to relieve the pain and itch of common insect bites. Hey, everyone is a “tester” when they attend a RainyDayMagazine event.
Also, some of you may remember that, four years ago, we kicked one of our RainyDayInterns out of the nest and off to RISD to up her game in the graphic arts. We are happy to report that, after four grueling years (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012) of intense study, that same intern will be getting her walking papers from RISD. Folks from NYC and L.A. are coming into town for the celebration. It is going to be quite the FirstGrill! [Permalink] –
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