Are You Ready For Opening Day of BBQ Season? – Recipe

GRATETV IS MAKING A STATEMENT!  Grilling season is normally associated with the summer months.  The designated first day of summer is Memorial Day.  So, by default the official beginning of the BBQ season has been Memorial Day.  From this day forward Opening Day of Grilling Season will officially be spring “time change” Sunday.  It just makes more sense.

Most folks cover their grills for the winter because there is a lack of daylight and the weather cools.  It’s difficult to grill in the dark and despite the invention of artificial lights dedicated to BBQ; the simple fact is it’s just not convenient.  However, when the time changes and we “spring forward” Barbeque Enthusiasts start to “Fire it up” more often.  Therefore we hereby decree the start of the Barbeque and Grilling season to be spring “time change” Sunday.

 

Watch the Daylight Saving Time Episode

 

All great days like this deserve a celebration, and celebrations always include Grate Food.  Here is an entire dinner from start to finish based on the grill.  It’s a fantastic way to celebrate the Official Opening Day of BBQ Season!

 

What You Will Need

 

 

Gather up your Grate ingredients.  For this dinner we chose Peppers, Chicken drumsticks, grilled vegetables, red potatoes, and pineapple.  We prepare entire dinner from appetizers to dessert on the grill.  Don’t worry if you don’t have all the equipment we use for this dinner.  Everything can be grilled without the fancy racks and rotisseries.  The cool equipment just makes for a Grate visual.  All of this food can be prepared right on the grill.  We’ll give you the tips.

 

 

Start: Prepare the Chicken

 

 

 

 

 

Start by making a cut at the base of the leg.  The gristle should come right off with a little persuasion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Use a pair of scissors and a knife to trim the tendons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Push the meat to the top of the bone forming a “chicken meat ball.

 

 

 

 

Put the trimmed chicken in a re-sealable bag and marinate using your favorite flavorful liquid.  Mojo Criollo is always a good choice.

 

 

 

 

 

Prepare the Poppers

 

 

 

Gather the ingredients for Lowcountry Sweet Poppers

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the chicken is marinating prepare the peppers.   Instead of the standard jalepeno, use sweet peppers.  The flavor from the pepper is fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the Lowcountry Sweet Poppers prepare a mixture of pineapple cream cheese, crab meat, some simple seasonings, and a little hot sauce and mix well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut off the top and remove the core.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You should be left with a very nice space for the filling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stuff the peppers with as much filling as you can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut a piece of bacon to cover the top

 

 

 

 

 

Add a toothpick and put the assembled pepper in your pepper roaster and set them aside.  Tip:  if you are not coring and roasting in this manner, cut the peppers in half, stuff with the cream cheese mix and lay a piece of bacon over the top or wrap the entire pepper in bacon.  Yum!

 

 

 

 

Prepare Greek Style Potatoes

 

 

 

 

 

Gather the ingredients for Greek Style Red Potatoes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wash red potatoes and cut them into a manageable size put them in a bowl and add sliced sweet onion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and toss well

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add some Greek seasoning and toss well again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tear off about 2 feet of heavy duty aluminum foil and pour the seasoned potatoes out on to the foil

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create a pouch by gathering the edges and folding down the middle to make a seam.  Set the pouch aside.

 

 

 

 

Prepare the Grilled Vegetables

 

 

 

Gather the ingredients for the grilled vegetables.

 

 

 

 

 

Wash the squash and asparagus.  With a sharp knife make planks out of the squash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brush the planks with extra virgin olive oil

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Season with the Greek style seasoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lay the asparagus on the board, brush it with extra virgin olive oil and season with the Greek style seasoning.  Put the vegetables on a cookie sheet and set them aside.

 

 

 

 

 

By this time the chicken should be done marinating.  Take the chicken out of the bag and season it with your favorite chicken seasoning.  Tip:  Use a seasoning with some color but add some of the Greek style seasoning to it too.  This keeps the flavor line running through the entire meal.

 

 

 

 

Mount the Chicken Lollipops on the rack and set it aside while you prepare the grill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fire up a grill to medium high heat

 

 

 

 

 

If you are using a rotisserie for the pineapple, mount the pineapple on the skewer and get the pineapple started.  Brush the pineapple during the cooking process with a mixture of 2 – 1 cocoa and oil.

 

 

 

 

Put the chicken on the grill first and cook it about 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

Add the potatoes and peppers, put the lid down and cook another 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the chicken is cooked throughly - 165 degrees!

 

 

 

If your grill is large enough add the squash planks and asparagus close the lid and cook for about 10 minutes per side until done.  Tip:  If your grill is not supersized finish cooking the peppers, chicken, and potatoes.   Cook the vegetables while the chicken and potatoes and peppers rest.

Tip:  If you are using sliced pineapple put it on the grill with the vegetables.  It will take about the same amount of time to grill.   Brush the pineapple with the oil cocoa mixture on both sides until it becomes tender and a nice golden color.

 

 

Assemble the plate and have a GrateTV Celebration of Daylight Saving time!

 

 

 

 

 

Fun Facts About Daylight Saving Time

• Notice that it’s Daylight Saving Time and NOT Daylight Savings Time.  This is a common mispronunciation.
• The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, “An Economical Project.”
• The idea was first advocated seriously by London builder William Willett (1857-1915) in the pamphlet, “Waste of Daylight.”  Willet wrote: “Everyone appreciates the long, light evenings. Everyone laments their shortage as Autumn approaches; and everyone has given utterance to regret that the clear, bright light of an early morning during Spring and Summer months is so seldom seen or used.”
• There was a fair bit of opposition from the general public and from agricultural interests who wanted daylight in the morning.
• Through 2006, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. ended a few days before Halloween (October 31). Children’s pedestrian deaths are four times higher on Halloween than on any other night of the year. A new law to extend DST to the first Sunday in November took effect in 2007, with the purpose of providing trick-or-treaters more light and therefore more safety from traffic accidents. For decades, candy manufacturers lobbied for a Daylight Saving Time extension to Halloween, as many of the young trick-or-treaters gathering candy are not allowed out after dark, and thus an added hour of light means a big holiday treat for the candy industry. Anecdotally, the 2007 switch may not have had much effect, as it appeared that children simply waited until dark to go trick-or-treating.
• To keep to their published timetables, trains cannot leave a station before the scheduled time. So, when the clocks fall back one hour in October, all Amtrak trains in the U.S. that are running on time stop at 2:00 a.m. and wait one hour before resuming. Overnight passengers are often surprised to find their train at a dead stop and their travel time an hour longer than expected. At the spring Daylight Saving Time change, trains instantaneously become an hour behind schedule at 2:00 a.m., but they just keep going and do their best to make up the time.
• Following the 1973 oil embargo, the U.S. Congress extended Daylight Saving Time to 8 months, rather than the normal six months. During that time, the U.S. Department of Transportation found that observing Daylight Saving Time in March and April saved the equivalent in energy of 10,000 barrels of oil each day – a total of 600,000 barrels in each of those two years.
• Likewise, in 1986, Daylight Saving Time moved from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April. No change was made to the ending date of the last Sunday in October. Adding the entire month of April to Daylight Saving Time is estimated to save the U.S. about 300,000 barrels of oil each year.
• Beginning in 2007, Daylight Saving Time commenced on the second Sunday in March and ended on the first Sunday in November, thereby saving even more oil.
• A safety reminder:  Many fire departments encourage people to change the batteries in their smoke detectors when they change their clocks because Daylight Saving Time provides a convenient reminder
• Following the 1973 oil embargo, the U.S. Congress extended Daylight Saving Time to 8 months, rather than the normal six months. During that time, the U.S. Department of Transportation found that observing Daylight Saving Time in March and April saved the equivalent in energy of 10,000 barrels of oil each day – a total of 600,000 barrels in each of those two years.
• Many people intensely dislike Daylight Saving Time. Frequent complaints are the inconvenience of changing many clocks and adjusting to a new sleep schedule. For most people, this is a mere nuisance, but some people with sleep disorders find this transition very difficult. Indeed, there is evidence that the severity of auto accidents increases and work productivity decreases as people adjust to the time change.