The Daily Balance

Hello Daily Balance Readers! I’m Shelly from The Decayed Gentlewoman. I love writing about many of the components of a balanced lifestyle- good food, fitness, and fun, so I am thrilled that Shannon was kind enough to let me write a guest post! I thought I’d write about one of my favorite summer activities- grilling!

I love to grill out on a weekend night with my fiance, and I think that grilling is a really fun thing for couples and/or friends to do together because grilling goes very smoothly when one person tends the grill and the other does the prep work.

Grilling is also a really fun way to get together with your friends. For a get together, you can throw a “BYOM” party- you provide refreshing beverages and a hot grill, and let your friends bring over meat (or other foods) to cook.

Personally, I enjoy the prep work more than the actually grilling, and over the years, I’ve come up with some pretty offbeat things for my fiance to gamely throw on the grill while I “supervise.” Today I’d like to share some of my favorites.

As a bonus, I’ll even throw in a quick cocktail idea that you can enjoy while grilling when you’re in the mood for something a little fancier than beer (or you can drink it while reading about grilling- I won’t tell!). Simply add fresh berries and/or pineapple chunks to glasses of Vinho Verde, a slightly sparkling Portuguese wine that is affordable (the one’s I’ve found are around $7 a bottle), refreshingly crisp, and perfect for summer. For a non-alcoholic version, you can use sparkling water or ginger-ale.

Grilled Peach Salad

First peel several peaches (one per serving) and slice them in half. Remove the pits, brush them with olive oil, and sprinkle them with a little sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Grill over medium heat for 3 minutes per side.

While the peaches are grilling, make a quick salad dressing with equal parts lemon juice and olive oil (This is just a starting place- I like a really tart dressing. Adjust the proportions to suit your own tastes.) Add freshly ground black pepper to your dressing, and toss with salad greens (I prefer spring mix). Top each serving of salad with two grilled peach halves, a generous amount of Parmesan cheese, and, if you like, a couple slices of prosciutto.

Grilled Artichokes

This was one of my first successful grilling experiments. Prepare a large artichoke the way you normally would when you boil or steam them- cut the top inch or so off, cut off about 3/4 of the stem, and trim the sharp tips of the leaves. Cut the artichoke in half, and boil it in water with a squeeze of lemon juice for about 15 minutes. Using a spoon, scrape out the choke, which is the center part above the artichoke heart. It’s inedible, and looks like thistle down- discard it. rub the artichoke with olive oil and sprinkle it with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. (Anyone seeing a pattern here? Hint: if you cover something in olive oil, salt, and pepper, then grill it- chances are, it will be awesome.) Grill the artichoke cut side up for 10 minutes, then cut side down for 5 more minutes. Serve with Dijon mustard or garlic mayo (just stir a crushed garlic clove and a squeeze of lemon into some mayo).

Grilled Pizza

When I first told my fiance that I wanted to grill a pizza, he began prepping some BBQ chicken because he didn’t think that it would work. Little did he know!

First, obtain some raw pizza dough. I like to pick mine up from Whole Foods and just let it rise in a bowl in my kitchen for a couple of hours because I am lazy and it’s at least partially whole wheat, but you can make a pretty decent whole wheat dough with the recipe I’ll include below.

Once the dough is made, stretch it out on a cookie sheet that has been drizzled with olive oil. flip it over and make sure to get plenty of oil on both sides of the dough. Place the pizza directly on the grill over high heat. The pizza will quickly (within a minute or two) begin to bubble. Turn the pizza over and quickly top it with the toppings of your choice. It’s a good idea to keep your topping pretty simple- I like to use a base of a little tomato sauce, then do half fresh spinach and goat cheese, and half shredded mozzarella, prosciutto, and sliced tomatoes. I also love spinach, thinly sliced summer squash, and hunks of mozzarella. It’s also fun to crack an egg in the middle of your pizza and just grill it until the egg is done. Regardless of your topping, the pizza will be done in another minute or two, which is just about how long it will take your cheese to melt.

For a quick, healthy, homemade pizza dough, dissolve a package of yeast into a cup of warm water. Let it stand for a few minutes, until it looks kind of foamy. While your yeast is activating, place 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 tsp. of salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the bowl and add your yeast/water mixture, and 1 Tbsp. of honey. Mix well and let it rise in a warm place for about half an hour. Then, proceed with the directions above to grill your pizza.

Whole Grilled Fish

A few weeks ago, my fiance brought home some trout that he’d caught on a fishing trip. I thought he was crazy because instead of filleting the trout, he’d gutted them and removed the gills, but left them intact- heads and all! I was convinced that they wouldn’t cook evenly, but I agreed to help him try to grill them.

After some diligent googling, I came up with the following technique. First, slash each side of the fish every 3 to 4 inches down the length of the fish (so the fish will cook evenly). Next, oil the outside of the fish with olive oil. It’s also a good idea to spray your grilling surface with cooking spray or wipe it down with canola oil to prevent the fish from sticking. Next, liberally salt the fish, inside and out. Use more salt than you think will be palatable and you’ll find that it’s the perfect amount. Next place some fresh rosemary and lemon slices inside the fish. Finally, grill the fish over medium heat for about 10 minutes a side (keeping the tail away from the hottest part of the grill), and be very careful when you flip your fish. A larger fish will take longer to cook through (the rule of thumb I’ve heard with baking or grilling fish is 10 minutes/inch of thickness- in this case I’m talking about the thickness of each side rather than the whole fish).

A whole grilled fish actually looks pretty off-putting, but the fish we grilled this way was seriously the best fish I’ve ever eaten. If you are brave, try this!

Grilled Clams

I found a recipe for grilled clams in The Summer Shack Cookbook by Jasper White. It calls for a really rich garlic butter sauce that involves butter, cream and wine (and is worth giving a shot if you have the cookbook), but I like to simplify things by grilling a few halved lemons face down alongside the clams (for about 2 minutes). As for the clams, grill them directly on the grill (or on a sheet of foil if they are too small) over a medium flame without turning them, until they pop open (8-10 minutes). Be sure to take them off the heat as soon as they open up because otherwise the bottoms may burn. Squeeze the grilled lemon juice over the clams and serve them with a little melted butter for dipping. If you want to be fancy you can spoon the butter onto the clams, then garnish them with some chopped chives.

Finally, for all of these recipes, I’d like to suggest that if you can, add hickory chips to your grill. Basically, you soak 2 cups of chips in water while you’re getting the grill ready, and add them on top of the coals immediately prior to grilling your food. I think that it makes a huge difference in terms of the flavor profile of anything you grill.

I hope I’ve given you all some fresh ideas for your next BBQ or inspired you to come up with some of your own. What foods do you love to grill?