We have a new addition to the family!  A brand new Traeger grill!  She’s a beaut!

If you’re not familiar with Traeger, they’re a wood pellet smoker/grill.  The Traeger Company started in the great state of Oregon.  Nod to the homeland.

The husband and I have been contemplating a new grill since last summer.  We bought our trusty propane Kenmore with wedding money over 7 years ago.  It has served us well, but when I started grilling this summer I found that I was having to pick pieces of, well, the grill off of our grilled meat.  That’s a problem.

When we visited my parents earlier this year my Dad introduced me to his Traeger.  I had never seen such a creature and was intrigued.  Then we tasted the meat that he served for dinner and we were sold.  There’s nothing quite like smoked meat. Well, maybe smoked bbq’d meat.  We agreed that we were willing to invest the money in a Traeger.

We’ve been intending to make it to a local store to look/purchase for a couple of months now.  But, it closes at 5 during the week and is not open on Sundays.  If you’ve noticed, we’re usually galavanting about the countryside on Saturday. Therefore, when Dad & Mom said they were coming to visit I told Dad we’d go look at the Traegers.  He was more than happy to lend his expertise.

We entered the store and approached the shiny new grills.  There she was…a Red Rider BB gun with a compass on the stock.  Wait, wrong reference.

We focused on the Junior Elite, their smallest grill.  There is, after all, only two of us.  And, even their smallest fits a lot.  Dad said he cooked a 15 lb ham on his Junior Elite.  We contemplated the price, had a discussion, and were about to commit when Dad wondered aloud if Costco had Traeger in as they often do in the summer.  I pulled out the handy iphone and, what do you know, the local Costco had just started a Traeger “show” the day before.  Off we went!

The Traeger saleslady at Costco was very knowledgeable, very nice and she made a sale.  I am all for supporting local, and I would have bought local if the price difference had been negligible.  But, it was $100 cheaper at Costco and the cover was included.  The covers run $40.

The Traeger box was larger than the trunk of our car, so it road home on the husband’s lap.  It was a bit tight.  And pretty funny to look at.  Well, actually, it road to Cabelas on the husband’s lap.  Dad had a gift card from Christmas to spend, and neither Mom nor I wanted to wander the aisles of Cabelas for an extended period of time, so we dropped off the boys and took the grill home.  We did go back to pick them up.

Once we got home, Dad and the husband set about putting the grill together.  It only took a couple of beers each.  They had extra screws when they were done and suggested that it came with “spares.”  I remain unconvinced.

We had originally intended to go out for dinner, but then we bought the Traeger.  Why would we go out when we owned a shiny new smoker grill and a Dad who was willing to show us how it worked?  Of course, I drank wine and shot the breeze while he cooked the chicken, so I didn’t really follow along.  And wandered about the yard and took pictures of flowers.

I had planned on making “the” baked beans for our dinner on Sunday, but went ahead and made them for Saturday evening.  “The” beans is a recipe that I’ve made for years now.  I think I found it in Bon Appetite magazine.  It’s an amazing recipe.  4 different varieties of canned beans, onion, canadian bacon, a tomato sauce based sauce with brown sugar, molasses, apple cider vinegar, chili powder, worcestershire, and tabasco to taste.  I should share the recipe.  Another post.

The chicken took a while to cook, but it was sooooo worth it.  Dad split a whole chicken, put a rub on it, smoked it for a while then cranked the heat up to finish it off.  Can I say it was amazing?  It was amazing.  So juicy with good smoke.  I’m going to smoke everything. And what I do not smoke I will grill.

And here’s the old, decrepit grill, cast to the side.  Having to bear witness to the performance of the shiny, new grill.