Barbecue Master Blogging for Sears "Grilling is Happiness"

Check out the Sears "Grilling is Happiness" Blog

I'll really excited to be part of the Sears "Grilling is Happiness" project. It's a summer project featuring some of the top bloggers in grilling and barbecue.

For those of you who know me in person or have been following my Barbecue Master blog for some time, you'll know that I'm just a girl with a grill (well - a lot of them at this point) who just wanted to help others with outdoor cooking. While I do write professionally, most of that work is fairly technical (and would likely bore most of my people to tears). The grilling and then blog and Yes You Can Grill web site were just my passions and a chance to let my hair down and just talk and share about grilling.

I live in a town of 820 people in a small house (which I'm thankful to have) and have two sons. The guys have always loved for me to grill. I just kept at it and started helping others as I nailed grilling skills and recipes. Then I thought it would be a good idea to post my barbecue tips and recipes online. If a friend or neighbor wanted to know about something, then I figured others out there did too.

With no connections or plans to be in the culinary field, Barbecue Master started off slow. I wasn't expecting a flood of visitors. It was just nice to have the information all in one spot in case someone asked how to do or make something on the grill or smoker.

Over time, people began to find me and pass the word and my link. I was contracted to write a couple of grill test articles for a national magazine and to cover North Carolina barbecue for the hotel books in the RTP area. No problem. These are things I know well and care deeply about. That's not work. That's just sharing the barbecue love.

This year Sears got in touch. As always  I was happy to have a chance to share what I've learned about cooking outdoors. Plus, I saw that Sears pulled some grilling and barbecue bloggers that I know and admire. They really have a top notch line up for "Grilling is Happiness." It makes me feel good that I'm in that company, and it also makes me really appreciate people out there who have dropped by Barbecue Master and told friends. It amazes me when I see over 60,000 people visiting my site on the stats last month (and the BBQ season really hasn't kicked into full gear yet) when this is just a relaxed place where I unwind in the evenings.

People still ask me what I sell or if I want to be a chef or if I'll cater a barbecue event. I have a job I love teaching at Catawba College. That's what I do for a living - help young people learn how to write and share their passions just as I do mine. That's my mission. Grilling and writing are what I do when I have some free time. It really is great to find that I'm helping others doing that, and it is a real honor to be included in the Sears grilling blog this year.

Thanks to Sears for looking around and giving a thumbs up (and a voice) to someone who cranks up the grill almost every night for the sheer joy and thanks again to my family and friends for the support all these years and to all my quiet readers who drop by and hopfully find what they need to rock their grill.