The one thing that puts people off BBQ’ing so much is the thought “How do I clean and prepare my BBQ properly” and the reality is that this need not be hard work.

Let me take you though our own process here at iLoveMyBBQ.com.

At the end of every BBQ season we clean our Kettle Barbecue out, wrap and place the baskets that we use into the shed and then cover up the BBQ for the winter.

Come the spring when we are getting ready for our first BBQ (as we are having one tomorrow), I simply fire it up the day before, bang the grills together to get rid of any debris, and then once hot, unwrap all the cooking baskets and place them on the hot grill.

The temperature that the Barbecue reaches means that all the germs and dirt will largely be burnt off and hey presto you are ready to go.

We have never sat there and scrubbed our BBQ clean after using it, we simply bang the cooking baskets together to get rid of any dirt and then place them onto a really hot grill to get rid of any germs. This method has served us well for over 10 years and touch wood, not one instance of a dodgy tummy so far (famous last words!).

Happy Grilling People…

Why not share your own BBQ cleaning hints and tips comments below…

Well, what a year it has been, not only in terms of awareness of this blog and its phenomenal and unexpected growth but also personally for Cairo and I.

2009 was a massive year for us personally that included getting married in early 09 (about time!) and also having our first child, Mini-Barr towards the end of the year - hopefully this explains why iLoveMyBBQ.com went so quiet towards the end of the year!

In terms of this site 2009 was huge. During the peak BBQ months we struggled to cope with the amount of traffic, questions from BBQ fans and companies getting in touch to ask us to review their products. The site featured in several national newspapers and magazines (website of the day in The Times being a notable highlight) and we were asked to give our opinion on various new BBQ gadgets by a few TV and news shows! Wow…

The two things that really made us both really sit up and take notice were; one, the fact we were asked about potentially selling the site on two seperate occasions and two, when we ran a competition towards the end of the last BBQ season we had hundreds and hundreds of entries - more than we could have ever imagined!  This tells us we must be doing something right.

So, here we are in early 2010 (very early!) and we are planning new ideas and recipes and BBQ related gadget stories for the site. As ever, if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know.

Thanks for everyone’s support in 2009 and we look forward to an action packed 2010 of BBQ’ing.

Andy & Jilly (AKA Cairo)

Oh my god! I have not been this excited about a BBQ related find since I discovered the Beer Can up the Bum Chicken… We have found a new BBQ gadget, equipment and tools website called Raw Garden and it is Fricking Awesome.

Credit should go to an eagle eyed BBQ’er who tipped me off about the site and it comes at exactly the right time for me as I am thinking about getting a second BBQ for the new Decking area I have built.

Raw Garden has a fantastic range of BBQ’s and I have picked out a couple of my favourites.

My absolute favourite is this Grill Tech Space 800 which will last for years and costs only £199.99!

The Grill Tech Space 800 also double up as a fire pit and what I like most about it are the tables which I feel are lacking off my current Kettle Style BBQ.

I recently spotted one of these style of BBQ at a massive garden centre in the Midlands that I went to as I heard they had a brilliant BBQ range but the cost for the equivilent product was in the region of £500.00, which is why I think the Raw Garden product represents such great value for money.

Raw Garden has so many funky Barbecues it is difficult to fit all the ones I like onto this blog page… but hey, I will give it a go.

I really like this Dancook 1500 Kettle Charcoal BBQ that comes with a preparation table, again, something I would find really handy for our own Kettle BBQ. Prep tables are an essential part of any BBQ and come in very handy indeed.

The Dancook 1500 Kettle Charcoal BBQ costs £294.99 which I know is quite expensive but is again well worth the money when you compare to some of the high street prices!

Finally, hows about this beast then; The Napolean Prestige ii 750 Gemini Gas BBQ which comes in at  a whopping £3200.00. As you can see, it looks awesome and if you want to pimp up your pad then this would sit perfectly in your garden!

There are enough gadgets and widgets on this BBQ to make sure you never burn your bangers again, and what is more, its sleek design and brushed aluminium finish means that in the right light and at the correct angle your BBQ could possibly be observed from space - (maybe getting a bit carried away now!).

Anyway, I am off to go and have more of a nose around the Raw Garden website.