GRILLING BASICS

This week on Basics, I partnered with ACE Hardware to take a look at America's real favorite pastime: grilling. I'll show you how to make fiery fare that is more exciting than the usual burgers and dogs.

Food processor or blender

Skewers for meat and veggie kebabs

Butcher's twine

Meat thermometer

Grill tools (spatula, tongs, etc)

Grill and/or wood-fired grill or smoker

For the stuffing:

For the pork:

Combine stuffing ingredients except the spinach in a food processor and combine until it forms a paste.
Cut each tenderloin in half horizontally, stopping 1/2 inch away from the edge so halves remain attached. Open up tenderloins, cover with plastic wrap, and pound to 1/4 inch thickness. Trim any ragged edges to create a rectangle.
Sprinkle the interior of each tenderloin with salt and pepper. With long side of pork facing you, spread half of of the stuffing over bottom half of one tenderloin, followed by 1/2 cup of spinach.
Roll away from you into tight cylinder, taking care not to squeeze stuffing out ends. Position tenderloin seam side down, evenly space 5 pieces of twine underneath, and tie into place. Repeat with remaining tenderloin, stuffing, and spinach.
Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, about 15 minutes. Leave primary burner on high and turn off other burners.
Place pork on cooler side of grill, cover, and cook until center of stuffing registers 140°F, 25-30 minutes, rotating pork once halfway through cooking.
Transfer pork to carving board, tent loosely with foil, and let rest for 5-10 minutes. Remove twine, slice pork into 1/2-inch thick slices, and serve.

To make the marinade, combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and process until smooth, about 45 seconds.
Put the cut vegetables into one bowl and the raw beef into another bowl. Split the marinade between the two bowls, putting more in the bowl with the beef. Cover both bowls with plastic wrap. Let the beef marinate in the fridge and the vegetables marinate at room temperature. Let both bowls marinate for at least 1 hour.
Remove beef from marinade and put onto skewers. Put only beef on the same skewer.
Next, skewer vegetables onto the skewer in alternating order.
Turn all burners of the grill to high, cover, and heat until hot, about 15 minutes.
Place meat skewers in the center of grill directly over coals and vegetable skewers near edge of coals but still over fire. Grill beef skewers for 12-16 minutes (turning every 3 or 4 minutes) — until well browned, slightly charred, and instant-read thermometer inserted into center of meat registers 125°F for medium-rare.
Transfer beef skewers to a serving platter, loosely tent with foil, and let rest 10 minutes.
Continue to grill vegetable skewers until vegetables are tender and slightly charred, about 17-21 minutes total, turning every 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to platter when finished.

For the marinade:

For the kebabs:

2 pounds sirloin steak tips, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large zucchini or summer squash, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1-inch-thick slices
1 large red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 large green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 large red onion, ends trimmed, peeled, halved lengthwise, core discarded, each half cut into 4 wedges and each wedge cut crosswise into thirds

Preheat your smoker to 225°F.
Put the chicken wings in the smoker. Let them sit untouched, with the lid closed, for 15-20 minutes.
Open the smoker and turn the temperature to 400°F.
Baste the chicken wings with the barbecue sauce.
Close the smoker and let the wings smoke for an additional 15 minutes. Flip the wings once a crust forms on the top. Baste the chicken with barbecue sauce every few minutes.