Brow M Chuck Chuck

It’s not that I’m running out of steam or not interested. It’s my new schedule change. I’ve lost my girl on grill action weekly four play. Sooooooooo, I’m thinking of new ways to keep on keeping on. I have a few ideas to get me out of the way and find girls grilling. I will work that out in my spare minutes each day. A friend of mine had the idea of turning down the class knob and cranking the cheese knob to eleven. He’s thinking guy (or girl even better) knocks on the door. He’s a plumber, but he’s carrying a pork tenderloin. Girl answers door, happens to have some hot coals ready for meat. And so it goes. I need to keep it with chicks only. I’m not even about to write a food porn site. But the cheese angle is not something I’ve tried before. Classy cheese, though. Not obvious cheese cheese. Or cheese for cheese sake. But clever, classy cheese. i’ll try a few out and see how it goes.

More Than A Kebab

It’s safe to say that Seattle is tad frigid with spring this year. Because of this, we’re having trouble finding moments to grill between the sloppy, gray spew that’s not quite rain yet moister more than dew. Thankfully, Pamela decided to fuck it and grill anyway. Waiting for spring to spring could take us clear through to July. I do love Seattle, but when it pisses down for weeks on end, one can get grumpy. The Pamela grill went really well while also providing the cutest kittens I’ve ever seen. All of which are available to home near you. Plus Chiquita, the sweet pitt, that has a heart for kittens and a peppy little spirit that unleashes your smile. Sweet, sweet little pup that is also available to a home near you. Pamela whipped up some rubbed chicken on a stick with grilled veggies that were simple and delicious. Pamela has a heart of gold for nature, which drives her to help cats and dogs in the Seattle area. This will be the first write up I do that will include more detail on the passions of the grilling girl. Still pondering what and where I’m going with this, I’m taking different paths to find what will click. One moment of hilarity was the boys who showed up to polish off Pamela’s cuisine. Left to grill for herself, she said, “that would be a kebab on the grill.” Instead, she pulled together a great lunchtime feast that was devoured in minutes by some hard working boys, one of which she’s married to. Great times. Great food.

Cute Flickr Tag Browser!

This is cute, fun and slick

http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/related_tag_browser/app/

Girl On Grill Action™ or Bust

I love Bust.com. A magazine after my own heart. A friend of mine suggested that I see how my Girl On Grill Action™ site could hang with them. Bust has developed something they call the Girl Wide Web. They post with search and a rating system, various girl driven sites. I quickly added my site to the bunch and came out with an “Editor’s Pick” stamp. Yeah!

As The Grill Burns

Another grill done and another feast devoured. It’s so hard to go wrong with this grilling business. The hot coals, the simple ingredients, the champagne, the giggles, all so straightforward. It’s funny how many of the girls I’ve worked with have not known the magic of the chimney. Once they do it, they all say, “that’s it?” which is practically the “is it in yet” of grilling. All the macho books. All the fuss. All the religious perfect and only way to grillisms. Total crap. Charcoal is fun. Charcoal is easy. Charcoal goes for a long time. Once we get the charcoal going, the girls could go all night. They start inventing things to grill. Rachel exclaimed, “let’s put a brownie in the banana leaf and see how THAT tastes!” Natasha saw an egg and couldn’t help herself but pop in on the grill to see what happened. It’s crazy. As I talk with various girlfriends, I tell them about my project, then I turn it on them asking them to step up and grill. It’s so cool to see their eyes light up and explode with fantastic ideas they would experiment with on the grill. Some take recipes they had thought about making, but quickly turn to improvisation when the coals are lit. The girls can’t help themselves. It’s like they see hot coals, they know they are in charge and go off testing any food they can find on the grill with spices, sauces what ever they can get their hands on to create some amazing dishes. It’s exhilarating to experience. When I started this project, I had no idea how passionate the girls would be. They really get into it and I step back to let them run with it snapping along the way.

The photography and tasting have been the best part of this. I’m less and less interested in writing up exactly how we made things. I’m more interested in writing up what happened, what we used with lessons learned along the way. It turns out, you can cook a damn good egg on the grill and that brownies in banana leaves taste less like brownies and more like chocolate banana leaves which approaches “yuk” for me. It’s also fun to attempt to capture the fun with stillness. Trying to convey an active, zesty photograph that says, “dude, you totally missed it. It was deeLICIOUS.” The last shoot was filled with sass and faces. Amber and Natasha were a bit hesitant as they hadn’t grilled much, but when we turned it into a Brunch BBQ, they totally brought it. It’s hard to cut down all the photos to a group that are relevant, classy and flattering. They are volunteers after all. I want them to feel comfortable. I don’t want them to regret grilling for the camera. But, here are few lovely moments that didn’t make it to the Girl On Grill Action™ site.

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- shank

I’m always excited when people find my site via popular search engines. Thus far, these are my favorite terms searched that referred people to my site:

Pop it
Fleshy bits
Girl breast rub
Out of a dream jean curtis
Banana breasts
Proctologist in action

And my all time fav is:
Tamra Myers – shank

Whew. Love it. A tad bit of pride that these terms would lead people to Girl On Grill Action. Flaclemt.

Girls, Girls, Grills

 

Woo. (funny how “whew” and “woo” mean totally different things) we got girls grilling from all over. “Herd Platter,” “Chook with beer up its arse,” “Hot Veg Cold Salad,” yum. All coming to you live as quickly as my long, yet petite fingers can type (I coulda been a hand model). Two things today. One is this HILARIOUS scam I almost fell victim to regarding my pending “™” status. The other a thought on direction of this project. You’re running through a forest, you’rerunningthroughaforest, quickly, quickly I’m trying to get the hell outta Dodge and this very important letter comes from USPTO. “Oh yeah!” I thought, “they’re going to follow up in a few months on my application.” Lots of words talking about process, rules and guidelines and a space for my info and my credit card details. “Funny that, I totally paid them when I submitted my application,” I’m thinking also wondering if I misread and they now need another processing fee. I thought for sure it was one application fee and then a long line of reviews

with whatnot. I decide to deal with it upon my return. Skip to the end, I finally found a chance to read the one page officialage and turns out it’s not from the USPTO, it’s USTMS … oh acronyms CLWCFUWTOA (can live with’em can’t fucking understand what they’re on about). Fine print “this service has not been approved or endorsed by the United States Federal Government” and “you give us four hundred dollars of your hard earned cash and we’ll take it without question!” Bravo USTMS, preying on new trademarkers overwhelmed by paragraph upon paragraph of legal jargon only to offer a shit service. No thanks, I’ll pass.

And on to the direction of this project. What exactly is the feel of Girl On Grill Action™. So easy to go cheesey. What was it? “they’ll be wearing gold plated diapers yadda yadda,” one fan offers. I could keep it real with real girls, their style of the grill. I could also click way over to the O notch (as in Oprah not “O” face) and incorporate girls, their grills and their stories. Thus far, I have heard amazing stories on these photo shoots. Crazy mums, cancer, drugs, silly husbands, a grill traveling 110 kph down the freeway all captivating goodies for a novel with recipes, technique and inhibition simply centered around grilling. This is where I dig in deep to my market. Is it boys who buy but a tiny percentage of cookbooks? Noting that that trend is up roughly 10.5% compared to chicks which is down -1.8%. Is it chicks who want, simple grilling recipes without the fanfare and machismo? Is it a fun calendar? What am I on about? One thing I have noticed is my initial grilling with girls are some of the best experiences I’ve had in a long time. Some of the girls I’ve worked with have played the sous-chef more than the master griller. They don’t know how to light charcoal. They’ve never come within two feet of the grill. And yet, for the photo shoot, they overcome these pimply hurdles and a confident, brilliant chef with sass and pizzazz blossoms.

 

Emily, Duck Breast and The Champagne Taste Off

Emily hits the barbeque out of the yard with her simple, yet fancy Duck Breast and wow’em dessert tamales (no banana leaves were harmed in the making of that dessert). There was also a surprise, 3-D cookie!! A great way to end the 2007 fall barbeque season as Girl On Grill Action™ prepares for some serious winter ‘queage.

This was the first two subject photo shoot. Rachel returns and shows us what cold looks like. A third gal was on her way, but couldn’t ditch work accordingly. It was great to try to capture the grilling chat dynamic.

A big part of the project is the fun and excitement of grilling with simple yet solid concoctions. I will avoid the words “mastering” and “perfect” as well as the phrase “the only way.” Put the charcoal on, grab your champagne and say, “right, what are we grilling?”

We had a great champagne taste off where Veuve Clicquot went head to head with Kirkland’s finest. Sure, some may have the buy generic
bias, but truly the results will amaze even the most refined taste buds.

Some great conversation took place throughout the shoot while the photographer got sauced (note to self: chill only the champagne you soberly decided you want to drink). This led to another angle on the project, an Oprah Book Club candidate which will take a biographical dive into women and their stories threaded together by grilling (alright boys, stop rolling your eyes). Each girl has their story and their own style of commanding the grill. It was a thought.

The next shoot will be anywhere but my kitchen as I’m tired of cleaning it. That and I’m needing some new background and chop chop shots. January’s BBQT is lined up, but most likely unsure of what the hell this is all about. No worries, she’ll be ready.

My many, many thanks to Rachel for stepping up yet again and to Emily for getting all creative and shit.

 

 

(finally, i found a brave soul to wear a little christmas giggle!)

Girl On Grill Action Goes South

As part of this project, I’m going to feature a girl griller of the month. I’d love to do week, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’m still working on the name. My fan suggested Barbie QT, which I love. I also proposed

Miss Barbie Q
BBQT
Braai Babe
Grill Girl
Smokin’ Grill Girl
Shashlik Sassy
Sizzle of the week

With “of the week” or “of the month” appended.

And so, with the help of my good friend Jennifer, she stepped up to be the very first BBQT. As an added bonus, we also got a few shots of a future BBQT, Miss Rachel. With gorgeous seventy degree weather, a beach and a local tourist stop in the beautiful San Diego area behold Jennifer on the Coronado beach.

I had visions of her sitting atop a grill on the beach with her hot tattoos and cute, California smile. Alas, after a thorough search, a grill was not to be found. What we did find was almost better. A concrete receptacle to place your used coals with the explicitly clear label “Hot Coals Only.” I couldn’t have asked for more. Many, many thanks to my friends Jennifer and Rachel. They totally pulled it off.

I got two other things relating to the grilling-for-girls project. Firstly, I stumbled across a site that listed its awards. One of which was an award for “A top 10% cooking site.” I’m aiming to be a top 42% cooking site myself. Secondly, there is a National BBQ Association. Membership, conferences the whole pig. I had no idea how serious this BBQ stuff was when I set sail. I knew it was boyish and I knew there were books, but conferences and associations … wow. There’s a large sub-culinary world out there, which makes this project all the more juicy.

Nibbly Girl

Girl On Grill Action™ photo shoot number two complete and not without its drama. No better time to start grilling than the start of the Seattle rainy season. The clouds were out and puffed to piss down. Four gals were planned for this round. One had food poisoning … not from our grill mind you; we cooked the shit out of things to avoid pukage. Two were “bloated.” Rachel Goodspeed, the saucy Brit who can cook like nobody’s bidness was on time and full of ideas. This girl did pizza. Oh maw gaw. Three pizzas and one of them was the best pizza I’ve ever had ever really, no shitting. Many thanks to Rachel for showing up, kicking arse and bringing the weather with her. Blue skies a plenty.

Similar to Tamra, Rachel hadn’t quite grilled from start to finish, though she’s been the pizza sous chef for many rounds. Once the charcoal was lit, Rachel was on. Two pizzas were made, the dark gray rain clouds returned to loom and there was no stopping her, she wanted to hold hands, take a polaroid and keep goin’!* And if you think that making pizza on the grill is novel a la deep fried turkey and you’ll happily return to pizza in the home oven, you can think that if you want to no worries mate, but I will caution that it will not be as good. In fact, it will be a bit doughy.

The basic way to make pizza on the grill is to put the tossed or rolled out dough on the grill to cook and puff. Turn the dough over and decorate. Then finish up the cook until gooey and melty looking.

The charcoal was fun this round. We tried a few positions.
1. Charcoal in a nice pile in the middle for both sides.
Result: a bit burnt on the second side
2. Charcoal in the middle for the first side. Then scooting the charcoal to the side for the second side.
Result: yummy crunch, dare I say perfect?
3. Indirect heat for both sides. That is, charcoal scooted to one part of the grill for both pizza sides.
Result: okay, but took longer. When you eat like Rachel, this was a bad technique as she kept opening the lid to check if it’s done yet. Is it done yet? How about now? With her lovely Oxford accent and snapping tongs.

For this round we used natural charcoal that starts with an ‘L’ (were I at home I could add the link here). The only difference noticed from that and the Kingsford standard† used last photo shoot was how long it lasted in the grill. It seems the Kingsford could go for hours where the natural charcoal simmered down after it hit the height of its heat. There are fanatics out there concerned with the flavor component of charcoal; we have yet to attain that finely tuned palette. For now, it’s amazing concoctions, champagne‡ and nibbling as you go. and GIRL this girl could nibble. She nibbled everything. It’s no surprise the eat shots came out a bit more organic.

The photo shoot went very well. We cooked for hours. The pizzas were a tad more complicated with their chiffonades, pasty garlic and fancy figs, but once prep is done, you slap it together and eat. Yum. Prep is half the fun. This is where giggles are made§.

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*Thelma and Louise ref for those boy readers.
†I love how the Kingsford site has a NASCAR section. Perhaps I can partner with Victoria’s Secret or better yet the MoneyShot Volley Ball Tournament.
‡We slummed it with Veuve Clicquot (pronounced “voov clicko”) this round. However as we headed to pizza number three, we found some Nickie’s ( I suspect that is not nor is looked upon positively as a short name for Nicholas Feuillatte champagne )

§Took the oportunity to play with footnotes. okay. I’ll stop.