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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to HATE the barbeque season?

72 replies

cyrilsneer · 10/04/2011 15:14

I think I must be the only one... Everyone gushes about how simple life is when their husband "just barbeques"...

My husband loves barbequeing (why? It is just a grill, the same as the one in the kitchen?) and here's what it involves for me:

Spend three times as much money in Waitrose as usual because you can't just do a chicken breast each or a few sausages each... No, you have to have the chicken breast, the sausages, a little steak etc etc

Spend ages stuck in the kitchen making salads, marinades and so on

Make umpteen trips, trotting in and out, to schlapp everything outside to lay the table

Get pissed off when, just as the food is being served, everyone starts sprinting around because it is too bright and they need their sunnies (then can't find their sunnies) or too cold and they need a hoodie (then can't find their hoodie).

Have to bundle the table-cloth straight into the washing machine because someone always blobs salad dressing

Feel like committing murder as I find the dirty, smelly grill in the belfast sink in my utility room where Mr Sneer has "left it to soak" and gone off to work on Monday morning, forgetting all about it.

All of this just so we can have sausages (possibly slighty overdone on the outside, possibly slightly underdone on the inside?) that split and look rough???

Am I the only one? We've just had the first of the year today and it's all come flooding back. Am I the only person that thinks "roll on September" so I can stick a casserole in the oven and make life easy for myself?

I think I must be a miserable cow. Everyone loves barbeques except me. I just don't get it...

OP posts:

Prinnie · 10/04/2011 18:01

YABU - and clearly too much of a perfectionist! You don't need 3 types of meat, you don't need to marinade, you don't even need cutlery if you just shove a burger in a bun! A quality sausage in a bun with some ketchup and mustard and a cold beer is all you need!

Snobear4000 · 10/04/2011 18:05

YABVU, you wretched, fun-spoiling, sorry old woman. You need to get your ass over to America or Australia for a while and learn to smile again.

My little BBQ money saving tip is that it works out cheaper if you tell your guests to bring their own meat.

alistron1 · 10/04/2011 18:06

Lol Prinnie that's my kind of BBQ!!

Want2bSupermum · 10/04/2011 18:07

We don't have 50 people every weekend. Some weekends we only have a couple of friends over. I don't like my hair honking of smoke to two days after or having funky flavoured coffee in the morning (although smoked chilli flavoured coffee wasn't bad at all) due to DH using my coffee grinder to make a rub. Also, cooking for a bbq takes me around 3-4 hours regardless of the number of people he is cooking for. He always tells me that the cold meat can be used up during the week in salads. It doesn't get eaten up unless I eat it up which annoys me greatly as I don't want to eat 5lbs of meat for lunch during the week.

I have talked to my darling DH about this numerous times and he has improved but there is still a way to go.

expatinscotland · 10/04/2011 18:07

Why are you doing all this shit on your own? Rope Mr Sneer and the kids in to do their fair share or it doesn't get done. Full stop.

Prinnie · 10/04/2011 18:07

Oh and I forgot to say - you certainly don't need a tablecloth outside!!!! What is it the 1950's? Or do you live in a John Lewis commercial?

PinkFondantFancy · 10/04/2011 18:09

Blimey, that's a bit harsh snobear! My DH loves BBQs but to be honest, I find them a bit boring, especially when we're on our third of the week, and they seem to make an absolute ton of washing up, especially the huge round grill from our kettle BBQ that can't be washed up without splattering the entire kitchen with charred grease. On the other hand, it is nice to sit outside to eat and it's the only time of year that I actually get around to eating any salad.....

mrsmillsfanclub · 10/04/2011 18:09

Yanbu, I have never been to a decent bbq in this country. My mediterranian inlaws would be horrified to see burgers, and hot dogs on a bbq. They cook fish, thin steaks and proper sausages. Nothing is ever charred on the outside, and it is always cooked thoroughly on the inside.

The thought of sitting waiting for an underdone hot dog in a British backgarden wrapping my cardi round me for warmth doesn't compare with balmy evenings in a really sunny climate with no Bob Marley, Adele, or Justin Beiber playing.

StarlightMcKenzie · 10/04/2011 18:11

You're all doing it wrong. Just put the meat on the grill, olive oil on any veg first then on the grill, and wrap fish in tin foil with a little oil.

What's with the prissy marinade nonsense. Just cook it and then eat it.

StarlightMcKenzie · 10/04/2011 18:12

Oh you can sprinkle on some herbs and a bit of garlic if you like, but that takes seconds.

WinterOfOurDiscountTents · 10/04/2011 18:14

bunch of miserable fuckers!

Proper BBQ: Sunshine, easy food thrown on the grill, beers, fun.
You whinging lots BBQ's: Martyrdom, moaning and missing the point entirely.

StarlightMcKenzie · 10/04/2011 18:15

eh? why do you need a table cloth?

Want2bSupermum · 10/04/2011 18:17

prinnie - I agree with you on keeping it simple. I always lose the argument to do one pork and one beef dish. To me doing more than two meats is a waste.

Tablecloths are needed if you have a hideous table. You will laugh but when having less than 10 over I use these lovely machine washable placemats that i found in target as well as the tablecloth.

StarlightMcKenzie · 10/04/2011 18:33

A table, surely, is a functional piece of furniture, not an ornament.

Hideous tables still 'table'!

Gemsy83 · 10/04/2011 18:40

I do the barbequeing. My DP is better at making the desert tbh.

Easterfeaster · 10/04/2011 18:41

We barbecue all year round, to cook whole joints in a big kettle BBQ. Last new year we did a whole leg of lamb but had to dig a space in the very deep snow for the BBQ. Then we eat it inside as normal, unless it's particularly nice weather.
My cousin has devised a battery operated spit to roast chickens on his.
Definitely doesn't need washing, just a good blast of heat will kill everything.
We love our BBQ all year round.

toeragsnotriches · 10/04/2011 18:52

Mmm. Had family over today. DH got all the credit for a 'great spread' as he was the cook. I was the one stuffing trout, marinading kebabs, washing and chopping up salad etc etc at 7am while he had a lie in (he had worked all night on Friday.) And who braved Asda yesterday. Oh well it did taste fecking good. And I would have cremated everything. So maybe I should begrudge him a little of the praise .

Original poster

cyrilsneer · 10/04/2011 19:03

Do you know what, I know IABU...

We've actually had a really, really lovely afternoon, lying around in the sun, completely chilling with cold beers.

It's obviously my stuff that I've made a rod for my own back by making a BBQ more work than it needs to be - clearly it can be as simple as you like. WinterOfOurDiscountTents is right - I'm being a miserable, moaning martyr and missing the point. Making life harder than it needs to be then whinging.

The tablecloth, though, is in fact to cover our horrible old table so I don't have to clean it all down properly. Lesser of two evils!

OP posts:

MikeRotch · 10/04/2011 19:04

YABU

why does h do it?

Glitterknickaz · 10/04/2011 19:34

burner? burner? bloody heck.... philistines - charcoal for good ol' authentic barbecuing..... My stepdad is king of the coals and would disown us if we had a gas bbq....

Does anyone else remember the food standards agency "when will I see you again" advert?

SarahLundsJumper · 10/04/2011 19:48

Hahahah yes to to that advert ! nothing can make me eat it ! Noooooooooooooooooo!

Bearcat · 10/04/2011 19:52

Just had our first BBQ today and get our meat and sausages from a local butcher who does fantastic chicken skewers with various different marinades, and lovely sausages that he makes himself.
Before we discovered him we probably didn't BBQ that often as the supermarket meat was always a bit disappointing.
Ditch the tablecloth too. Much easier to wipe a table down than washing and ironing a tablecloth

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