Blooming barbecues!

but without the tinnies at that time in the morning

Oh kitty that's just how it is at our house....and I have to supervise DH's efforts or we too have the famous 'black on the outside but raw within' offerings.

By the time everyone is poisoned served all I can manage is to nibble at the salads as I'm too wound up to eat.

I really CBA with barbecues either. All that traipsing in and out with cutlery, crockery, salads and so on. And then bringing it all back indoors again. And we always end up with far too much food - why does my DH think that a barbecue means 4 or 5 different types of meat? We never have that much in a meal cooked in the kitchen

I know it's a faff, but I love BBQ's. DH does the cooking ( really well) and I make all the other bits and bobs, the rest of the family bring drinks and puds and it's just lovely.???????????⚡️⛈☔️

I'm with Phoenix. I like to cook faff-free inside and eat outdoors - so long as the whole neighbourhood isn't using that stinky aviation fuel or whatever it is to start their bbqs, before charring dead animals and sharing the pong! One man's meat ... is another woman's cue to go back inside to eat!

Why make it so difficult? We have had four barbies this week, tuna steaks, monkfish kebabs, veal chops and lemon chicken. We stick the fish or meat in the marinade a couple of hours before, make a salad or get some of last summer's ratatouille out of the freezer, light the barbie which is just outside the kitchen and sit on the terrace with a glass of wine while it cooks.

BBQs are the best place to cook kippers. Shares the wonderful aroma with the neighbours and keeps it out of the house,

Barbecues shouldn't produce loads of smoke, nor should they result in food that is burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. Those are the result of incompetence and a failure to understand how a barbecue works.

Well we barbecued duck on Christmas Day one year. OH lived abroad for years and all cooking was done outside in summer so he just gets on with it - shops, prepares, cooks and helps clear away. All I have to do usually is set table and sort out the wine. I think men brought up in the UK are just not brought up in the BBQ or Braii frame of mind, hence a lot of poorly cooked food and limited imagination with what to cook and how.

The smell of summer. Not flowers ang grass anymore, but greasy barbecues.

I have never understood the attraction of cooking over a fire outdoors when I have a perfectly good kitchen! Like others I was always responsible for salads, cutlery, plates, glasses, wine etc. whilst DH stood around the BBQ chatting with everyone!

We would often go out for drinks before lunch on Sundays and DH would suddenly announce to everyone that he was going to fire up the BBQ and everyone was welcome! I would be desperately thinking about what I had in the freezer and whilst everyone was sitting in the sun I would be rushing around trying to defrost meat and make salad, whilst giving the appearance of a completely relaxed and in control hostess!!!

I love a barbecue - I love the smell, and the taste of the food when it is cooked properly. absent is right. Properly managed, you shouldn't get smoke, and gas barbecues are better for this than charcoal ones. We don't have one at the moment - our old kettle one fell to bits - but are planning to get a gas one this summer, even though, as far as food is concerned, DH can't see past sausages and chicken drumsticks. I'll get DS to give him some lessons - he does a brilliant barbecue.

sunseeker That is not a problem with the barbecue, per se, but a problem with your DH's expansive –and possibly alcohol inspired – hospitality and your willingness to comply.

absent DH was a very hospitable and gregarious man - alcohol had nothing to do with his invitations! Yes I was willing to comply because after all the rushing around we had a lot of fun! I just don't like food cooked over a fire in the open air!

sunseeker, couldn't you have directed him to the Co-op on the way home, and then left him to it while you sat in the sun with the others?

Were you always so into the role of the obedient wifey?

I don't understand why all and any jollity and fun has to be put down to the effects of alcohol these days. I'm not only talking about the poster's husband. It happens on GN too.

Were you always so into the role of the obedient wifey

That's harsh, if meant the way it sounds. I think most of us would do the same.

Maybe the first time. But not after that. Appropriate warnings would have been given.

sunseeker, DH would also do the, 'Everyone back to our place' thing after Sunday lunchtime drinks at the pub. We used to throw all kinds of things together and it was great fun. One Sunday a load of bods from a local archaelogical dig turned up with half a sheep in the back of a landrover. Apparently they were going to have an 'end of dig' celebration but the bloke who was supposed to cook it didn't turn up!!

Happy Days!

DH does a great barbecue. He sits on his perching stool like a cathedral organist, pulling out all the stops. The food is delicious.

We rarely do anything impromptu these days because we now live two miles out of the village so there have to be enough sober drivers to go round

I would welcome friends back for a barbecue (if I had one) - but would also discuss with the profligate inviter the advisability of himself personally making sure that the fridge and freezer were kept well-stocked at all times if he were planning to make a habit of it.

Otherwise he could find that all he had to offer his guests might be dry toast with a tin of beans shared round. It gets expensive to have the ingredients for a super barbecue for a dozen always to hand for random feasts.

Spontaneous entertaining used to be the best. Sometimes it just involved mugs of (tinned) tomato soup to thaw out after a typical English garden fête, sometimes it would involve everybody bringing something to eat or drink and the food was thrown together. I remember a "mercy" dash to a local deli when we can back from holiday once to a phone message French friends were in the vicinity and wondered if they might they look in so of course DH asked them for lunch. Nobody was fussy, it was just nice seeing friends , particularly without the formality if toward planning. I don't think our lifestyle or circumstances allow us to do that spontaneity any more

Kittylester, I had to laugh as you described our barbecue last night - even down to praising the DH for his efforts when mine were ten times his! It has taken me years to stop him burning all the meat on the barbie as he used to blacken and char everything as he wouldn't take things off the grill when they were cooked. We did have a lovely meal yesterday in the end and we were able to eat outdoors on the patio which was a treat. But we used every bowl, basket, plate and tray in the house and they all needed to be washed up!

I think that barbies might be more honoured in the breach than the observance this year unless I do the 'oven barbie' version where I can cut the time, effort, mess and clearing up exponentially. No wonder men, when living alone, live on cereal, takeaways and tins of beans. and even then they don't bother to throw the boxes or tins away. Sheesh!

I love eating otdoors and agree good cooked properly on a coal barbecue can taste good
We stayed with friends abroad one summer .They had bought this enormous gas fired BBQ the controls looked like the flight deck of Concorde Two hours later we ate food that tasted just the same as if it had been cooked in the kitchen And yes it was he who wielded the tongs and she and I who went back and forth to the kitchen ....

Was spared on Saturday due to storm!

I don't like bbq.......too much bother prefer to cook indoors then eat out