Smokin' Ribs

It is hard to conceive of now, when the temperature is a measly 8 degrees, but Sunday was a beautiful day here. My husband was off on a motorcycle ride with a friend, so I decided to surprise him by grilling ribs for dinner. He gave me a head's up when he was about an hour away, so I fired up the grill. "Fire" would end up to be my word of the day. I put the temperature halfway between medium and low, wanting to cook the ribs for a longer time period. A little later I looked out the kitchen window and saw too much smoke pouring out the sides of the grill. Uh, oh! Grabbing a glass of water as I had seen my husband do on many occasions, I dashed out the door and flipped open the lid of the grill. Flames were everywhere! I quickly moved the ribs off the grill and set them on the side board, then doused the flames with the cup of water. Well, that didn't work, so I slammed the lid shut hoping it would burn itself out. No dice. By now there was black smoke pouring out of the grill. I was quite surprised that no one call the fire department. Perhaps I should have. I turned off the burners and ran inside for another cup of water.

Following a second dousing of water, there was still a small fire burning. When I opened up the grill doors, I could see that the lower tray was lit up like a bonfire. That is where my next cup of water was tossed. And that, thankfully, did the trick. I took the semi-blackened ribs into the house and put them in the oven. I was afraid to try lighting the grill again. Which got me thinking about gas grills and fire. What is the best way to put out the fire? Do you keep the lid closed? Does opening it feed the fire? Can you use a fire extinguisher? After all, that is a propane tank right under the fire. After searching online, I see conflicting information on water versus no water. This is a topic I plan to research further before I try the barbecue grill again.

In the end, I feel lucky that I wasn't burned and that I did not set the house on fire. We had a nice meal, and watched the fabulous sunset St. Louis was blessed with Sunday night.