8 Days of Christmas

Today's post is brought to by #5 THE GRATE GIFT THAT STILL PERPLEXES.  I know, you think the teacher has lost her mind and spelled GREAT the wrong way.  No, I mean a it's a grate.  Like this.  Do you wonder what it's for?  Any guesses?  Seeing it like this, it really looks like it could be any number of kinds of grate.  But it's for the grill.  My sister a-ster gave it to us and she gave 2 to my parents.  They are cast iron and you are supposed to put them on top of the grill rack you already have and then cook your meat on this for even cooking.  Everyone explained to me how this works and what the benefits are, but I still don't get it.  A grate on a grate?  How is the cooking on this more even than the cooking on the grate that we normally have on the grill?  I didn't realize that the grill rack that comes with the grill doesn't heat evenly.  I know a-ster is going "sparkling ok she isn't saying that because that isn't really my name, I told you, it sits on the grill rack and keeps the heat more even so you get that nice restaurant grill look on your food".  Ok.  If everyone else says so, we'll give it a whirl.  And it was made in the USA which is rare these days, so that was a big hit with my father.

Currently, the amazing grill rack is sitting on my radiator.  Yes, this old house still has those old fashioned radiators that are one of the things I missed the most when we built the new house when I was in high school.  They have water in them, not those crazy things that people put in their homes these days that have oil and have skinny metal at the top.  These have wide pipes/metal that you can sit on and lay your wet gloves and coat on and you can warm your towel on and dry non dryables on.  Oh, and cats love to lay on them too.  Except when it's really cold out and they are pumping away and they are a little too warm to sit on.  Then they do the ouch my bath is too hot but I'm going to try to ease my butt into it anyway.  After a little dance, off they go.  One of the greatest things in this house.  Yes, they are ugly.  Yes, they are in the way and we can never arrange furniture the way we really want because they are in the way.  But I still love them and always missed them in the other house.  So the amazing grate is sitting on one right now.  And yes, the heat is even throughout the grate.  But I'm still mystified.  I feel like I could take the heated grate and put it somewhere else and still keep warm.  Like maybe after heating it on the grill, I could put it on the table and cook my meat there.

*** Oh crap.  A-ster read this today and sent me a message that she forgot to tell me that I am supposed to season this grate.  And if it rusts, just get it really hot and the rust will come off and then I can re oil it.  Really?  I throw out everything that rusts and living in an ocean climate, that's a lot of things.  The only seasoning I do is putting herbs on things.  Not really sure that sprinkling some oregano on this will do much, but I'll try....

See my other days of Christmas posts here.  Tune in tomorrow for THE GIFT THAT CAME FROM LEFT FIELD.