There is nothing like a backyard barbeque to celebrate the summer season. Dogs and burgers sizzling on the grill, soda and beer chilling in a tub of ice, kids running around the great outdoors and the family dog waiting patiently for something to fall off the grill are all the signs of barbeque season.

If your grill has been in storage for a while, give it a check up before you fire it up. Refer to the owner's manual for the cleaning protocol. If you don't have the manual anymore, you can go online and look it up easily. You certainly don't want to end up with "sky high burgers" or "rip to shreds hotdogs" due to a malfunctioning grill. If you have a gas grill and you are not sure how much gas is left in the container, there is an easy way to estimate how much might be left. If you have a standard 20 pound tank, it will weigh roughly 17 pounds when filled. Weigh your tank, do the math and decide if you should make a trip to the gas grill store. Or you can just get the tank filled anyway. If you use a charcoal grill, the briquettes are only good if they are firm. If they are soft, they will not burn well. There is one important thing to keep in mind. Never use anything but charcoal lighter fuel to light the charcoal.

Now that your grill is in tip top shape, bring on the food. Anything that can be cooked on the stove or in the oven in your kitchen can be cooked on the grill in your backyard. Your backyard barbeque doesn't have to be just hot dogs and cheese hamburgers but you can cook pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, grilled potatoes and grilled shrimp to name but a few. Grill cooking times vary from stove cooking times so if you are following a recipe you cook in an oven you might have to wing the grill cooking time. You may need to invest in a dutch oven to cook some dishes that are not hot dogs or hamburgers.

Summer time is not the only time for a backyard barbeque. Ever host or attended a winter cookout in the middle of a blizzard or when temperatures have dipped into the single digits? It may sound crazy but winter cookouts are fun. The key to success is to dress warmly. If you are dressed for the weather, it won't matter what kind of a day or evening it is. One of the challenges will be to eat your food or drink your hot beverage before it freezes. Hot chocolate and coffee can turn into iced chocolate and coffee in a couple of blinks of an eye. Your bowl of beef stew can develop an ice crust before you swallow your first spoonful. A wind chill factor of minus ten will make any hot dog or hamburger taste better and windblown potato chips and dip will be an adventure in eating.