Thrill of the Grill Challenge

When Nature’s Own approached me about taking part in their Thrill of the Grill Contest, my first reaction was, “What in the world is Nature’s Own?”

Turns out that if you are north of the Mason-Dixon line like me, you probably have never heard of this line of products. Go south of the line and they’d give you strange looks for asking such a silly question.

Straight from their site you’ll learn that “Nature’s Own offers you quality bakery foods for every meal–soft variety breads, premium specialty breads, white breads, buns, sandwich rounds, and English muffins, bagels, and breakfast breads.”

This sponsored post is about a lot more than bread though.

If you go the the Nature’s Own Facebook Page today, you can enter to win a Big Green Egg® prize pack!

But, before that I’d like your help in possibly winning me one of those Big Green Egg® grills because I’ve always wondered if they live up to the hype or not.

All you need to do to help me is watch my video grilling tip below on using olive oil and tinfoil this summer and then leave your own grilling tip or grilling recipe in the comments below. Nice and easy right?

I had fun making this video as it gave me something quick and fun to try out my GoPro camera filming that wasn’t motion or action focused. It performed great and I’ve got to shoot more with it to get comfortable. I tried some action shots of pouring olive oil and ripping tinfoil. Thankfully I didn’t make too much of a mess even if the shots didn’t make the final cut.

Thanks to Nature’s Own for not only getting me involved in this challenge, but also sending me some of their products so I could try them out. I’m happy to report that the whole wheat hot dog rolls were really good and I’ve got to look to see if brands I can buy locally have this type of roll.

It may just be the start of the grilling season, but I can’t wait to see all the tips and recipes you share. Thanks for the help!

Pin It

Related posts:

  1. Easter Dinner on the Grill
  2. Easter on the Grill, Part Deux
  3. Chance Cooks- Sausage Fest Challenge
  4. Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Raisin Chipotle Sauce

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

C.C. Chapman is the Founder of Digital Dads and the Author of Content Rules. He is a family first entrepreneur with two great kids (a boy and a girl) who loves the outdoors, cooking, photography and playing with technology. He consults with companies around the globe to help them embrace the new world of marketing and business. C.C. is a sought after speaker, photographer and content creator who looks forward to each day as a new adventure.
  • http://www.theincslingers.com/blog Simon Salt

    Everyone thinks of meat and veggies when you say grill but what about dessert huh? For me one of my favorite parts of grilling is when the charcoal is cooling a little from having cooked all your meat and veggies, use it to make dessert.

    Take one banana, some pieces of Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate and tin foil. Slice the banana down its length and place the chocolate pieces in the slit. Wrap in the foil and place on the grill until the chocolate melts. Oh it will be a hot mess so careful when you open it and use a fork to eat it!

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      We use to make these in Boy Scouts growing up and we still enjoy them to this day.

      We usually put mini marshmallows in with ours as well. I’ve also tried breaking up peanut butter cups which work great too!

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      How have we never heard of this before? You, sir, are brilliant. Thanks for sharing. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/jenniferiannolo Jennifer Iannolo

    My very favorite summer treat is grilled corn with honey cayenne butter. Sweet with a good dose of zing (depending upon how zingy you like it). The recipe is super simple:

    Ingredients

    Corn on the cob, husks intact
    Stick of butter, room temp
    3 Tbsp honey
    Cayenne pepper, to taste

    Preparation

    Heat grill on medium.

    Peel down corn husks, keeping them attached, and remove silk. Wrap back up and soak in water for 15 minutes. This will keep them from disintegrating and making a mess on the grill.

    Peel down husks again, coat corn with butter mixture, rewrap. Grill until corn begins to caramelize. Proceed to cover face with sticky, delicious mixture as you savor the best corn you’ve ever had. :)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      This sounds YUMMY!

      I love grilled corn, but why in the world have I never put anything but butter on it? I must try this soon. Thank you for sharing.

    • http://www.facebook.com/jenniferiannolo Jennifer Iannolo

       Trust, you will never be the same after this. ;)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Coming from you I know better than to question. I’ll let you know how it goes.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      You’re making our mouths water. Thanks for sharing your grilled corn recipe. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/brianrazencain Brian Cain

    Here’s how it usually do it:

     I set the temp on max, throw on the dogs and burgers, play with my 4 year old son, forget the meat is on the grill, smell something burning, go back to the grill and swear, tell my son to stop using the words he just heard me use, try to pick up the meat with an old spatula I found in the kitchen cupboard, swear again when the meat falls through the slots and lands on the burners, go out for Sushi

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

      I’ve certainly gone with the grill it and forget it approach more than once.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      Haha, too funny! It’s the thought that counts. :)

  • http://www.ChristopherSPenn.com Christopher S. Penn

    Here’s something I guarantee you’ve not grilled unless you’ve been to a Japanese robata-style grill: grilled rice balls. Take sushi rice, compress into onigiri triangle shapes, then grill and cover with your favorite onigiri toppings. Amazing, healthy, and totally different.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      You are right that I’ve never had that. Now I’m curious.

      I would have never thought of grilling rice.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      Yum! Very interesting. We like your style. :)  

  • http://twitter.com/dangorgone Dan Gorgone

    Great tip dude… Like the idea with the olive oil as opposed to butter.

    By the way, I exchanged some tweets with Nature’s Own earlier this month and let them know theirs was the bread of choice for all our PB&J sandwiches down here in Florida! :)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Good to know, but what is YOUR grilling tip? I know you must have one.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      We’re so glad we make your PB&J delish! We agree with the olive oil substitution as well. Thanks, C.C.!

  • Fparker77

    Simple logistical grilling tip for those of us who use Propane… ALWAYS KEEP A SPARE TANK FULL!  I know it sounds simple, but I can’t tell you how many times being able to grill bailed us out when the power might’ve dropped due to storms! 

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Very important tip. If you look closely under my grill you’ll see two tanks for this EXACT reason!

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      Amen! Take note all you 4th of July grillers. :)

  • Steve Coulson

    I know it sounds crazy, but unwrap those strip steaks, put them on a cake mesh, and put them back in the fridge for a day or two before you grill, open to the air.  That’s how they dry age steak in restaurants, and you’ll get a GREAT crust on the meat when you grill over a high temp.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Really? Now THERE is a great tip that of course now I’m going to have to try.

      I know how much you like your steak so I can’t wait to try this out.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      No way! That’s an awesome tip. Thanks for sharing. :)

    • http://www.josephhoetzl.com Joseph Hoetzl

       I am so spoiled by http://johnsmarket.com/ USDA Dry Aged
      Prime Beef but this is certainly close to how they do it on a much smaller scale.

  • http://www.hightechdad.com hightechdad

    Something that I always do before grilling is priming the grill. Learned this (obvious) tip at a grilling cooking school in Sonoma, CA. Heat the grill up to the max (covered). Burn off all of the leftover grill crap that you had. Scrape it down with a BBQ brush. Then, take a rag and coat it with olive oil. Rub the rag across the grill (watch out for flameups!). Not only does this prime the grill, but it also removes any wire brush traces (if you use a wire brush). Good stuff!

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      VERY good tip that lots of people skip over and forget.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      Nice. Simple, yet very important. Thanks for sharing!

  • http://morekeynote.com/ tpldrew

    Ok, here’s my big tip for great summertime grilling… (good luck on the Big Green Egg, btw)

    Whenever I have kids over to the house for family BBQs I like to get them involved – make them feel part of the meal, so I like to have a “grill your own pizza party.” It’s so much fun.

    Essentially, to keep it simple I buy a bunch of pre-maid pizza crusts (like Boboli or similar personal-sized crusts) and I prep a ton of traditional and non-traditional pizza toppers… think cheese, fruit, chicken, sauce, smoked gouda, pepperoni… anything you might see on a California Pizza Kitchen menu.

    When everyone’s ready I fire up the grill. The key to making this work smoothly is to invite everyone to pre-grill one side of their pizza before putting the toppers on. Throw the crust on the grill, fire one side of it. Flip it over, and allow the kids to create their own masterpiece. Put it back on the grill (now the raw side is down) and wait for it to melt into a scrumptious personal creation.

    To be honest, the best part about this entire experience is sharing your creation with others. Invariably, someone will like your pizza better than theirs (and vice versa.)

    It’s loads of fun, really easy and a great experience getting everyone involved.

    BTW, having olive oil on hand to oil each side of the pizza fits right in line with your tip – and if you don’t like a well done crust I recommend using some tin-foil to deflect the heat. Your crust will be scrumptiously cooked – but not too well done.

    Hope you give it a shot.
    - drew

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      You know what I have to admit?

      I have yet to cook pizza on the grill.

      We do homemade pizza nights all the time and for some reason I always think about throwing them on the grill, but never have.

      I love the idea of turning it into a group event with lots of people. Of course this would be a blast with kids!

      Thank you for sharing.

    • http://morekeynote.com/ tpldrew

      We do it all the time… for the advanced griller (and a limited group) you can use fresh dough – but this takes a little experimenting and a willingness to fail… (Sitcky dough, rough edges and the occasional burned crust can be frustrating but totally fun!)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Yeah, I’ve been a bit nervous to do it with fresh, but still thought it would be fun. Especially do to a dessert pizza sometime and really surprise everyone.

    • http://morekeynote.com/ tpldrew

      Here’s someone’s dream pizza grilled on their big green egg! I’m getting hungry now!
      http://bigboldbeautifulfood.blogspot.com/2009/04/grilled-pizza-margherita-on-big-green.html

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Damn you! Now I’m hungry.

      Horrible timing as I’m headed out to the gym.

    • Ninetteenrique

      Thanks for linking to my blog! I just smoked some brisket and ribs on the BGE yesterday.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      That is genius! We’re thinking of all the different combos you could make now. Thanks for sharing. :)

  • Pingback: Quick Grilling Tip | C.C. Chapman

  • http://twitter.com/daddybrad Brad Powell

    This is one of my favorites that we do every mid to late summer when the New Mexico green chilis’ start to come in.  You can substitute jalapeno or serano peppers but they don’t quite have the enchantment of the greens!

    Watch out these are so good they might make you beat your grandma.  Bacon Wrapped, Grilled, Green Chili Shrimp.  Soak large wood skewers in water for 30 minutes.  Devein a couple of pounds of large gulf or tiger shrimp.  Make an extra large dorsal incision.  Cut fresh green chili into thin 3-4 inch long strips.  Toss shrimp and chili slices in a bowl with olive oil, black pepper, garlic powder and salt.  Be liberal with your spices even if you lean towards the Tea Party politically.  Place a chili strip into the dorsal incision.  Wrap shrimp and chili with bacon strip like you fold a flag.  Make sure there is is only one layer of bacon!  Place wrapped shrimp on skewers with one fat thumbs width between each shrimp, 3 or 4 per skewer depending on size of shrimp. Grill skewers for 8-9 minutes per side on an a medium to high heat hot grill (think 1/2 inch steak temp) until bacon is crispy and shrimp are cooked thru, i.e shrimp are pink and white with no opaque in shrimp.  Cut skewers in between shrimp and serve.  Crazy addition:  if you have time you can add a sliver of roasted garlic under the pepper but that takes a bit more prep!    

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Recipes like this make me sad since no one in my family likes any form of heat with their food. But, I MUST try these. Sound amazing.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      That sounds absolutely amazing! Nice touch with that garlic at the end. :)

  • http://www.attentionmax.com maxkalehoff

    Sorry, no offense to Nature’s Own, but those empty cardboard carbs are no good for you — and only taste good if you pimp them up like with your tinfoil garlic bread! :-)

    But some of my favorite grilling tips that promises to make every grill session better: 

    Start with a clean grill. One great way to clean the grill is to take some tinfoil and cover the grill surface, and then turn the flame on high (whether gas or charcoal). The tinfoil will reflect the rising heat and quickly burn off food and residue. I end each grilling session with this technique, so the each new grill session starts off fresh. You don’t want old cow guts or salmon scales tainting your next grill session!

    Second grill tip: Plant an herb garden (in ground or containers) within five feet of your grill. This sounds trivial, but doing so guarantees that you have no excuse not to include fresh herbs in your meets and marinades.

    Third grill tip: Corn. I’m not sure why, but too many people insist on wrapping corn in tinfoil before grilling. No need. Simply shuck the corn and grill it. The direct heat makes the corn kernels caramelize nicely, especially if you coat it with some olive oil.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Had no idea you were such a health nut Mr Kalehoff! :)

      I’m with you and the corn. While I’ll put lots of veggies in tinfoil if they’ve been cut up small and I don’t want them to fall through the grill, if the veggies are big (halved peppers, onions, corn, etc) then I like putting them right on the grill. The bit of char adds to them.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      We do have a lot of healthy options like our 100% whole wheat sandwich rounds that save on calories and carbs. We also LOVE your plant and herb garden tip, fresh ingredients are the best!

    • http://www.josephhoetzl.com Joseph Hoetzl

       RE: the corn – Don’t de-husk it fully.  PUll it back, and use it as a handle.  For extra flavor, instead of butter and salt afterwards, try soaking and basting the corn in coconut milk, then grill it direct over some nice lump charcoal.

  • http://www.jeffreysass.com sass

    Funny that you mentioned Olive Oil… I don’t remember who I learned it from, but whenever I use the grill I literally usa a brush and baste the grill surface with Olive Oil…  It keeps the Tofu and veggies from sticking to the grill and adds a bit of flavor as well.  I keep the brush and a small bowl of Olive Oil alongside the grill and keep basting away as I cook.  Oil’s well that ends well!

    • http://www.attentionmax.com maxkalehoff

      That’s what she said.

    • http://twitter.com/daddybrad Brad Powell

      Heh Heh you said baste!  

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Knew you’d have to break out a punn.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      We agree with both you and C.C. on the oil front. Keep up the good grilling!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=553413670 Laurens van Graft

    Grilled Squash: Wash 1 whole squash and slice into 6-8 pieces lengthwise pieces. (remove the innerds)
    Coat with olive oil and a few of tour favorite dry seasonings
    Grill on Med around 5 minutes a side, (three sides)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      We do this quite often.

      Any veggie with a little oil and herbs taste great after being put on the grill.

      Thanks for sharing.

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      Yum x10. Thanks for sharing!

  • http://twitter.com/brianPgallagher brian gallagher

    Grilling tip is simple: Stay hydrated.  The chef is just as important as the gear/food…etc.  Drink lots of water – even if you are grilling in the dead of winter (a fun project), it is crucial that you drink enough water! 

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Now THERE is an interesting angle to come at the tip. I like it.

      That must be why I always have a frosty beverage of some sort always with me when grilling :)

    • http://twitter.com/Natures_Own Nature’s Own

      Such a valid tip. We’re so thankful to all our grill masters out there! 

  • CC’s DAD

    My grilling tip is VERY basic, but essential.

    When making “tin foil dinners”, add a small amount (4 OZ.?) of water. Steams the vegetables and keeps whatever is on the bottom from burning (quite as much).

    What’s a “tin foil dinner”? Ask CC or maybe Emily could explain it…?

  • http://www.josephhoetzl.com Joseph Hoetzl

    There is nothing that can replace the taste of grilling over lump charcoal.  Save the gas for indoors and a rainy day.  No lighter fluid either – a chimney style starter, two sheets of newspaper – hottest fire you can make.  10 minutes and your are cooking over charcoal, not open flame, lava, or whatever attempt at spreading the heat is made.  Learn how to make zones of heat for different products, and equally important, for things like a pizza disc, how to make an even heat.

    The sear is where it is at – super high temp sear, and whatever you do, don’t squash your food to press the grease out.  Either start with lower fat content meat or enjoy life, but don’t make hockey pucks!

Buffer
The shoe cables a repent reward near the visible.