Grilled Fruit!

Grilled Flaming Pineapple

A true Grilling Junkie delight, and a new trend these days is to grill fruit on the trusted backyard grill. You trusted us with Grilled Pizza right? Trust us on this one too!

One of our favorites is Grilled Pineapple. Pineapple has the ideal texture and substance to take the heat of the grill! To add more fun to the experience, be sure let everyone gather around when you are ready to throw these pineapple slices on the grill. As always, be careful..when the rum hits the fire it will flare-up, so keep your your cool and your eyebrows out of range and let everyone be awed by your grilling skills.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pineapple cored and cut into ½ inch slices
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup (or 1 stick) butter or margarine
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup dark rum
Scoop of Vanilla ice cream

PREPARATION:

Combine Worcestershire sauce, honey, butter, sugar and rum in a deep medium saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil, making sure to stir constantly so as to avoid burning the mixture. Once it reaches a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until it begins to thicken. Remove from heat and allow the sauce to cool.

Preheat and oil your grill (a light olive oil works best). Brush pineapple pieces with sauce and place on grill. Cook for about 5 minutes turning occasionally. Surface of the pineapple should brown. Remove from grill, top with ice cream and the remaining sauce.

Enjoy!

The GrillJunkie Team

Celebrate Your Addiction to Grilling!

For those of you who are interested in expressing your love and/or addiction to grilling and barbeque, let it be known that we also design and sell a line of aprons. t-shirts, beer steins, etc. with such sayings as:

• "GrillJunkie - What Fire's You Up?",
• "Fire Good",
• "King of the Grill",
• "Live and Let Grill",
• "got buns?"
• .......... and many more!
  
  In conjunction with CafePress, these products can easily be ordered and shipped to you or to your favorite GrillJunkie of choice. These products make great gift ideas for Birthdays, Summer celebrations, Christmas, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Labor Day and any special occassion.
  
  What you see above is just a one example of the grilling apparel that we design. Be sure to visit our site to view the entire product line, as well as gain accesss to our free grilling tips and recipes.

http://www.grilljunkie.com/

http://www.cafepress.com/grilljunkie

Halloween Grilling Anyone?

This post comes from Derrick Riches from About.com. We thought it was worth posting as it fits in with our GrillJunkie theme that the grill is never not fired up. As we approach Winter, we always seem to focus in on the next holiday to make up an excuse to fire up the grill. As summer has ended, Labor Day and Columbus Day are behind us, our thoughts are usually focued on Thanksgiving and possibly grilling, smoking or deep frying the turkey outside. However, don't overlook Halloween as an excuse to fire up the grill and get some real food in them before they fill themselves with candy!


Original article from Derrick Riches -
http://bbq.about.com/

You might think of Halloween as little more than an excuse for the kids to fill themselves up on candy, but it’s a good idea to get some real food in them before the bags of candy start being replaced with bags of empty wrappers. Believe it or not the grill is a great way to put together something hot and satisfying, quick and easily. So consider a fun family meal of grilled foods before or after the kids hit the streets.

Of course hamburgers are a favorite of the grill and children, but think outside the bun and try making up some great Halloween pizzas. If you use cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella you get a pumpkin face for the kinds to decorate with black olives, pepperoni, red, orange and green bell peppers or whatever else you like on a pizza.

They’ll have a blast topping their own pizzas and since they cook up in a few minutes, they won’t drive you crazy waiting to eat.

Anything finger food is particularly good for Halloween since the kids will be coming and going during the night. It’s also perfect for the parents out escorting the young ones. Whether you’re having a big Halloween party or not, little grilled treats like buffalo wings or yakitori are perfect little treats to carry around the whole evening.

To top off your Halloween gathering you must have a Witch's Cauldron of Punch, Chocolate Spiders and Chocolate Covered Mice. So flame on the grill and have a safe and scary Halloween.

Source : http://bbq.about.com/

Weber's Command of the Grill - A Salute to Steak and our Marines!

Heads up fellow GrillJunkie's! Nudged by our Marine friends at The Bit Bucket blog, http://msthenetworker.blogspot.com/ we wanted to help promote the long awaited release of Weber's Command of the Grill - A Salute to Steak. This is no ordinary cook book! This book is the result of grilling competitions held for Marines. A great way to celebrate your passion for grilling, and to help our beloved Marines. Go ahead, find out more about what fires our Marines up.

http://www.commandofthegrill.com/



In 2005, active duty and reserve Marines at 10 military installations around the country took up their tongs in the ultimate battle of the barbecue. They marinated, seared, and sauced in an all-out battle for top grilling honors. This book showcases the winning recipes from the competition, along with steak recipes from famous former Marines like Lee Trevino and Ed McMahon.

This unique book combines the love of grilling steak, while unveiling a unique perspective on our Marine's favorite pastime! What could be better than a book that combines all of those, you ask? Well, Weber has designated that every single penny of this $10 book goes to supporting Marines wounded in action, or the families and children of Marines who were killed in action. The Charities supported are:


- The Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund - Provides financial assistance to injured Marines, and other service members injured while assigned to Marine Units.

- The Wounded Warrior Project - Provides programs and assistance to severely wounded service members.

- The Fisher House - Provides a home away from home for the families of patients receiving medical treatment at Military and VA medical centers.

- The Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation - Assists the Children of Marines and Law Enforcement who were killed while serving their country.

If you know a Marine, buy this book for them, if you know someone who likes to grill, buy this book for them. Heck, buy one for yourself. Give something for those who sacrificed everything.

Be sure to visit the Weber site, where you can read more about the book, the story behind the book, and the charities!

http://www.commandofthegrill.com/

From the entire GrillJunkie Team, we wish to thank and send our admiration to Weber for honoring and supporting our Marine's

Semper Fi!

Winter Grill Cleanup and Prep

Winter Cleaning and Prep

Get your grill ready for winter.

As winter approaches each year, some of you may begin to think it's time to pack your grill away until signs of spring appear. There are a few things that should be done besides simply forgetting and just letting your grill sit under a foot of snow all winter. Of course that’s not what anyone plans on doing, however due to the quick onset of winter, especially in the Northeast, it frequently happens that way. The following will help you prepare your grill for winter and avoid finding your trusty barbecue rusted and populated with squirrels and field mice next spring.

To those of you in warmer climates, we offer you the best of wishes during those mid January cookouts. Be sure to send pictures to encourage the rest of us GrillJunkies that hope is just around the “seasonal” corner. Those of you that live in lands of snow however are presented with a choice. You can pack the grill carefully into a nice dry corner of the garage or shed, or face potential frostbite by cooking outdoors in a foot of snowfall.

After a long summer of grilling you probably have a good build up of black, greasy gunk in your grill. This gunk should be removed prior to winter storage. You will be glad you did come spring when that ad hoc cookout request comes along. In order to do so, we recommend that you follow the procedures in our Cleaning Your Grill section on our web site www.grilljunkie.com . In addition to cleanup, you should also make note of any part that is rusted through and is in need of replacement. It is always safe to assume that you may not be able to find those parts in the off season but you will know exactly what you need when the stores roll out their barbecue and grilling accessories selection next year.

With the shell and all the components clean you can reassemble the grill, being sure that all gas connections are made you are leak free. Then Fire It Up one last time to make sure that it is completely dry. Now you can go over the metal parts with some cooking oil or spray. This little trick helps to repel any moisture that might build up during the winter. Now you should cover your grill and park it in a place where it will be sheltered from the elements. An important note about gas grills is that while a dry corner of the garage is the perfect place for the grill, it is not the place for the gas tank!. Never store propane tanks in an enclosed area. Even the slowest of leaks can flood an area with explosive gas. It's best to keep the tank in a well ventilated area, protected from the weather.

If you have a charcoal grill the same basic rules apply. But because of the simplicity of a charcoal grill, you’ll have a much easier time of it. Charcoal grills and smokers tend to only need a light coat of oil over the cooking grates and don’t need to be oiled down like a gas grill. When spring arrives always let your grill or smoker heat up completely before you cook. This will burn off this protective oil covering.

Be safe, be clean, and be prepared. Enjoy!

What Fires You Up? Grilling vs. BBQ

Here's a snippet from the GrillJunkie FAQ section of our site www.grilljunkie.com to get things started:

What Fires You Up?

Grilling versus Barbeque

We would be remiss if we did not first address the age old question regarding the differences between Grilling and Barbeque. In essence, what we are attempting to explain here is the difference between grilling and barbeque, or, as many refer to as the direct versus indirect method, while attempting to avoid taking a side amongst the purists of the two camps. At GrillJunkie we encourage the practice and experimentation of both methods, …..again fortifying our motto, “Whatever Fires You Up!”

People often use the term barbecue when referring to foods that are grilled, but barbecuing and grilling are two very different processes.

Barbecuing

Barbecuing refers to foods that are cooked with a long, slow process using indirect, low-heat generated by smoldering logs, wood chips that smoke-cook the food. The fuel and heat source are separated from the cooking chamber, but the cooking chamber contains enough heat to slowly but properly cook the food over a long period of time. Along with heat, the cooking chamber fills with smokes, providing the food with its characteristically smoky flavor, which varies depending on the type of wood that is used for the fuel. The best temperature for barbecuing is between 200°F and 300°F. If the temperature rises above 300°F, it is considered grilling.

Grilling

Grilling refers to foods that are cooked more quickly and directly over high heat. The fuel and heat source are not separated from the cooking chamber thus providing for an environment that provides for high heat.

Grilling temperatures typically reach 500°F or more, but any temperature above 300°F is considered a grilling temperature.

The high heat of grilling sears the surface of meat, creating a flavorful browned crust.

More to come next post where we'll share a few recipes and continue the BBQ vs. Grilling theme by delving into Indirect vs. Direct Grilling.

Can't wait? ...... Visit our site at www.grilljunkie.com

GrillJunkie's Unite!

Greeting to all!

The GrillJunkie's Unite site is a blog that focuses on what’s happening in the grilling world, locally and nationally. Here you will find recipes, grilling tips and FAQs, restaurant reviews, book reviews, products to help celebrate your addiction to grilling and BBQ and other useful information on the grilling and BBQ scene.

Visit our main site at http://www.grilljunkie.com