By: Johnny Mitchell, Texas Region HR Director
If you enjoyed hot dogs at your Independence Day cookout, don't be shy about firing up your grill: every day of July is part of National Hot Dog Month! (And also National Baked Bean Month, National Picnic Month, National Ice Cream Month, and — unsurprisingly — National Anti-Boredom Month.)
The dog days of summer are
here, and cooking out is an easy road to beating the boredom – if you can stand the heat! For extra flavor on a charcoal grill, try soaking applewood or mesquite wood chips in water and then sprinkling them on the hot coals before you start cooking. On a gas grill, just make a foil pouch for the dry wood chips and let them smolder in indirect heat to create delicious, taste-generating smoke.
If you’re cooking steak and don’t like having to make your ribeye look like Swiss cheese by repeatedly poking it with a meat thermometer (and letting out all of the good juices!), try out
the finger test to check how done your meat is:
- Open and relax your hand, then press on the fleshy area under your thumb: that’s what raw meat feels like
- Gently press your index finger to your thumb and then feel the fleshy area again for rare
- Press your middle finger to your thumb for medium-rare
- Ring-finger to thumb simulates medium
- Pinky to thumb feels like well done
But always use a meat thermometer at least once to make sure meat is cooked to a safe temperature!
Pair your steak, hot dogs, ribs or chicken with some grilled vegetables, and beat the heat with this cool watermelon salad:
Cube a small seedless watermelon. Combine with 4 small sliced tomatoes, 1 small sliced red onion, 1 small cubed cucumber and 1 cubed avocado. For a dressing, mix 1 tablespoon mixed herbs, 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar with salt and pepper to taste for a dressing.
Happy grilling!