A Brat Fry Goddess

(source)

Hi Friends!

Guess what!  I have officially gained "Brat Fry Goddess" status this week!  In exchange for water time, my club holds weekly Brat Fries over at the pool.  Last week, Emily, Maddie and I headed over to the pool as complete brat fry novices.  John talked us through the grilling process beforehand, but the truth is, we had no idea what we were doing.  The first fire we built was weak--and it took about an hour to get the first batch of brats cooked.  By that time, they were beyond chewy.  I spent the whole time wigging out about whether the brats were thoroughly cooked.  The entire city grounds crew came over to eat last week.  I was sure that I would end up poisoning the whole group.  Needless-to-say, I was quite relieved when I saw them at the pool the next day.

This week, however, we decided to parboil the brats ahead of time, and just use the grill to heat them back up.  And they were AWESOME--brat perfection!  Here's what I did:   bring one bottle of beer, 2 cups of water and a chopped red onion to a boil.  Then I carefully added the brats and boiled them for 15 minutes.  This week I used more charcoal and lighter fluid to get the grill nice and hot.  I didn't bother with building the pyramid of charcoal this time.  Once the charcoal was silver, we threw the brats on the grill for about 10 minutes until they were browned and fabulous looking.  They were juicy and delicious, and I didn't have to worry about them being raw.  Emily gave me the best compliment:  she said they tasted just like Dad's! 

Now that I've mastered the grill, it might be time to learn how to cut the grass*.  Pretty soon I'll know how to do all of John's jobs!  : )

XO,

Vicki

*Full disclosure:  I have no desire to learn how to cut the grass--I'm really glad John likes to do that.