The Perfect Blend of Spices

The perfect blend of spices is key to any meal. Whether one is cooking ribs, steak, hamburgers or meatballs, combining the proper mixture of spices enhances the flavor and taste of your meal.

Now it's not necessary to go out and spend your weeks salary on fancy spices that only sound impressive, but end up tasting bland. The different array of things that can be found in the pantry would work out fine.

I find that by using salt, pepper, hamburger seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, tarragon, paprika, cumin and coriander I come up with a delicious spice rub every time.

For the ribs and steak I put a dry rub on both sides of the meat in order to guarantee optimal flavor. Flavoring one side of the meat and leaving the other helpless is a major mistake in my opinion.

Beginning Of BBQ Season

By David
Kaye

The unofficial beginning of Summer, Memorial Day, represents a time when millions of people go outside and get crackin on the grill.

Whether it's tender steak, succulent chicken, gorgeous pork chops, flavor able fish, fresh fruit or an ordinary hamburger, I can't wait to start cooking on my nice hot grill. Not only is it a pleasure to interact with family and friends, but the beautiful weather makes it that more enjoyable to be outdoors.

The great thing about firing up the grill is that the number of recipes you can make are endless. Every night of the week it's possible to make a different delicious and tasty chicken meal. Like steak, chicken is extremely versatile and with a little eagerness on your part you can whip up different sauces to baste your chicken each and every night.

I find that after putting the bird on the grill skin side up I don't begin to add on the sauce until there is 10-15 minutes remaining in the cooking process. By waiting till the end, the extra level of flavor will be able to pack in more pungency, than if you slabbed on your favorite sauce in the beginning.


Marinating the chicken overnight makes the final product even more mouth watering and fun to eat. By adding olive oil, lemon juice, lots of garlic and onion, thyme, pepper and salt my marinate is perfect every time. Add the chicken or steak to the marinate and put in a zip lock bag for at least 12 hours. As Emeril says, it makes the food ''happy''. Who does not want to be happy?

One of the best grilling secrets I ever learned was to use a meat thermometer to check if the meat or poultry was ready. Depending on how well you like your meat done, insert the thermometer to see when the temperature reaches the appropriate level.

This technique guarantees that your food is not overcooked and great every time. For making a turkey in the oven, using the same thermometer is a life saver.

Now I don't know about you, but plain hamburger rolls just don't agree with me. By putting the roll on the grill for 10-15 seconds before you're ready to eat, the roll becomes flavor able and produces magical grill marks that turn an average hamburger into an incredible one.