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!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Throw a Brick

Here is Bricked Rosemary Chicken with Lemon - from Bobby Flay's Grilling for Life, page 136. Under the brick the chicken got a little blackened, but it was still tender and juicy on the inside. The marinade for the chicken was olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and fresh rosemary. I bought a whole frier chicken and had the store butcher butterfly cut it by taking out the back bone and laying it open. When you buy chicken by the piece, like thighs, legs, wings, breasts, you pay more to have the cutting done. But if you buy the whole chicken, the butcher will cut it up for free - so you get what you want for about half price! After marinating the butterfly chicken, it went onto the grill and under the brick. 
What to Drink? White Truck. From the same folks that bring us Red Truck wine, White Truck is a blend of California whites. One of the characteristics of many white wines is their citrus flavors. We thought that would pair well with the chicken that also had lemon in the marinade. It worked. Red and/or White Truck will work for you as well, so give them a try sometime. http://www.redtruckwine.com/redtruck/index.jsp

Sometimes when a flight student unexpectedly does poorly on a flight test, we call that "throwing a brick." It happens. A really good student, does something really dumb on the flight test, right in front of the pilot examiner. They had never made that mistake before and it is a safe bet that they will never make that same mistake again. The mistake came out of no where. We didn't see it coming - they just Threw a Brick. In flight training, throwing a brick is a bad thing - in grilling it can be a good thing - as long as the brick is wrapped in foil and on top of a chicken!

More brick throwing (the good kind) and more grilling to come!
Paul

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