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Day 10′s contest is over, and Kristen Carr won! Congratulations, Kristen. Her tip: Leave your food alone until it let’s go of the grill. If you try turning to early you lose the outside – burgers fall apart, chicken sheds it’s skin. It’ll release itself when it’s time to flip – just keep the temp reasonable!
Every weekday for a month, someone reading these posts will win a generous bag of groceries. Why not you?
To enter today, share your best tip for grilling. (Each weekday’s contest will be different.) Post your tip in the comments section at the end of this entry.
Please use your real email address when you register, so we can reach you when you win. (We won’t use it for any other purpose, I promise.) We’ll pick the best idea or recipe and award that person yummy foods to try!
When you win, we’ll contact you about how to collect your bag ‘o yummies in a reusable, eco-friendly shopping bag (Thanks, Whole Foods, for the bags!).
Watch this space for new questions and prizes every weekday for a month!
A few prizes are coupons for free items which will be sent to you, at no cost. Each bag also has extra packets of grocery coupons.
Every bag is different, but some of the items included are: Hungry-Man meals, Lance whole-grain snack crackers, Crisco olive oils, Skinny Cow ice cream treats, Wickles pickles, Penzey’s cinnamon, Orbit gums, Pepperidge Farm 100-calorie packs and granola cookies, Tyson products, Truvia sweetener, Eagle Mills Ultragrain flour, Zen Crunch, Dunkin Donuts, and lots of grocery coupons, too.
this is a bit confusing, is this where you enter?
My best tip is to get a chicken, a six-pack of beer in cans, and a beer can chicken holder. First, drink half the can of beer, add a cut up clove of garlic, celery, carrot and herbs to the can, insert into the chicken, rub the bird w/ some virgin olive oil and pat your favorite dry rub onto the skin.
Grill over indirect flame for an hour and you will have the moistest, tastiest chicken (along with another five cans of beer to enjoy)
1. If you’re grilling steak prep meat the day before you plan to grill.
2. Clean your grill. Making sure you’ve removed old ashes, this will assures good air circulation, better flavor and food quality.
3. Coat grate with vegetable cooking spray, or brush with cooking oil to prevent food from sticking.
4. Toss a handful of aromatic wood chips such as mesquite, alder, hickory (my favorite!) or fruitwood chips over the coals. They’ll create a whole new dimension of flavor without adding any extra calories :)
Best Grilling tip is my roommate’s shrimp boil. Every Sunday we get whatever shrimp is on sale put it on the grill…everyone loves it. Definitely need enough beer to keep the shrimp simmering in an aluminum foil pouch, make sure to leave the peel on, it keeps in the flavor or something. Then, add enough Old Bay Seasoning to scare you into thinking there’s too much. Finally, a spoonful of butter. It seems she cooks them til the next beer is finished, but that might be a little off..just make sure not to overcook.
Before turning the grill on, spray the surface with Pam. This will keep the food from sticking. After removing the food, leave the grill on with the lid down for 5 – 10 minutes to cook off any baked on food. Scrape the surface to get anything else off and it is ready for next time (without all the heavy cleaning). The hard part is remembering to shut the grill off because you’ve already started enjoying what you’ve cooked!
Soak ears of sweet corn (in their husks) in water 30 min. before grilling — makes removing husks, strings, easier just be sure to
wear your grilling glove for removal — ears hot.
Our last big hurricane as I’m sure you remember knocked out our power and I had a ton of frozen meats in the freezer. I didn’t want it to go to waste so I invited friends over for a bon fire and a bbq. Of all the things I made my favorite was the bbq turkey. I tore the turkey meat into thin, long pieces and put it into foil and smothered it in my favorite bbq sauce. I then sealed the top with more foil. I let it cook on med-low heat until it was done. I also served bushes brown sugar beans in the can. Just peel the label off and put the can on the grill before you prepare the turkey and they will be perfect by the time you take the turkey off. I still love making this meal because it is something fun to do with friends. I love this meal because it is simple and easy, there are no dishes to do and the meat is so delicious. The turkey is so tender because it cooks itself in the bbq sauce and no juices are lost. Hope you enjoy as much as I do!!!
My best tip is to use a rub on your meat-any kind, pork, poultry, beef etc. I always apply the rub the night before. If you are cooking poultry make sure to get it under the skin as well. You can use a store bought rub, but I think they are too salty. I have included my favorite for you to try:
Ingredients:
•2 cups crushed real bacon bits
•2 cups minced parsley
•2 cups tomato paste
•1/3 cup cracked black pepper
•1/3 cup paprika
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients together. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate. Good for up to 2 weeks
The ultimate Bratwurst:
Here’s the best way to cook a package of brats — learned while growning up in Wisconsin.
Before grilling, pour a couple of cans of beer in a pot with a crushed garlic clove and a sliced half onion. Bring the mix to a boil (your house will smell great)then simmer.
Grill the brats (Johnsonville is about the best you can get S. of Illinois)on low for approximately 25 minutes. Pierce often to render the fat and prevent bursting. Keep an eye out for flairups.
Placed grilled brats in beer and simmer for one hour. They can be kept on there all day if needed, just replenish the beer as it cooks off. Serve on a hot dog bun (or a hollowed, half slice of french bread if you wanna get fancy) with spicy bown mustard.
This is also great with guests: the cooking is done before they arrive and your house smells delish as soon as they walk in the door.
When cleaning the grill, use a spray bottle of water, to wet the hot grill before brushing. The water turns to steam, as it hits the grill, loosening any and all cooked on residue.
Leave your food alone until it let’s go of the grill. If you try turning to early you lose the outside – burgers fall apart, chicken sheds it’s skin. It’ll release itself when it’s time to flip – just keep the temp reasonable!
Tip for grilling corn on the cob. Soak the ears of corn still in the husk at least a couple of hours. (I soak mine overnight.) Then put directly on the grill for 20 to 30 minutes. Put a pan with butter in it on the grill when corn is almost finished. Then peel husk when ready to eat. They will stay warm for quite awhile if you leave them in the husk. When you peel you can leave some of the husk on to hold butter or peel all and dip in the hot butter. Yummy!!!
Hamburgers if foil. Take one raw hamburger whatever size you like and place on a sheet of aluminum foil. On top of the buger slice onion and potatos, salt and pepper. Wrap tightly in the foil and add a second wrapping of aluminum foil. You can put right on the grill turning after 1/2 hour or bury in hot coals if you have a wood fire. Cook one hour. Peel foil back careful of the steam escape.
grilled pork steak A cheap dinner
marinate pork steak in mojo and soy sauce
place on grill 10 minutes each side use a thermometer to check
should be done at 160 degrees
cut up zucchini and onions butter salt and pepper wrap tight in foil
place on grill 1/2 to 45 minutes
When cooking on the grill I always use a charcoal chimney. I make a pile of three or four coals and pour lighter fluid over them. I let the lighter fluid soak in for a minute and then I light the coals. I fill the chimney with more charcoal and place it over the lit pile. The coals are ready in about 10 – 15 minutes. I don’t have to use much lighter fluid so your food tastes great and not like lighter fluid!
DURING THE HORRIBLE HURRICANES A FEW YRS. BACK—I MADE THE BEST OF IT BY OPENING ‘CHEZ DIANE’ ON MY DECK AND EMPTIED MY FREEZER TO THE NEIGHBORS WHICH REALLY STARTED SOMETHING. MADE EVERYTHING GRILLED—VEGGIES IN FOIL WITH GARLIC AND OLIVE OIL, S&P,GRILLED FISH IN FOIL WITH CHUTNEY, EVEN HEATED OIL AND FRIED ‘ZEPPOLES’ FROM THE DOUGH I HAD FROZEN. PARTIED SO MUCH , ALMOST FORGOT WHAT A MESS WE WERE IN. NEIGHBORS RECIPROCATED, AND BONDING WAS INEVITABLE.
A recipe for success.
Pork Loin on the Grill
Marinate the 4 lb. pork loin for at least 4-6 hours in a mixture of salt, pepper to taste, 2 tsp. soy sauce, 3 fresh garlic cloves and 1 onion chopped fine, fresh 1 tp. rosemary and 4 tblspn. of canola or olive oil. Turn the pork loin ever hour in the mixture and make sure you keep it in the fridge.
When grilling, making sure that the grill is 5oo degrees at first and then on medium after 5 minutes. Turn the roast every 5 min. and base with the mixture. Roast is done in 25 min at rear, 33min, medium, and 4o+ min. for well done. the roast is best at medium rear.
Take off the grill 5 minutes before it reaches the temperature you like as it continues to cook off the heat and seal in the juices. then slice and place on a platter alongside garlic mashed potatoes and parsley to garnish.
For a great non stick grill with flavor, Warm up the grill, Cut a onion in half in a bowl pour 1/4 cup of olive oil, place the onion in oil. flat surface down. Stick grilling fork on onion and apply to the grill, try to drain excess before applying.