White Hot Charcoal

December 4, 2007 — Leave a comment

chimney. get one. love one

This charcoal chimney thing is really simple and nothing to fear. I’ve photographed two gals who have never done the chimney before. On their first try, the charcoal came out perfect. It’s really the only way to light charcoal. The chimney works without fail.

Quick steps:
1. Remove the top grill of the barbeque
2. Put the charcoal in the top bin in the chimney
3. Put some wadded up newspaper in the bottom part of the chimney

bottom bit
4. Stick the thing in the grill
5. Light the paper and wait
6. When it starts flaming and the charcoal appears white, it’s ready
7. Grab some tongs and a pot holder to avoid burning your hands
8. Grab the handle with the pot holder and the little metal flippy bit with the tongs and carefully pour into the grill
9. You now have white, hot charcoal for you to play with

remove grill need newspaper

light the bottom bit nice and hot

careful with that hot stuff pouring

White Hot Charcoal

white charcoal is good charcoal

Jennifer

December 4, 2007 — 1 Comment

This is Jennifer

Meet Jennifer our very first Girl On Grill Action™ grill girl of the month. Jennifer is not much of a beach fan, but acquiesced to aesthetic pressure. Jennifer doesn’t enjoy long walks on the beach or hot, sandy burgers with beans.

Boots yah hot boots only

She is fairly straightforward with her grilling. Full on meat with bun as garnish is her style. Pop it on the grill and grill the beejeezus out of it. With enough sauce and a nice pair of shoes, everything tastes fantastic. Wash it down with some Sprited vodka and you’ve got yourself a good time. Even better, a great meal.

Hot Coals Only

show us your tats

Here’s a little concoction she whips up. Take it away Jennifer …

I do actually have a fave BBQ thingie. I call it Ghetto Grillas! Sometimes all you can afford and/or find in a pinch is the prepackaged beef patties, the carni-quivalent of Government Cheese. No need to despair because you can do like I do! Let those bad boys defrost in a bowl, break em up, and squash them with a package of Lipton Onion Soup. Even the lowliest of supermarkets have these freeze-dried powder packets, or some generic facsimile.
Grill to your lil heart’s desire, and prepare to fall over from the deliciousness you’ve created with such humble ingredients!

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Three Pizzas On The Grill

November 29, 2007 — 1 Comment

Pizza on grill

Grilling pizza seems an odd concept to grasp at first, but once you do it, there’s no going back. Rachel whipped up some lovely pizza. Here are the bits and pieces she laid down.

Figgy one

Pizza One:
Figgy, Cheesy, Hamness
This was the best pizza of the three. Maybe even the best pizza I’ve ever had. I don’t even like figs unless they’ve been Newtoned and still it was yummy. It was more complicated than the other two only in that you had to mix stuff into the Ricotta, no biggie.

bring me some figgy

You need:
Some ripe figs
Blue Cheese
Ricotta
Fresh basil
One little bit of a Garlic bulb
Prosciutto

Fold and pile leaves chop girl

Cut the figs in half. Done with figs.
Chiffinade the basil ( or “Bah-zil” for the commonwealth ). Itsy bitsy the Garlic. Then, smoosh the Garlic with the basil with a bit of salt. Mix the pasty stuff in with the Ricotta. That’s your sauce. Put that on first and pile the rest on top.

premelty pizza

Pizza Two:
Simple, basic pizza with a little punch.

You need:
Fresh mozzerella
Basil
Tomato Sauce
Cappicola (this is the punch)

Nothing fancy here. Lay down the sauced. Invite the ham to join in. Pop on the mozz and basil, presto.

simple pizza

yummmmmmm

Pizza Three:

A little something for the veg heads. Rachel took advantage of the heat and grilled up the veggies first, then readied the dough.

grilled veg

You need:
Eggplant
Some pretty looking pepper (or capsicum. We’re here for you Australia)
Pesto
Balsamic vinegar
Fresh mozzerella

soft and grill like

Debitter the eggplant with a little salt, pepper (or “salper” as an old friend used to say) and vinegar. Rachel got a little carried away with the quick pour vinegar and still it was lovely. Grill ‘em up and set aside. When you’re ready to top, pesto first, veg then cheese. The grilled veggies were AMAZING. I thought it would take awhile to get soft and flavored, but oh no, it was quick. I love heat.

Salper the eggplant hot hot hot eating pizza

Rachel Does Pizza Grill

November 27, 2007 — 1 Comment

This is Rachel

Pizza on the grill, that’s right. You’ve heard it at parties. It sounds fancy. It sounds fun. More importantly, it’s EASY. Amaze and dazzle your friends and give them an anecdote for the water cooler (or dentist or proctologist whatever). Rachel did it. She bought a pile of stuff that sounds good, a wad of pre-made dough and let impulsive, gut driven mastication take over.

Dough, Melty, Bits and Pieces

Shopping List:
Pre-made pizza dough
Something saucy
Something melty
Bits and Pieces … go with it, you know what to do and if you don’t

Dough:
The quick and easy way to do pizza is to lean on your local yuppie marts, your Trader Joes, your Metropolitan WankMarts … whatever, they’re out there even in Kansas (I love you Kansas, don’t get me wrong). There you will find pre-made pizza dough. It’s like under two bucks. You can let the dough get to room temperature and massage it with a little flour as to avoid a sticky ball. Trader Joe’s dough tends to be sticky. Rachel brought frozen dough, but with a little microwavic coercion, it was cold but malleable and still got its pizza on. Rachel picked up dough from Delaurnti. This is an Italian yum yum wet dream. They have everything you’d ever need; even cute, little jars of Nutella. Located in Seattle where they throw the fish.

Charcoal lighting Warm

Grilling Pizza:
First, fluff your grill. Get it nice and hot.

Roll out or toss the dough. Rachel was a roller, she tried tossing dough, but giggled uncontrollably.

Tossing Dough Tossing dough is a no go

Rolling the dough

Have your pizza toppings, sauce and the rest ready and near. Then …

Rachel forgets toppings, quick!!!

(Rachel runs to get the toppings. Silly Rachel)

Place the dough on the grill and cover. Don’t walk away, this bit is quick. After a quick conversation about how you really need to get that new Britney album because sure she’s having some moments, but she still has amazing producers, give it a peak. At brown and an apparent crispness, give it a flip.

Dress your pizza. Cover and wait for the melting to happen.

That’s it. Ah yeah, that’s it. Serious.

Put it right on the grill, no fear, just like burning your bra Peaky peaky Dressy dressy

Playing with coals:
Rachel played around with direct and indirect heat.

1. Charcoal in a nice pile in the middle for both sides.
Result: a bit burnt on the second side
2. Charcoal in the middle for the first side. Then scooting the charcoal to the side for the second side.
Result: yummy crunch, dare I say perfect?
3. Indirect heat for both sides. That is, charcoal scooted to one part of the grill for both pizza sides.
Result: okay, but took longer. With our girl Rachel, this was a bad technique as she kept opening the lid to check if it’s done yet. Is it done yet? How about now? With her lovely Oxford accent and snapping tongs. Oh yes, smart and sassy this one is.

Chewy ooey yum

Three pizzas were made and three pizzas were eaten lickety split. There is no going back. The fling of pizza and the hot grill is the kind of magic only elves are capable of.

Fig, cheeses, fancy ham and more

This way to more pizza grill photos –>

Tamra On Lamb

November 22, 2007 — Leave a comment

Tamra Grilling

This was a straightforward, simple concoction. A little protein and a little after sweet. We didn’t even use a full chimney. However, a hotter grill would have been quicker and slightly tastier.

Menu:

Lamb Burgerettes
Grilled Pear

Lamb, Pear on the grill

Shopping List:

Ground Lamb
Fresh Parsley
Pears
Onion
Egg
Chevre
Salt and Pepper
Walnuts
Balsamic Vinegar
Ketchup
Mini Pita, Whole Wheat
Champagne, please don’t go cheap (or something non-alc, fizzy and fancy)

Some Ingredients
Girl On Grill:

Tamra Myers, Girl On Grill Action

A quick scrub of the grill. It was a happy August barbecue when last this beast was used, so it needed a little clean. This girl hadn’t scrubbed before, but with a little pep talk, manage to persevere.

Pretty Please, clean the grill Thank You

Cleaning grill after pep talk Light that fire

We had this puppy prepped, hot and cooking within an hour. Chop some parsley, light the chimney, have some champagne, make some burgers and it’s grill time. Once the little burgers achieve shrinkage and get all brown and firm, you can eat them many ways.

And we wait

Tamra popped them in a warmed mini pita with some red leaf lettuce and chevre. Or some prefer to say it with ketchup. The parsley, onion, egg thing unites the ground lamb to take on any vehicle.

Tamra Myers, Girl On Grill Action

The pears were even easier. Of the three we tried, the whole pear was by far the best. Sweet, juicy with texture like buttah. Nothing says fall like snuggling in to a warm pear after your friend made you barbeque in sub fifty Fahrenheit.

Chew, crunch, munch Munch, crunch, chew