Episode 026 continues the What We’re Grilling series, where Taryn discusses recipes she and her family have grilled over the last couple of weeks to give you some meal inspiration. In this episode, Taryn talks about how she’s handled grilling in the heat, going over several food items she’s bought at Costco that are easy to cook up on the grill with little no prep! She also mentions using a grill mat for the first time to cook up some sliced onions and bell peppers. Listen to this episode to get some grilling ideas when the heat gets to be too much!
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Some of the following are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The links for the food products are from Instacart. If you do not have an Instacart account, you can sign up for one by clicking here.
- Costco (Instacart) – Meat District Chuck & Brisket Patties
- Costco (Instacart) – Amylu Andouille Chicken Sausages
- Costco (Instacart) – Aidells Organic Chicken & Apple Sausage
- Costco (Instacart) – Kiolbassa Organic Beef Sausage
- Grill mat by Grilllight
RECIPES MENTIONED
These are some of the recipes mentioned in the episode, all of which are on Hot Pan Kitchen.
TRANSCRIPT
Taryn Solie: Hello grillers! Welcome to another What We’re Grilling episode. I am your host, Taryn Solie, and I am here to give you some grilling inspiration. These What We’re Grilling episodes are meant to be short and sweet, coming out about every 2 weeks. I go over some of the foods that my family and I have grilled that we’ve liked – some of what I mention will just be general meal ideas, and for others I’ll go into more detail to give you a sense of how to grill it. The goal is to give you some ideas for what to cook for your family and friends.
Today we’re going to do something a little different. It’s been super hot here in the Seattle area – as I know it has been throughout the US – and I’m going to be honest, I have not wanted to do a lot of cooking or standing over a hot grill. So I decided to make things a little easier on myself and purchase some foods from Costco that are super quick to grill so I’m not spending a bunch of time over hot flames!
Costco has a lot of amazing food, and I’m only covering four options today since those are the foods my family and I have eaten most recently.
First up is a pre-formed hamburger that’s part ground chuck and part brisket – not frozen, fresh. While I definitely prefer to eat burgers I’ve made at home, I know that I like burgers with chopped, sauteed mushrooms in them and I really didn’t want to turn on the stove. So I bought these kind of on a whim to see how they were. They are seasoned – mostly with garlic and peppercorn – which was part of the appeal. My family liked these pretty well. They had decent flavor and they cooked up well. I still definitely prefer the taste of the burgers I make at home but they are great for a super quick meal on the grill.
The next three items from Costco are all sausages. The first is a chicken and apple sausage by Aidell’s that I typically use in my sausage sheet pan dinner recipe, which I’ll link in the show notes page. But they’re just as easy to cook on the grill and just as tasty. They’re very mild flavored and sweet without having any added sugar in them, which I like. They’re a great option for kids.
Next up are some organic beef smoked sausages by Kiolbassa Smoked Meats. These are seasoned, but I wouldn’t call them spicy. My kids , who cannot handle spicy foods, do eat them, though they prefer hot dogs (what kid doesn’t). And my husband probably likes these the best out of all foods I’m talking about today. Again, super easy to just place on the grill and heat up. They’re pretty large – definitely larger than a hot dog – and I tend to eat them with sauteed onion and peppers or roasted veggies.
One thing I did do this week, is on a day that was about 15 degrees cooler than the current weather we’re having I roasted a bunch veggies to keep in the fridge for later in the week. So that way I wouldn’t have to turn on the oven and could have an easy veggie side for anything I grilled. It does take some time and forethought to do that, and I definitely don’t do it all the time, but it’s something to consider if you have a cooler day ahead and want to get some cooking out of the way.
The last sausage is a new one I tried – a chicken andouille sausage. I was a little hesitant because I was worried it might be a little spicy for my kids, and I was right! I took one bite and while it was slightly spicy for me – and I have a pretty low heat threshold for spicy food – I knew it would definitely be too spicy for my kids. My husband liked them though and they were quick to heat up on the grill.
With these I grilled some onion and bell peppers on the grill. Normally I’d cut them in thicker pieces and grill them that way, but I had a grill mat I’ve been wanting to try so instead I sliced them thin and used the grill mat to cook them on the grill.
If you’ve never used or heard of a grill mat, it’s a small mat made of a non-stick material that goes on top of the grill grates, essentially turning it into a griddle. It’s great for things like cooking bacon, because it helps prevent flareups from the grease, or eggs, which obviously can’t be cooked on grill grates normally. The one I have is by Grilllight and it’s heat safe up to 600 degrees F, which my grill doesn’t usually get that hot anyway.
To cook the pepper and onions I tossed them with just a little bit of oil and some kosher salt, then cooked them over a medium heat (around 350F) for probably 8 to 10 minutes until they were soft. It was super easy and they tasted great. If you don’t have a grill mat, I’ll put links to my recipes for grilled peppers and grilled onions in the show notes because it’s also super easy to cook them both without a grill mat, though the mat was fun to try.
And that’s it for today! We went over some recent purchases from Costco for the grill as well as using a grill mat to cook sliced onions and peppers on the grill. I am going to try and link to items I purchased from Costco on the show notes page – they’re not available on Costco.com but I do see them on Instacart, so we’ll see if that works. It may depend on whether or not the items are available in your area. I’ll also link to the grill mat I have as well as some of the recipes I’ve mentioned.
To get to the show notes page you can either go to my main website at Hot Pan Kitchen dot com and click on podcast in the main menu, or you can click on the link provided in whatever podcast app you’re listening on.
If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would share it with a friend who you think would be interested! Or if you’ve already told your friends, please subscribe, rate, and review.
Thank you so much for listening, and until next time, keep grilling like a mother.
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