this is what happened. I forgot to revisit this post, but MarcO's was the closest so he wins the golden tongs. I grabbed some sweet potatoes, asparagus and a very nice striploin. We tend to portion out 1 striploin for 2. It's amazing how much steak we are conditioned to think is one portion. I setup the hardwood in the chimney starter and got it glowing in about 20 minutes. I spread the now glowing coals out on the lower grill and then I put the sweet potatoes DIRECTLY on the coals. I turned them after about 3 rock band songs (approx 15 minutes) and continued until the entire outer skin was charred. After the 2nd turn, i started another back of hardwood coal in the chimney starter to be ready for the meat and asparagus. I brushed the asparagus with sesame oil, soya sauce, minced garlic, and sprinkled on some coarse salt, lotsa pepper and sesame seeds. I seasoned the meat liberally with coarse salt and pepper. at this point the grill was hotter than our gas bbq ever was. the sizzling noise was almost deafening when I laid my meat out. after I charred up the one side, I added the asparagus. by the time I had let the meat rest of the grill, everything was ready. The potatoes were dressed with a maple-cinnamon butter that I prepared in between rock band songs. (4 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp freshly tapped maple syrup, 1 tsp cinnamon) delicious meal all grilled.