A friend of regular contributor and Sizzle on the Grill Guest Chef “Stacey” is a food writer of a blog about Italian cooking called “Ciao Chow Linda.” I enjoy preparing rustic meals using ingredients, cooking methods and techniques that could easily be called Italian-style and Linda has great recipes and tips. With the summer harvest here – either you, your friends or a nearby vegetable stand will have an abundance of peppers.  Now is the time to enjoy them fresh in salads, a quick sauté or, as Linda has done in this post – roast as many as you can fit on your grill, skin and seed them to freeze and enjoy all year long.  Thank you Linda for allowing me to share your step-by-step article and I encourage you to give this a try at home. As I say roasted peppers are “A joy of summer in a land of bounty my friends.”

Welcome to the cook-out!

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How To Make Roasted Peppers

"Just plop the peppers on the grill and close the lid."

For all my Italian friends and food blogger buddies, this will seem like a very elementary post. But I’ve had requests from readers to do more of these “How to” posts and I thought I’d start with roast peppers – easy to do and oh-so-much better than that jarred stuff packed in vinegary brine.  Roasted peppers – good, homemade roasted peppers – add pizzazz to a lot of meals and make a nice bruschetta appetizer all by themselves with the addition of a little olive oil and garlic.  While at the Trenton Farmer’s Market yesterday, I bought a bushel of these meaty red peppers for $12. They’ll get even less expensive as September approaches. But they were still cheap enough to lure me since I needed a fresh batch. (more…)

Mike "Pit Pirate" Hedrick Char-Broil BBQ All-Star

Mike “Pit Pirate” Hedrick is a crazy-about-BBQ kinda guy.  I think his pillow is stuffed with pulled pork because he seems to dream about it too!  Earlier this spring Mike joined the Infrared Grilling Tour at Memphis in May and gave everyone a run for the money in smack-downs staged between the other Char-Broil BBQ All-Stars.  He’s a BBQ competitor and caterer and, at long last, he’s found a perfect place to cook and serve his style of BBQ every weekend at a restaurant called Waters Edge on the Occoquan River in Northern Virginia.

Starting on Thursday night and all weekend long, Mike cooks dozens of beef briskets, pork shoulders and literally hundreds of pounds of chicken and ribs nearly non-stop for 3 days.  I bet by the end of the dinner shift Sunday evening he’s ready for a cool refreshing glass of ice tea!  Come Monday and Mike has the day off — but he gets a little hungry –  what do you think he does?

The Pirate’s “Day Off” Dinner

Hey CB -  I now cook more than a quarter ton of BBQ each weekend on my big competition catering cooker. So what do I cook for myself on my day off? And what cooker do I use? Steaks, Veggies and Corn on the Grill2Go ICE infrared grill that I got for tailgating at NASCAR!

Veggies, Steaks and foil wrapped corn on the Grill2Go Ice portable infrared grill.

I LOVE this cooker and think (it) works perfect for just the two of us. Look at all that grill space!

Steaks searing on the Grill2Go ICE portable infrared grill.

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Thanks Mike – it sure looks like you are having some fun all weekend long cookin’ tasty BBQ for others, I hope that new partner steps up and helps you cook dinner on the week-nights! (I mean Bones!)

Welcome to the cook-out!

Hey CB! We’re looking forward to seeing you and Julie (Julie Reinhardt of “She Smoke” fame) when we visit the Northwest in a few weeks. The summer has been wonderful for us  – a highlight when our daughter returned from her overseas assignment. Her return allowed me an excuse to cook a lot on my Big Easy Smoker, Roaster and Grill as well as the RED infrared grill. For a guy who never used gas grills until we worked together in Memphis this past May – I must admit, they are pretty darn good products and we are enjoying learning how to use them for creative outdoor cooking.

While I am the one who keeps the fire burnin’ for those long, low and slow cooks of brisket and such – Mrs. Grail (Celeste) is usually responsible for our side dishes.  I asked her to come up with a new pasta salad to go with some grilled turkey we had for dinner.  She came up with a real winner.  ~ Larry

The Bacon Tomato Pasta Salad!

Mrs. Grails "Bacon-Tomato-Pasta" Salad

Mrs. Grail’s B.T.P. Salad

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces Whacky pasta or other pasta of your choice
• 12 ounces lean bacon
• 3 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks1
• 1¾ cups frozen petite green peas, defrosted
• 3 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon apple vinegar
• A pinch of sugar
• 4 tablespoons green onions, chopped

Directions:

Cook pasta per package instructions and set aside.

In a large skillet cook the bacon over medium high heat until crisp.  Or bake the bacon on a rack in a 400 degree oven until crisp.  Drain on paper towels.  Reserve 3 tablespoons of the bacon drippings in the pan.  Add tomatoes and garlic to the pan and cook just until warm.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Drain tomatoes and garlic and discard bacon drippings.

Crumble the bacon into bite-size pieces; set aside 1/4 cup for garnish. Toss the remaining bacon and the tomato mixture with the pasta.  Add the peas and 2 tablespoons of cilantro.

Combine mayonnaise, sour cream, apple cider vinegar, green onions and sugar together until well mixed.  Pour mayonnaise mixture with pasta until evenly combined.  Season again with salt and pepper if needed.

Allow to refrigerate for a few hours until cold.  Garnish with the reserved bacon and the remaining 1 tablespoon of cilantro.

© 2010, The BBQ Grail. All rights reserved.

Hiya CB — I am obsessed with grilling peaches lately. I don’t know why, but they take on a whole different taste and texture when they are grilled. Perhaps it’s grilling them on my Char-Broil infrared grill that is so darn easy and fast! This fantastic summer salad is my new favorite in the summer salad repertoire. I could eat it everyday! I tested it out a few different ways, changing the herbs, oils, and even peach grilling method, and I finally came to the best method, or so I think! (more…)

Hiya CB —- You may have noticed I haven’t posted a barbeque recipe for awhile. June and July are our busiest catering months at Smokin’ Pete’s BBQ, and I’m lucky to have two matching clean socks, let alone cook something worth photographing at home. This post ain’t barbeque, it’s grillin’, but it sure is tasty. Korean-style short ribs are one of the quickest meals you can throw on a grill. Marinate them in the morning, throw on some rice when you get home, and sizzle these ribs on a hot hot grill.

Kalbi Short Ribs Grilling by Julie Reinhardt She Smoke

I usually use a charcoal grill, but this time I tried out my Char-Broil Quantum infrared grill. I wanted to see if the infrared grill could really get hot enough for this recipe, because I find regular gas grills don’t. (more…)

Hiya CB!

I want to share the secret I’ve learned for creating a tasty meal:  “balance taste, texture & color.”

This easy-to-prepare meal adheres to this concept from start-to-finish!

Prosciutto wrapped Wild Coho Salmon accompanied by grilled summer squash and a ragout of mushroom, leek and grilled corn over wild rice with fresh summer herbs picked from my garden.

To begin the meal and get my “guest” thinking about contrast, for the “amuse-bouche” I served two fresh oysters taken from Penn Cove earlier that morning – one roasted on the grill and one raw. The cold raw oyster has a fresh sea taste that is slightly metallic and the texture is soft, yet firm.  The roasted oyster comes out of the shell almost hot and the texture is firm, yet soft while the metallic taste is mellowed a bit. This contrast of serving the same ingredient in two different ways really got things going!

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I never had bologna growing up. I think it was because both my parents grew up so poor, fried bologna was the main course at many a meal. So they preferred to offer we kids the finer stuff like cold-cuts of some other formed ham bits. To this day I can remember a meal we had on a vacation when we stopped at a grocery store in some little burg, picked up a loaf of white bread and package of luncheon ham and cheese slices along with a quart of milk. We pulled off the side of the road and mom made sandwiches outta the back seat and passed them to us, dad poured the milk he kept cold in the ice filled cooler. That flavor is embedded in my memory. Best sandwich I ever had.

Char-Broil BBQ All-Star Larry Gain has that kind of memory for fried bologna “sammies” aka sandwiches. In this post on his web log, which I am grateful to re-post here, he shares his method for smoking two pounds of really good delicatessen bologna, then grilling a slice to satisfy his childhood taste memory.

Thanks and…

Happy Grilling!

Childhood Memory Kicked Up a Notch

My maternal ancestors grew up as somewhat poor country folk.  Whether it was the dust of the Red River basin in East Texas or the farms of Northern Alabama they were people who struggled to feed families through the 1800’s.  The simple comfort country foods they ate, to make ends meet, made their way to Southern California where I enjoyed them, not because we had to, but because they just tasted great.

One of my favorite lunches was a simple fried bologna sandwich.  Bologna, fried on the stove, slathered in mayo on Wonder Bread it was my “go to” after school sandwich whenever I had a chance.  I’m not a huge fan of bologna normally.  The flavor just doesn’t appeal to me.  But fried, bologna takes on a whole different flavor. (more…)

Stacey of Stacey Snacks Online is officially one of my favorite food bloggers and cooks. Her culinary tastes are far-ranging and she explores both traditional and the exotic. But most of all I get the feeling she just loves to cook and feed folks tasty food and that gets my vote every time!

One of the trends for many “foodies” these days is to set aside one day a week for preparing food that is meatless – for health and for exploring great tasting recipes that maybe cost just a bit less without the meat. I like the idea but find it difficult to stay on task because, well – I am so drawn to the taste of a grilled steak, smoked chicken or a lightly smoked piece of pork. Here’s a post that Stacey shares for her version of grilled veggies — and it just might be something the meat eaters in your family will enjoy. The taste of grilled veggies is complex and provides the satisfying flavors we all appreciate: smokiness and that indescribably “grilled flavor” that seems to go with summer and outdoor cooking.

Thanks for sharing this helpful tip for grilling veggies Stacey and for being oneof our Char-Broil BBQ All-Stars!

Happy Grilling!

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Grilled Vegetables 101
Stacey Snacks Online

A platter of grilled veggies can be a meal, a snack or a side dish! Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil after grilling for the perfect antipasto plate with your next home-made lasagna or pasta meal.

It’s simple. (more…)

Our new guest writer goes by the moniker of “Dr. Biggles” – an interesting name and one you may have already noticed in comments posted on Sizzle on the Grill and in his posts on the Users Forums. He is an outdoor cooking enthusiast with a special focus (dare I call it an obsession?) on meat. Dr. Biggles brings an irreverent style of writing to express his reverence for  the avocation of preparing smoked, grilled and barbequed meat.  I recommend you take a look at his profile in the recently re-named category, formerly called “Writers & Chefs” – henceforth called Char-Broil BBQ All-Stars and get a sense of his style. Then check out this post he wrote about preparing Grilled Boar Cutlets with Buttery Corn on that Cob. This meal certainly gets my award for DEE-LISH-US! ~ CB

"Grilled Boar Cutlets" by Dr. Biggles of the web log "Meathenge.com"

“Last Saturday headed out to the Berkeley Farmer’s Market to see what Ted the Rancher had in his coolers.  Something new this time, boar! Ted raises fancy animals, raised up in the hills of Petaluma. Not the “Feel Good Organic”, it’s the real deal. I paid dearly for them too, 10 bux for 2 cutlets (enough just for me). “

Read on….

I love it when I bring a new toy home because I play with it and play with it. Stacey of “Stacey Snacks” is no different. She got a new grill and is experimenting with recipes and learning how to cook with all the extra low-to-ultra-high heat control it offers.  The one word I so love reading in this excerpt from her web log is “Juicy.” And here I thought that it was Char-Broil’s little secret!  Read about her cook and get the printed recipe…

Skirt steaks sizzling on the grill ---- courtesy of Stacey Snacks.

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