grill, baby, grill!

So you know how women tend to be scared of the grill? Well that is a gross generalization but speaking from personal experience there is something about a grill (and I’m talking about a proper grill with charcoal, cause I’m sorry, gas doesn’t give you that heavenly smell), that conjures images of a Real Man doing it. And in the past, I have been intimidated.

But enough is enough! Women can do everything men can! Hasn’t Governor Palin, the inspiration behind the title of today’s post, taught us that?

So… I grilled!

Grilling is EASY! But, admittedly, also coooomplicated. There were steps. Prepping helps.

Here’s my veggie prep station:

Eggplants salting (I grilled the eggplant today for sammiches tomorrow- stay tuned!), parsley for the meatballs (we had a pound and a half of ground beef and it was just me and my mom for dinner tonight—clearly that was more than enough for two burgers, so I made meatballs- also destined for a future appearance), and finally for the burgers themselves, fresh oregano from the deck planter for the patties, onions and shrooms for toppings.

The onions and shrooms became a foil packet that went on the grill, since they were too small to grill on their owney, aww.

Back to the meatballs, they were easy peasy! I took homemade bread crumbs (garlic bread goes stale= easy garlic breadcrumbs!) and soaked ‘em in water, mixed those, and the grated onion, those white chunks)…

… with the parsley, fresh garlic, salt and pepper, and all but 8 oz of the ground beef, and made balls. The original plan was to make them a foil packet too, so I laid ‘em out:

And I got my prep tray set, which made me feel like a total pro:

Eggplant plus olive oil for brushing, packets for the grill, TONGS!

Then I started up the grill, ON FIRE!

Yeah, um, that’s not enough charcoal. No big, I just added more, did more lighter fluid and another match. I adapted BEAUTIFULLY to the only MINOR challenge grilling gave me. Seriously, men love lording it over us, but if they can do it, IT’S EASY. GRILLING IS EASY.

I grilled up the eggplant first.

  

So beauuuuuuuuuuteous! Here’s the final plate:

 

I see smoky sandwiches in my future, YAY!

The foil packet was just working weirdly with the meatballs (plus they were rendering a lot of fat) so I tried just putting them on the grill and they stayed together and caramelized beautifully!

Since my mom was taking her SWEET TIME coming home from work, and I knew we should probably have some kind of side dish, ideally of the green vegetable persuasion, and since I was in love with grilling at that point, I thought hey, baby bok choy!

And it was fantastic! I can’t say enough good things about grilled baby bok choy. It’s already so pleasantly smoky, and grilling just enhances that!

So then the mother finally showed up, and I got the burgers on the grill! Oh, the thrill!

I am a purist with burgers. Ground beef, salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and fresh oregano. All you need.

My adorable mom bought me whole wheat burger buns, cause I’m a ridiculous person. But they were really good! Pepperidge farm brand. Her burger, con queso, mine sin.

Topped with hot sauce and, lest we forget, mushroom and onions that at this point were CARAMELIZED AND SWEET AND HEAVENLY!!!!!!!

This was seriously one of the BEST BURGERS I HAVE EVER TASTED, and I GRILLED IT ALL BY ME ONESIE!

The beefy, smokey burger (cooked PERFECTLY, if I do say so myself, still retaining its moisture), combined with the zesty spicy hot sauce and the SWEET SWEET WONDERFUL CARAMELIZED onions and mushrooms and the nice doughy yet grill-crisped bread… it was perfect!

I kept making loud exclamations! I didn’t want it to end!

So yes, I have conquered the grill. How does one move on?