Remembering the Day of My First Cook

Your post reminded me of when I first started Egging. I didn't have a clue as to what to do with this big heavy green thing other than start cooking something. I nuked a piece of chicken. That was back in 1999.



It didn't take long for me to figure out that I needed a table of some kind. Hence:



Then I moved it up against the house where it would remain until Nature Boy's fire:



At which time we decided to move away from the house and build an outdoor kitchen. Hence The Coop:



Now we have three Eggs, have made hundreds of new friends, learned a lot about good eating and enjoyed every minute of it. And somewhere along the way I learned how to cook a few things (thanks to this Forum).

Enjoy your new hobby. I know we have.

Spring "Newby Nine Years In The Making" Chicken
Spring Texas USA

We all kinda take our Eggs for granted. And there are only a few reported cases of Egg fires getting out of hand. But even the most experienced Egghead can sometimes have a lapse of judgment or fail to take simple precautions when firing up or cooking on the Egg.

I don't think that was the case with Chris. I seem to recall that a spark from the Egg blew into his garage. He pretty much lost his entire home as a result.

My Egg was up against my house and had never caused even the slightest problem or concern but Chris's experience was enough to scare us into moving away from the house. It helped that we had always wanted a covered outdoor kitchen so we started work almost immediately. Very glad we did too.

Also, Big Green Egg took it upon themselves to beef up Egg safety by installing spark arresting screens on the bottom draft door. Good move on their part. I promptly ordered screens to install on my older Eggs. My Mini came with one. I use them whenever I'm cooking.

Long story short, Chris's experience made all of us more aware of the dangers of playing with fire.

Spring "Walking Talking Incendiary Device" Chicken

I've had my large BGE for about 6 years. It took about a year before I was comfortable using the thing and another year before I could egg on autopilot - without thinking.
:laugh:

That's evolution baby!