Nothing like a Parade to Jump Start the Christmas Spirit!

The Grate Days of Christmas got into high gear on Thursday night.    The annual Christmas parade brought out everyone into town.  The entire parade route was packed! 

Grateful moments:  Being with the gang from the Good Shepherd Foundation and walking with them handing out candy canes.   The Good Shepherd Float won 2nd place in the parade.  It was especially fun to walk with the guys who pack and ship GrillGrates.

Jared, Daniel, and Jerry- you guys rock!

Me and Abe in front of the Booth Museum Float

Watching Susan (and actually getting a picture) as Abe Lincoln on the Booth Museum's Float-priceless!   Try saying Merry Christmas a thousand times and not get into the spirit!  The Grate Days of Christmas are off to a great start.

Family Holiday Grilling Ideas and Traditions:  Take the heat off the kitchen and turn your grill into a short order kitchen for vegetables, appetizers and dessert.  We grill several different vegetables for family style vegetable plates.  Often 3-4 different grilled vegetables at the table. Not so easily done in the kitchen but a snap at the grill.  Family style vegetables- especially yams and sweet potatoes, squash have changed my eating habits.  Grilled vegetables are the center-piece of my grillers diet and great holiday grill fare for your family.  Gril more vegetables this holiday season!



Holiday Gift Ideas for the Grilling and Chilling Lifestyle:  Rarely do you find a product that becomes a regular part of your life and actually changes how you do things.  Nope- I'm not talking about the GrillGrate!  I'm talking about STUFZ!  The Burger Stuffer tool.  Stufz makes a phenomenal best in class stuffed hamburger.

You can get a lotta stuff in there!  Perfect stuffed burgers every time.

We're talking about a new breed of burger here! 

A great gift for every griller!

GRATE Grilling for LABOR DAY!

Labor Day grilling is an American tradition.  When there is a crowd to feed, America fires up their grills!   Labor Day grilling is all about production.  Ideally, you'll want to grill at a house with at least 3 or more grills in the yard, otherwise round up your neighbor's grills!  It's called a cook-out another All-American tradition.  With production in mind, think BIG, big bags of chicken wings for example, a case or two of hamburgers and hot dogs etc.

Here are a couple of grate menu suggestions when you are grilling for a crowd! 

• Burgers, Brats and Beers with a GrillGrate twist, give your brats a beer bath on your GrillGrates.  Gather round to see, smell and hear the sizzling, steaming beer!
• BBQ Chicken is great for production grilling.  The trick is to grill as low as you can to not burn the skin (or bbq sauce).  Under 400F is ideal and with GrillGrates, bring on the marinades and sauces.  BBQ Chicken qualifies as at least a two beer grill too!
• WINGS are great for crowds.  Wonderful finger food and easy to grill.  Again grill as low as possible as long as possible.  Sauce them for 10 minutes at the end.
• PIZZA  Even pre-made store bought pizzas are wonderful on GrillGrates.  Spy a pre-made pizza deal?  GrillGrate them!  You'll probably never put pizza in the oven again!
• CORN on the COB  Shucked and naked corn on GrillGrates at med/low for 15-20 minutes. Turn and roll every 5 minutes.  Butter as soon as you remove the corn from the grill, the corn will suck it up!
• CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY YUMMY  Cap off your Labor Day with this outstanding quesadilla with ricotta cheese, chocolate chips and raspberries.

What are you grilling this Labor Day weekend?

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Get the Bird out of the Kitchen and Onto the Grill

This will be our second year that we'll grill our Thanksgiving Turkey so I am no expert, but I am surely a convert! I doubt that Susan would let me do it indoors again anyway, she gets her kitchen back and I am in the game instead of watching it!

Here are a couple of very good resources to get your bird on the grill!
1. Bon Appetit did a really nice over-view of how to grill a turkey complete with good graphics for grill set-up for gas and charcoal. It was in this month's issue. I'm going to use my gas grill again since it has such good heat control and my Kamado is still an unfinished repair job...
2. AmazingRibs.com has the most comprehensive information on grilling a turkey that I have seen. Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn writes extensively on the art and science of great grilling and this is a superb read that I look forward to following along at the grill. Gobble until you wobble!
3. NY Times- A butcher's approach to carving a turkey. I discovered this gem last year and it really is the best way to carve the bird. Removing the bones from the meat makes such a difference! And forget carving it at the table!
4. Spatchcocking - Bitten Word with credits to Martha Stewart. We've just started doing this with chicken and really want to try with our Turkey.

The Greatest Gifts are Friends, Family and Customers!

One year ago my wife and I took the leap off the entrepreneurial cliff again. We had prepared for months and I had the full support of my employer at the time and the support of a great group of friends. Now a year later the support network is even stronger with a whole bunch of new friends like suppliers, new grill industry friends, press, and especially customers. Last week I reached out to this grate group of friends for ideas and advice for holiday grilling and I was delighted by so many grate ideas:

• French Toast- we're trying that this weekend
• Apples- partially cored, filled and grilled- ditto
  
• Pork loin holiday style- designed for several days of nibbling
  
• Even a large bologna roll that was grilled first then cut into thick slices, then add pockets and stuff with cheese and back on the grill! Rocky sent pictures of this grate creation using GrillGrates on a Big Green Egg.
  
• Mike Jediny from NJ even mailed us his favorite spice so we can grill his kickin chicken recipe.
  

Speaking of Mike, he was the fellow who was steam cleaning his GrillGrates and planted the seed for me as we were testing the hard anodized GrillGrates. I just sent Mike a GrateBrush as an early Christmas present. Thanks again Mike and congratulations on bagging two bucks last weekend. Mike also sent in some interesting venison recipes.

Now for a quick Thanksgiving wrap-up. My wife (not I) has oven roasted our Thanksgiving turkey for the past 25 years- stuffed with my favorite sausage stuffing. So when I mouthed off about Alton Brown saying not to stuff the bird I got an earful and a subtle challenge to go ahead and grill it then. So for the first time 'we' grilled our Thanksgiving Turkey.

The bird was super juicy although I dare not rank it above birds of years past... It took just under 3 hours to grill. I had a drip pan under the bird and a separate pan next to it with water (I switched to beer since it was handy) to keep moisture in the grill. I think soaking in brine overnight was the real key.

I will admit to only going 1/2 way by doing it on my gas Charbroil and not the charcoal Weber. The Charbroil held its temperature and I had three of the four burners on as low as possible. Did it taste better off the gas grill? Tough call there. I think I know the answer- use the Weber next time- and I will. Weber put out an interesting survey about grilling Thanksgiving Turkey. Seems 10% of us headed outdoors to grill our birds. That jives with me being a "late" early adopter...

We sure freed up oven and kitchen space. I don't think we'll be roasting too many more Turkeys or chickens for that matter in the oven. I grilled a breakfast pizza early Thanksgiving morning and started the day off well. I also upgraded my carving skills which was overdue. I watched a The NY Times video with a butcher showing a different take on carving the turkey. At least I knew better than to carve at the table! Removing the entire breast and de-boning the dark meat made it a lot easier and the presentation was better too.

Only our middle child was able to get home this year for Thanksgiving. She's not used to being the center of attention- helping in the kitchen, at the grill, at the store. We enjoyed having her all to ourselves, but I think she missed having her siblings around which is a good thing. Friends, family and happy customers. Life is good.