Easter Barbecue to Break in My Saber Grill

Like my fancy new grill?



It is niiice! Way nicer than anything I could afford on my own. So I leapt at the chance when Monique Moffit, Director of Public Relations at The Sales Factory, asked if I would like to try the Saber Cast 500 grill. I glanced at the website to read about the grill's features: an infrared cooking system for even temperature cooking, no flare-ups, and less gas usage; all commercial kitchen grade stainless steel; three independent cooking zones; and 24,000 BTUs grill and 10,000 BTUs side burner. Sounds pretty awesome!

I decided to throw an impromptu barbecue for Easter to break in my new grill ie. to rope my guests into helping me assemble the darn thing. Luckily, my brother and cousin Q's older brother, the two grill aficionados in the family, were available and willing to help. So how does the Saber grill compare to their fancy schmancy Weber grills?

Well, let's back up a bit. That all commercial kitchen grade stainless steel that sounded so awesome? That meant a package that weighed more than 200 pounds! The grill was delivered on a pallet and required a mini forklift. This was serious business!

The grill didn't come with a propane tank, so my brother nicely offered to pick one up for me on his way over. My cousin showed up first so he got to work unpacking.



Looks nice, huh? Heavy and sturdy!



My brother showed up shortly after so I left them to it while I finished getting the food ready.



I made a few Robin's Nest Egg Easter Cupcakes.



And one chickadee one for good measure.



Then hid a couple dozen plastic eggs for the kids to find.



I didn't really hide them all that well. :P



The kids still had a hard time finding them though!



Look how excited they were.





I stuffed them with candy and crackers. I thought the kids would open some and save the rest to bring home.

I evidently do not know toddlers at all.

They opened

every

single

plastic

egg

and

ate

all the crackers and loose candy.

Good thing I put more crackers than candy in the eggs, and that the small packaged candy was too difficult for them to open. But I had cracker crumbs all over my rug. One kid is manageable. Three kids need constant supervision! Luckily the older '88 showed up at this point to help me finish prepping and to play with the kids.



All assembled. Isn't it beautiful? It took my brother and cousin about 90 minutes to put it together. My brother said that's about how long it took him to put his grill together. My cousin had an earlier model Weber that he said was easier to assemble because there were only four parts.



Three independent cooking zones. The infrared cooking grates are slightly different than my brother and cousin's Weber grates, which are just open below. The Saber website shows a better cross-angle of the second layer of grates. You can see the ignition button just to the left of the dials. The drip tray is concealed where the word Saber is located. So nicely integrated and hidden, that my brother and cousin complained there was no drip tray before I discovered it.



Enough about the grill, you want to know what new recipes I cooked up for this barbecue, don't you?

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus Skewers.



Ga Nuong Me Cam (Vietnamese Grilled Tamarind Orange Chicken).



Coca Cola Fig Jam Ribs.



I cooked the meats in the oven for about half an hour to speed up cooking time before everyone arrived.



But, you just can't beat the char and flavor that proper grilling gives meats.



Delicious!



So how does it compare to my brother's and cousin's high end Weber grills? They said the Saber grill doesn't have a temperature gauge on the lid. So they can't tell what the overall temperature of the grill is with the lid closed, and can't then use the grill like an oven if they wanted. Also, the upper rack is a cooling rack, and doesn't get hot like theirs as they use their upper racks as lower temperature cooking racks. But if those are their only complaints, they seem like minor quibbles to me.



My nit pick is that the drip tray has several inches of dead space so grease dripped down to the inside cabinet. But, now that I'm aware of it, I just have to make sure to keep food a few inches away from the perimeter.



While the boys grilled, I finished making Spicy Macaroni and Cheese and Salsa.

My brother also requested "dinosaur" eggs, what he called my Vegetable-Dyed Crackled Eggs.



I figured the kids would have fun peeling the eggs and seeing the colored crackled effects. They vied to be the one holding the bowl for my picture. Pablo wanted to keep the bowl upright, but the niece knows me by now and wanted to tilt the bowl so the eggs would show up in the picture.



Dinner's all ready!



How did I like my new Saber grill?

The food came out delicious! Seriously, I'm so excited to have a grill to cook with. Definitely gonna experiment with more recipes. With an outside burner too! So I can cook up pungent foods outside.



Happy Easter!

And much thanks to Monique and Saber Grill for my new grill!

Dishes served at this Easter barbecue:
Ga Nuong Me Cam (Vietnamese Grilled Tamarind Orange Chicken)
Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus Skewers
Grilled Coca Cola Fig Jam Ribs 
Robin's Egg Nest Easter Cupcakes

*****
1 year ago today,
2 years ago today,
3 years ago today, Thanh Tam Bakery - Garden Grove (Little Saigon).
4 years ago today, rose suckers.
5 years ago today, musings on tea tree, thank you cards, and Meyer lemons.
6 years ago today, Lady Fairbanks rose archways and my old herb garden.