Tailgater Monthly

This month I'm honored to be both on and in the current issue of Tailgater Monthly.

The cover is a grill-selfie I took earlier this year. It's a typical winter shot for me: snow, flame, and my Canon triggered with a remote shutter. Most of these shots I find are crap, but a few...a few, I really like. I'm glad the editors of TM liked this one.

On the inside, I was interviewed as their "Griller Guy," which really, is a fairly apt description.

For the back story, I did the interview for this while I was in LA for Weber back in September. At the time, Marsha and I were driving up the PCH to Malibu trying to make our call time. For the uninitiated, the lovely Ms. Marsha Capen is the managing editor of Weber's cookbooks. It is her unmistakable eye for detail I've witnessed again and again. Her hard work and collaboration helps make the cookbooks the incredible tomes they are. I'm honored to call her my friend.

While following this unknown route, I did my best to sound...with it. Even with the driving, this is often a challenging task, or so I'm told.

As I answered questions, I'd give a half-look to Marsha to see just how she approved of my answers. I can always tell when Marsha doesn't approve. We've worked together enough over the last couple years to share these....ahh, moments. Fortunately, I was only getting positive vibes. I even quietly solicited her opinion as we weaved in and along the California coast. Thankfully, all of my extraneous comments about surfers, traffic, and Siri, were left out of the final draft.

Here are my favorite takeaways:

What did you say you use to move charcoal?

A hoe. Like from the garden. Because it's important to be able to move charcoal briquettes around the kettle, and a hoe works really well.

Isn't the plank supposed to be a buffer from the direct flames?

The plank does protect, until you forget what the hell you're doing, and it turns into a fiery raft that destroys your meal.

Sadly, this is what I come up with on little sleep while driving unknown terrain.

It's been an awesome year of opportunity and I'm thrilled everyone at Tailgater Monthly enjoyed my work. They were incredibly kind and put together an awesome magazine. If you've not seen it before, I highly suggest you consider getting a subscription. It's chock full of great grilling information, ideas, and recipes...and in this issue, a little baldness.