Hey, it’s two recipes for the price of one! This is in honor of the fact that it’s been above fifty degrees here for a whole week (almost). Today it is actually supposed to hit the high sixties, at which point you will find me out in my bikini sunbathing.

Or not.

Grilled French Onion

I know it sounds weird, but I’m telling you, just try this once… it will be one of the best things you’ve ever made on a grill.

What I used:

• 1 large vidalia onion
• 1 large beef boulion cube
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 bay leaf
• Foil
• Salt, pepper, & Parmesan cheese
• French bread sliced and broiled or grilled until toasty

What I did:

Step 1: Cut Your Onion
This is the trickiest part about the whole thing. Basically you want to make one of those “bloomin onions” which you do by first cutting the top off the onion but leaving the bottom on.  Let me say that again… but leaving the bottom on.

Peel off the outer layer or two. (You just have to rip them off the best you can at the bottom.) Then you are going to make four cuts. Start at the top and cut down slowly until you are about 1/4″ away from the still intact bottom of the onion.

The first two are like this:

And then you do two more cuts to give you eight equalish sections. Peel the petals back slowly to open the onion up a bit… like this: (but not fuzzy)

Step 2: Season it
Get a big foil square and set the onion in the middle of it. Then chop up both the butter and the bouillon cube into several smaller pieces and distribute liberally throughout the onion.

Then salt, pepper, sprinkle with a bit of parmesean cheese and top with a bay leaf.

Then seal the foil around the onion so that no juices will escape.

Step 3: Grill it
MysteryMan grills the onion on the top rack of the grill over med-high heat for about 30 -45 minutes. Definitely put it on before the meat or anything else… it takes a while!
(I imagine you could do this in the oven also, but here when the weather is above freezing, we do it outside.)

Step 4: Cheese, serve, enjoy.
When done grilling, open the foil (it will have all sorts of juice and you can pour some out if you like) discard the bay leaf, sprinkle generously with more Parmesan, and serve with toasted french bread!

It looks odd, but it will be one of the best things your mouth ever tasted. I swear.

Grilled Corn with Fresh Basil

Also known as, yummmmm.

What I used:

• Ears of corn
• Butter (1/2 to 1 stick, depending on how much corn)
• Basil

What I did:

Step 1: Basil Butter
About as easy as it can be. This is my handy basil plant (I always like to have one in the kitchen… although this one is dried and in the jar now.)

Pick a few leaves, then roll them up together and make 1/8″ slices to make a “chiffonade”… which I guess is the fancy term for thinly sliced basil. Whatever.

Anyway, throw this in a pot with your butter and melt over low or medium heat, depending on your patience level. I like to let all the basil flavors soak into the butter for a while.

Step 2: To shuck or not to shuck?
We’ve done the corn both ways and both MysteryMan and I prefer it shucked before it goes on the grill. The corn has much better flavor. No boiling necessary for this, just shuck, brush with basil butter and grill.

Keep the butter and brush nearby so you can brush it a few more times while it grills. MysteryMan tells me it cooks best over medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes… and make sure to rotate it!

Step 3: More Butter & Devour
Slather a little more on there. You know you want to. I like to pour about a shakers worth of salt over mine as well, but MysteryMan only uses pepper. Weird.

All I have to say is it’s springtime people! Happy grilling!