Grilling Mothers Day Weekend 2026

Forget the weather... forget everything, as every day of the week and every weekend is a perfect time to light up the grill and enjoy fine food, grilled outdoors. Mother's Day weekend? Definitely. I pretty much had the entire weekend to myself, so it made for the perfect time to "chill," and light up the grill.

Photo: Late Saturday afternoon, May 09, 2026, and it was time to light the fire and put my Weber Smokey Joe grill to work. This little 14" grill is my favorite, despite the fact that a Weber Spirit propane grill is sitting on the patio next to it, as I love the low-tech, hand-on approach to grilling with this.

I use a chimney starter to get the fire going, as it's a great way to recycle all the grocery store ads that arrive at my place as junk mail, and there's no risk of an unpleasant aftertaste that can happen when using lighter fluid. I use a few commercial charcoal briquettes to get the fire started, but I mostly use either oak or almond wood for smoke and flavor.

In western Placer County, oak wood grows everywhere, so I simply pick some up, throw it in the back of my truck, bring it home, and cut it to size with my small chainsaw. Oak wood is similar to hickory, and it's great to use with anything.

Placer County isn't known for almonds, but I have a friend in Merced County who lives on an almond ranch, so I have an unlimited supply of almond wood.

On another note, when the grilling session is complete, I close all of the vents and allow the 'Joe to cool overnight. The next day, I'm able to recycle around 40% of the charcoal for the next use.

Mother's Day weekend, 2026 turned out to be the perfect weekend to grill!

Photo: I allow the charcoal and wood to really get burning, then I dump it into the grill and move all of the charcoal and wood to one side, which divides the grill into two heat zones, direct and indirect, which makes for great grilling.

Photo: Late Saturday afternoon, May 09, 2026 I lit my Weber Smokey Joe grill, using my chimney starter. Tonight, I used a few Kingswood charcoal briquettes for even heat and to get things started, and almond wood for cooking and smoke.

Dinner tonight was bacon wrapped chicken breasts, red potatoes, zuchinni squash, corn, and the customary jalapeño pepper half. I have seared the food over direct heat and have moved it over to indirect heat to finish cooking and to absorb the delicious almond smoke.

After moving the chicken over to indirect heat, I basted it with Kinder's "Roasted Garlic BBQ Sauce" which is one of my favorite barbecue sauces. Kinder's sauce is full of robust, barbecue flavor and has about a quarter of the sugar of most brands. Despite the low amount of sugar in the barbecue sauce, I still wait to apply barbecue sauce until the meat is off the direct flame to avoid any potential carmelization.

Photo: I lift the lid of my Smokey Joe, savor the delicious almond smoke, and thank the world for amazing barbecue.

Photo: My dinner of bacon wrapped chicken breast, complete with barbecue sauce, fresh corn, zuchinni squash, red potato and the half jalapeño chili pepper. I eat jalapeños with practically every meal and no barbecue meal is complete without one.

Photo: Here's what a bacon wrapped chicken breast looks like... finger lickin' good! I always pound the chicken breasts flat, and to a uniform size, as they grill better that way. Before wrapping the breasts in bacon, I rub them with Kinder's "Woodfired Garlic" seasoning. I guess by now you have figured out that Kinder's is my go-to brand for barbecue sauce and seasoning.

Photo: Early Saturday morning, May 09, 2026 - yeah... 0600!! -I fired up my propane Weber Spirit 300 grill for breakfast. I used a Lodge brand cast iron griddle, seasoned with bacon grease. Cooking addition strips of bacon added to the flavor, and helped the griddle become truly non-stick. The small flame is from oak wood chips used for smoke for added flavor, as I placed a wood chip basket under the grill, on top of one of the flavorizor bars to get a little wood smoke from the propane-fired grill. This is not your daddy's grilled breakfast!

Not shown in the photo are the cups of coffee which made this whole grilling breakfast possible!

Photo: Bacon, hash brown patty, eggs corn tortilla and a jalapeño chili pepper, ready to take off the griddle. The Spirit grill takes only about 5 minutes to heat the griddle, and once the cast iron is heated, it's difficult - if not impossible - to regulate the temperature, so you cook with a super hot griddle. You learn quickly how to juggle the food around so it all gets done at the same time. I misjudged the eggs and instead of turning out over easy, they ended up over hard.

Photo: Alright, the eggs ended up a little hard, but the breakfast was super great, thanks to the Weber Spirit grill, the wood chip basket, and the Lodge cast iron griddle. Bacon grease works wonders when you're using it with cast iron.

Shout out to my friend Dan Weir, as he gifted me the bacon that he made at home, from scratch. It's the best bacon that I've ever enjoyed. He and I are looking forward to a future hog hunting trip and then we'll really make the bacon from scratch!

Cleanup of the griddle was a breeze, as I just poured leftover bacon grease back into the grease pot and wiped off the griddle with a cotton rag. That's it! Now the griddle is ready for the next cook.

Photo: Early Friday evening, May 08, 2026 and I show off the great smoke I've got going, along with what will be an epic dinner. Thanks to locally-gathered oak wood, I get all of the smoke I want! I'm fortunate in that I have an unlimited supply of seasoned oak wood, as all I have to do is to gather it up, bring it home, and cut it to size.

Photo: It had been many months since I'd enjoyed lamb, so I took the plunge and purchased a lamb steak as the centerpiece of my meal. Along with the lamb, I'm grilling a red potato, zuchinni squash, corn, mushrooms, tomatillos, white onion, and a jalapeño chili pepper. Look closely at the grill and you can see the lamb, potatoes, mushrooms and corn are cooking over direct heat, while the tomatillos, pepper and onions are on indirect heat.

Are you wondering why I'm grilling tomatillos, white onion and jalapeño pepper? I'm making homemade salsa verde, the way it's made in Mexico. I learned this trick from one of the many trips I've taken to Mexico.

Shortly after this photo was taken, I moved the lamb, potatoes, mushrooms and corn over to indirect heat, covered the grill, and allowed everything to slowly cook and absorb the fragrant oak smoke.

Photo: This was truly an epic Friday night dinner! Grilled lamb, red potatoes, fresh corn, zuchinni squash, mushrooms, along with homemade salsa verde for garnish. The lamb was so tender, juicy and delicious that condiments would have been overkill.

Like the George Gershwin song says, "Summertime... an' the grillin' is easy..." Alright, the official start of summer is six weeks away, but grilling works at my place, always... whether it's gas, charcoal or wood. Say a big "hello" to the beginning of summer, 2026!