I love my George Foreman Grill, I hate my George Foreman Grill

Good ol' George Foreman.  I once read that Hulk Hogan had been offered the "grill deal" before George Foreman but that he had turned it down in favor of an energy drink or something that he thought would be more profitable.  Probably not a decision he is proud of today.  I have had my George Foreman Grill for about 9 years.   At first heralded as the answer to the 'we have no grill but that's okay because we have no backyard area in which to grill' dilemma, the grill has been both one of my biggest culinary blessings and also responsible for some of my biggest culinary disasters.

On the plus side: the grill works as advertised.  It evenly grills foods on both sides and does it more quickly than conventional grills.  I use my grill a lot.  I probably wouldn't grill mushrooms, peppers, onions, and other veggies nearly so frequently if it weren't for my George Foreman.  When we lived in a rental when we first moved to Massachusetts my GF was in use almost every night because I only had 2 burners and an 18" wide oven.  I even made (flat) grilled cheese sandwiches on it!  The angled design truly does cut down on grease and fat and the recipe book that comes with it has some truly handy and healthy recipes.  It's all good, right?  Well....

...On the negative side: you have to be very careful about how you prepare the outside of whatever you are grilling.  A thick chicken breast will be char-broiled on the outside before you can get the inside done because, at least on my model, I can't control the temp.  You must never ever forget to spray (heavily) the grill with non-stick spray or whatever you are grilling will become one with the alleged non-stick surface and look like hash by the time you scrape it off.  Even with heavy non-stick spray usage clean-up is not for the faint of heart.  I even have specially designed contact grill scrubbies that aren't supposed to damage the non-stick surface because cleaning the grill can be so difficult.  Which of course brings me to the non-stick coating.  I, who once spent $300 on non-stick Calphalon, have become a stainless steel cookware advocate.  I still use my grill, but with trepidation about what unintended coatings my food may be receiving.  And finally, every time I preheat the grill I am treated to the smell of the fish that I cooked on it, oh say 8 years ago.  I have scrubbed the grill, rubbed it with lemon juice, grilled hundreds of bulbs of garlic on it, and yet I still smell fish!

And yet, when my daughter wanted hamburgers for dinner on a cold January night, it's the first tool for which I reached.

(And I'll admit, I may have just a tad bit of envy for George's snappy apron, though I can't tell if it has the appropriately big center pocket or not...)