This post is sponsored by Everywhere Agency on behalf of Char-Broil; however, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

My favorite time of the cooking year is here: grilling season! This fall and winter in California was a wet one for once. Normally I usually have no problems grilling during the cold season. But, with all the rain we had it was near impossible.

With Memorial Day around the corner, I love to entertain. Even if its just for my family,  it;s really important to me to make memories with my child (soon to be children).  A lot of that comes from making good meals for the family on summer holidays.

Grilling Season. Finally Here!

I’m sure like most of your during the warm seasons, being in the house cooking is not as fun as being able to enjoy the out doors and grill. Any excuse I get I’m out on my grill cooking. Literally, I’ll grill fruit just as an excuse!

But with all that rain we had this year, my old Char-Broil grill was the victim of rust rot. Mostly because I never got a cover and just wasn’t expecting the rain we had.. It was a little 2 burner and I got SO much use out of it over the last year. Now that Memorial Day coming up what more perfect excuse than to start looking for a grilling upgrade!

The timing couldn’t be more perfect when Char-Broil sent me over their Commercial Series TRU-Infrared 4-Burner Gas Grill.  I cannot tell you how excited I was get to grilling with this beast.

Their infrared series has always been a top contender for a grill that I’d purchase, with the enticement of no flare-ups being a huge reason for me to get one. The amount of times I’ve had a flare-up with my old 2 burner that had to get put out, is more than I could bear. It’s definitely frustrating and makes grilling not as fun.

So over the weekend, I decided break in the TRU IR Grill and get everyone’s mouths watering and looking forward to Memorial Day and grilling season. So I took full advantage of all the space I had and cooked up something for everyone. Burgers for Brayden, with a grilled onion and bacon glaze for Dad. and fish tacos with a Avocado Pico for Mom.

Yep. Onion and Bacon glaze #RecipeComingSoon

Entertaining for Memorial Day

It’s always a little stressful, no matter how prepared you are.  The last thing you want to go wrong is your grill annihilating your food with flare-ups or hot spots causing some food to be over cooked, and others to be under-cooked. I can definitely understand why some are intimidated with grilling themselves. But having a good quality grill definitely will take some of that intimidation away!

One of my favorite things to cook for my Memorial Day weekend are burgers. I love cooking with higher fat content beef, around 20% fat. On my smaller grill, this would flare up disaster, making it hard to entertain, or to give advice to your son on how to grill his burger.

My son has so much fun being able to cook with me, even if its just pretend. I really hope he stays excited about cooking with his old man. Being able to have family over and cook together would be so awesome when he gets older. Not to mention the extra hands to help cooking food is a huge plus!

No Flare-ups = More time to entertain. Who knew?!

The Char-Broil TRU IR Grill takes these fatty meat patties like a champ. There are these heat plates that go under the grate that distribute heat evenly, but also prevent the fat dripping from the burgers from hitting the flames underneath. Not a single time did I get flare-up. I also feel like there was a lot more vapor happening too, which means you get more of that amazing grilled flavor.

This also gives me more time to talk while friends and family are gathered around the grill, without being distracted or have to constantly check the grill. It’s almost like that cheesy infomercial line “just set it and..” </queue the audience response >

It’s also nice to be able too cook multiple items for different types of grilled food lovers during grilling season. For instance, my wife during her pregnancy has been anti-anything-but-fish. She’s been craving fish tacos lately, and cooking up some quick lemon and smoked paprika seasoned Tilapia on the grill isn’t something you’d expect side by side on a grill. But what baby wants, baby gets!

With my old smaller grill it was so much harder to do multiple items on the grill just because I didn’t have the space. I also have to admit, the cast iron griddle that fits over the side-burner is a huge win for making fish tacos. I love using a little butter on the griddle, then heating the tortillas on them.

With having children running around, hanging out and talking with your friends, my hands are pretty full. Having a good quality grill like this Char-Broil TRU Infrared Grill is so important. Being able to cook multiple things all at once, having one less thing to worry about like anything catching fire, is so nice. Plus, managing to have your meat super juicy is such a bonus!

Full disclosure: taking photos for this post was not easy. Having my pregnant wife help out, running all over the place while the food was cooking had me super nervous that I was going to have a lot of overdone food. When I had the food ready, pictures taken and then bit into my burger, I could not believe that the burger was actually done to medium. Super juicy and amazing! FYI, “Super Juicy” In Char-Broil terms is about 50% juicier. Just in case you were wondering!

I’m so excited for Memorial Day weekend to kick off all the grilling I’ll be doing. I’m looking forward to being able to grill on our patio, while my son plays around and being able to actually take my eyes off the grill and watch him show me what he’s got going on his grill. Or maybe it will be him showing me how much bubble solution he just poured all over the floor.

Boys, right?