Are You Ready For Tailgating Season?

Oh fall weather, how I have missed thee! We’ve been dealing with a combination of hot, humid, nasty temperatures and soggy, humid, rainy days here in Kentucky this summer. Anyone who knows me knows that I am NOT a summer girl. I may have been born in August, but my heart belongs in autumn all the way. Our local weather forecast is calling for fall-like weather for the next three days. YAY!!!!

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I’m ready for flannel shirts, boots and jeans, pumpkins, hay rides, bon fires, football and tailgating. I’m ready for cool nights and fall colors and that amazing smell to the air that only fall can bring. Wood smoke and caramel apples. Pumpkin pie and cinnamon. Ah. I’m ready.

Speaking of  grilling and tailgating. We cook out all summer long (all year long really). But in the fall, I enjoy it so much more. Cooking out at home or tailgating, it doesn’t matter to me. I love food cooked on the grill. Clay is our grill master. He grills meats, veggies, you name it. He does awesome on steaks and burgers but we both tend to overcook chicken. Lately, he’s been using some grilling essentials like the AcuRite Tailgating Kit.

Disclosure: I was provided a complimentary AcuRite Tailgater Kit to facilitate my review. All opinions are strictly my own.

Here’s some thoughts from Clay:

I’ve been using a Tailgating Kit from AcuRite.

The AucuRite Digital Cooking Thermometer lets me know when the meat is perfectly cooked. It is a really cool thermometer! You insert the probe into the meat, let the cord come out of the grill where it is inserted into the digital thermometer.

You can set different options like type of meat which gives you a recommended “done-ness” temperature. You can also choose to customize your choice if you like your meat a little more rare or well done. For me, the recommended temperatures are perfect.

It shows me the current meat temperature and how much cooking time I have left. Once it reaches the desired temp., an alarm sounds to let me know it is done. You can use it in your oven too! Crystal uses it when she’s roasting meat in the oven.

If that isn’t cool enough, there’s also a portable pager that sounds an alarm as well if I choose to use it. So I don’t have to worry about running to the kitchen and overcooking the meat.

I’ve also been using the AcuRite Grill Surface Thermometer. The built-in thermometer in our grill stopped working ages ago so it is nice to have something that reads the surface temp and lets us know just how hot the grill is. I don’t always want to put meat on until the grill is at a certain temp. so this is really handy to have. Plus, if it starts getting too hot, we know to turn the gas down some.

Crystal and the kids say that my southwest lime chicken has never tasted better! With the digital cooking thermometer, I can look at the meat temperature and know exactly when to put the cheese and toppings on so they have just enough time to melt without overcooking the chicken. And steaks? They turn out perfect every time.

One other tailgating tool that Crystal, personally, loves is the AcuRite Fridge Freezer and Cooler Thermometer. She uses it in the cooler when we are going to a cookout or tailgate party somewhere else. It has a water submersible design so we can use it in the cooler. This comes in handy when we’re taking salads that have mayo in them or dips with sour cream and even creamy desserts like the Apple Crack she makes. (from Crystal – I’ll share that recipe next week!) It let’s us know if the temperature in the cooler is dropping too low to keep the food safely stored. It has high/low temp. records that clear every 24 hours from starting at when you install the batteries. So if you install them at 3:00 PM, then the high/low records will reset at 3:00 PM every day. So you will have new records each time you use it.

I don’t know about you, but we’re ready to really put these grilling gadgets to good use this fall. They will definitely get a grill time workout in this family!