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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Finally a wiff of Fall in the air

Finally the early mornings have a tint of coolness.  Soon we'll have deep blue skies and we'll be turning off the AC!  I can't wait to open the windows again!  It's been a HOT summer and we've developed a new grilling routine that we'll be perfecting for many summers to come!

Low and Slow Sundays (link to 2 min video) has already become a summer tradition at Tom and Bev's house, and I think always will be.  Between the pool, the keg and his mojo grill, it's about as good as it gets!  We learned to do pork butts (shoulders) on his honking gas grill. 6-8 hours of grilling on a Sunday is a nice way to spend the day. 

Last weekend was the first Sunday we grilled over 400 all summer!  You can't imagine weeks of rendering from butts and wings that had built up on Tom's GrillGrates (link to pictures).  But I digress.

We grilled steaks while the girls were away, school has started, and TAILGATING season is here! I think our tailgating will consist mostly of game day home grills at Tommy Boy's hang!  I keep telling him he's running out of time to get a flat screen in there!

I have fond memories of big time tailgates at the 'old' NY Giants Stadium in New Jersey.  Now WEBER has a tailgating pavilion set up at the 'new' Giants stadium.  Grilling is a great business and it's tailgating season!  Here's a sneak peak to some great tailgate recipes.

Great to see them fly off!

Three generations involved in helping our daughter get herself to Austin to begin law school.  We've had her and Will's college apartments stuffed into our living room and dining room all summer; and thats on top of all my GrillGrate stuff!  Last week our son drove to Mojave CA in record time to start a new job.   Two move-outs in two weeks.  All three kids in the SW now.  Guess we'll be traveling more.

Saying goodbye to our middle one is always tearful and still is!  They're almost to Austin as I type and and I've got a big house to get cleaned before Mama Bear gets home on Sunday!

It has been two weeks since I've blogged. I think I will post a trip report!  There was some grate grilling involved to be sure!   We squeezed in a family vacation before all this moving out stuff...

Thankful and Grateful This AM

Each month we give away two sets of GrillGrate to our fans on Facebook and one to our customers and registered subscribers.   I just finished up counting down Facebook fans to #187 and landed on Lauren K!  A sorority sister of my daughters at UGA.  We all grilled together at their graduation!  It was a little easier picking out # 765 from our subscriber list!  Frank S- you'll be hearing from me!

It was fun counting through our Facebook fans and customer lists, I'm grateful and thankful to have them.  Its going be a grrrrrrate day!

Two winners every month and one lucky winner wins a Big Green Egg in December!

Going to be a 3 Beer Grill Today!

It's going to be over 100F today!  Afternoon checklist:

• Pool
• Beer
• Hanging around the grill
• Repeat

Heading over to Tommy Boy's for another low and slow Sunday! 

Sharing a Little BBQ Love!

We've been thinking how to 'inspire' more feedback, recipes and photos from GrillGrate customers and we decided that we just needed to share a little love--  Peace, Love and Barbecue that is!  So we bought a bunch of Peace Love and Barbecue books, shirts and ball caps from our friends at 17th Street Barbecue to give to customers who share their Grate Recipes, photos and stories with us.  Post them on our Facebook Fan page, email me your pics or even use our website recipe submittal tool.  We're anxious to share your stories of Grate Q and a little Peace Love and Barbecue too!  GrillGrate, Eat Well!  Peace.

Peace Love and Barbecue is a trademark of 17th Street Barbecue

Another Park Another Sunday!

A favorite Doobie Brothers song.  Got me thinking about another 'low and slow' Sunday coming up tomorrow.  Just hung up the phone with Tommy Boy to confirm the details:

• Feeding 12-14 (the usual range)
• 3 Racks of Ribs
• 2 Spatchcock Chickens
• Sides courtesy of the ladies

Eating 5:30ish, Start time 11:30ish to prep the ribs.  A 4-5 beer grilling for sure!  (Tommy Boy sprung for another keg of Stella which makes it much easier to lose count)

This video was from a low and slow Sunday a couple of weeks ago:

• Feed 12-14 (detect a pattern) 
• 1 Butt (pork shoulder actually)
• Sausages soaked and bathed in beer
• Cuban corn recipe (from Travel & Leisure)

GrillGrate, Eat Well!