Made in USA Grilling Essentials

Weber Charcoal Grill // Super Skewers // Pops Q Tools Grilling Set // Nordic Ware Jalepeno Roaster //  Hickory Grilling Plank // Lodge Cast Iron Melting Pot // Nordic Ware Beer Can Chicken Roaster // Lodge Zizzle Grill Pan 

It's June and that means it is officially grilling season! Above you'll find my hubs go-to grilling essentials. I bought him a Weber charcoal grill for his birthday 4 years ago and not only has it survived two moves, but it has thrived while cooking a 20lb turkey for Thanksgiving, supplied brisket, hamburgers, hot dogs & wings for 3 pig roasts, countless cookouts, and it allowed us to enjoy a few home cooked meals during our kitchen renovation. That baby has been put through the ringer and it keeps on trucking. So much so that for the hubs 30th birthday I offered to get him a super duty massive grill and he flat out refused. I know, I was shocked too! Instead, he got almost every grilling accessory known to mankind and made in the USA. These above are his trusty favorites.

Honestly, I couldn't pick just one off the list. How can you say no to cooking a whole chicken on the grill and flavoring it with your favorite beer? And we like to use a grill pan, rather than a basket, for vegetables to keep the juices flowing. And you just can't cook fish on a grill without a solid wood plank. My personal favorite thing to eat off the grill are shrimp kabobs so you need skewers for that. While I'm not necessarily a wing person, I do appreciate a roasted pepper when I come across one so a pan that is dual purpose is A+ in my book. It would be impossible to omit the cast iron melting pot, because otherwise how could you keep the BBQ sauce warm and ready to re-apply during cooking?

Last, but certainly not least - the grilling tool set. That baby gets utilized every time the grill comes on!

Get ready for BBQ season by getting the essentials that are going to survive this year and for years to come. Except for the wood planks, because they do only survive a few uses!

What's your favorite grilling essential?

Carolina Honey BBQ Sauce Recipe

It's no surprise that my hubs likes his BBQ. What you may not know is he has 16-20 BBQ recipes that he keeps stored on graph paper that he's constantly tinkering to perfection. The great thing about a BBQ sauce is you have leeway for creative freedom. You want it a little bit hotter? Add more hot sauce. Sweeter, then honey is your best friend. 

However, we're just over two months away from our annual pig roast and the hubs intends to introduce a BBQ wing bar this year. You know because the roasted pig wasn't enough food to feed the 80 or so people that show up every year.  In the mean time, he's letting me share a few of his recipe staples over the next few months. I made a solid case that these recipes needed to be shared and I think he likes having the idea of having them backed up online. Without further ado here's a really simple, yet smooth and tasty Carolina Honey BBQ Sauce Recipe.

Ingredients: 

 - 1 cup Ketchup 

-  1 cup distilled white vinegar

- 1/2 cup molasses 

- 1/2 clover honey

- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke (usually found on the top or bottom shelf in the condiment aisle)

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

- 1/4 onion powder

- 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce

Directions:

- Combine ingredients in a sauce pan. Heat for 10-15 minutes over low heat to thicken sauce. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool. 

Then either store it in a sealable jar or use it as a marinade. Seriously, that's it. So yummy. I'm a fan of the sweeter BBQ sauces and this is probably my go-to staple. 

What's your favorite kind of BBQ sauce? I'm trying to get the hubs to share his Old Bay sauce, but he keeps that one pretty close to the vest. Hopefully it'll make an appearance here soon. 

Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce

The secret ingredient in our third annual pig roast: Jack Daniels of course!  

I've made it known that the hubs is a massive fan of Jack Daniels here, here, and here. Plus, who can forget my go-to summer drink concoction - the Jack and Coke slushies.  For those keeping track I made two more batches of slushies during last weekend's pig roast. 

The hubs received such high praise on his BBQ sauces during last year's pig roast that he decided to make even more for this year's roast.  When he was putting together his plan for more sauces he told me that he needed more mason jars for storage. Little did he know I was way ahead of him and I had already come up with a plan for storing all the BBQ sauce he could make. 

While I might not be a fan of single barrel Jack, I do acknowledge that the bottle is gorgeous. Truth be told, I've been hoarding empty Jack Daniels bottles since the hubs and I moved into our house. I was hoping to throw the hubs an enormous Jack Daniels themed party for his 30th birthday this summer and I knew I needed to store bottles in advance.  The hubs threw me for a loop when he didn't want a party, but I wasn't about to let my hoarding go to waste! 

Prior to storing anything in an old Jack Daniels bottle you've got to get the label off (if you're so inclined) and make sure the bottle is squeaky clean.  I've stripped enough labels off of glass bottles in my day to give you this tip - wait until the paper label is COMPLETELY SOAKED prior to even trying to remove it.  The water logged adhesives are much easier to remove and more often than not you can peel off the entire label in one large piece. If you find a lot of additional glue residue on the outside of your bottle after you've gotten the label remove just gently use a steel pad to buff it off. Gently is the key, you don't want to scratch the glass. 

In addition, I bought a baby bottle brush to get the inside of the bottles squeaky clean. Honestly, wish I could have video taped the hubs facial expression when he saw a baby bottle brush on the counter :) Hilarious. 

Now, we used the larger 1.75 Liter bottles for ice tea and the every day 750ml Jack Daniels bottles for BBQ sauces.  Once the bottles were stripped, cleaned, re-cleaned, and dried the hubs filled up each bottle with its BBQ sauce.  A last minute funnel purchase made that process infinitely easier. On the day of the pig roast we pulled the bottles out of the fridge about an hour before the party started in order to apply the labels.  We dried the bottles off and applied these cool chalkboard sticker labels I picked up from Crate and Barrel.  I was beyond excited to find out that these labels are made in the USA.  It also meant I got to break out my chalk board marker, which is always a good time. We didn't apply the labels while the bottles were refrigerated because I wasn't sure if the labels would stick in the fridge. 

We popped in a simple bottle pourer in each bottle and everything worked like a charm. We found extra wide bottle pourers at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and we utilized those for the thicker sauces. 

True story - after the party I told the hubs he had to start drinking more Gentlemen Jack and Single Barrel because those bottles were my absolute favorite!  The other 750ml bottles were Tennessee Honey Jack and green label.  It's more "cost effective" for the hubs to buy his standard Black Label Jack in the larger sizes :)

The finished product! 

I know this might seem sort of silly to go over, but I'm a firm believer that presentation matters. I can't even count how many people told me at the pig roast that this was the coolest idea they'd ever seen for holding BBQ sauce. It's so simple and that's the beauty of it! 

The very first photo shows what is left of our Honey BBQ supply. It also shows how well the chalkboard label held up after getting tossed around during the pig roast.  The chalkboard marker needs to get damp first in order to wipe off so it held up a lot better than plain old chalk. 

As for next year's pig roast - expect even more BBQ sauces and more quantities. The hubs had four additional sauces in smaller mason jars because he thought those particular sauces were not standard fare and didn't expect people to use them.  BIG mistake! The extra smokey sauce received the second most requests for the recipe. The only one asked about more was the Bay BBQ sauce, which is an Old Bay infused sauce. 

Oh, and there may or may not have been a splash of Jack Daniels in a few of those BBQ sauces.  His whiskey sauce recipe, which oddly enough the final product is not pictures, indicates, "add Jack to taste."  I once again had to remind him that his Jack Daniels taste threshold might differ from others.