Summer Grilling

For my family and I, we grill all year long, heck, we had the grills and smokers going in the snow during winter! For a lot of people, the grill comes out in the summer time. The suns out, the grass is green, kids are off from school and it's time to light the grill and cook some BBQ! There are a couple things about summer that make grilling so much more fun. Vacation and family visits, picnics, reunions, fresh veggies, fresh fruit and more daylight for being outside.

It's been humid in PA the last few days, but that won't stop us from standing over the hot grill cooking a delicious dinner. Mom and I found a manager special flank steak at the grocery store the other day, so I decided I'd heat up the Kamado Joe and grill us some steak! I used the veggie grate for the Kamado to grill off some mushrooms, green peppers, orange peppers, and onion over direct heat (I threw them on around the time the grill hit 300 as I knew it would heat to 350 quickly) and then moved them to a cast iron pan once I had a nice char to heat them through and keep them hot for serving. As they cooked over the direct heat I did use tongs to move them around to avoid over charing any pieces that were closer to the center where the fire was hotter. The Jalapeno were done in a separate pan as not everyone is crazy about the heat they can bring (though they ended up not being hot at all, at least not to me).

The flank steak was seasoned with a Trader Joe's coffee and garlic rub that I have come to love! Both my Dad and Chris were surprised I only seasoned it about an hour and a half before putting it on the grill, and I did not use any liquid marinade. To their surprise it was still juicy and tender! The grill was nearing 500 degrees when I threw it over the direct heat, so I watched carefully knowing I could move the veggies off and put it over the indirect heat if it got to hot to avoid over charing the steak. I used a thermometer to get it to about 130 degrees before pulling it off, so while it rested the center would come up to a MR doneness. It's always good to rest the meet for a few minutes before slicing it to avoid extra juice loss. (Chris and I always tease you rest it because it's tired from cooking).

Mom made some Mrs. T's perogies as additional sides, and we dug in. My Dad isn't as big on certain seasonings so I didn't make them a fajita flavor, but I still topped my steak with some cheese and sour cream, so it was like a tortilla-less steak wrap. The coffee and garlic seasoning may sound odd to some, and it does not taste like coffee once the foods off, but boy does it make the meat tender and give a mouth watering flavor!