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The best barbecue accessories for your next garden party

HappySprout Contributor
By

Great cooks aren’t born — they’re made. When it comes to grilling and barbecue, that status is rightfully earned each year. Without proper grilling tools, you may not be the ruler of your personal grilling kingdom, so we’ve chosen a few of our top picks for the best grilling tools to help make that dream a reality. It’s time to upgrade your tools and realize your potential.

Grilling accessories help you prep food, clean the grill, and keep everything running smoothly. Without the right tools, you may not be able to season your food in time, or you could end up with a dirty grill at the end of the season. Our favorites provide the foundation to upgrade your cooking skills. Combined with your current talent, you could have your best grilling season yet. Let’s take a look at a few of the best options.

Cuisinart Sauce Pot and Basting Brush Set

Best for Sauce Lovers

If you love a good sauce, you know how important it is to baste your food to keep it from drying out on the grill's high heat. This basting set includes a pot for your sauce and a silicon brush to make the process easier. It holds up to 16 ounces, and the brush head can go into the dishwasher after you're done.

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Alpha Grillers Heavy-Duty BBQ Grilling Tools Set

Best Gift

This gorgeous grilling set is the perfect housewarming or holiday gift for your favorite cook. It offers a collection of traditional grilling tools, including tongs and a spatula, made from well-weighted stainless steel. Long handles keep hands and arms away from the heat, and the convenient loops make them easy to store. They're suitable for all types of grills and come in attractive packaging.

OlarHike BBQ Grilling Accessories Grill Tools Set

Best for Professionals

This kit has everything — you'll get all the traditional grilling tools, plus a few convenient extras like a meat injector and thermometer. They come in a convenient carry case with loops to help everything stay organized and offer gloves for extra protection. Each tool has a loop to hang on your grill, and everything uses high-quality stainless steel and silicon.

Anpro Grilling Accessories BBQ Tools Set

Best Kebab Set

If kebabs are on your mind, this 21-piece set includes metal skewers to ensure you have kebabs on your grilling menu. The stainless-steel construction is durable and holds up to high heat, while extra-long handles protect your hands and arms. The set comes with corn holders as well and a convenient carrying case for organizing all your tools, so they're available the next time.

Grilling accessories can make barbecue season much easier. Instead of struggling to keep hands free of heat and losing good food to dryness, use one of the accessory sets on our list to enhance your grilling skills. You might surprise yourself and make some of the best-grilled food of your life. It’s all possible with the right foundation, and one of these grilling and smoking pit accessory sets is it!

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3 of the best solar garden lights for a bright and eco-friendly yard
Rebecca Wolken
By Rebecca Wolken
February 26, 2022
outdoor sitting with lights

It's important to decorate your garden with stunning flowers and veggies, but it's also vital that your garden be well lit. Whether for parties, late-night harvesting, or quiet nights reading in the warm summer air, solar lights make a fantastic addition to any garden. They can transform a backyard into a cozy after-dinner area, light up a walkway for safe navigation, or bring attention to a favorite tree. Here we'll be going over the essential considerations to keep in mind while shopping for solar garden lights. We'll also include a few of our favorites you might want to add to your landscaping.

What to consider when buying a solar garden light
Not all solar garden lights are created equal; there are a few things you'll want to keep in mind.
Cost
The cost is one of the most important aspects of purchasing a new item for almost everyone. Although solar garden lights are very similar in price, it's still crucial to consider how much you're willing to spend on lights before you go looking. Having a better idea of your budget will help you find the ideal solution.
Ease of install
If you need something easy to put up for a party this weekend, you won't want to buy a setup that'll take hours to put together. Instead, finding a solar light that's easy to install will make life easier and allow you to get back to doing other things like gardening!
Lifespan
Outdoor products never last as long as their indoor cousins, so it's not surprising to find that solar garden lights have a shorter shelf life than other indoor lights. However, this doesn't mean you should have to replace your garden lights every year or bring them in during the winter. Instead, look for a light that can withstand the types of weather you often see and be sure to care for the light properly so it can last a long time.
Aesthetic
Of course, you should like the way your new lights look! If they don't suit the aesthetic of your garden, you'll likely be disappointed and tempted to go looking for other options. So be sure you're looking for a light that's going to suit the rest of your garden, or at least blend in and not take away from your garden ornaments.
MAGGIFT Solar Pathway Lights
These pathway lights by MAGGIFT are ideal for lighting the way during the darker hours of the day. Whether it's the path from the driveway to the house or the deck to the flower garden, these lights will soak up sun rays and provide you with plenty of light to see your way.

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5 outdoor living trends that will totally improve your 2022
Rebecca Wolken
By Rebecca Wolken
January 2, 2022
women outside sitting

After being stuck in our homes the last two years, we've started to realize that making our homes into a lovely place to be is very important. However, we can only stay inside for so long before we ache for sunshine and nature. Turning your outdoor space into a haven where you can escape the indoors and enjoy some fresh air will improve your 2022 no matter what it throws at us. So here are some ways to spruce up your outdoor living space so you can enjoy the spring when it finally comes back around.

Bring indoor luxuries to an outdoor space
The best way to encourage yourself to go outside more often is to make it as comfortable as possible. So often, we choose indoor seating instead of going outside simply because that huge sectional is way more comfortable to lounge on. So instead, invest in comfortable seating, plenty of surfaces for drinks and electronics, and maybe even purchase some umbrellas or awnings so you can sit outside even if it's lightly raining. Making an easy transition from indoors to outdoors will encourage everyone in the home to come out more often and enjoy the space.
Vertical gardening
Not everyone has the luxury of having an expansive backyard. If you're struggling to know what to do with your smaller space, but you know you want more plants and gardening opportunities, try vertical gardening! This is where you take a wall of your deck or fence and grow plants one on top of the other. You might have seen these as living walls or those DIY projects with pallets and herbs. Either way, growing flowers or veggies vertically allows you to garden without taking up precious space in your smaller yard.
Outdoor office
Many of us spend a lot of time inside at our desks. If you were lucky enough to work from home the last few years, you might have a pretty decent setup for your home office. However, spending all day inside when the weather is excellent can be depressing, and if you're home, why not take advantage of the opportunity and create an outdoor office space? This allows you to keep working while enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. Endless studies are proving that getting outside more often improves mental and physical health!

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Good, better, best: The perfect gas grill for your outdoor kitchen
Scott Harris
By Scott Harris
December 26, 2021
best outdoor gas grill woman grilling outside

Grills these days do a lot more than cook Independence Day hot dogs. Viewed as a more flavorful and healthful alternative to some other, more conventional cooking methods, grilling is the centerpiece of many a culinary adventure, from the everyday to the downright fancy.

Does any of that sound appealing? You may be ready to make a long-term investment in a heavy-duty gas grill. A solid gas grill is easy and economical to use, stands up to wear and tear over time, is fairly simple to use and maintain, and can provide the kind of flexibility and functionality you need in an everyday cooking space.

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