The egg-zactly right holiday gift for your favorite grill master

The holidays are approaching and it's time to start thinking about buying gifts for your friends and family. As you make up your list and jot down gift ideas next to each name, you notice that it becomes more and more difficult each year to think of an appropriate gift for the men in your life -- like your father. All that comes to mind is yet another shirt, tie or wallet.

Knowing a person's interests can help in selecting an appropriate holiday gift. A smoker is a gift that can be used to grill or smoke food in any type of weather.

The best way to explore new gift ideas for someone who is hard to shop for is to go beyond the obvious. Think about the person's likes, hobbies and interests.

For example, if your father loves to barbecue, the Big Green Egg(R) may be a great gift for him because he can use it to grill, smoke or bake any dish in any weather. What barbecue griller wouldn't love to be able to cook a variety of foods all year-round?

Based on the 3,000-year-old fired-clay kamado cooker design, and incorporating space-age ceramic technology that gives the owner a lifetime warranty against damage from normal use, the Big Green Egg is impervious to weather and virtually indestructible.

As a smoker, it provides a range of cooking temperatures from a tightly controllable 150 F to 350 F. As a grill, it sears and cooks foods at high temperatures. As an oven, it bakes pizza, bread and more just as well as a brick oven.

Fueled by natural lump charcoal, which it consumes sparingly, the ceramic cooker prepares food in no time. It smokes a turkey or ham in about one-quarter the time of a water smoker. It gets ready to grill in less time than a gas grill, keeps meat and fowl moist and juicy, and imparts a charcoal flavor to whatever you're grilling.

The innovative high-tech ceramic material keeps the outside surface far cooler than any gas grill, so the "Egg" has enhanced safety benefits as well.

The product is available at hearth and barbecue specialty retail stores and comes in a variety of sizes -- mini, small, medium and large -- to accommodate any lifestyle.

For more information, call (800) 793-2292, ext. 29 or 30, or visit www.biggreenegg.com.