I love potatoes. Fried slices or shoe strings, mashed, smashed, baked and all varieties. One of my favorites to cook on the grill is the common red potato. There is something about the starch content of this little gem that turns sweet when roasted. And when they are prepared with sprigs of fresh rosemary skewered through them – oh baby are they tasty!

If you’d like to view a printable recipe of CB’S EZ GRILLED ROSEMARY SKEWERED RED POTATOES or to save one to your Free “My Favorites” account on the Char-Broil web site, just click on this link – CLICK HERE

First I par-boil the potatoes until I can easily pierce the skin with a fork, but not done to the point of complete softness. After the potatoes cool just enough so’s I can handle them – I create a hole in each with a standard potato peeler. I insert rosemary that has been oiled with a bit of olive oil, stem first and run it through – until the entire potato is skewered – and season the potatoes with olive oil, coarse salt and ground pepper. (You can also insert slices of garlic or other spices in with the rosemary) When I’m grilling other food I’ll place the potatoes on the warming rack and roast them, or place them on the grates. Turning every so often as the exposed rosemary burns and adds smoky flavor to the spud. When finished grilling I remove and slice open on the bias to expose the rosemary. They are great as is or season with butter or olive oil.

Happy Grilling!

Have you already decided what you’re going to prepare on your grill this weekend? If not – take a look at Search Recipes located at the top of this page. Click on it and you’ll link to more than 500 recipes for grilling, smoking and barbequing. You can also find recipes for side dishes, desserts and appetizers as well as sauces and rubs to help you make many delicious meals!

This is a recipe that is sure to please just about everyone on a hot summer afternoon. CB’s EZ Blueberry Lemonade Cooler. The basic recipe uses just three ingredients but I generally add several other fruits or even sparkling water to this and make it zing with some added flavor.

If you’d like to view a printable recipe of CB’s EZ Blueberry Cooler or to save one to your Free “My Favorites” account on the Char-Broil web site, just click on this link – CLICK HERE

What about Side Dishes?
I love potato salad and other sides on the picnic table to enjoy with grilled burgers, steaks, chops, brats, hot dogs, chicken, fish, oysters or ribs – uh, you get the picture. So here’s a list of just some of my favorites from the extensive collection in our Char-Broil recipe files. Click on the recipe name to open a window with the recipe. You can print it or save it to your free “My Favorites” account from there.

• JAMIE’S TATER SALAD
• POTATO SALAD VINAIGRETTE
• SUZANNE’S DEVILED EGGS
• 5-MINUTE COLESLAW
• MY RANCH BEANS BY GEORGE JV
• KERRY’S SOUR CREAM CORN BREAD

I hope you try at least one of these recipes – and share your thoughts with everyone by posting a comment below.

Happy Grilling!

Received this email note the other day:

Hey CB: Here is the much anticipated “Ode to Mint”…the weed that tastes good. I’m new-to-the-world of gardening and only recently discovered that if you are going to grow mint – grow it in a pot to keep it from taking over your whole yard !!! This weekend when I had an abundance of mint harvested from my day of de-minting the flower bed I decided to play around with the idea of pairing mint with lamb and came up with this meal that I grilled on my Char-Broil Commercial Series with the Quantum infrared system.

Grilled lamb kabobs with mint pesto, served on herb rice and with a tasty rum mint mojio! I served the grilled lamb kebobs with a simple herb rice. – Erik

I began by loading up pre-soaked wooden skewers with lamb, mushrooms, tomatoes and other goodies.
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This handy 5-page reference guide can be printed and folded for ease of use, or you can save it to your computer to use when you need it.

CLICK HERE – To download to your computer this USDA PDF brochure called “Is it Done Yet?” in large type.

Whole bird on the left, spatchcocked on the right.

It’s easy to call any backyard cooking experience a ‘barbeque.’ That’s pretty much become the standard reference point. And the purists will get all excited about drawing an absolute line between what most of us do, grilling, with true barbeque. Heck they’ll even get excited about how to spell it! (We prefer Barbeque or BBQ)

Truth be told, just about everyone enjoys the taste of slow-cooked barbequed chicken, beef or pork. But it is problematic to prepare slow-cooked food outdoors on a cooker when you get home from work at 6 or 7 and want to eat! And the weekends are pretty full with all manner of chores and outings and for many of us – extra jobs. So the luxury of owning both a grill and a barbeque is, well, not always within reason. But there is a solution for using your grill to create great tasting slow-cooked barbecued food. It takes a (more…)

If you love the smoky taste that comes with outdoor grilling on an open fire – but never have the time to either use a charcoal grill or the new Char-Broil infrared grills that allow you to place wood chips directly on the grill grates beneath the meat – then you may have considered using liquid smoke. A good idea – but one that can go so very VERY wrong.

There are several brands on the market, I prefer Wright’s Liquid Smoke because it’s made from real hard wood smoke and purified water. And I use it on occasions when I want a flavoring of smoke but haven’t one of the other options mentioned above. For me the lesson learned is (more…)

My son Max is a strapping young boy, not quite 13 and already over six feet tall. Thank goodness he still has few more inches before he catches up to dad! Simultaneous to his growing stature is a new appetite and interest in food – flavors, textures, temperatures, tastes and even spices. And for goodness sakes don’t you know he loves barbeque!

This past year his school teacher and I had a few conversations about food, as we both have a healthy respect for the benefits of the family table. School let out a week or so back and I think the poor man has finally caught up on his sleep and come out of the ether that must be the daily reality for all middle school teachers. (I place really great middle school teachers up there next to fire fighters, police officers, soldiers and emergency medical techs as some of the most critically necessary people in the universe!) He sent me an email with some great ideas for his version of a marinade for flank steak, inspired by Chef Erik’s flank steak and burger relish that he refers to as “taking it to the next level” – I call it Heavenly! (more…)

Char-Broil grills was the talk of Constitution Avenue in downtown Washington DC. Visitors to the National BBQ Battle could not get enough of the infrared products – particularly The Big Easy. With large crowds all weekend long, we can now say that the nation’s capital is definitely IN. We’ll find out if Hartford, CT knows their grills over the 4th of July weekend at Riverfest 2008! Hartford…Are you IN?

To see the map of all Char-Broil summer tours and find one nearest to you – CLICK HERE

CB’S EZ GRILLED STUFFED PORK TENDERLOIN ‘SICILIAN’

I first saw this dish prepared at one of my favorite ‘take out’ bars at a local gourmet market. I asked the cook, a friend of mine, for the recipe and tried it at home. Stuffed with mozzarella, rosemary and breadcrumbs, topped with slices of pancetta and roasted in a hot oven – it was delicious. But when I tried it on the grill – the cheese melted and dripped out. Not so good.

So I modified it a bit and played with some other stuffing ideas until I finally settled on shitake mushrooms, sweet onions, shallots, lotsa garlic, cilantro and thyme. Oh and some chopped pancetta that I use in preparing fritattas. Oh my is this a tasty dish! I took some photos preparing this dish to help you get started. If you like to view a printable recipe (more…)

Is there a large gathering in your future this summer? Will you be asked to grill hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken or steaks for the party? Do you dread the idea of standing over a hot grill in the sun and cooking for everyone while they enjoy the party, telling jokes and laughing with cold beverages in their hands? Will your ego be on the line when you see someone bite into a piece of chicken that is raw in the center? Or observe one of your hamburgers that is cooked beyond recognition – serving as the place marker for the longest water balloon toss?

I feel your pain. And I’ve been there. Believe me!

Over the years I’ve worked out a system of preparing food ahead of time, packing it to “hold” for transport to the location and (more…)