Perfect Potatoes for a HOT Day!

It's hot!  Too hot to turn the oven on.  If your house is like mine, when the oven goes on, the temperature in the kitchen rises at least 10 degrees.  When it's over 90 degrees outside, I head for the grill.  There's no heating up the oven, messing up the kitchen and dinner cooks while you sit on the patio and enjoy your favorite beverage.  Another tip - if you have a grillin man around, he can do most of the work for you.  Now that's my idea of enjoying a late summer evening.  This recipe is simple, fast and perfect for a hot day because it's all done on the grill! 

Here's a simple plan for a cool evening (not cooking) grilling dinner:

Step 1:  Take out what sounds good to you - steak, burgers, fish, chicken and get it ready to grill.   Meaning you could marinate it or just season it up with salt and pepper.

Step 2:  Take your favorite vegetables and cut them into 1 inch pieces.  Mix them with some olive oil, salt and pepper and if you like it, some chopped up garlic.  I usually use peppers, onion, mushrooms and sometimes zucchini.  Add them to a grill pan or wrap up in foil and set aside.  I'll do this sometime on the blog - it's one of my favorites during the summer.

Step 3:  Now get your potatoes ready and get them on the grill. They'll probably take the longest, around 40-50 minutes.  See recipe below.

Step 4:  When you have 20-30 minutes of grilling time left, add your meat/fish to the grill.  Grill to desired doneness.  If done early, just remove from grill and cover with foil to keep warm.

Step 5:  When you have 15-20 minutes of grill time left, add your vegetables to the grill.  Grill until soft (not charred).  Remove and cover with foil.

Step 6:  EAT!

There you have it.  A complete meal, all done on the grill.  And guess what? The kitchen stays cool and so do you!

Perfect Grilled Potatoes

1 lb small potatoes

2-3 cloves of garlic, sliced

2-3 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh herbs

Salt and pepper

Wash and clean the potatoes.  Cut in quarters, trying to keep them all a similar size.  In a bowl, add potatoes, chopped garlic, salt and pepper.  Season well.  You want them to have some flavor.  Chop up your herbs, I used rosemary and thyme, and add to potatoes.  Add olive oil and mix well.  Add enough oil so that they don't stick to the foil when cooking.  

Take two large pieces of foil and lay them on top of each other in an X.  Pile potatoes in the middle and pull up the sides of the foil and seal tightly.  Heat up grill on med/low heat.  Put foil packet of potatoes on grill.  Grill for about 50 minutes.  You can check for doneness at 40 minutes but be careful of the steam.  To check for doneness, just stick a knife or a fork in a potato and if it goes in easy with just slight resistance, they are done.  Enjoy!