Third time’s a charm!

I have always heard that phrase and our little 7 dollar grill proved it to be true!

Grill attempt 1---complete fail because we did not have enough “ocote” (kindling type things) and the grill lacked holes to let the air in. Therefore, fire died quickly and we ended up grilling over the gas fire in the kitchen—bad idea. The chicken ended up in the trash because it tasted like gas.

Grill attempt 2—Allan spent 30 minutes drilling about 16 holes into the sides of the grill and another 30 lighting the coals, lighting the coals, and lighting the coals. At about 8:00 we finally enjoyed our chicken dinner-- cooked in a pan on the stove. :(

Grill attempt 3— I had been unable to find ocote in the market, therefore hindering our ability to use the grill. It would be too hard to just light the coals on fire. :) but one day we were going to have Beto (Allan’s old student) and his family over for a North American meal—Hamburgers and chips :) We needed that grill! So I went in search of ocote (which from what people had previously shown me, were little pieces of natural kindling that comes from Pine trees). Well, I found it. and it was a HUGE piece of wood! It turns out that people buy this 70cent piece of wood and chop it up into tiny sticks--which is what people had been showing me. Luckily my roommate had just bought a machete :) and Allan was able to chop up pieces small enough to fit in our little grill! YAY!

We still had to get it lit however. A great thing about living in a small place is that you know a lot of people and people are really willing to help you. And fortunately I live across from a restaurant named “grilled.” We had told Jose, your friendly neighborhood waiter, about our problems with the grill and he told us that the next time we want to grill, to bring the grill over to the restaurant and he would give us hot coals from their grill! Did that make grilling a ton easier or what? We had the ocote and hot coals…a guaranteed success!

Our friend Francisco came to eat dinner and helped Allan out with the grilling, flipping, and fanning of the grill.

The burgers (Aunt Sharon style!) turned out pretty good and I think the boys enjoyed a N. American meal :)

and now we have enough ocote to last 4 years!