I realise this might lead to a lot of folk rolling their eyes and muttering things along the line of 'no sh*t sherlock' and all that but honestly, bear with me. Our BBQ hasn't been touched since 2009, and although its been under a cover in the garden, it needed a good clean. Since I am all about cooking outdoors this year, i decided that I should go and clean it up, because then I can try smoking bigger joints of meat in it (its one of those massive kettle-style BBQs, so would hold a hefty chunk of meat!).

After i'd scraped off the worst of the gunk, I lit some charcoal to help clear the grills out and oh my goodness, the smoke! I was kippered. Worse, I've been coughing up nasty blobs of smoke-flavoured yuck ever since *insert puking green smiley* I can only compare it to having been caught in a fire. Nasty.

However, the grill is now clean and lovely, and my mummy brought me two huge sacks of chopped-up apple boughs which are now happily seasoning in my garage, and we are going to have some serious BBQ this summer. We're going to have pork butt, and brisket, and smoked sausage and all kinds of smoked cheeses and nuts...

Party at my place....