The basics of Grilling!!

Okay so (pretty embarassing) we just bought a grill this weekend. Never owned one before so we are pretty excited. I had two questions...

What are your favorite (easy) grilling recipes? Any ideas?

And also, how do you cook your basic hamburger? Recipe? And how do you know how long to grill it? I love hamburgers but when I made them (on the stove obviously) jamelle said it just tasted like hamburg meat, and I agreed. So how to you make your basic, delish hamburger??

We make our burgers all kinds of ways and you can also get them to stick together pretty well if you mix the meat with an egg. We love grill mates seasonings and usually use some of that to pat on the burgers before we cook them. We really make them all kinds of ways though.

Unfortunately I don't actually cook on the grill, I am terrified that the propane take is going to explode like every time John starts it up so I stay well out of the way when that's going on. LOL! Paranoid, I know. I don't know how long it takes, do you have a candy, meat thermometer?

Also - grilled corn is my fav! Soak it in it's husk in the sink for about half an hour and then grill it WITH the husk. It's sooo good!

Jilly, LOL! I could totally see myself being scared of the propane tank too! Jamelle bought a coal one though because he said it tastes better with coal? I dont know anything about it so I just am going with the flow.

So for the burgers you usually just use a grill mates and egg to bind it? If you could one season thats your favorite on a burger which would it be? I dont have a themometer, I'll have to add that to the list of things I need.

I totally forgot about grilling corn on the cob! Do you put a couple small slabs of butter in the husk too or just leave it as is?

I think I posted my salmon recipe somewhere here. By far my fav grilling recipe. I let Mike do all the grilling.

As for hamburgers....I usually use egg to bind them...sometimes I'll just use Montreal steak spice for seasoning. I will sometimes grate some onion and use Worcestershire sauce. Sometimes I grate cheese for in the burger (rather than a typical 'cheeseburger'). Or if you wanted to be fancy you could put a cheese 'pocket' in the patty. You could also crumble some bacon in the ground beef.

Second to plank salmon, beer can chicken is AMAZING. Take a beer (whatever you drink), crack it open, take a few swigs (about a third), and stick it up the chicken's butt. You can tripod the chicken on the beer can, or get a (cheap) fancy contraption to hold it all upright. It's been awhile but I think I normally use a can opener to open the whole top of the beer. You can add seasoning into the beer too (rosemary, thyme, garlic, s&p) and season the chicken....cook it over indirect heat until the juices run clear. SO moist and yummy.

I love corn on the grill...and asparagus, carrots, potato...when we grill we cook it all.

Okay sorry it took so long to get around to this. Saw it in the pantry and it reminded me to tell you! LOL!

The last bunch of burgers we grilled were seasoned with Spicy Montreal Steak seasoning and they were SO good! http://www.mccormick.com/Products/GrillMates/Seasoning-Blends/Grill-Mates-Spicy-Montreal-Steak-Seasoning.aspx

I like charcoal grilled burgers, too! YUM! They really do have that real grilled flavor, but propane burns better and is much more efficient as far as one side of the grill not getting hotter than the other or anything like that. We actually hope to get a big smoker next year. John got our current grill for his bday gift the year we bought the house.