Philips smokeless infrared grill

[Old Sarge]

I have lived in my current house for about 15 years and have never owned a full-sized grill because for most of that time I wasn't a meat eater and there's really no great place to put one. I started eating meat again after developing a serious illness and needing to greatly increase my protein intake. I've been using the range to either pan fry or the oven to broil meats but it's not the same as grilling. I have a little Coleman camping grill but it's such a hassle to use and the grill is literally an inch from the flame so it is forever flaming up. It's definitely not worth pulling out just to grill a pork chop. Another thing is I have serious lung issues so I have a really hard time with any kind of smoke. All signs point toward no grilling for me.

The other day my wife was at a thrift store and found one of these infrared grills for $35. They are pretty expensive new so I had to try it. Believe it or not, it actually works really well. It heats the grill to somewhere just north of 400 degrees but, because the heat sources aren't under the grill, there's virtually no smoke. The juice drips into a tray that never gets very hot so there are no flare-ups or anything like you'd get on a gas or electric grill. It's definitely not as hot as a gas grill but I prefer slow cooking anyway. It's essentially the adult version of an easy-bake oven only with much more powerful bulbs. It does get hot enough to have a grilling effect though as you can see from the finished steak.

So now I'm on a grilling spree. Anything that can be grilled is going on that baby. Last night I cooked some shrimp and veggie skewers and a couple of filets of fish. Everything turned out fine but I should have gone a bit longer on the veggies. It takes a little longer the higher the food is off the grate itself. I'm just happy I have a way to grill that works for me!

It's fortunate that I just finished dinner...otherwise I'd be awful hungry looking at you pics! Love the easy-bake oven analogy.