It's about Life

 

 

Grilldog

 

For once, I'm not barking mad! I'm barking for excitement because I can feel the love. Let me explain! I have lived in a number of different areas of the United States as well as my travels abroad. I know that life is certainly different all over the world. Not just from country to country or state to state nor even city to city but from neighborhood to neighborhood. However, I feel you can generalize a bit, for example...

 

I grew up in a small town in South Jersey. We felt that our little town was a big city, and places like New York and Washington, D.C. were just beyond definition. However, we all knew each other and always got together for family barbecues. Whatever the occasion, the "family" would always gather around the table for the party meal. As I grew older and moved away from home to the Washington D.C., Northern Virginia area, I found that when there was a holiday, the entire neighborhood was invited. I believe that the Washington D.C., Northern Virginia area of our country is more transient, and people move in and out all the time. Families are whoever you meet and are friendly with because sometimes we just can't make it back home, and home is where we are. The midwest was a bit different. I found my experiences in the midwest to be very "culturally" oriented for a lack of a better term. For holidays and parties, family were of course important however, also was the "group" they belonged to, whether it be their church, their college, or their job. It just seemed that you needed to be family and part of the group. Now I live in Southern California where it seems to be more of a me state. People get together as families and communities and groups, however, they are more liable to "flake" on you. By flaking I mean just not show up or follow through with a responsibility they took. Oh don't ask them for a reason, I'll tell it now, "I" was busy, so you just have to understand.

 

Being a new daddy for the first time at age 49, I reflect a lot on life and what I want my son to know and how I hope he'll grow up and treat everyone. I really hope he picks up the attitude we had back in Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia. It's just not family, it's community too. Let's face it, on our little spaceship of earth, we are all traveling through space together, we should all start to act like it. We all know I'm all about food, fun and friends and in today's current economic crisis there seems little to celebrate about. It could be a depression or a recession or just down right a miserable situation. Sometimes it seems we have to look hard for any love.

 

All of this has been brought to my attention recently. About two weeks ago I received an invitation to audition to be a guest "chef" on the Bobby Flay Grill'n It show on the Food Network. I was quite excited and unfortunately, I was under a time crunch and only had a short period of time to write, produce, edit and submit my entry. Once I accomplished all of this I found out that the folks that were going to select next season's guests were going to do so immediately. Rushed and competing against people that had submitted their audition tape months ago, I sent out a plea to my Grillpack of friends, which is my group email list that has several hundred folks who are fans of my show. I asked simply that they watch the four minute recipe I made for Grilled Jarlsberg and shrimp stuffed Swordfish Steaks that was on the Food Network's webpage. The more people that view the clip the better my chances of getting on the Food Network for my three minutes of fame. I didn't think too many people would do this. It's been my experience recently that few people do anything outside of their ordinary lives. However, I took a chance, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

I was shocked and surprised at the outpouring of love that came from a simple request. I don't really ever ask anyone to do anything. Yes, I have a recipe book and the DVDs of my shows sell on Amazon, but I don't push my friends and fans to purchase them. They can if they like, people are invited to my shows for free, I feed them for free and give them free drinks, but I don't ask for anything in return. I just hope that someday my passion for grilling can turn into a full time job. I found so much love recently; I just had to write about it. People who I have not met or have lost contact with have rallied together and are getting their friends to comment and post on my audition tape with the Food Network. All of the comments have been positive, an outpouring of love. If you want to help me out, feel free to go to www.grilldog.com and click on the link to the Food Network audition bit. The more times the clip is watched, the better my chances.

 

So next time that you think it's a me society and that no one cares, you'll be surprised. People are out there, and they are willing to spread the love that Grilldog promotes. Food, fun and friends is all about love! Love someone today and that's a Grilldog tip you can live by!