Michele Obama Looking Forward to North Carolina BBQ at Charlotte Democratic Convention 2012

The news broke yesterday that the Democratic National Convention will be in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2012. This morning Tom Breen of the Associated Press called to see if I'd check in about our local barbecue for his AP BBQ story, since Michele Obama mentioned that she was excited about having barbecue in Charlotte. I'm not sure how Tom found me, but I'm always glad to talk about our local barbecue.

Charlotte really is not a barbecue city. It falls outside the western range which pretty well cuts off in my home town of Salisbury. People think of the foothills and mountains of NC when they hear west, but the barbecue world is divided a little different in our state. There's the western barbecue region which is Lexington style and then the eastern style which would run from roughly Raleigh over to the beach. Raleigh is kind of a mixed bag with some eastern and some western and some hybrids.

The difference in eastern and western barbecue is mainly that eastern barbecue is whole hog and a vinegar sauce with spices while western is shoulders (or Boston Butts - a portion of the shoulder) and a vinegar based sauce with a little "red." By red, I'm talking about ketchup or other types of tomato products. The western barbeuce sauce is still vinegar based and thin, but it is usually a tad thicker than the plainer eastern style mop sauce and has a darker color.

Both eastern and western style barbecue in North Carolina is chopped pork. I often hear people call it pulled pork, but it's not pulled. Pulling is easier than chopping. Pitmasters in North Carolina use knives, and it takes a lot of knife work to fine chop pork barbeuce.

For folks outside the area, North Carolina barbecue may be a surprise. As I mentioned, it is chopped pork. Typically it's served on a white bread bun or on barbecue bread (which is just thicker and sturdier white bread) with slaw on top. There's a nice zip with the meat and the cool crunch of the slaw.

Barbecue slaw in North Carolina is white or red. White has a mayonnaise base and is what most people think of when they think of slaw. The red slaw has some of the sauce mixed in so is tangier and does have a red color.

It is common for barbecue joints in North Carolina to serve a basket of hush puppies with the barbecue. Those are kind of like cornbread balls deep fried. Every barbecue joint seems to do those a little different.

Other common side dishes include fried okra, baked beans, mac and cheese, green beans with fat back, white potatoes with some sauce in there, and brunswick stew (although brunswick stew is more often seen at eastern style bbq restaurants).

Sweet tea is the most common beverage at barbecue restaurants, but Cheerwine (a soft drink that is just colored red like wine - hence the name) bottled out of Salisbury is also a classic along with barbecue. Cheerwine is especially good out of the bottles made with real cane sugar.

While there are many barbecue joints across North Carolina, there are only about thirty what we'd call authentic barbecue restaurants left. Those would be the wood burners. They chop (or buy) wood and slow smoke the barbecue usually on site though some also cook off site now.

Out of Charlotte, the Obamas would likely need to look to Salisbury, North Carolina where Richard's and Wink's both have fabulous wood smoked barbecue. I'm guessing they would need to have someone pick it up though, since I can't even imagine trying to bring in a President and his family to a small town barbecue restaurant. Then again that could be fun, and I'd be glad to pick up the tab for Barack, Michelle and the girls for a barbecue meal from my town from a real wood smoking joint.

There are a number of reasons why there are not a lot of our wood burners smoking barbecue the traditional way. Health codes in many areas now disallow fires on site at restaurants. Established barbecue joints were grandfathered in, but if they close down for some reason, that's the end of that.

Another reason that you can't find a lot of the wood burners now in North Carolina is because it's so labor intensive to wood smoke. Some bbq pitmasters smoke the meat all night, run the restaurant during the day, and even split their own wood to prepare for the next night. That, as you can imagine, takes a lot of dedication.

Many young people are not interested in following in those footsteps, and it takes a lot of heart to do wood smoked barbecue, since it's way more an art than a science.

For obvious reasons, good pitmasters are hard to find and keep. The ones who stick with it are worth their weight in gold.

I hope the Obamas will get to try some of our North Carolina real slow wood smoked barbecue. It is really a treat and not that easy to find these days. There is some very good gas or electric smoked barbecue across the state, but the wood smoked barbecue captures both the taste and the heart of North Carolina, and it's well worth the time to search out the real thing.

How to Grill Cheese - Halloom Cheese on the Char Broil Urban Grill

My son asked me if the cheese in the refrigerator was grilling cheese. Eli adores cheese. In fact, he had a kidney stone last year at age 16. He is the ultimate cheese freak, but he only gets it for a treat now.

I confirmed that the Halloom was, indeed, grilling cheese, and I told him that if he'd fire up the Char Broil Urban grill that I'd try grilling up a pack and use the olive oil that he brought back from Europe this summer to surprise me.

Basically, I did the Halloom grilling cheese just as I'd done the Yanni before.

I sliced the Halloom about 1/4 to a bit more thick. Then, I brushed it with olive oil. Then, I sprinkled it with Garlic Gold Nuggets. The GG garlic is super mild, so if you use regular garlic, then go easy on it. You don't want to overpower the flavor of the cheese.

You can also also use different seasoning sprinkles on the cheese too. One of our very favorites is Gary's Seasonings. But, again, use a light hand when seasoning cheese, since it already has a lot of great flavor.

The Masterbuilt barbecue smoker winner, Fred, had brought the Halloom from Canada as a gift to us, so that's how I happened to have some in the refrigerator. I briefly considered pan frying the cheese, but we really had loved the Yanni grilled. I decided to give it a try and see if I could get good results with Halloom cheese.

First, I let the Char Broil Urban grill heat up good with the lid closed. This was to get the infrared grates good and hot. Foods stick to cold grates, so preheating really is important when grilling.

After about 5 minutes (does not take long to heat the Char Broil infrared grill), I opened the lid and let some of the heat out and turned the burners down low. The time on that was around a minute with the lid open. I wanted hot grates but not a whole lot of heat for cheese. It is, after all, cheese!

With tongs, I placed the cheese on the grates. The olive oil combined with the cold temperatures outside produced a lot of initial smoke as you can see. Plus, I could hear a little sizzle.

I don't doctor up my photos, and I try to show you exactly what to expect. So, here you can see that you do get a little cheese sticking to the grates. It was minimal. This photo shows the extent of any sticking. I get a much bigger mess if I'm using barbecue sauce.

The cheese basically "set" when I placed it on the hot grates. With the heat pretty low and the cheese sliced somewhat thick, I closed the lid and let the cheese grill and smoke for around a minute with low heat.

I then opened the lid on the grill and flipped the Halloom grilling cheese and left the lid open. I could tell by the feel with the tongs that the cheese was basically ready, but I let the bottom side also set up and get grill marks. Again, this took very little time - under a minute I'd say. It could vary depending on the heat. I'd just lift a piece of cheese slightly and check.

The grilled Halloom cheese turned out perfect. It was delicious, and Eli said that he hopes we have it "at least once a month." I'm sure he'd say every day if he did not have that kidney stone issue.

I still rate Yanni grilling cheese as the tops, but Halloom is very good as well. My son at UNC can get Halloom or something similar, so we'll be grilling cheese around here.

If you've not tried grilled cheese, give it a try. It's easiest to do on a gas grill, since you can control the temperatures better, but I also do it on charocal. With charocal, I offset and do the cheese on the side without direct charcoal heat. It's a little harder to master charocal grilled cheese, but you get extra smoke flavor.

Barbecue Meet Up at Lexington #1 Including a Visit to the Smoke House

Today, I got together with a couple of North Carolina Barbecue buddies (John and Wayne) as well as the Masterbuilt BBQ Smoker winner, Fred from Canada, at Lexington # 1 Barbecue in Lexington, NC.

Yesterday, I had a chance to meet Fred and hand off the smoker that he won here on my blog when Masterbuilt sponsored a nice contest for readers in the fall. We worked it out for him to swing by here on the way to see his parents in Florida.

Here's the barbecue crew in Lexington #1 where the man at the next booth was kind enough to snap a photo for us. I'm easy to pick out, since I'm the only female. Fred is to the left with Eli (my son) sitting beside him. Wayne is close the front with me standing behind him. Then John and his son Johnathan are at the table across, because they would not fit in the booster chairs, and a big church group took up all the large tables.

We all had, of course, chopped barbecue. And, it's Lexington style served on buns with slaw and vinegar based barbecue sauce. Though it could be argued as to has the best barbecue in Lexington, the lines at Lexington #1 would certainly give a clue that they do know how to rock Carolina BBQ.

Today was no exception. The barbecue was yummy as usual. But, I think the really stand out thing at Lexington # 1 is the sauce. That's the mop sauce, and you have to order extra for the table. There's a hotter version they have bottled on the table as well, but that fresh steaming mop sauce from the kitchen is . . . yum . . . all that.

The guys even had room for cobbler with ice cream. I never can eat dessert after a barbecue meal. I should have been born taller I think.

We asked about seeing the pit, and the nice lady at the cash register sent us around back to find Rick and Rick. Yes. That does sound like a radio DJ team, but they are the pitmasters.

We followed one Rick around back. The fire feeds from both sides. And, we found out that he's been the pitmaster at Lexington # 1 for 23 years, and that was his mother at the front register who sent us out back to find the Ricks.

Rick gave us a peek at the barbecue shoulders. Pretty amazing. We'd just eaten, but that meat smelled so good, we were all tempted to eat again.

Here we are with pitmasters Rick and Rick. Yes. This does look like a police line up huh? Everyone can decide who looks like the guilty party (-:

On the way out, I snapped a shot of the smoke stacks. Yes. That's smoke. The sky was a solid beautiful blue. The air was filled with the scent of wood burning and shoulders slowly smoking. Hard to beat that!

Barbecue at Winks Salisbury NC with Fred from Canada - the Masterbuilt Smoker Winner

Fred won the Masterbuilt Barbecue Smoker back this fall in a drawing the Masterbuilt company sponsored on my Barbecue Master blog. Since Fred's from Canada but has family in Florida, we thought it would be fun for him to stop here in North Carolina barbecue country and pick up the smoker on the way down to visit his folks.

Well, today was the BIG DAY.

After a few months of being a boxed lamp table in my living room (so that I'd know for sure the smoker stayed in perfect condition), it was off to the Days Inn to personally present the really cool looking smoker with a window, light, and thermostat probe to Fred.

Fred picked some bad weather to drive from up North there, but things were clear tonight in Salisbury - just cold. Not as cold as he's used to though I'll bet.

First things first, the guys helped me unload the smoker, so now Fred has a brand new smoker which I'm sure he'll enjoy.

After dropping off the smoker, the crew went up the road to Wink's Barbecue. It is one of the few wood burning barbecue joints in the area. Most have had to switch over to gas or electric due to health codes and the labor involved in running a stick burning barbecue restaurant.

We all had chopped barbecue on buns which is the major style in this area of the country. The sauce was vinegar based with some red (any type of ketchup or tomato product with variations depending on the BBQ joint).

Wood burners vary night to night, since that kind of work is much more art than science. The barbecue was good tonight, but I've hit it on stronger nights. They sauced just a little heavy in the kitchen, but the que was still excellent.

We varied on our sides. They have quite a selection and all good. Fred tried out the fried okra. He'd never had okra before, and I think he liked it. He also had a chance to taste good hush puppies. He'd not been a fan before, we converted him.

As usual, the meal was big, so . . . no desserts. Jimmy did get a banana pudding to carry home though, so I guess he'll have that for a treat tomorrow.

Fred and I both picked up items (mostly barbecue related) to share across our borders. I got him a case of Cheerwine (a local soft drink) from the factory in Salisbury. It's kind of like a cherry Coke but not really. It's just different and a local favorite and served at most all barbecue restaurants around these parts.

I also picked up a range of barbecue sauces from around here and Frank Corriher country ham and Carolina Blonde beer. Oh yes, I also got Pig Pen's seasoning made also in Salisbury. So, Fred will have a taste of North Carolina to take back to Canada.

Fred brought me some fabulous looking barbecue sauces and a grilling book that made me drool just looking through quickly. Eli has already picked out this huge stacked burger that he wants me to make from the cookbook.

I also had to put on the super cute Canadian mittens Fred brought. They are from the Olympics and have the maple leaves on there. Just perfect for a cold January night in North Carolina.

I'll be back with more posts about all the "North of the Border" products Fred shared. I'm still backlogged with this sinus thing which has made it hard for me to taste things. Today was a better day, so maybe this crud is starting to back off.

Tomorrow more of the North Carolina BBQ folks are meeting at Lexington #1 to have another taste of barbecue with Fred.

Welcome to North Carolina Fred! Great to meet you. Enjoyed the heck out of the evening. Glad you won the smoker and that you're getting to check out our local barbecue world.

Grilled Dry Rub Chicken Wings with C-Dub's Test Wing Sample

Tonight I fired up the PK Portable Kitchen outdoor cooker or grill and made dry rub wings with C-Dub's Hot Wings test sample. I'm friends with C-Dub on Facebook, and he was asking for folks to test out his new hot wing rub. I think most of the testers who posted up were general consumers. I'm a consumer too, but I write on barbecue and grilling and have this barbecue blog and Yes You Can Grill web site. That didn't rule me out which I think is a good thing. I'm a tough critic, so when folks let me check them out, they get what I really think as do my readers.

Dry Versus Web Rub Wings

I should probably first explain the dry versus the wet barbecue or Buffalo swings. That could be a little confusing.

If I'm doing wet Buffalo Wings, then I fry the wings and use butter in the frying pan with barbecue sauce to sauce the wings. These are wet and drippy and really yummy barbecue wings. Our wet hot wings here really are hard to beat.

On the grill, you are going to have a mess if you try to do wet barbecue wings, so you want a dry rub on grilled wings, unless you are using a cast iron skillet or perhaps a griddle with sides and just put those on top of the grill, and it's hard to get a temperature high enough to do the wings.

How to Make Dry Rub Buffalo Wings on the Grill

There are many ways to do chicken wings on the barbecue grill. I could talk about that forever, but I'll just go with the basic version.

I put my chicken wings (sans the tips which I cut off) in a bowl with buttermilk with C-Dub's Wing Rub sprinkled in. This is a very Southern techique (the milk thing) and adds moisture and makes the meat real moist and tender.

Afer a couple of hours in the milk marinade, I drained the chicken wings and then rubbed them with olive oil (vegetable oil is fine too) and then sprinkled on C-Dub's wing rub.

Grilling Chicken Wings


The Kingsford charcoals were going good in my PK grill. The heat retention is excellent in the PK. I had the coals offset meaning that I had hot coals on one end but none on the other in case the grilling got really hot which can happen with charcoal.

I put the chicken wings to grill close to the hot charcoal but not right over the flames. This is indirect or offset grilling. I let them smoke along for 25 minutes or so.

Then, I put the grilled chicken wings over the hot coals as you see in the top photo to crisp them up and to finish them off. That's really the trick with bone in chicken. You need to grill the chicken lower and then hit them with heat. This is easier to do with gas which is adjustable rather than charcoal where the longer you grill, the better and hotter the coals seem to get.

I do not Photoshop my grillig pictures, so you do get a real feel for what your food will look like. You see darker spots where the wings had more rub but not as much color where the rub was skimpier.

Right before I served the grilled chicken wings, I put them right over the charcoals to crisp them up and add color and flavor. That's where you see them in my photo.

What Did We Think of These Dry Rub Grilled Chicken Wings?


The grilled chicken wings turned out perfect in terms of the amount of time grilled. They were moist and tender. We could pull them apart or use a fork, and the meat was was really nice. The milk marinade and offset on the charcoal made a difference.

As far as the new chicken wing grill rub, it's not on the market yet. C-Dub's is just testing. I respect a company for doing that. You never know until you ask.

We found the rub to be really HOT. It was so hot that I could not really taste the chicken or the smoke. I had to get an ice cube and suck on it, since my tongue and lips were on fire. On the plus side, I am dealing with a sinus infection that has lasted several weeks. The hot dry rub by C-Dub's did help on that, since my nose and eyes were running after eating our grilled chicken.

I do love hot foods, so this one is pretty hot. Same with the boys' Dad. He goes for heat but found the wings tonight to be too much. My son who is a mild kind of guy when it comes to spicy foods just said, "A whole thing of celery and half a bottle of Ranch dressing for three wings. That is kind of a record I think. I hope I'm near a bathroom tomorrow."

Grilled Country BBQ Ribs with Nephew's Cherry'Potle Sauce

Tonight I decided to grill some country ribs and Greek grilled potatoes. I lived in Greece for a couple of years, and it was fun coming up with the Greek variation of potatoes for the grill. Be sure to check them out. They are really tasty.

If you're not familiar with country ribs, they may be called something else in your area. Basically, they are the rough cut in and around the rib area that might be thought of as leftovers in the meat industry. While country ribs may not always be beautiful, since some have bones and others do not, they are meaty and can make an inexpensive grilled meal.

As far as grilling the country rib odd cuts, I do them more like pork chops than ribs, since they really are not ribs. Generally, I offset charcoal and let country ribs smoke low and slow, so they are tender and gets lots of flavor. Instead of taking a couple or more hours, they run around 45 minutes to an hour on smoking. That's why I'd consider them more in the pork chop range as far as grilling.



Here are the grilled country ribs from tonight. Two had bones, and one cut was solid meat. So, they are a little different. Still, the meat for tonight came in at $2.50, and you can't beat that with a stick. Plus, we really get more meat all in all than with racks of ribs.



In addition to slow smoking the country ribs, I like to try different barbecue sauces on them. Tonight, we had Nephew's Cherry'Potle (cherry chipolte). Nephew's has a great range of sauces and with fruit flavors. They don't overdo the fruit taste, so you get some sweet and some heat.

Dylan sent me a selection of his gourmet sauces. He's out of Raleigh, NC where I attended NCSU. I was really hoping his sauces would be good, but they have turned out even better than I hoped for. Tonight, the boys' dad who dropped over and sampled the ribs said:

"Yum. These are the best country ribs you've made so far."

I must confess that I was thinking the same, but it was nice to get a confirmation on that. I did the BBQ random ribs the same as always, so it was the cherry barbecue sauce that pushed them over the top to make the grilled country ribs super yummy. You can, of course, sauce your ribs up with any sauce you like, but an exceptional barbecue sauce can make a huge difference.

Regular readers may remember that I tried Nephew's Pumpkin Barbecue Sauce on a pork loin, and that smoked grilled dish turned out great as well. That was back around October or so, but the pumpkin is excellent even when it's not the holiday season.

I think the Nephew's barbecue sauce line will be offered in Raleigh at Whole Foods and around the area soon, but you can always order online. The sauces really are impressive, and our low cost dinner tasted like a million bucks tonight. Can't beat that!

Gary's Seasoning - Great for Grilled Foods, In the Kitchen, and on the Table

Gary's Seasoning - Yep - It really is THAT Great

My son summed it up when he opened the sample pack that Gary sent of Gary's Seasoning for me to check out. "This is the best smelling package ever," Eli said. And, no, he's never said that before.

Sadly, I've had the sinus infection from heck for 10 weeks now, so I've not been able to smell or taste which is a sorry state of affairs for a grilling blogger. I could catch a little scent from Gary's seasoning, but I've been waiting so that I could really savor it and see what I've been missing or not missing.

Last night, I did some kitchen cooking - GASP. I fried up some pork chops and used Gary's Seasoning rather than my usual on that. The light must be at the end of the tunnel, because I could taste a bit, and I was impressed. Then, all the guys at my kitchen table mentioned that the pork chops were extra good. I've done the grilled chops for years, so I knew it had to be the seasoning.



Steaks with Gary's Seasoning - YUM!

My older son goes back to college tomorrow, so I wanted an extra special meal for his last night. Steaks - of course. Since Gary's Seasoning went over so well on the pork chops, I thought I'd rotate that in over my usual - lemon pepper on the seasoning for grilled steaks.

Yum! The steaks were great. I'm still not up to palate speed, but I know top pick when I taste it. And, the guys noticed that the flavor was rocking.

Do note that this is not a barbecue rub. You do not slather Gary's Seasoning all over the food to grill. Just sprinkle as you would salt and pepper or lemon pepper. I like to do that before grilling, but Gary's Seasoning is great on the table for an extra flavor burst.

I enjoy a lot of seasonings for variety, but pick very few go-to or top picks. Gary's Seasoning makes the grade. Of all the seasonings I've tried out (and that's been a lot), this is my favorite. It does smell fabulous and tastes just the same. It's not over the top, so Gary's goes on the back of the stove with my regular grilling and cooking staples. I only have about five all purpose seasonings that I keep close at hand like that.

Gourmet Hamburgers are Hot this Year and We Had "We Got Burgers" Tonight

I've been working on a magazine article about grilling and have been talking to experts about trends coming up and several mentioned that gourmet burgers are coming of age. This was a rather a surprise as I've not seen any at Food Lion. Then again, when I was growing up, I always said that we ran about 5 years behind on cool stuff they featured in Cosmo. The gap has closed a little with the Internet - thank goodness, but I don't think this town is going to make the cover of "Hot and Trendy" any time soon.



Ironically, I'd been talking fancy burgers with Frank on Twitter (@grilliantideas), and he sent out some of his gourmet burgers to get my spin on them. This is risky, because I'm pretty vocal about what I don't like but also give the thumbs up on good products.

Generally I hand pat my hamburgers, and I'm the default burger maker in the family after a family reunion with some pre-made patties which were rather dreadful. The Allison side of the family is not very big, so I can pump out enough homemade burgers for our crowd, but that would get kind of tricky with more than 15 or 20 people.

Frank's We Got Burgers are definately not the local boxed burgers.

For starters, these gourmet burgers are huge as you can see in the photo above. They are a half pound each and 5 inches across plus thick. There's not much shrinkage either. The guys can scarf down this much meat at once, but I can only eat half. I'd say about 1/3 pound would be as much as I could go on a burger, and Frank said he might think about smaller burgers.



Then, these burgers are souped up with flavors. Tonight we had the chili cheddar burgers. I'd saved them for when my college son was in for surgery on his ACL. These were right up his alley, but the younger son who likes his food pretty simple and never spicy (although I'd not call these really spicy even with chili sauce/spice) liked the bacon and cheese burgers Frank sent better. My top pick are the pineapple burgers with chunks of pineapple in with the meat. They are all yummy though.

Frank is out in California, and I'm in North Carolina, so that means shipping is high on gourmet burgers. They have to be packed well with dry ice packs and sent speedy. He nailed all that, and the burgers arrived in perfect condition and still frozen solid.

I've bought meat from a number of online companies, and I'm thinking that it might be good to have distribution centers in various states for the quality products. On the flip side, that might just get to be mass production with the same dull burgers and meats at the grocery store. So, I'll just be thankful that I do have options and can have smoked ham, grain fed beef, and We Got Burgers gourmet burgers in several great flavors.

Pulling Pork Made Easy with Bear Paws

I finally found an easy way to pull pork. I was looking online and saw Bear Paws. Really simple looking product, but I thought they would be worth a shot, so I bought a set. After all, pulling pork shoulder or butt can be a pain in the . . . well . . . you know.

For the record, I'm from North Carolina barbecue country where we smoke pork shoulders or whole hog low and slow and then CHOP it. I often hear people talk about our NC pulled pork, but really it's chopped pork.

I can chop pork, but it takes a lot of space, time, and sharp knives. Much more labor intensive than pulling, although pulling has been a pretty big job previously too - until I got the Bear Paws.



Bear Paws honestly look too simple to be effective. They are just heavy duty plastic with hand holes and then claw type ends (and I am forever calling them Bear Claws instead of Bear Paws). The claws aren't exactly sharp although they are pointed. The Bear Paws do, however, work great.



Here is Jimmy pulling the barbecue pork shoulder my Mom had for Christmas. She always cuts small amounts at a time, and it takes some time and she has to keep stopping her meal to cut a little more pork to go on the buns. So, she was real impressed with the Bear Claws and how quick and easy the whole shoulder was ready.

I know what I am putting on her birthday or Christmas list for next year. Shhhhh! Let's keep that a secret.



Here is the BBQ shoulder pulled with the Bear Claws. The pork can be pulled more for smaller pieces, but we liked it kind of chunky. And, anyone who wanted the pork shoulder pulled finer could grab the Bear Claws and do a little more pulling. It really took very little muscle to do the pulling, so these work well for various ages and strengths.



Here's the North Carolina pork sandwich on my dinner plate. To be more traditional, I'd have North Carolina red barbecue slaw on there, but I'm not a huge slaw fan so usually pass on the slaw. Most people do like the barbecue slaw, since it does add a nice contrast on flavors and textures. I'd say to give it a try. The slaw is good on there - just not my thing.

Barbecue Master Top BBQ Blogger - Thanks to Guide to Culinary Schools and my Great BBQ Buddies

Whew. I am smoked under working on a big grilling and barbecue magazine article, but I did wake up enough to notice that Guide to Culinary Schools listed me as a top 50 barbecue blogger. Actually they listed me in the top five and even put me first on the list. Well, WOOT! And, thanks Guide to Culinary Schools. That is a real honor with so many great barbecue blogs online.

Although I do some professional writing on the side, my grilling spaces have been my hobby and what I do for fun. When people ask me the secret to success in blogging, I say to pick something you have a passion for and give it all you've got. Yes. People do notice that.

This honor goes out to all the wonderful folks who have been reading my grilling and barbecue stories, recipes, reviews, and news all these years. Thanks for dropping by, for the comments, and for the emails.

Check out the full top barbecue blog list. All 50 of the blogs picked are wonderful. I know a bunch of the bloggers listed through twitter where you can find me at @cyndiallison and other places online like Facebook. I won't start calling names, because I will leave someone out (which is a bad thing you know). Plus, the whole list is top notch. Just click around and have fun.

Really Great Hamburgers without All the Work - Grilliant Ideas Burgers

Tonight the family had gourmet burgers from the Burger Man, my friend GrilliantIdeas at Twitter. He is one of my grilling and barbecue buddies. We talk a little junk, and he always makes me laugh.

He's been bragging on his flavored burgers. No. He is not a modest guy. Haha. You can tell him I said that.

So, Frank hooked me up with some of his We Got Burgers in various flavors. He just wanted to see what I thought and didn't even make me promise to wear one of those skimpy Burger Girl outfits or anything (-: Yeah. Seriously, all I have to do is tell him what I think (and he knows I'm good about that), so I thought I'd tell ya'll too.

This was a good time for grilled burgers, and I designated it TGIB or Thank God It's Burgers (and not turkey again) with it the weekend after Thanksgiving. Gotta love the turkey, but not for every meal. So, burgers were just the ticket and on the Weber charcoal Kettle for extra measure.



Here you will see Bacon and Cheddar burgers and also Pineapple and Teriyaki. And, yes, they do look big. They are a half pound each. I'll try some other flavors later and check back in, but a half pound is really more than I can scarf down in one sitting. Yep. I'm a lightweight. That's OK. I saved the other half for lunch tomorrow.



Here's the crowd. As you can see, we are guy heavy. They can definitely throw down with thick and juicy 1/2 pound burgers especially good ones.

My two sons called dibs on the bacon and cheddar burgers. This is a small town, and that's getting adventuresome for them. So, if you have a conservative crowd, then you might want to go that way. I got a bite of Caleb's bacon cheddar burger, and it was really fabulous.

I had the We Got Burgers pineapple teriyaki. I had a hamburger in Disney World back in my teens with pineapple on top and thought that rocked, so I knew I'd like the pineapple in there. Yep. Excellent. That worked for me, but I loved that bacon cheddar too.

If you have had pre-made burgers at the grocery store, then you may have noticed that they are not very good usually. Sort of like the Happy Meal burger patties - no flavor at all. This is a whole different ball game here with We Got Burgers. Normally, I'd only serve my own hand patted grilled hamburgers, but that Grilliant has got it going. If you want tasty burgers and convenient, you can just order now and have ones that taste great plus have some very cool flavor options.

One thing for sure . . . this was an easy meal after two mega-time-in-the-kitchen meals. It was realy great to kick back and just enjoy.

Grilled Shrimp in a Grill Wok - Super Easy Grilling Recipe

We had grilled shrimp again tonight, and YES we had shrimp wok grilled last week as well. I've had a sinus and double ear infections, and frankly the guys are lucky they are getting food at all around here. I feel dreadful.

Shrimp in the grill wok is super simple though and easier than going and picking up something to eat. No. We do not have delivery out here in the country. Sigh that.

I did decide to fancy things up a bit with our grilled shrimp, since this is two weeks in a row. So, I used Melanie Yunk's Big Acres Teriyaki & Ginger marinade on this batch of vegetables and shrimp.



Melanie's marinade gave the grilled shrimp and veggies a richer and fuller flavor without adding any extra work on my end. Her Big Acres gourmet marinades and sauces are top notch, and I recommend them and also note that her collection that you see above is a real cool gift for friends or family who are foodies or ones who just don't know what they are missing.


How to Grill Shrimp in a Grill Wok

1. First I fire up the grill. This can be a charcoal, gas or electric grill. I used a gas grill tonight. The temperature should be fairly hot - around 375 degrees F or close.

2. I spray the grill wok with non-stick spray to make clean up easier. Tonight, I used Weber's grill non-stick spray. I think it's new. I've not seen it until lately here, and it works great. Then I let the grill wok heat a bit.

3. I have my vegetables in marinade. In this case, it was Melanie's Gourmet Teriyaki and Ginger. I also use Kraft Zesty Italian or I use olive oil and add my own seasonings.

4. I put my vegetables in the grill wok for about 5 minutes to give them a little head start, unless my shrimp are large. Mostly, around here, the shrimp sold are medium.

5. Once the vegetables grill for a few minutes, I add the shrimp to the grill wok.

6. I stir now and then and watch the color. My grilled shrimp took about 10 minutes, but that can vary on the heat and size of the shrimp. The main thing is to get the shrimp the pretty orange cooked color. That means they are done. And, if you keep cooking them, they get rubbery. Just watch the color. That's the key. When they look done, they are done.

Well, that was my quick and easy grilled dinner tonight. It took 15 minutes total on the grilling (not including the heating times). We ate the food like a Low Country Boil - just picked up shrimp and veggies (green peppers and mushrooms) and had lots of paper towels. This same meal can be served over a rice bed for a more upscale meal, but I did not feel like doing rice tonight.

I did boil some corn on the cob and made some canned biscuits to go with our wok grilled shrimp. Again - going easy on the dinner when not feeling great.

There were sure no complaints. The guys grabbed plates of the wok grilled shrimp and vegetables and watched the ballgame on TV. They did the dishes too, so I call this a really good dinner night and sure super easy.

Barbecue Grilled Wok Shrimp with Vegetables

I was not planning on grilling shrimp tonight, but when I stopped by Harris Teeter, they had a sale on shrimp. I could not resist. I walked a few isles and then there I was at the seafood counter buying shrimp to grill - of course.



Sometimes I bacon wrap and kabob grilled shrimp, but after a long week at work, I thought I'd go with vegetables and shrimp in the grill wok. Really now, it does not get much easier.

I did marinate the shrimp and vegetables separate, because these were medium shrimp - about 2 inches heads off. So, I knew the veggies would need a little more grill time.

For both the shrimp and the vegetables (green peppers and mushrooms), I used the olive oil my son brought back from Europe on his summer trip. On the shrimp, I used Garlic Gold nuggets for flavor. On the veggies, I went with Cajun Cowboy grilling seasoning. You could, of course, do many combinations or use the same marinade on all the foods.



With the smaller shrimp, I let the whole mini mushrooms and green peppers grill a bit - around 5 minutes. Then I added the shrimp. At this size, they'd go around 5 minutes. But, the lid would not quite fit over the grill wok with the City Grill tailgater. Close. But no cigar, so it ran more around 10 minutes. The key is to have the shrimp the pretty orange color you see - no grey which means they are not done.

Don't over cook seafood though, or it's tough and rubbery and just not good. Watch close. Seafood grills real fast. Don't get caught up in the ballgame and forget, or you have a pretty gross dinner to serve.



Here you can see what the grilled shrimp look like when they are ready. I did have the barbecue grill wok filled pretty full, so I did stir a couple of times. You can also use grill gloves and just shake the grill wok.

When I took the grill wok off, I put it on a cookie sheet. Wok grilled meals can be a little drippy. I carried the wok inside on the cookie sheet and then poured the grilled foods into my bowl here which I got in Greece when I lived there.

Everyone went wild for the grilled shrimp meal tonight, although my son still is not going to go for the green peppers. That's OK. More for me.



I heated my grilled meal up with @SweetLifeSauce (Twitter name there) or just visit the Sweet Life Sauce page online where they have a lot of cool barbecue and kitchen flavor products. They sent me some samples to see what I thought.

I did not add BooDream's Cajun Rocket Fuel hot sauce to the marinade, because my younger son does not like hot foods. Also, I was not sure just how hot this sauce might be. I take it easy the first time, so I do not end up with food too hot for the family to eat (though all the rest of us are hot food fans).

The Cajun Rocket Fuel went on the side of my plate, and I dipped my grilled shrimp and veggies. Yes. This is hot sauce. It's around the heat level of Texas Pete but not as big on the bitter kick. I found it quite hot but pleasant. But, I would not splash it on liberally. It is, after all, called Rocket Fuel. Yaroom! I say thumbs up, but if you do not like heat, get you some ketchup or something, because this is hot stuff.