How to BBQ with Garden Fresh Ingredients.

If you're the BBQ king (or queen) who can always be found manning the grill at parties and small get togethers and you want add a little show to your fire, this article is for you. Fool your friends into thinking you're a culinary genius by using the freshest homegrown herbs and a few veggies.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• fresh herbs grown in pots near the grill.
• fresh tomatoes, peppers, and habeneros, hopefully grown close by.
• Scissors
• Olive oil
• One hot grill

1. In the morning, before the scheduled get together, visit your herb and vegetable pots. Make sure they're placed in easy reaching distance of the grill and take this time to rinse the growing herbs, tomatoes, and peppers off with the shower setting on your garden hose sprayer. Pinch off any flower buds forming on the herbs (leave the nasturtium flowers growing). Check for any bugs and pick them or spray them off. Water the pots and spray away any debris or bugs at the base of the pots.
2. Guests are arriving, drinks are being served, and you're just firing up the cue. The meats have started to cook. Pull and twist off a few of those tomatoes. Split in half, brush with a little olive oil and place on the grill cut side down for 6 minutes. Flip over and cook for another 4 minutes. Snip off some herbage, you can choose dill, basil, oregano, sage, or cilantro and garnish. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. If at any point a guest says "shouldn’t you wash these herbs and vegetables first" loudly answer "washing produce is for wimps" (nobody has to know you did it earlier). You can grill your peppers and most any vegetable the same way with the same herb garnish.
3. As the wife walks by with a garden salad, before she can serve it pull off a small handful of cilantro and toss it over the salad. If you’re single, impress the ladies by growing nasturtiums along the open sides of your pots. Carefully snip off several nasturtium flowers and throw into the salad. Let those girls know those flowers aren’t just pretty, they add a nice peppery flavor (add a little wink).
4. Burgers are done. Tempt your guests with a melted piece of Swiss cheese over the burger topped with a few large leaves of basil. While your brushing sauce on the chicken, snip off a few long branches of rosemary and bundle them together. Use the bundle to brush on the sauce, the needles will release just a little of the rosemary oil flavoring the sauce a tiny bit. Plate the cooked chicken and snip a few chives, snip them right over the chicken before serving. What about fish? Sprinkle a small handful of thyme leaves or parsley over the fish before serving.
5. Desert: think mint. A small bunch of mint leaves sprinkled over chocolate ice cream (drizzle with a tablespoon of Bailey's and chocolate syrup). By the end of the feast "grill master" will seem amateur. Everyone will think you're a chef!

Tips & Warnings

• Throw a few habenero's on the grill, brushed with olive oil. Set them on a plate just to see if anyone is crazy enough to eat them.
• You can start earlier and use those herbs to marinade your meats and vegetables for a few hours before grilling.