Review: More BBQ and Grilling for the Big Green Egg & other Kamado-style cookers

More BBQ and Grilling is written by Eric Mitchell an award winning pitmaster who has been cooking on the Big Green Egg since 2000. He and his wife started the team, Yabba Dabba Que!, and compete in competitions throughout the North East. They have competed in both the Jack Daniel
s World Championship Invitational and the American Royal where they earned a perfect score for their crème brûlée.

I don't own a Kamado-style cooker but the recipes are easily adapted to other cookers and grills. If you have a Big Green Egg or similar cooker this cook book is great. Eric gives you the information to set up your your cooker correctly to get the temperatures you want. The last chapter talks about care and set up of your kamado-style cooker from purchase to use. The recipes cover everything from appetizers to desserts.

Wayfair's Simply Summer Cookbook!

A few Months back Wayfair.com contacted me about including one of my recipes in their Simply Summer Cookbook. I was happy to oblige and sent them my recipe for Grilled Bruschetta. You can download the book from Wayfair.com for free and enjoy this recipe (pg 15) and others.

Have a great summer and enjoy some great grilled food.

Review: The Smoking Bacon & Hog Cookbook

The Smoking Bacon & Hog Cookbook – The Whole Pig & Nothing but the Pig BBQ Recipes is written by championship pitmaster Bill Gillespie. He started cooking competitive BBQ in 2005 and won the Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational Barbecue in 2011 and in 2014 he won the American Royal Invitational, probably the two most coveted titles in the world of competitive BBQ. Bill knows what he’s talking about and shares his hog knowledge with us in this book.

Bill Gillespie covers everything in this book. From the rooter to the tooter (ok, not quite but pretty close). The recipes are easy to read and follow. He covers appetizers, snacks, drinks (with bacon in them) main courses, whole hog, and dessert (with bacon). The book is worth it just for the section on whole hog.

Review - Grilled Pizza The Right Way

Title: Grilled Pizza the Right Way: The Best Technique for Cooking Incredible Tasting Pizza & Flatbread on Your Barbecue Perfectly Chewy & Crispy Every Time
Author: John Delpha
Price: $19.99

This is one of the three books I was sent to review back in April. It's been a little hectic lately with end of school and work so I haven't had a chance to review it until now.

The book is by John Delpha who is a former Army officer and Helicopter pilot. He became a chef and cooked in some of Bostons top kitchens such as Clio, Mistral, Harvest, Sorellina and La Campania. He is a member of iQue, who won the 2009 Jack Daniel's World Barbecue Championship and loves to cook with fire. He learned how to grill pizza at Al Forno in Providence, RI and brings his experience and skill to the masses via this book.

I love to use my grill and I love to eat pizza. This book is perfect for people with similar tastes. If you want to try something new on the grill this book will help you learn how to grill a pizza and other flatbreads. It starts with savory pizzas and ends with dessert pizzas. There are a couple parts I found a little confusing, but overall it is a pretty straight forward cook book.

Review - Ultimate Book of BBQ

I received an email a couple weeks ago asking if I would be interested in reviewing a BBQ cook book. My initial response was, "Is this a trick question?" I'm always looking for new recipes, tips on cooking and just improving my BBQ skills in general.

I agreed to review Southern Living Ultimate Book of BBQ - the complete year-round guide to grilling & smoking. A couple days later I received it and two other grilling books which I will be reviewing later.

Pitmaster Christopher Prieto of PRIME Barbecue in Wendell, NC has worked with Southern Living to compile over 200 recipes, creating a hefty cook book that covers the basics to the finer points of BBQ.

Review: Virgil's Barbecue Road Trip Cookbook

I was contacted by St. Martin's Press and asked if I would be interested in reviewing Virgil's Barbecue Road Trip Cookbook: The Best Barbecue From Around the Country Without Ever Leaving Your Backyard which came out April 8th. I was more than happy to agree to reading and reviewing it. A couple days later a shiny new book showed up in the mail.

Virgil's is a popular restaurant in Times Square where they cook on a smoker and grill. From the sounds of it, it is a restaurant I would like to visit someday. Before opening, the chefs and owner took a road trip to find out what BBQ was so they could open an authentic BBQ restaurant in NY City. Their travels across the US influenced the food in the restaurant and the recipes in the book.

The book is a combination of grilling and barbecuing from across the country with recipes ranging from appetizers to desserts. It shares a short history of BBQ, thoughts when purchasing a grill, helpful tips and a menu planner. It is a great cookbook.