As August arrives—my mind immediately begins thinking about a season change as well as taking advantage of all that summer offers!  I personally love to create great tasting dishes with a minimum of time creating them in a hot kitchen.  That is why I think grilling is such a great way to go in the heat of summer.  First, it is pretty fast, there are no pots to wash and there is no limit to what you can grill. 

You can grill most anything from appetizers to desserts.  Some favorite appetizers are the Satays I featured in this month’s “Butel’s Bytes”, clams or oysters right on the grill if you can get them very fresh,

grilled mushrooms brushed with a bit of olive oil seasoned with flavored salt and herbs, grilled shrimp with papaya or pineapple or mini quesadillas with various fillings and toppings. 

We all know about grilling meats.  What can make them special is preparing compound butters ahead and keeping  them in the freezer.  Lemon Pecan Butter is fabulous on grilled chicken breast and we are featuring it  in our forthcoming Grilling class August 10.  Blue cheese or Gorgonzola are yummy in a mixture with fresh garlic and Italian parsley on steaks or burgers.  You can create whatever you like with

whatever you happen to have on hand.  Below is my Lemon Pecan Butter you can use as a guide. 

Keep tuned, I will feature several more blog about grilling various kinds of dishes such as vegetables, desserts—even breads.

 For all kinds of cooking, start collecting my newly published series of cookbooks, called Jane Butel’s Library on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and in independent libraries.  To date,  my newest cookbook came out last November, “Simply Southwestern” along with the republication of “Jane Butel’s Southwestern Kitchen”  followed in February, 2017 with “Jane Butel’s Tex-Mex cookbook, “Hotter Than Hell” and “Finger Lickin’, Great Tastin’, Hot ‘n Spicy Barbecue’ the end of June.  If you would like them autographed,  just order from me, otherwise go with one of the above.

Here’s my Lemon Pecan Compound Butter— 

Lemon-Pecan Butter

¼ cup pecans

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

Zest of 1 lemon, minced

2 teaspoons fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice. 

 Combine all of the ingredients and roll into a 1 inch diameter roll using waxed paper.  Freeze until firm and cut ¼ inch slices to top just grilled meats.   This is especially great on chicken breast.