best homemade cheeseburgers

Classic Cheeseburger with Homemade Pickles
Classic Cheeseburger with Homemade Pickles

Classic Cheeseburger with Homemade Pickles excerpted from Summer Feasting from the Fire: Relaxed recipes for the BBQ, plus salads, sides, drinks & more by Valerie Aikman-Smith. Photography by Erin Kunkel.

Feasting from the Fire: Relaxed recipes for the BBQ, plus salads, sides, drinks & more by Valerie Aikman-Smith.Summer is the time of year when people are most likely to spend time together outdoors, and there’s no better way to do it than with a great BBQ. The summertime entertaining vibe is all about relaxed food, which is why we all love grilling. Nothing beats the smell of char-grilled meat and vegetables, or the taste of sweet corn on the cob as you dig into the juicy kernels. Combining fresh flavours with exciting grilling techniques including cooking on a fire pit grill, salt block cooking, and cedar-plank smoking,

Valerie Aikman-Smith presents her recipes for perfect summer food. From delicious seafood including Baja Fish Tacos with Blistered Jalapeños, Grilled Snapper in Banana Leaves, and Mezcal Lime Shrimp on Salt Block, to feasts for meat-lovers such as Jerk Pork with Mango Chutney and Grilled Honey Plantains, Portuguese Piri Piri Poussin and an All-American Burger.

Valerie includes fabulous vegetable dishes from Grilled Zucchini Flowers with Shiso Lemon Salt to Roasted Cauliflower with Walnut Romesco. Desserts designed to round off an alfresco feast include Matcha Ice Cream with Black Sesame Praline or a classic Grilled Banana Split with Dark Chocolate Sauce. Finally, if all the heat has made you thirsty, try a Basil Aperol Spritz with Flowering Herbs, Sicilian Slush Cocktail, or a Watermelon Margarita. (more…)

Bacon Veggie Burgers
Bacon Veggie Burgers

Bacon Veggie Burgers excerpted from BBQ Pit Boys Book of Real Guuud Barbecue: Grilling, Slow Roasting and Smoking, Beer-can Burgers, Fireball Whiskey Meatballs, Venison Stew, Stuffed Alligator, Rubs, Marinades and More!

BBQ Pit Boys Book of Real Guuud Barbecue: Grilling, Slow Roasting and Smoking, Beer-can Burgers, Fireball Whiskey Meatballs, Venison Stew, Stuffed Alligator, Rubs, Marinades and More!

With over 2.2 million subscribers, and more than 1 billion views, the BBQ Pit Boys are by far the most-watched barbecue cooks on YouTube. And they are Facebook’s number 1 BBQ show.

They have millions of people in their online BBQ “community” — the largest in the world — and there are good reasons for that.

Dressed casually in black T-shirts, jeans and sunglasses, the BBQ Pit Boys are the antithesis of your typical cooking-show host with their usual fast patter and gleaming kitchen countertops. Instead they show backyard grillers how to make great BBQ with a few simple elements: charcoal, a grill, a sharp knife and marinades or rubs. And they do it in a low-key, Southern-inflected and confident way, with blues music in the background and an average-joe script.

Their videos have taught millions of people how to grill and slow-barbecue steaks, fish, pork shoulder, lamb and sides like onion wedges and ears of corn — and make it fun. Those viewers go back to the BBQ Pit Boys content over and over. They are a loyal audience who will strongly identify with a book. (more…)