Welcome to Bobby Flay Everyday!

I am not an expert. I have never even taken a class. I have no formal training - but I love to grill. I love the food off the grill and I just like the idea, the fun and the relaxation of grilling. So naturally Bobby Flay is a hero. I have his books, I watch his shows and I try out his recipes. So my idea is to grill one of Bobby's grilling recommendations everyday and see how it goes. Bobby Flay Everyday!

The idea to grill and blog is not original. Julie Powell wrote a blog that became a book and then a movie when she cooked all 524 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. But this is not French Cooking - this is backyard, after work, tailgate, American male grilling. I grill outside in a man-cave in every kind of weather. There is no "grilling season" for me - its everyday, year-round. We will skip around through Bobby's books and TV shows and grill what we like. But grilling is more than food, its an experience - so we will also report on what music we listened to or what ball game was on while we were grilling. We will keep track of what we were drinking during the grilling and later with the food. I'll try to figure what went wrong when we fall short of Bobby's perfection and pass on any tips I know about or discover along the way. Maybe it will give others some ideas as well.

The photo is of me and two of my brother-in-laws roasting the Thanksgiving turkey on the grill last year. That's me on the far right. In real life I am a college professor and pilot. I have written 12 books, but they were all about flying - here we write about grilling. We write about Bobby Flay Everyday!

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Grilled BLT

Classic BLT from the Grill! This was a great, fast, light Friday night dinner. The recipe is from Boy Gets Grill by Bobby Flay, page 238 - Grilled Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato and Cheese Sandwich. I grilled the bacon across the grill grates and did not loose a single strip. I used a little butter spray on the Whole Wheat bread and toasted the slices on an upper grate. The sandwich came together with a big slice of tomato, romaine lettuce and that is real Buffalo Mozzarella piled on. We cut the sandwiches in half for easy griping, added a big Kosher Dill pickle on the side and we were good. There is hardly anything better than a really good sandwich when you have fresh ingredients - especially the bread. This bread was soft and fresh from the store's bakery.


I remember sandwich building and eating contests on Saturdays in my house growing up. My mother would put out a bunch of sandwich fixin's like bread (I think it was always white bread), "package meat" (which was thin slices of ham or turkey that came in a plastic pouch), and then anything else that could be pulled from the fridge. It was probably a really creative way to get rid of leftovers. The trick was to build the tallest sandwich - but that was not enough - to win, you had to eat the whole thing. Potato chips in the sandwich was standard, because they added height. It wasn't until years later that I discovered that Bobby Flay's signature burger has potato chips on it and at Bobby's Burger Palace he will add chips on any burger for free. See my previous blog on the Signature Burger for more on that. I once won the contest with an Apple Sandwich. It had all the regular ingredients, but I added apple slices because they were thick, not necessarily because apples on a deli sandwich would taste good or makes good sense - but I ate it and I won. I bet my parents didn't think they were creating a life-long memory with a sandwich game. Funny that the little things make such a big difference in the long run. But back to the Grilled BLT...


This proves that even standard favorites like a Classic BLT can be better from the grill. So, it is true that everything is better with bacon and everything is better from the grill. These are eternal truths. These are known facts. 


More theories proven, more truths confirmed and more grilling to come!
Paul 

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