Friday Faves #61-National Barbecue Month

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Let me explain a couple of things as I begin this Friday Fave post.

1. Barbecue is the actual spelling of the word, but in today's world, Barbeque is also accepted! I found this on 3 different sources. I tend to use the "que" spelling, but for this post I will use the traditional spelling. (Sorry if I slip).
2. This is National Barbecue Month. And, we know that if you are speaking of purely real barbecue, you are speaking of slowly cooking and smoking meat over indirect heat for many hours. It is delicious and a couple of states out there claim to have the best barbecue in all of the land. Grilling is the quicker method of using a device called a barbecue in a more quick fashion over direct heat.

     One of my sons is really good at smoking pulled pork and we all love that.  But, today we are going to actually focus on grilling for our Friday Faves and share some of our favorite things to throw on the barbie! After all, school if almost out and things are heating up.  Memorial Day is coming and after that a plethora of other reasons to cook out on the grill will present themselves.  So, let's get started! 

I love grilled chicken and corn. Last year I shared a grilling post with some of my favorite recipes that we had enjoyed at Alicia and Adrian's house. Just thinking about these recipes is making my mouth water. The Cilantro-Lime butter to slather on corn and rice is so good! This post also includes shrimp on skewers which is one of Alicia's favorites and grilled pineapple which is Lindsey's choice.

Alicia loves surf and turf and says that she loves a good steak. I have recently perfected (in my humble opinion) a great way to grill steak that comes out so tender and delicious.

1. An hour before cooking, take your steaks out and dry them off. Sprinkle on coarse sea salt liberally, some chopped garlic and some rosemary. Let them sit at room temperature for an hour.
2. Just before grilling, rinse off the seasonings! You heard me right! It will be perfectly seasoned, don't worry!
3. Place on the grill or in your grill pan, Grill for about 4 or 5 minutes on one side, depending on the heat of your grill, the thickness of the steak and how rare you like your steak to be. (My husband likes his on there for much longer than I do.) Flip and grill the other side. Put a pat of butter on the cooked side and let it melt into the steak.
4. Remove from the grill onto a platter and allow to rest for a few minutes. It will be tender and delicious!

     Maddy loves veggies of course, so the grilled corn and other grilled vegetables are right up her ally.  
     Even if you aren't firing up the barbecue, you can grill indoors on your grill pan.  I wanted a grill pan for years, then, when I finally got a new set of cookware, they came with a grill pan! I was thrilled! This one is similar to mine. This evening I did some zucchini in the grill pan. It was really good! Using the grill pan with vegetables makes them so much more tasty and different than just the normal way of sauteing them. And the grill marks make them look so pretty. 

    Grilled Zucchini is easy to do. Just slice it length wise.  Heat up your grill pan and add some olive oil when it is hot.  Lay your zucchini in the pan on the diagonal to get the nice grill marks. 

    Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and parsley.  It just takes a couple of minutes per side to get tender slices with beautiful grill marks. 

     Finally, when it comes to grilling, I think my husband would choose a hamburger every time.  How about you?  What will you choose? It's time to start thinking about it and to start celebrating National Barbecue Month! If you need a grill or a grill pan, here are a few choices to fit whatever your needs are!  Have fun! 

     And here are lots of choice on Target.com!