We've Burned up the Wicked Witch

So now as I promised, here is some grill safety which I found from the Southern Living Magazine and it's called Maintenance 101:

1. Be sure your grill is 10 feet away from your house or a building.
2. Store propane tanks outside of your home in a place that is sheltered from direct sunlight.
3. Be sure to have the lid up when you light your grill.
4. Never light your grill with gas or kerosene.
5. Do not add lighter fluid, newspapers, or other trash to speed up the heating process.

Now you are saying: You didn't tell me anything new. So here are a few more that might be new to you:

1. Be aware of where your kids' plastic toys are when you are using your grill.
2. Make sure the fall leaves are pushed well away from your grill.
3. Have some protection from the sudden storm that blasts your charcoal grill and tips it over, or you might have sparks flying down the street.
4. Have a fire extinguisher handy for obvious reasons.
5. Make sure everyone in your household knows that you are using the grill, not so they don't accidentally start cooking inside, but so that they know you are working with a heat source.
6. Have your meat and other foods prepared and ready to put on the grill before you start, so you don't have a lit grill unattended. Besides, your coals can burn up or you can use up your propane too fast.

Why does everyone always have to bring up safety? Prime example: in Omaha, Nebraska, there is an ordinance about using grills in apartment complexes because too many complexes have burnt because of grilling.

If you have some more heads-up safety ideas that you would like to share, please leave us a comment below.

Let's Have a Raclette Party!

Raclette 500

A raclette party, you ask? Yes, a party where you sit together around a table, cook your food together on a raclette and eat all evening. So what is a raclette? It is a Swiss grill, made of a heating element and a little oven section with trays underneath. You can grill meat, fish or vegetables on top, while you cook the side dishes and melt cheese below.

Raclette 900

Let's start with the menu:

• Cheddar Burgers from the Raclette Cookbook by Claudia Schmidt
• Broccoli with cheese sauce
• Lettuce dinner salads
• Medley of melon fruits

First, we prepare the side dishes in advance - the broccoli, the cheese sauce, the lettuce with a variety of add-ons like cheeses, diced meats, diced tomatoes, peppers - whatever your guests will like - plus the dressings. We also cut generous slices of melons and accent with grapes, and put the refreshments on ice.
Now we have to prepare the Cheddar Burger patties, which takes about 30 minutes. They will cook in about 15 minutes, and are about 660 calories, but who's counting?

• Mix and season with salt and pepper and 2 to 3 dashes of Tabasco:
• 1 small cucumber diced
• 1 small onion finely diced
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• Knead together and shape into 8 patties and refrigerate:
• 1 lb ground steak
• 2 T Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper
• 1 medium egg

Raclette Party Grill 1600

Next, we invite our guests to assemble their salads and bring them to the table, where the raclette is at the center. Serve the refreshments with the salads, and we sit down and enjoy our salad with them.
While we are all eating our salads, the raclette or hot stone can be heating. We have to be careful because it can become very hot, along with anything around it.
When we are finished with our salads, we give each one a tray, where they will place their broccoli and cheese sauce to heat in the oven section, while we grill our cheddar burgers on the top of the raclette. This is a good time to bring out the fruit.

Raclette Party Grill

After we have grilled the burgers, we toast English 8 muffin halves on  the grill, brush with 1 T of the ketchup sauce, some slices of cucumber, and place a burger on top with a slice of cheese. Heat the burgers in the  raclette oven for 5 minutes, and serve.

It's a great time, great camaraderie, and a great way to spend the evening, but it is important that we have everything ready so we can all enjoy the evening.

There are different kinds of raclette grills. When you purchase a raclette, be sure to read the directions. Some come with the hot stone, which is heated in the raclette itself or in the oven. It is also a good idea to read over some recipes so you know which one will work best for you. Keep in mind how many guests you will probably have, so each one has a separate tray.
You can find a variety of raclette grills on our website bestbackyardchef.com.

Wicked Grilling!

She waits for moon, flies down to the grill, and says her evil words.

Then she congers up a potion of garlic, onion, herbs.

She wrings her hands together, then eyes the rich red meat.

She lets out a wild laugh, and utters, "This is sweet!"

She plunges her long mean fingers in, works the potion through.

"A monster of a burger is what I'm going to do!"

She pulls out a portion of the meat and smashes it in her palms.

She places it amidst the flames, her laughter breaks the calm.

She looks over her work and talks to the grill,

Her evil words she spills.

"Double burger, toil and trouble,

"Cauldron burn and burger sizzle!"

Fried egg on sprayed foil for her eye of newt.

Flipped all to the bun, she packs up her loot.

But too close to the grill, she lets out a wild scream-

Got caught in the lid, now all she is, is steam!

You can make Monster Burgers on any of our grills that you find on bestbackyardchef.com. Just add your favorite potion of spices and add a hard fried eggs, and it makes a great burger. Or, if you would like more burger recipes, find them on bfcookbooks.com.

Incidentally, watch for the grill safety blog coming soon!

My Top Five Portable Grills

When I buy a grill, I want to know a little about it, such as how many burgers I and put on at one time-how big is the cooking area, will it cook basically anything I bring when I tailgate, does it have a side burner, obviously propane or charcoal,and is it easy to use and carry around. These are the criteria I considered when I made my list of the top five portable grills:

Buccaneer Comes with Team Logos

1. The Buccaneer Grill Kit is the ultimate tailgating cooler incorporating a BBQ grill and 3 piece BBQ tool set into it. The removable water-resistant cooler can be fully loaded with the grill and lid inside, and still easy to carry. Packed inside is a large spatula with a serrated edge, a pair of tongs, and a barbecue fork. For carrying, the Buccaneer has padded handles, a shoulder strap, and a reinforced base. This is my choice for the ultimate in convenience, because all I need is my charcoal and my food!                                                                                                                                            
2. My second choice is the Chef Buddy Portable Grill and Chill, similar to the Buccaneer, a little different shape, and does not come with the grilling utensils. It features  a durable polyester case, and a rubberized handle and carrying strap. Great for the beach, tailgating, camping and parties, This grill is also light weight and easy to carry. The grill fits down into the cooler, and you can store items inside it during travel. It is a nice little combination.                                                                                                                                        
3. Next I would choose the All Foods Gas Grill, with its stainless steel lid and side tables. It has a porcelain enamel coated cast iron cooking grate and a removable drip tray-these I particularly look for, the 12,000 BTU loop burner has a TwiStart ignition system and a precision temperature gauge. A like the fact that an all purpose veggie platter is included. It is a compact size and has convenient carry handles.                                                                                                                                                   
4. The Adventurer Portable Grill has the advantage of being able to cook for as long as nine hours, if you are entertaining groups or want to throw things on the grill now and then. It weighs less than 30 pounds, and has adjustable legs, which fold into the body of the grill for easy transport. The cooking grate is non-stick and has an area of over 200 inches. It's cooking surface is stable because of the tripod stance of the grill. It has a PTO - Propane Take Off and it is easy to change accessories.                                                                                                                                                                                            
5. The Hotspot Notebook Portable Charcoal Grill is a British design and is a grat little grill. The  design allows this unit to stand 14.18 inches for use and then fold flat to one inch in seconds. It is constructed of high heat resistant painted steel, this sturdy grill comes with an attractive carrying case. No frills, just a little cheaper and is the bare essentials for spur of the moment decisions to go tailgating or camping.

 Check out these grills on bestbackyardchef.com and see if one is right for you!

Pizza on the Grill

I heard that it's great, so I just had to find it and try it--pizza on the grill. Of course, the first question I had was: can't I just take a pizza out of a box and heat it up. I suppose you can but I don't want to have to describe the end product, so I just do it this way that I found in the Southern Living Cookbook:

• Preheat the grill to a low to medium heat of about 300 degrees.
• Start with a 12 x 18-inch piece of heavy duty aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray or brushed with olive oil.
• Open a package of pizza crust and starting from the middle, spread it toward the edges until it is about the size of the foil piece, about 1/2 inch thick.
• Invert it onto the grill grate and peel off the foil. Grill from 3 o 5 minutes until it is light brown on the bottom side.
• Carefully remove it from the grill with a large tongs and spatula. Invert it and grill for 1 to 3 more minutes until it is staying together and the second side is light brown.
• Remove from the grill and place it back on the foil or on a cookie sheet. Brush it with pizza sauce and then add the toppings, spices and cheeses.
• Return to the grill and close the cover, heating the toppings through and melting the cheeses.
• ENJOY!

See? Not so hard and you can make any kind of pizza you want. I like chicken and bacon - with both precooked and cut into small pieces. I also like it just full of olives, peppers, onions, and everything I can throw on top. See what you can come up with. It is a real company pleaser!

You can cook this on any kind of grill, adjusting the heat and watching it carefully. This one pictured is out Pro Deluxe Grill and it's at a great price right now. We have a variety of grills on our website for you to choose from - that's on bestbackyardchef.com.

And here are some barbecue tools from Best Backyard Chef-these have the John Deere logo- for inverting that pizza crust.

You can also find the Southwest Living Cookbook on our bfcookbooks.com website.

Drunkin' Chicken

Now what would happen if you stuck a chicken on a can of beer and cooked it on the grill? You'd be surprised how moist the meat would be because the beer does that for you! But would you have a chicken that tastes like beer? No, just moist!This is how the Deen Brothers, Paula Deen's boys, do it, but they call it ":Beer in the Rear Chicken." You can find this book on our website bfcookbooks.com.

We preheat the grill to medium, about 350 degrees, and you can use any grill that has a tall enough lid, but we prefer to use a charcoal grill. We start the charcoal and wait until it has a light gray layer of ash. Then we put a drip pan under the grate in the center, and line the hot coals on each side. Sometimes we have to add a couple more charcoals on each side if they burn up too fast.

Next, we wash and pat dry a four-pound chicken and rub it with the following Mayo Rub from the Deen Brothers to make the skin nice and crisp:

Mayo Rub

1/4 cup mayo                                      1/2 tsp salt
Zest of 1 lemon                                   1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika                                        Pinch of cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp celery seed

Last, take a few sips of a 14-ounce can of beer of your choice, then stand the can in the center of the grill. Place the chicken on it by the rear cavity and grill for 1 1/2 or 2 hours until it is 180 degrees. There! Enjoy your meal!

We think a nice grill for the Drunkin' Chicken is our Pro Deluxe Grill - it has a cast iron cooking surface for even heating with adjustable grate height for temperature control. Coals can be easily added without removing the entire grate. You can find it  on our website bestbackyardchef.com.

Planking for Flavor

We do things these days that we would never associate with cooking out when I was young, like rubbing, mopping and planking.

This is about planking--smoking your meat or fish on a plank to bring out some good flavor. The Southern Living Cookbook gives us a good method of planking and it is not that hard.

This is how you do it:

1. The plank. You find a untreated piece of wood 12 x 12 to 12 x 18 inches and one inch thick. You can choose from different kinds of wood for different flavors of smoke, such as

• Oak for chicken, fish or port
• Hickory for beef or chicken
• Maple for fish, chicken, pork - adds a slightly sweeter flavor
• Alder for mild flavor
• Cedar also works well for fish

Soak the plank for up to 24 hours completely immersed. The longer you soak it, the more smoke you get and the less chance of burning.

2.  Preheat the grill to medium of about 350 degrees. Drain the plank well, and spray it with cooking out before putting on the meat or fish. Place it on the grill an shut the lid immediately to allow the smoke to build up.

3. Cook the meat or fish to the desired doneness and enjoy!

A nice grill that would work well for planking is our Pro Deluxe Grill shown

here from bestbackyardchef.com, and we have a variety of Southern Living
Cookbooks on our bfcookbooks.com website. Please comment if you have
questions.

Panini Grills - Fun Cooking for the Family

Here's a great George Foreman Panini Grill for easy use and fun.

Press Panini and more for the whole family with a 120 Sq. In. cooking surface, featuring our George Tough nonstick coating that lets you cook oil-free for healthier meals. The large floating hinge adjusts automatically to the thickness of food, while cleanup is a breeze with dishwasher-safe removable plates plus a custom dishwasher-safe spatula. Healthy: George Tough Nonstick Coating for oil-free cooking; Versatile: 120 Sq. In. Cooking surface for family-sized meals; Variable Temperature Control provides precise cooking; Large Floating Hinge adjusts automatically for different foods; Convenient: Nonstick Panini Plates for easy cleaning; Power Indicator Light for added security & peace of mind; Preheat Indicator Light for at-a-glance convenience; Dishwasher-Safe Spatula helps make cleanup a snap; Finish:Stainless Steel Metallic with Black Accents. Find this at bestbackyardchef.com
Plus, if you would like to have some great family recipes to use on your panini grill, check these out on  bfcookbooks/com.

Everything Panini Press                                 200 Best Panini Recipes

Grill Cover Hard to Find?

So, where do you go to find a good grill cover? A tent factory to make sure it fits? What do you use? Well, you can't use the bed sheet during the night, and you can't just throw a beach towel over it.                                                                                                  

You have your great grill that you totally love, but you need to protect it from the elements, right? We can help you out with a variety of different covers, including one that is made for your particular grill. Plus, if you are a team fan and you want a cover for your grill or propane tank, we can find that for you too! Just check out our site at bestbackyardchef.com, and leave us a message to help you find what you need if it is not already there.

For small portable grills or gourmet backyard kitchen grills, give us a look to see if you can find yours!

Juicy Lucys for October!

Yes, it's Jucy Lucys for the Best Backyard Chef in October! That's our recipe of the month, so stand back, Guy and Adam, we have our own methods and they are great. Check them out on our Recipe of the Month page at bestbackyardchef.com

Charcoal Tabletop Grill

Need a grill that is easy to take with you to the game? Here's one! Easy-to-clean chrome plated cooking grid Folding legs to secure top for easy portability Convenient lid hanging hook 187 sq. in. cooking surface - easily cooks 8 hamburgers at one time Heat resistant handles Quality steel construction with durable finish. Click the picture and you will find this item on bestbackyardchef.com