Because of all the rain we have had this year in CA, the grill season started late...late...late !
But for Easter, come hell or high water, it was time to uncover the que and fire up the burners and begin, in earnest, the 2006 Grill Season.

What is the 2006 Grill Season you ask ?

Well, football has a season, baseball has a season, hell, even seasons are seasons, so this is my personal place to list everything I make on my grill for this year.

This Easter's menu was:

• Grilled tri-tip, 2 varieties of dry rub
• 1. basic bbq rub.
• 2. And my world famous "Al's tri tip rub", well not world famous (yet) but locally reknown.
• Grilled yukon gold potatoes with sweet onions
• Asparagus
• bread

Since this was the inaugural opening day, so to speak, we started simple; with a tried and tested favorite: tri-tip a la "Al's tri-tip rub". I won't reveal the recipe, I may enter this in a contest someday, but suffice it to say, it contains a special blend of imported paprika and cayenne pepper, plus some other delicious additions. It's spicy hot (obviously, with the cayenne in there), and with the 10 or so people we had over, I made a non-spicy hot version as well. Can you guess which one went first.

First rule of eating here: everything gets spiced up. I love dry rubs, wet rubs, some marinades, home made bbq sauces. Very little if anything is store bought. Have you ever had home made soup ? How does that compare to a can of condensed soup ? Well, the same applies for bbq sauces and rubs.

A word to the wise: stay away from spice rubs in your local supermarket or even the ones your butcher uses. He may be a great guy, but those are unnecessarily loaded with salt and additives. Go out and buy some quality spices and make your own. Your guests will appreciate the difference.