Archive for January, 2010
Super Bowl Party Planning
Party Planning for Super Bowl 2010
Super Bowl is coming up February 7th – weekend after next. We’ll have a full article in our upcoming newsletter later this week that offers ideas on how to use your George Foreman grill to make a great party menu, but these tips will help you get started on your planning now.
Plan Ahead to Buy Early
Just like major holidays, grocery stores get packed and standard party foods often run out around the Super Bowl. By planning your party menu now, you can avoid long lines and a lot of frustration in having to re-plan items if ingredients are sold out. Being ahead of the game will save you the stress of doing everything last minute.
Consider Your Guests
Make sure as you plan your menu to take any special dietary needs that your guests may have into account. Whether you’re serving vegans or guests with a particular food allergy, making your menu with your guests in mind will ensure everyone gets enough food. This way, you can also have time to test any special menu items you’re not familiar with cooking in advance, so you don’t end up short a dish on game day.
Consider Your Kitchen
When you’re making your party menu, always take into consideration what you have to work with in your kitchen. Making all the items with one appliance may cause a slowdown in your kitchen as you get everything ready. Try to spread out the cooking load amongst your appliances. In addition, consider the cooking times in advance so you can see how to stagger the cooking that Sunday. This is also a good way to see if there is any marinating or prep work you can do the night before.
Plan for the Other Meals that Sunday
Super Bowl kickoff is scheduled for around 6:30 on that Sunday. Since you’re going to be doing a lot of cooking for your party, make the other meals that day as easy as possible so people in your home don’t starve before the party food is laid out – and so everything isn’t gone before the game even starts. Depending on your party food, burgers and hot dogs are a great solution for game-day lunch, since they offer a taste of tailgating and don’t require a lot of time or effort.
Super Champ Value Grill
New to Market: Super Champ™ Value Grill
Need cooking space for up to 4 people without a lot of bells and whistles? Look no further than our new Super Champ™ Value Grill with an attractive black finish. As part of the Super Champ series, this grill is as easy as they come – just plug in, preheat and you’re ready to go!
With an 84 Sq. In. cooking surface, this grill easily accommodates servings of your favorite grilled foods like hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken for up to 4 people.
Knock out the fat on 2 steaks (plus garnish) or up to 4 burgers
The cooking surface features our Healthy Cooking Combination, so you get the patented slope, George Tough™ nonstick coating and Signature Foreman heating elements. This combination helps knock out the fat for healthier meals without a hassle.
In addition to the part they play in the Healthy Cooking Combination, the Signature Foreman heating elements provide even heat distribution, which means you have consistent heat from the center to the sides of the plate. They also promote faster temperature recovery once food is placed on the plate, so you get better results.
Additional features include a set of drip trays and custom-fit spatulas. Both of these features are dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning. The attractive black finish on the grill is glossy to add a bit of elegance to your grill and looks great on any counter – particularly if you have a lot of stainless steel / black accent products.
The black version of this grill is new and will be available only at Walmart. However, the grill is also available in platinum at a number of other major retailers and online.
George Foreman Grills Pop Sightings
Pop Culture Sightings of George Foreman Grills
Since the launch of George Foreman grills in the early 90’s, they have become an icon of pop culture. In TV, movies, web parodies and even fiction writing, you can find the George Foreman name everywhere. In this post, we’re celebrating the George Foreman name with some of the most recent pop culture references we’ve seen.
Get Grilling with Vampires
In the most recent book in her vampire series, Lover Avenged of The Black Dagger Brotherhood, writer J.R. Ward proves even vampires can find a use for George Foreman Grills:
“Ehlena was still wide-awake at ten a.m. Stuck inside by daylight, she paced around her bedroom in a huddle with her arms around herself, and her socks doing little to keep her feet warm enough.
Then again, she was so cold on the inside, she could have been wearing a pair of George Foreman Grills and still been chilly.”
We don’t really recommend anyone but an immortal try using grills as socks, but we appreciate a completely untapped market of chilly vampires that can use our technology.
George Foreman Grillz
Probably the best example of a reference to George Foreman grills in song lyrics comes from the 2005 Grillz rap single from Nelly’s Sweatsuit album. The actual line is from Paul Wall’s featured verse:
My teeth are mind blowin’ givin’ everybody chillz
Call me George Foreman ‘cuz I’m sellin’ everybody grillz
What I Like About Grills
One of our staff was watching Teen Nick with her daughter and saw this bit about George Foreman grills on What I Like About You. Gary wants a red George Foreman grill in return for a favor. We don’t blame you, Gary – it’s our favorite reward, too.
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Send Us More!
We know these are only just a few of the many of George Foreman grill references in pop culture. Got your own favorite George Foreman reference? Find the clip or quote and send it to us!
Pepper to Perfection
Spice Rack: Pepper to Perfection
Pepper is one of the most important spices in the world. Throughout history, it was one of the first spices used; hunts for peppercorns led to exploration of the New World and it was even a form of currency at some points. Today, Spice of Life lists it as the most traded spice in the world, with an average American eating about ¼ lb. per year.
In grilling, peppercorns are a grill master’s best friend. A properly peppered steak doesn’t really need any sauce, dressing or marinade. Peppered steak and chicken regularly appear on menus around the world and being able to make these successfully at home can bring sophistication and refinement to any dinner table. In addition, the Food Lover’s Companion states, “Because it stimulates gastric juices, it delivers a digestive bonus as well.”
The key to good peppering is to know the difference between the various types of peppercorns and the flavors they provide. The Food Lover’s Companion describes “the world’s most popular spice” as a berry that grows in grapelike clusters on the pepper plant. This berry actually produces three different types of peppercorns – black, green and white; the difference between the three types is actually a product of when they’re picked and how they’re processed.
Remember, ground pepper (all varieties) is made from peppercorns. If you’re really keyed in to making phenomenal grilled meals, grinding whole peppercorns for fresh ground pepper will deliver better flavor to your finished plate.
Black Peppercorns
Black peppercorns are picked when the berry is not quite ripe. It’s dried until it shrivels, which is when the skin turns black. The flavor is actually the strongest of the three types, with the most heat. If you’re grinding for use in a rub, Steven Raichlen’s Barbeque Bible advises that you want a coarse grind for grilling, so you should set your mill to the largest grind setting. Black peppercorns are also called “cracked peppercorns” and are the type used in the popular French dish, Steak Au Poivre.
Green Peppercorns
This type of peppercorn is also picked from the pepper plant when the berry is still unripe. They’re usually a little softer and are often preserved in brine (although in some cases, they’re freeze dried). They possess some aromatic heat, but they’re less pungent. The flavor is often described as more “fresh”. Since the flavor is fresher, they’re more commonly used with vegetable and fruit dishes so they don’t overpower the food.
White Peppercorns
This last type of peppercorn made from the pepper plant berry is picked when the berry is ripe. The skin is removed and then it’s dried, lending to the difference in color. White is the least pungent of the three types and is often used with extremely light dishes, both for a light flavor and its distinctively light appearance on the plate – so you can avoid things like having little black flakes messing up the presentation of a beautiful piece of white fish with cream sauce.
Other Types
There are several other types of peppercorns that are used in certain types of cooking, including pink peppercorns used commonly in French cooking from the Baies Rose Plant and Szechuan peppercorns (also Sichuan) from the prickly ash tree used in
Asian cooking. These specialty peppercorns are usually more expensive and are often only available through specialty stores.
In addition to different types, many popular spice companies will sell a peppercorn blend (also called rainbow peppercorns) that mixes various types to impart a variety of flavors. These can usually be found at your regular grocery store and make a great addition to your spice rack because they’re an easy way to add a complex flavor profile to your food. They’re also good to have because they usually include pink peppercorns that are typically more expensive and harder to find.
Get Grilling with Fish
Hot on the Grill: Get Grilling with Fish
Beyond the joke to “throw another shrimp on the barbie,” fish is largely an unsung hero when it comes to grilling. Since it’s not as common to American BBQ as beef, pork or even chicken, it’s often forgotten in indoor grilling, too. In truth, fish offers a whole world of different flavors when it comes to cooking on your electric grill. In this post, we’re kicking off our Get Grilling with Fish series, starting with three of the most common types you can incorporate into your weekly meal planning.
Shrimp
In the 90’s during a health trend to cut cholesterol-laden foods from the American diet, shrimp got pegged as being bad for you because of high levels of cholesterol. In truth, however, studies have shown that shrimp does not raise cholesterol or have any adverse affects.
As David Herber of the Center for Human Nutrition at UCLA put in an A2Z of Health, Beauty and Fitness article, “The American Heart Association acknowledged a long time ago that shrimp had been wrongly accused, but lots of people, including some doctors, still believe this myth.” The article goes on to list all of the nutritional benefits of shrimp – low in calories and fat with, “beneficial doses of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12 and niacin,” as well as minerals like iron, zinc and copper.
The possibilities with shrimp on the grill are practically limitless because it’s such a versatile food. You can do a simple marinade with lemon and pepper, a spicy rub with Cajun seasoning or simply grill them up and serve with a tangy BBQ dipping sauce. They take about 3-4 minutes to cook, so it makes a fantastic quick dish for the family, served alongside rice, noodles or your favorite mixed veggies. You can also do grilled shrimp with dipping sauce for an easy party platter that won’t pack the pounds on your guests.
Salmon
We’ve talked about this particular fish in a number of posts and newsletter articles, because it’s one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids you’ll find anywhere! A2Z Health, Beauty and Fitness states, “You won’t find a richer source. One 4-ounce serving gives you a whopping 2.1 grams of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids.” You can read more about the benefits of omega-3 in our recent To Your Health post.
In addition to the omega-3 benefits, salmon is low in calories, saturated fat and trans-fatty acids. According to SalmonFacts.org, “Salmon provides as much high-quality, complete protein as a mouthful of chicken, ground beef, pork or tuna.” The benefit of these high-quality proteins is to “help maintain an active metabolism, which plays an integral role in weight loss.”
Salmon on the grill can be done as a fillet or a steak. Without getting too technical, a salmon fillet is a thinner cut with all of the skin and bones removed. A steak is a thicker cut (usually about 1-inch thick). Typically in cooking, you see salmon used with a lot of fresh fruits like mango, apricot and lemon or with sauce like drizzled vinaigrette or chutney topping. Again, like shrimp, it’s extremely versatile in what you can do with it, so it makes a great addition to a healthy meal plan.
Tuna
The World’s Healthiest Foods sites tuna as “a truly nutrient-dense food.” It’s an excellent source of high quality protein and contains important nutrients including selenium, magnesium, and potassium, the B vitamins niacin, B1 and B6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids. Along with salmon, this fatty fish is an instant omega-3 benefit addition to any diet and can help with a slew of preventive health measures.
Cooking for both cuts of fish can be similar in the flavor profiles you use – fresh, clean and often fruity. However, tuna also works well in the bold and spicy flavor profiles with ingredients like wasabi, chili, peppercorns and hot sauces. If your family likes big, bold flavors, tuna may be a good choice for the menu plan because of this particular versatility.
Look for more great ideas to Get Grilling with Fish coming soon in future posts!
