STEP 3: BASIC BRATS

First meal I made was on Nov. 1 at my friend Sean's house. Sean, his brother Tim and myself were gathered to watch the Vikings play the Packers, and I brought over eight brats, about two pounds. At halftime Sean fired up his grill and we cooked them as a last hurrah of the grilling season. We served them on wheat buns with fresh slices of red, yellow and green peppers.

Basic Grilled Brats

Ingredients:

Brats

Red, yellow and green bell peppers, sliced lengthwise

Buns

Uh, condiments, if we're going to be OCD about this list

Instructions:

• Grill the brats.
• Top the brats.
• Eat the brats.
  

I didn't think to take pictures of the meal, but here's a detailed recreation drawn in Microsoft Paint:

Basically, in this meal I wanted to see if you could taste the quality of the meat and, since the brats were seasoned and mixed by Dennison Meats, the quality of their processing. These were fresh brats (we also ordered some wild rice brats, bulk Italian sausage and bulk plain sausage), so the flavor of the meat should really shine through.

It may have been the sheer psychological joy of finally eating some of the pig we'd been talking about for months, but they were really, really good brats. They were juicy, lightly seasoned, just the right amount of fat. The preparation was basic - Sean is too good a pitmaster to overcook, and he uses no lighter fluid, so they had a good smoky flavor.

Then we watched Brett Favre draw his magical sword and slay the hated Packers as he rode atop his winged lion:

It was a pretty good day.