Grilled bell peppers are easy to make and delicious by themselves or more often as an ingredient in a larger dish. But not everyone knows how to prep bell peppers for grilling, so we’ll cover both prep and grilling in this post.

Rinse and dry the bell peppers, and remove any stickers on the surface.

Cut off the top and bottom of the pepper.

Remove the center of the bell pepper using a knife or your fingers.

Slice down one side of the pepper and open it up so it lays flat.

Remove the internal ribs.

Cut into manageable pieces for grilling.

Brush both sides with vegetable oil or olive oil.

Season both sides with salt and black pepper.

Preheat the grill on HIGH. Use a grill brush to remove any debris, then reduce heat to MEDIUM.

Start the peppers skin side down.

Grill for 5-8 minutes until charred and blistered. Turn the peppers and grill another 3-5 minutes until the flesh is soft.

Remove the peppers from the grill. They can be eaten as-is or cut into smaller pieces for use in other recipes.

I always leave the charred skin on because that’s where all the flavor is!

If you have a recipe that calls for the skins to be removed, place the grilled peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the peppers steam for about 5 minutes.

Pull off the skins using a paper towel or scrape them off using a knife.

When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s, it was a big deal to go out for dinner at Saddle ‘N Sirloin in my hometown of Santa Rosa, California. In those days, going out for a steak dinner usually meant an affordable sirloin, and it was considered a special treat. Add some A-1 Steak Sauce (we didn’t know any better), a baked potato, and all-you-can-eat salad, ranch beans, and sourdough bread and you had a real meal!

Today, I’m more likely to enjoy a ribeye steak or a filet mignon or a strip steak, but occasionally I get a hankering for a sirloin. What a sirloin steak lacks in tenderness and fat marbling, it makes up for in good flavor without breaking the bank.

So one day I’m shopping at Walmart and see these sirloin steaks on sale. I don’t typically buy meat at Wally World, but they looked pretty good and the price was right, so I picked up two.

A sprinkle of garlic salt and black pepper was all that was needed before throwing these steaks onto the grill. You can make your own garlic salt by mixing 3 parts table salt with 1 part granulated garlic powder.

Preheat the grill on HIGH for 10 minutes, then use a grill brush to remove any debris. Reduce the temp to MEDIUM and grill over DIRECT heat.

For a 3/4″ thick steak cooked to medium doneness (160*F), grill for 4-5 minutes per side; for a 1″ thick steak, 5-6 minutes per side. Increase or decrease the cooking time to achieve your preferred doneness.

In the few minutes it takes to get the steaks off the grill and onto your dinner plate, and for you to find a steak knife, these guys will have rested enough for the juices to redistribute throughout the meat.

These sirloin steaks are ready to enjoy!

As for steak sauce…I don’t do A-1 anymore. But in homage to the 1970s, I tried some Heinz 57 Sauce which was top-rated in a taste test by Cook’s Country magazine. They said that Heinz “provided a nice counterpart that let the meat shine through without overwhelming.” It’s “tomatoey, spicy, and earthy,” with a “sweetness [that] is rich and fruity,” and it has a “peppery tang.”

I’m not a big fan of steak sauce in general, but I thought Heinz 57 was pretty good as steak sauces go. More importantly, it served its purpose of taking me back to a simpler time when a sirloin steak and a bottle of steak sauce were not just a weeknight meal, but a special occasion.

P.S. Less-tender steaks like sirloin might benefit from the salting process described in this post: Salted Ribeye Steaks.

My good friends John & Amy live in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Silicon Valley. They have a beautiful garden in which they grow all sorts of veggies, including this butternut squash.

It turns out butternut squash is quick and easy to grill. The hardest part is cutting it up!

Peel the squash, cut into thick planks, and remove the seeds. Brush both sides with a mixture of 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2-3 cloves of garlic run through a garlic press, and salt & pepper to taste.

Preheat the grill on MEDIUM, making sure the grates are clean.

Grill for 6 minutes on the first side, then flip, tent with aluminum foil and grill for another 6 minutes. You may need to turn down the heat a bit to prevent burning if your grill runs hot.

The squash is done when you’ve got good grill marks and the flesh is soft when poked with a fork.

To serve, drizzle with a little EVOO. Taste for salt and sprinkle with more kosher salt, if needed. Enjoy!

Hamburger sliders are so fun and so easy to make…once you have the right buns!

First stop is the bread aisle at the supermarket. If you can find slider buns like Sara Lee Mini Buns, that’s perfect. If not, King’s Hawaiian or a similar small, soft dinner roll is a good alternative.

Once you’ve got the buns, it’s time for the beef! Buy a good quality ground beef, but not too lean so you get a nice, juicy slider. 80/20 or 85/15 lean to fat ratio is a good choice. I used Prather Ranch ground beef, something a friend turned me onto at the local Farmer’s Market. Too expensive for regular use, but a nice occasional treat and very good quality meat!

Divide one pound of ground beef into 6 portions. If you have a kitchen scale (and you should) that’s about 2.75 ounces per slider. Form into patties of even thickness and season with kosher salt.

For me, melty, gooey American cheese is a guilty pleasure on burgers. Use whatever cheese you like best, but since a slider is smaller than a regular burger, you’ll want to scale down the cheese portion, also. I tore American cheese slices into quarters and used three pieces per slider. Even that was a bit much, you can probably get away with just half a slice of cheese per slider.

Preheat your Weber gas grill on HIGH, making sure the grates are clean. Once preheated, turn the burners down to MEDIUM and arrange the sliders on the grill. They cook quickly due to their small size, so watch them carefully.

When the first side is done, flip and cook for just a minute or so before adding the cheese. Quickly toast the buns and you’re ready for some slider deliciousness!