bbq - is it just me?

That's why we do not have them! I've never understood the concept. I'd much rather do a well planned 'Cold collation....or a dish properly cooked in the oven safely and well.
I am more than happy to eat outdoors....love a group picnic where everyone contributes....but badly cooked meat has never appealed to me.

Oh how I agree with you! Often on a sunny Sunday my DH and I would visit the local pub and after a hour or so he would announce that everyone should come back to ours for a bbq! I would then go into a panic trying to remember what I had in the fridge or freezer and when we did arrive home I would be rushing around the kitchen defrosting food and making salads whilst his lordship would be handing out the drinks to everyone in the garden, by the time I got to sit down most of the food was gone and the only seat available would be the stone step. After everyone had left guess who would be stacking the dishwasher and cleaning up the mess whilst someone was sitting with a nice cold drink congratulating himself on being a great host (bbq tip - paper plates are wonderful!)

Ditto Hilda.

Yes, I love to eat outdoors as well, and do actually like the taste of bbq...it's jhust such an unfair division of labour! Maybe next time I should offer to swap roles and cook the meat. That'd stop himself from suggesting them so often!

I'm so over barbecues.

Nothing wrong with eating outdoors but without feeling the need to provide a week's ration of various meats, goodness knows how many salads and dressings and a large selection of bread rolls

Oh and don't forget a suitable pud!

the pud's always the best bit imho...

I love bbq . We had one yesterday actually . 4 families all chipped in to pay for meat which was fetched from the farm shop by dil, who volunteered to fetch it..I did salad and fresh fruit to nibble while meat cooking....someone did veggie kebabs and a fruit salad and the other couple just turned up with nothing but little girls bike and bottles flavoured water...just for the little girl..They had no food ..no drinks..no chairs..no blanket...just themselves and bike and water...then they sat on everyones chairs and dragged my blanket into bramble and pine cones so we could not sit on it..They ate loads more than anyone else and then when it was time to clear up they went and stood by their car and pretended not to see the tidy up operation and then just jumped in their car and left us lot to take rubbish home with us.
Should not surprise me but they do same thing every single time....at home or away.
They never have folks to their home and never cook in their kitchen as it's new and they don't want to dirty it.They live on pot noodles and ping meals.
What I don't like about bbq's is the usual bbq food ..frozen burgers and cheap sausages..we do fish..lamb steaks..king prawns etc. we do burgers and sausages too but good ones.

So your other couple are very well fed!

I love a good BBQ , especially an impromptu one.

We had one yesterday. The food was simple, burgers and sausages , not a lettuce leaf in sight :-) . Dessert was lollies and ice creams . Paper plates , plastic cups . A paddling pool and water pistols.

A high old time was had by all.

We do do 'posher' ones but there's a lot more faff involved and who needs faff at 29 degrees ???

Have to say that I dread being invited to other people's barbecues, as have had...
Burned meat/undercooked meat/burned on the outside and raw inside meat!
But, our own ( smug mode) are fab, as DH does them really well, and I provide all the rest of the food and puddings, a fair division of labour ( salad, pasta, potatoes etc are all easy, and puds can be bought.)
We have them regularly throughout Summer but not in such high temperatures as now.

I'm one of the anti BBQ gang. The amount of work that goes into the accompaniaments,the clearing up etc. It seems the women do everything, apart from stand near the fire, cooking meatbbadly, whilst drinking a cooling beer which invariably in done by a man, with much support from other men.
Picnics are great, cook some sausages and chicken to eat cold. Easy

Not just you OP.......I just go for the takeaway option!!

I hate them. Even when they are done well I much prefer to eat indoors.

No, it's not just you. Please may I join the What-Is-The-Point-Of BBQs? party too? Last year DD and SIL had a party, mostly in the garden, and the food was BBQ style, but cooked in the kitchen, so it was properly cooked, nobody ended up smelling of smoke and we were all (very) well fed.

I too am a BBQ party-pooper! Why not just cook something properly indoors and eat it outdoors? What is gained by watching men undercooking meat on a temperamental BBQ? And making sure the children do not get burned? Nightmare!

My DS decided to have a BBQ last Bonfire Night. They live in a flat with a communal garden. Neighbours invited and all contributed BUT ... how come it was me and DDIL up and down stairs all evening with extra glasses, plates, dishes of salad and jacket spuds and the standby booze? At the end of it all we had to decamp to the local park with the fireworks anyway so what was the point? I'm definitely not a fan of BBQs - unless someone else is organising and I have my own stash of wine

Yes, Luckygirl, I also worry about the children and dogs being in close proximity with the BBQ. It takes ages to cool down, so I have many hours of worry.
I also think that, in addition to the lengthy preparation, we spend far more money when we do a BBQ - meat, fish, cheese, skewed vegetables, relishes, salads, potatoes, chips etc. because everyone likes different bits.

Does anyone else dislike the smell of a BBQ ? I find the smell of the BBQ itself, and food cooking on it, really unpleasant, especially when near neighbours light theirs, leave it to smoulder for a while, then start cooking in the later part of the evening. I have to close all windows because it really does smell awful.

Oh what a jolly grumble ? I have dogs as well as toddler grandchildren. I'm old enough now to say nope, let's not have a BBQ when the younger family members suggest 'let's BBQ at mums, we can buy and cook the meat - you'll have nothing to do mum hah!

Nothing to do mum! That's a joke!

Me too! We've just eaten our evening meal in the garden - lovely - but cooking there? Not for me although Mr C does mutter about it sometimes, a look deals with that Our kitchen is at the front of the hourse, no way will salads and 'stuff' ferry themselves there on their own, so no BBQs in our corner. I'm sort of relieved it isnt just me.

When my husband was alive he regularly cooked the meat or fish on the BBQ even if too cold to eat outside and I cooked the veg indoors. That was great. We also regularly cooked for the rest of the family which was a lot of work. My kitchen's not at the back of the house to endless carrying to and fro is hard work. We don't have BBQs now.

When we built our annexe I designed the kitchen so it would lead straight on to the patio through a stable door. That way I can bolt shut the bottom bit and hand stuff through the top. I don't venture outside until someone else has put it all on the tables and DH has got all his ironmongery which he should have organised in the first place.

I got well and truly sick of running backwards and forwards and then I'd hear his familiar refrain,

'Are you going to actually going to sit down and eat this now I've cooked it?'

We've stopped having barbecues as my husband didn't want to do the cooking so I did it all. So much work and so inconvenient as nothing's in the right place!
I'm a veggie too which complicates matters. Though I'm still very partial to a barbecued banana!