Spring time grilling

This winter has been amazingly mild, and we've had temperatures in the 40s and 50s on most days. I've loved being able to take my two little ones outside for fresh air and exercise. This past Friday I saw my first daffodil of the year, and on Monday the temperature even climbed to 60 degrees.  I decided it was high time we started using our grill again.

I had ordered some grass-fed hamburgers from our farmer last week, and I even remembered to pull them out on Sunday to begin thawing. The first time I cooked grass-fed hamburgers, I used our George Foreman grill, and I think I over-cooked the meat. They were rather hard and bland. This time I decided to do a little research before we grilled. I found a website with detailed instructions about how to grill grass-fed hamburgers. We grilled some sourdough bread for buns, and we added some raw milk Cheddar cheese. They smelled incredible when they were cooking, and they tasted juicy and flavorful. We added some grilled onions, mixed greens, ketchup, and mustard to the burgers. I haven't figured out how to make my own condiments yet, so that's a skill for the future.
Now on to the sides.  I read on a blog that beef tallow can be used to make french fries, and I thought that would be a fun side for the burgers. I saved beef tallow from the last time I made beef stock, but it's only a few Tablespoons of tallow. When I looked up the recipe for french fries, I realized I needed 6-8 cups of tallow!  Other than when you make stock, how do people get that much tallow? So that recipe was a bust. It did inspire some new items for my wish list: a french fry cutter,  deep-fat fryer, a whole bunch of tallow.
Since I still don't have my own copy of "Nourishing Traditions", I googled "nourishing traditions potato wedges." I didn't find any potato recipes that looked promising for dinner, so I tried www.tasteofhome.com, my former go-to site for recipes. I found a recipe for "Two-tone Potato Wedges," and I changed it a little based on what I've learned about traditional foods. In my teleconference with KerryAnn, she said that we shouldn't heat olive oil, so I substituted grass-fed butter. I also substituted sea salt for regular salt.
Here's the recipe for my version of Two-tone Potato Wedges
Prep: 10 min. Bake: 45 min. Yield: 5 servings
Ingredients:
- 3 medium organic potatoes
-2 medium sweet potatoes
-2 Tblsp grass-fed butter, melted
-1/4 tsp. sea salt
-1/4 tsp. pepper
1.5 Tblsp grated parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced

Directions:
- Cut each potato into eight wedges; place in a large resealable plastic bag. Add the butter, salt and pepper; seal bag and shake to coat. Arrange in a single layer in a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. greased baking pan.
-Bake, uncovered at 425 degrees for 20 min. Turn potatoes; sprinkle with cheese and garlic. Bake 20-25 min. longer or until golden brown, turning once. Yield: 5 servings.

I also cooked some organic green beans with melted butter and basil as a second side. Along with our kefir and mixed berry smoothies, we had a yummy weeknight dinner. Bring on grilling season!