Long time viewer -- first-time poster . . . I'm builing an outdoor kitchen. My focus in this post is the BBQ grill. I am replacing previous owner's nat gas grill as I do a complete renovation of this house. I will have the builder make a built-in area for the grill. I was looking at the Weber Summit S-650, as the features/quality fit the bill. I noticed on Weber's website that they make a similar, although not exact, version of this (calls S-640) for built-in installations. This model, however seems to lack the functionality on the "wings" of the grill that the portable model has. I'm wondering if my builder can just build around the S650, to preserve the functionality as well as get the built-in look. Has anyone done this?

We went to a couple of barbeque places today and ending up buying the extra large Big Green Egg, and I think we will be very happy with it. Kevin thinks it will be great for parties, and now it will be even easier for us to cook for a crowd. Since we now have three charcoal grills, we can use separate grills for separate dishes which will make it easier for us to make multiple dishes at once, even if they require different temperatures. We also have the electric smoker, and I have to say that we get a more intense smoke flavor from that than we do from the charcoal - or at least it permeates the meat more. For smoking chilies, only the charcoal will do the job the way I want it. The BGE that we bought also has a pizza stone and can be used for grilling pizza - something that I've been wanting to do since first visiting the pizza making forum. We bought some outdoor lights for our pergola, and I think they will provide way more light than we required, but at least we can lower the wattage when we want to. I haven't bought anything for lighting the fountain yet because I want to have that installed by an electrician on an exterior wall of the house. I'm hoping to light much of the back yard that way and have it on a dimmer. I don't really want underwater lights in my fountain at this point but will talk with the electrician about that. I'm thinking that I will get my yard lit in stages and start off with getting some outdoor outlets installed at strategic points so that lights could be hooked up later. We went out for dinner this evening because I wanted sushi! We haven't assembled the Big Green Egg yet. Lars

I agree with Alexa. A thermometer is worthwhile. I have had both electric and charcoal smokers. The electric is more convenient, but the charcoal gives better flavor IMO and is worth the slight amount of fussiness it takes to maintain the right temp. Best piece of advice I can give is to avoid the temptation to look at the food cooking. You may need to do so a couple of times during the cooking, but every time you take off the lid the system cools dramatically and it takes a good while to get back up to cooking temps. As far as wood goes, I really like pecan. You can use pecan shells if you have access to them. Hickory is good, but a little stronger than pecan. I used to live near an apple orchard; apple wood is great, too. I don't care too much for mesquite, but that's just me. Another trick is to put something fatty on the top rack and something that needs basting on the bottom rack. My dad used to do a pork roast on the top rack and as it cooked it dripped fat onto a turkey on the bottom rack. I've done ribs on the top rack dripping on to chickens on the bottom. Delish. I found I could smoke about 6 whole chickens at once. (They make little wire racks that make the chickens sit upright during the smoking, and that does make for a more efficient use of space. I found them worthwhile.) What I would do is smoke them, and then store them in individual freezer ziploc bags. Use a soda straw to evacuate as much air as possible, then seal them and freeze them. When you wanted a quick and yummy dinner, just take a frozen bird in its plastic bag, open the bag and put a couple of ounces of water or white wine in the bird's cavity, and microwave it in the bag for a few minutes till reheated. If you take the smoked chickens and take the meat off the bones, the meat makes a fantastic chicken salad; save the skin and bones, though, and you can make an incredibly rich and flavorful chicken stock that would jack up the flavor of many dishes like beans, soups, etc. What's really nice is that the cooking times are not written in stone, and slightly overcooking the stuff will not ruin it since it's a very moist environment. Another plus is that most of the work is done 3 or 4 hours (or more) prior to serving food. Once you load the smoker and get everything going, it really doesn't take much attention at all--in fact, most of the time it's better to leave it the heck alone. That means that if you're entertaining a bunch of people, you have time to check on everything else without worrying about the main dish. Much less stressful than, say, grilling a bunch of steaks for a crowd.

the weber will outlast the charbroil, but at twice the price, is it worth it to you? the Charbroil has a larger cooking surface AND higher BTU rate than the Weber. also it has cast iron cooking grates, which to me equal more even heat than the Weber's stainless grate. so, for me, i would go with the Charbroil. not to start anything here, but have you considered charcoal or dual fuel grills? i saw a Char-Griller at my lowes a couple weeks back that was 2 grills in 1. gas on one side and the other grill was charcoal. ifyou plan on cooking anything that requires a long cook time, such as smoking meats, you just cannot beat a charcoal grill. gas cooks quicker, and has less mess to clean, but does not do as well for slow cooking items. i smoke my ribs for 6 hours on my chargriller, and they fall off the bone. trying to cook teh same ribs on a gas grill and they cook in under 2 hours and are TUFF!