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!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Fourth of July Grill Out


The Fourth of July is when we watch baseball, parades and fireworks, but it is also a nationwide grill out. We had relatives over so I tried to have something for everyone. Clockwise from the pickle in the photo is a bacon-cheese burger, an Italian sausage dog with grilled peppers and onions, cole slaw, Mesa Grill Potato Salad, and Molasses and Honey baby back ribs. All these were grilled using Bobby Flay techniques and recipes. I must say that I think the rubs were the best. Four hours before dinner I pulled out the slab and seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic and chili powder. I covered the slab with no-stick aluminum foil and placed it on the upper rack of the grill over low heat. I let the grill do its work for the first hour undisturbed. I turned the ribs over during the second hour and prepared the sauce. In a sauce pan over the grill I combined molasses, honey, brown sugar, salt, garlic and ancho chili powder. During the third hour I opened the foil over the top of the slab and slathered on the sauce. I recovered the ribs with the foil - still on low heat - and let the sauce ooze and bubble down over the slab inside the foil. I know people say that their ribs fell off the bone. The meat on these ribs did not fall off the bone - why would you really want that anyway? But they did melt in the mouth. These were the most tender and the most juicy ribs I ever grilled. The secret is not the sauce - although this sauce was terrific - the secret is the long grill time over the low heat. I also grilled a few burgers and dogs...
PS - Remember to check out the St. Francis Winery's Turn Up The Heat Contest. I have a video on their site and I hope that video will win me the title of Grill King of Sonoma Valley! Go watch the video at
http://www.youtube.com/user/StFrancisContest#p/a/f/1/Gr1Y4MUFX_U 



Happy Fourth and keep grillin' Paul

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