Barbeques Can be a Year Round Event

Any time is the right time for a barbeque. Summer, spring, winter and fall make for perfect barbeque weather.

Barbecue is both the method and cooking gear for cooking meat with heat and hot smoke, smoking wood or hot charcoal coals, cooking gas or even electricity. The cooking process also involves spice rub, marinade or basting sauce. The word barbecue can also mean the event that includes the barbecued food.

Barbeques Are Not Just a Summer Thing

Summer is not the only time for barbeques. For those in climates that experience spring, fall and winter will find any season an excellent time for such events. There is nothing like standing around the barbeque, sipping hot chocolate with your favorite additive, waiting for the chicken and ribs to cook as the snow falls gently to the ground.

A barbeque in the fall combines the snap of the fall air complimented by the smell of grilling meat crossed with the essence of fallen leaves. A spring shower cleans the air, and that cannot help but inspire some outdoor cooking. If you dress for the weather, - hot or cold, rainy, snowy or dry - barbeques are fun all year around.

The Challenges

There are draw backs to holding barbeques in the winter or cold months. Coffee and hot chocolate cool off very quickly and sometimes freeze. Hors d’oeuvres, such as shrimp, dips and even garden salad can get a bit icy if left to the elements too long, and anything cooked on the grill will reach ambient temperature before Jack Frost has a chance to nip at your nose. Off course, you can always barbeque outdoors and bring the food indoors to eat, but what fun is that?

Cook it Winter Style

The best way to enjoy barbeque cookouts in the winter is to build a big fire rather than cook on a grill. A 2 to 3 foot diameter circle of concrete blocks piled 2 high will work just fine for a fire pit. Have a metal grate handy to put on top of the fire, for cooking. Be sure to have enough firewood available to keep the fire going for the duration of the event. Encourage your guests to bring scraps of wood for the fire and save the tree limbs that fall and stock pile them for such an occasion. Offer to take your neighbors fallen tree limbs, as well.

The idea of the circle fire pit is to be able to gather around the fire. Everyone will keep warm and have a place to put a cup of coffee or hot chocolate to prevent freezing. Be careful with paper products too close to the fire. That could be a fire hazard and the last thing anyone wants is the fire department showing up and hosing down the barbeque, and that will just result in soggy meat. If the guests gather around the fire, it will also allow everyone to help cook, and this will be one time too many cooks will not spoil the soup and that are the real reason behind the circle fire pit. Of course, if a fire is not an appealing idea, the grill can always be used for cooking.

  Anything that can be barbequed in the summer can be barbequed in the winter. Anything that can be cooked on the stove or in the kitchen oven can be barbequed in the winter on an outside fire. Do not let the weather hinder your outdoor plans. Do not think you have to put the grill away at the end of the summer. Be brave and adventurous and enjoy barbeques in the spring, fall and winter, as well as, the summer.

Don't be afraid to experiment with non-typical barbequed and grilled food. Their is a whole new world of cooked food out there just waiting to tease the palette.