The Beachland isn’t just any bar, and their brunch isn’t just bar food. Every Sunday, a different guest DJ spins tunes ranging from soul, punk, country and rock and roll; meanwhile, fresh, organic, and locally-sourced food makes its way to customers seated at the bar or at tables covered with vintage tablecloths in our tavern.

We can’t think of a better way to fuel the first day of 2012 than New Year’s Day Brunch at the Beachland! On Sunday, January 1st, from 11 am – 3pm, they celebrate the beginning of a brand New Year that means expanded food adventures for their kitchen. To start your year off right, they’re offering $4 Bloody Mary’s and happy hour drink specials on everything else! Reservations are suggested (216) 383.1124.

Bausone’s brunch menu definitely has a number of twists and turns. Pancakes aren’t standard-issue diner grub; rather, they’re made from scratch, served with seasonal fruit, topped with natural Ohio maple syrup, and served up with veggies or house-made sausage. Southern delicacies like the Chicken and Waffles and the Deep South Biscuits and Gravy are given a treatment that’s not just ‘down-home’ — it’s North Coast.

Bausone’s has built much of the kitchen selections, including a new nighttime bar menu featuring the “Slo”Boy, (recently featured in Cleveland Magazine) a locally produced Slovenian smoked sausage topped with house-made BBQ sauce, fries and Carolina-style slaw.

Several years ago, Cleveland native John Bausone moved to Portland, Oregon, for chef training. In the meantime, he supported himself working at acclaimed Portland food businesses such as Artemis Foods and New Seasons Market. Formerly owner of the Arabica on East 185th in North Collinwood, Bausone was eager to jump into the action in his old neighborhood upon returning to Cleveland. Beachland co-owner Cindy Barber’s vision for a Sunday brunch fit well with his own, so he took over the kitchen in May 2011, and has also helped expand its ability to cater events at the concert venue on off-nights. The club recently hosted a 60th birthday party for Cleveland music scene mover and shaker David Spero, who says, “everybody complimented us on how good the food was” from the expansive buffet table Bausone and the kitchen staff prepared.

Speaking about the growing brunch traffic, Bausone says, “The way I was trained, everything should be fresh, simple, and seasonal. I get eggs from Holistic Acres in Ashland, and grains from Stutzman Farms. The bacon is smoked at R & D Sausage across the street. Everything else is house-made, including the sausage and the catsup. Right now, everything’s clicking in the kitchen. We’ve got a good rapport between kitchen and front of house. Our food gets out fast and fresh. We’re busy on Sundays, with no signs of slowing down.”

Beachland Brunch isn’t just about food, either. Each Sunday, members of Cleveland’s music community get behind the turntables and provide a hand-picked brunching soundtrack. Pair that with specialty beverages with colorful names such as “Neil Diamond’s Cuff Links”, “I Heart Ohio”, and the “Russian Quaalude” served up from behind the bar. It’s the perfect combination of great food, music and fun, as only the Beachland can do!

I don’t think I’m the only one with a Dr.-Jekyll-and-Mr.-Hyde relationship with food. Some nights demand down-to-earth satiation. Other nights, transcendence. That being said, Mexican food rarely gets caught up in this dichotomy. Everyone has that place they go to for cheap, Americanized, beans-and-rice, tin-foil-wrapped, 100-dishes-comprised-of-the-same-ten-ingredients Mexican. But when it comes to transcendence, good fucking luck.

When James Beard Award nominee Chef Eric Williams opened Cleveland’s Momocho in 2006, that was precisely the need he was filling.

“I didn’t invent Mexican food,” said Williams. “I just re-imagined it in a way I thought people from Cleveland would like.”

The word “momocho” is Latino slang for little hellion boy, and it’s this mentality that defines what Williams calls “mod Mex” cuisine — an elevated yet accessible play on traditional dishes and flavor components. That’s what he offers in the face of an uninitiated clientele that expects burritos, quesadillas, enchiladas and Meximelts.

“We don’t tell people that’s not what we’re about. But when people come here to eat, that’s when we over-deliver,” said Williams.

Dish after dish, Momocho explodes, with an almost rueful glee, the diminished expectations of what Mexican food is capable of and what Cleveland dining culture will accept. Ask for a ham sandwich and you’ll get a pig. Expect any less and you’re in the wrong restaurant.

“I’m a pain in the ass,” said Williams on his this-is-who-we-are-and-this-is-what-we-do philosophy, “but you’ll like us.”

Williams’ take on chilaquiles is a seamless deconstruction of the traditional Mexican breakfast dish often lauded as a hangover cure. Replacing pulled chicken with crab and smoked trout, utilizing a tomatillo verde sauce produced in-house and topping it with an egg over easy, Williams creates a dish that is both authentic and utterly new.

Order guacamole in a lot of restaurants and you’ll consider yourself lucky if it vaguely resembles the color green. For Williams, avocados freshly mashed in-house every day is where his guacamole recipes begin rather than end. One comes cut with garlic confit, blue cheese and chile verde. Another, pickled corn, crab and chile chipotle. And if you missed it, the smoked trout, bacon and chile poblano guacamole had Guy Fieri borderline orgasmic on a recent episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”

With Momocho and his mod-Mex methodology, Williams wasn’t looking for national exposure. What he wanted was to build something. For his coworkers. For his family. And to put himself in the best possible position to continue creating. The transition from neighborhood favorite to Food Network entity just sort of happened.

“I do understand that all media drives business,” said Williams on his new identity as a celebrity chef — an identity that, while it may not be a necessary evil, is at least a necessary oddity. “But the other half of me is in awe of why people think I’m famous.”

He had an idea for a restaurant and, at some point, that idea took on a life of its own. Williams concedes that. On any given night, that life fills the small, two-story building at 1835 Fulton Road. It washes over the rooms like the din of a waterfall. Under warm, red hues, engulfed in electric air, every table is full, the bar is shoulder-to-shoulder and a line snakes out the door.

What these people already know, or are about to find out for themselves, is that Momocho doesn’t ask its customers to chose between quality and comfort, or fresh over flavor. Just as Williams’ food intersects tradition with ingenuity, the familiar with the eclectic, Momocho’s success is largely rooted in the coming together of duel expectations. The down-to-earth and the transcendent.

“We only serve those who are happy to be here,” said Williams. “The people we can’t make happy are just not happy people.”

Building on these strengths, Great Lakes has teamed with Mitchell’s Homemade Ice Cream to develop Christmas Ale Ginger Snap ice cream. The limited edition treat comprises fresh organic ginger, Vietnamese cinnamon, honey, homemade ginger snap cookies and Christmas Ale residuals expelled after the bottle filling process.

Christmas Ale Ginger Snap ice cream is available at Great Lakes Brewery, located in Ohio City, and all five Mitchell locations spread around the city, as well as groceries and Cleveland-area restaurants.

Though my first choice in dining is rarely vegan, I wanted to see what the buzz was about. Vegan athletes and high-profile celebrities have raised the profile of this small but growing movement, and it’s time Pulse gives the cuisine a fair shake.

Before my visit, I went to The Flaming Ice Cube’s website, where I was pleasantly surprised by all the options that the Cube had to offer — and the selection would please even the most finicky of foodies. You’re not going to find BBQ wings on the menu, but you will find spicy Buffalo dip with flatbread and celery and vegetable “chick’n” doused in barbecue sauce.

On any given day I’m usually a cup-of-coffee-and-a-bagel type of gal. This’ll take me up to dinner where it’s a tossup between leftover Chinese or a burger and fries. Frankly, maybe taking meat, eggs and milk out of my diet wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I was ready for some vegan chow.

Entering the restaurant, the place felt genuinely friendly. The atmosphere invites everybody from the most hardcore vegans to part- (or first-) timers like myself. To get acclimated, our waitress suggested we pick up a copy of “Cube News,” a little zine explaining the philosophy of The Flaming Ice Cube and highlighting some of the more popular dishes.

We ordered, and first up was a sampler platter overflowing with warm pita bread, three different toppings and summer rolls. The dips included the Buffalo version as well as garlic herb hummus and tabouli. The Buffalo was my immediate favorite — I couldn’t get enough. And for those of you on the fence about this whole vegan thing, if I didn’t know that it wasn’t actually chicken, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

After the appetizer, I received my entrée: a spicy chick’n quesadilla made with chick’n, veggies, jalapeños, hot sauce, and Daiya cheddar and mozzarella “cheeses,” folded inside a garlic-herb tortilla with a side of macaroni salad. It’s a mouthful to say, and to eat, with one burst of hot spicy flavor after another. Fortunately, the macaroni salad calms down your mouth before the next blast of spiciness.

At this point I decided I wasn’t leaving this place without going into a total food coma. You guessed it: I decided to check out the dessert menu. As I browsed the menu, my brain kept returning to one item — the peanut butter crunch bar. I might not be an expert on eggless pasta, but I am an expert on anything that contains peanut butter. Closing the menu, I told the waitress, “Bring it on.”

And, of course, it was everything I expected it to be — peanut-buttery goodness that just might tempt you into taking one home for a midnight snack. And with that last bite I knew it was about T-minus five before the food coma hit. Success.

Before we left, I got a chance to talk to the managers of the café, who explained to me that everyone who works at the Cube also lives the lifestyle. Your waitress, your hostess, even the cooks in the kitchen are all dedicated to vegan eating, making them ideal resources for someone interested in dabbling in this amazingly versatile diet. Many cite the numerous health benefits of eliminating meat and dairy products from their lives, including boosted immune systems and energy.

The staff and the restaurant management are also incredibly environmentally conscious, and discarded items at the restaurant are recycled nightly.

For my part, I would wholeheartedly believe that daily peanut butter crunch bars would increase world peace. It’s a good thing the Cube has vegan cookbooks for sale, too, for those who would like to continue experimenting with the cuisine at home.

The Flaming Ice Cube is located in Creekside Place (1449 Boardman-Canfield Road, Boardman) and is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sundays from noon to 8 p.m. Call 330-726-4766 for more information, or visit their website at flamingice.com

Photo by Amber Furbee

The company makes caramels and taffy infused with beer as one of the main ingredients. The caramels retail for $7.50 for a four piece two-ounce box and $18.50 for a 12 piece six-ounce box.

The caramels come in four craft beer styles/flavors. The lambic caramel uses a berry sour beer to make the candy, which is then coated in dark chocolate and pink candy lines. Lager blends butterscotch, caramel, biscuit and a malts flavors, covered in milk chocolate. The IPA caramel is covered in white chocolate, while the Stout combines the beers cocoa, coffee and molasses flavors with a dark chocolate coating.

The company says that the candy contains only trace amounts of alcohol and is intended for consumption by adults only.

The primary flavor in Christmas Ale Ginger Snap is, of course, GLBC’s Christmas Ale, a holiday ale brewed with honey and spiced with fresh ginger and cinnamon. Similar to repurposing spent brewer’s grain to make GLBC’s gourmet bread and pretzels, a small amount of residual Christmas Ale (previously expelled after the bottle filling process) is now captured from the filler and supplied to Mitchell’s. This process helps both companies achieve their philosophies of zero waste. Mitchell’s then adds fresh organic ginger, a dash of Vietnamese cinnamon, local honey and homemade ginger snaps and voila.

Christmas Ale Ginger Snap will be released on November 1, 2011 for a limited time at GLBC’s Ohio City location and Mitchell’s five Northeast Ohio locations. It will be available at GLBC as a dessert and in pints-to-go; all Mitchell’s locations will feature scoops, pints and quarts for customers.

GLBC and Mitchell’s have previously partnered on another ice cream flavor called the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter Chocolate Chunk, which is currently available at GLBC.

I begin my review saying that because, really, what else is there to say about Melt that hasn’t already been said? By “Man vs. Food”? By “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”? By every media outlet in the region? What else is there to say about this local boy who made good that all of northeastern Ohio doesn’t already know?

“Yeah,” said Fish, trying to veer the conversation away from red eyes, white fangs and full moons. “I guess I saw ‘The Howling’ a few too many times as a kid.”

He’d rather talk about what he loves. Gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches. His customers. What it means to be from Cleveland. And what the future holds.

When he opened the first Melt in Lakewood in 2006, Fish knew what Cleveland didn’t need. Fine dining was dying. The national economy was in a nosedive and Cleveland’s economy crashed and burned so long ago weeds were sprouting from the char. What Fish wanted to do with Melt was create the dining experience people just like him were clamoring for, but didn’t know they were clamoring for.

“Everyone has a memory or a story about a grilled-cheese sandwich. Their mother used to make them. Their father,” he said. “My goal was to make comfort food that people are used to and put it on a sandwich.”

And so The Parmageddon is a grilled-cheese cut with fresh-made pierogi. The Dude Abides features homemade meatballs and fried mozzarella. Bratwurst and kraut make Municipal Stadium Magic taste like a day at the ballpark.

What Fish was offering up, in short, was comfort food stuffed with even more comfort food. The impact was immediate.

“It wasn’t about survival. It wasn’t about making money,” Fish said of the early days of Melt. “I wanted to create the bar I wanted to go to. I figured if I put a good product out there, and if I worked my butt off, everything would work out.”

Obviously, it has.

The Lakewood location was such a success, Fish opened a second Melt in Cleveland Heights — and it, too, was a success. October 7 will mark the grand opening of a third Melt Bar and Grilled, this one in Independence. And if past is prologue, its success will somehow make the other two locations even busier.

“I think what brings people through the door is a new experience,” said Fish. “What keeps people coming back are the elements that come after that.” (Fish calls those elements “the little things.”)

We live in uncertain times. And one of the few certainties Cleveland residents have is that there once was a time where their city, long ago, was one of the those bright, busy corners of the earth. A city where teams won championships, where hard work was rewarded, where what you’ve always wanted out of life didn’t seem so far away.

To a large degree, Melt’s success can be attributed to how what it does so well nourishes the dual nature of the Cleveland psyche. The grilled-cheese part reminds people of better times. The gourmet part — breathing new life into an old idea — reminds them of the possibility of better times ahead.

When you say it like that, the little things don’t sound so little.

“People in Cleveland don’t talk about the future,” said Fish. “Cleveland loves its past glories.”

That’s because, for far too long, that’s all Cleveland had. But things are changing. Being from northeastern Ohio is becoming less and less about what was, and more and more about what might be.

And so long as there aren’t any werewolves around when we get there, Melt Bar and Grilled and Matt Fish are going to be a big part of that future.

I’m going out on a limb this month. I’m introducing you to the art of cupcakes.

Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down. I can hear some of you now: “But Jess, with all of the traditional artists, do CUPCAKES really merit a hands-on art feature?”

Sure, I was a bit skeptical, but ask yourself this: What is an artist, really? I believe an artist is someone whose cup runneth so far over with passion and talent that they burst with creative output. If that definition sounds right, then I think it’s only fair to hear me out on the cupcake front.

If you hang out in the Canton arts district, you’ve probably run across Kristina Belliveau of Kristina’s Kreations. Not only is she a big supporter of the arts, she often donates her delectable cupcakes to exhibit openings and other arts-related soirees. Belliveau invited me into her kitchen this month to make a batch of one of her signature cakes.

But first, here’s something to know about me: I don’t bake. I have a KitchenAid mixer, but it’s only for show. For me, cupcakes are good for two things: eating, of course, and also buying at the store, rewrapping on a decorative platter and passing off as my own to impress family and friends.

I won’t say that after my afternoon with Kristina’s Kreations that I’ve seen the (oven) light, so to speak, but I will say that I’ve learned a great deal about an artist’s passion. Belliveau is a full-time CPA who works for a local accounting firm, and Kristina’s Kreations is a labor of love. In her spare hours she bakes as many as 1,500 cupcakes each month, pulling from more than a hundred of her own recipes. These original concoctions aren’t something you’ll find in “The Joy of Cooking.” Belliveau comes up with her own recipes by experimenting (and taste-testing, usually via her husband Matt).

One undeniable trend is replacing traditional layer cakes with cupcakes at weddings, and Belliveau does quite a bit of wedding work. “It sounds silly, but when I do cupcakes for weddings, I want the bride and groom to have an almost surreal experience,” said Belliveau. “I do consultations to find favorite memories, inside jokes or other elements to drive the flavor.” When the happy couple bites into their custom cupcake, she wants them to feel like it was created for them alone. (She recently designed a peanut-butter-and-jelly recipe for a couple because the bride made her fiancée a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day for work.)

So what kind of exotic cupcake suits me? We settled on a dark-chocolate Guinness potato-chip cupcake.

Best. Cupcake. Ever.

I’m not kidding. From simple ingredients comes sinful indulgence. Belliveau doesn’t cut culinary corners: Aside from a bag of Lays, everything was mixed and measured, whipped and wielded by hand. Every bite gives you a strong dose of rich chocolate, followed by hints of my all-time favorite stout and a wisp of salty crunch. Think that sounds good? This month she’s baking up rainbow-colored Fruity Pebble cupcakes (cereal included!) and Irish car bomb cakes.

What’s most interesting about watching Belliveau work is that although she develops the elaborate recipes, she seldom follows them. She’s got what I can only describe as an artistic eye. She can tell when the frosting’s done, no matter how much cream she’s added. She’s at times disciplined, at others, ad hoc. It’s what makes her cakes unique and her work that of an artisan.

“It’s not that I’m doing something you couldn’t do. Anyone can bake cupcakes. What makes mine different is that I take the time to make them, to perfect them and to come up with the most unique recipes,” said Belliveau. She’s right: Anyone can bake a cupcake. But nobody can bake them quite like these, and few are willing.

Let’s review our “Is This Actually ‘Art’?” checklist, shall we?

Doing it for passion? Check.
Artistic eye? Check.
Spending every spare hour creating? Check.
Experimenting? Check.
Elaborate commissions? Check.
Delicious Incredible, unique results? Check.

So don’t worry, Kristina: Even though I know the super-sneaky secret hiding spot of your recipes, and have that aforementioned mixer taking up space on the counter, I won’t be opening up Jessica’s Creations anytime soon. I’ll leave the artistry of cupcaking to you.

The truck is the base of operation for Umami Moto, one of the six food trucks operating in the Cleveland area. Its color makes it easy to spot from a distance, something that draws many of those workers, according to Umami Moto owners and operators Jae Stulock and Sandy Madachik. “I saw you guys from my office window and had to come check it out” is one of the most uttered phrases among customers.

As the lunchtime queue began to form, a security guard from a nearby office building emerges to inform Stulock and the crew that they were parked illegally and would have to move.

Stulock folded down his awnings as onlookers inquired where they would go. “Across the street,” he told them with confidence.

Stulock has become more than familiar with handling adversity in the food truck business — especially when it comes to the truck itself.

“Everything breaks,” Stulock said. “I have a list of things to work on, so if I have a minute I try and check things off” — things like oil leaks, battery problems, lighting issues and other necessary repairs.

“One morning we went out to start the truck and you could literally hear the starter break,” Stulock said. “I had to change out the starter, but we were only about 15 minutes late for our lunch service.”

Despite this, the cook and former construction worker wouldn’t have it any other way. Prior to his work with the food truck, Stulock worked at a restaurant in Twinsburg. “I hated working in a restaurant for two reasons,” he said. “ First, I never got to see outside, and secondly, I never got to see the customers enjoying what I made.”

Echoing these sentiments was Umami Moto’s chef, Tim Schmitz. “The only time you ever hear from customers in a restaurant is when a server comes into the kitchen to give you a complaint,” Schmitz said.

The name, Umami, is the word for the fifth basic taste (after sweet, salty, sour and bitter) and means “pleasant savory taste “ in Japanese. While the truck does not serve strictly Asian food all the time, it is their culinary niche. Pad Thai is one of Stulock’s favorite dishes, and he’s been using the same recipe for years.

“It was one of those classic things where people would say, ‘Wow, Jae, you should sell this,’” Stulock said. “So when I had the chance to open a food truck it was kind of a no-brainer.”

Everything on the truck is housemade, or more specifically, truck-made. The Umami crew is in the process of setting up a non-mobile kitchen to accommodate preparation work and to give them more storage space. Currently all the food is stored in the trucks refrigeration compartments.

Not having a brick-and-mortar home has caused some logistical problems. “Only one of our food providers will deliver to the truck,” Stulock said. “So we have to drive all over creation to get supplies.”

Further adding to the plight is the fact that many of their ingredients can only be purchased at Asian specialty stores. When they find something they need they often buy up the store’s entire supply only to run out in a few days, according to Stulock.

Stulock says the biggest hurdle they face is pervading views of food trucks’ sanitary practices (or lack thereof). Food trucks face the same stipulations and requirements as any restaurant, require the same licenses and deal with the same inspectors.

“We’re fighting that ‘roach coach’ stigma,” Stulock said. “We adhere to the same cleanliness standards as a restaurant, if not more so because we’re fighting that stigma.

“Because it’s such a small confined kitchen it has to stay clean,” he went on. “There’s no two ways about it. We don’t have the room to hide a little bit of this or that.”

As the noonday sun declines from its zenith, the Umami crew begins to pack up and head home. Their service is over for today and they need to begin preparing for tomorrows challenges.

Carmen Rey’s Big Ole Shish Kabobs 

Shish-Kabobs

When it comes to parties, I know I’m the sort of person who hops around trying to talk to everyone I know (and some people I don’t). So what’s easier than having a food you can carry with you? Yeah, I know plates are convenient and portable but you can’t hold your drink and a plate and a fork while standing. This is where foods on sticks come in handy. Particularly, shish kabobs.  Nothing says socialite on patrol like a huge shish kabob coming at you!

What you’ll need:

Skewers (There are wood ones if you don’t have the cash for those fancy metal ones, cheapo)
Veggies (I usually like the classic peppers and onions with a splash of mushrooms, but whatever tastes good grilled works perfectly)
Meat of choice (whether it is chicken, beef, shrimp or even mushrooms for the vegetarian option)

For Marinade:

Lime juice
Sesame Seeds
Crushed Garlic
Olive Oil

Directions:

1. Cut meats into 1 ½ inch cubes
2. Mix all of the ingredients for the marinade and marinate the meats in a Ziploc bag for at least 1 hour before cooking.
3. When ready, soak your wood skewers in water for 30 minutes (to keep from catching on fire) or put oil on your metal skewers.
4. Cut your veggies into larger pieces (about the same size as your meat).
5. Dip veggies into oil before putting onto the skewers, alternating with the meat.
6. Grill it!

Yummy Tummy Cheesecake Pops 

Cheesecake Pops

(Carmen Rey) Something really cool I love are the cake pops sold at Starbucks Coffee. They sell like a birthday cake one and some other ones that are just cakes on sticks dipped in chocolates. Great. So, who’s going to keep us from doing the same thing with the classic favorite, cheesecake.

What You Need:

Cheesecake (for less hassle, just buy one from the store – or you could make a baked cheesecake, they’re easier to use than the no-bakes. But it’s summer, do you really want to turn on your oven? Probably not.)
Chocolate Candy Coating (You know, the chocolate chunks you melt for fondues and stuff)
Lollipop Sticks
(And if you want kick it up a notch) Sprinkles, Coconut or any other fun things to sprinkle on top.  Bam son!

Directions:

1. Cut your cheesecake (straight from the freezer) into little pieces.
2. Shape into 1 ½ inch balls with your hands (or if you’re not a fan of getting your hands dirty while cooking you can use an ice cream scoop). Remember, that this is with the crusts as well.
3. Stick the lollipop into the balls – if they seem too soft (like the stick is going to fall out or the cheesecake will slip off of the top), you can stick the balls into the freezer for about 20 minutes and try again.
4. Microwave the chocolate until it’s creamy and melted.
5. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.
6. Start dipping your cheesecake pops into the chocolate, covering entirely and then placing onto the wax paper.
7. This is when you sprinkle on your coconut, gram cracker bits or sprinkles.
8. Stick the pops back into the freezer to set.

I like serving them out of the freezer on a hot day, but you can certainly leave them out to defrost so that you’ve got the nice soft cheesecake inside. On top of that, you’re welcome to play around with what type of covering and cheesecake you use. You can do chocolate covered peanut butter, use white chocolate or find another shell. Whatever tickles your fancy.

Nicole Aikens Not-So-Low-Calorie Bacon-wrapped Weenies 

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs

Having a traditional hot dog and hamburger cookout this Fourth of July? Here’s a way to take the hot dogs and turn them into something way better than just what your 4-year-old niece slathers ketchup on.  That’s right, get ready for the bacon, baby!

Directions:

Step 1: Pick out your favorite hot dogs (Mine are Nathan’s)
Step 2: Bacon Strips & Bacon Strips & Bacon Strips! Oh yeah, more Bacon Strips! Soak in Jack before cooking (optional).
Step 3: Wrap the bacon around the dog, and stick a toothpick in each end so it doesn’t fall off.
Step 4: Grill.
Step 5: Condimentize at will.

If you are a typical overachiever, then wrap up some cheese-filled dogs or jalapeno brats. There’s just nothing more American than wrapping cheese in meat, in more meat.

Pepperoni dip

All I can say about this is I have never been told anything other than it is the greatest thing ever known to man.

Ingredients:

8-10 ounces pepperoni, chopped
1 8-ounce block of cream cheese
¼ mayonnaise
½ cup canned petite diced tomatoes, drained
½ cup canned chopped black olives
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients and spread into a shallow baking dish. (A 9-inch pie pan is perfect.) Bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and that pepperoni is bubbly as a high-school freshman’s face. Serve with sliced Italian bread.

Tip: This is best served just a few minutes out of the oven, but don’t worry about it starting to taste bad once it gets cold. It is (nearly) as good at room temperature or after 13 PBR tallboys.

Helene Miller’s Grilled Peaches ‘n Cream 

Grilled Peaches and Cream

What you’ll need:

2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 fresh peaches
vegetable oil
vanilla ice cream

Halve the peaches and remove the pit. Brush the cut sides with vegetable oil, and put that side down on a hot grill for 3-4 minutes or until they have defined grill marks. Brush the bottoms with oil and flip them, putting them out of direct heat. Sprinkle the cut side with the a combined mixture of the cinnamon and brown sugar. Cover grill and cook 10-15 minutes or until fruit is tender. Serve with vanilla ice cream, or 26oz of Captain Morgan’s.

Only-In-Oh-Hi-Ya Grilled Corn

Soak corn in water for 4 hours with husks on. Leave husks on and place on grill until husks turn black. It’s ready to serve. Yeah, I ran out of time on this last one and phoned it in…