Getting going in the morning with a real breakfast is easy with these tips and recipes from Mario Breakfast tips: - These recipes are designed to be cooked in one pan, which makes clean up a little less of an issue. Maybe this is the meal where you give the kids a pass on doing dishes—save it for dinner, when there’s a lot more to do. - You can get a lot of the ingredients prepped the day before for making omelets and my Sausage and Cheese Scrambler. Chop the veggies and grate the cheese, storing them in plastic containers. That way you...

Above: Mario’s T-Bone Steaks Ah, steak. There’s nothing quite like. Few things in life require so little effort and give back so much. I find steak it requires more work to cook a steak badly than to grill it to perfection. And a grill laden with steaks is the surest way to attract looks of envy from any fellow neighbors who happen to pass by your space. Here are a few tips to help ensure that when you cook this most perfect of foods, it will come out even more perfect. - Let the meat come to room temperature before cooking. This will...

Don’t forget!  Enter Mario’s Ultimate Grilling Challenge for a chance to win a VIP weekend and the ultimate tailgate party with Mario and pal Rachael at Texas Motor Speedway on November 2nd! Kebobs are a great thing to serve any time you are grilling. One the best things about kebobs is that they are fully assembled and marinated and only need to be placed on the hot grill to cook. You can layer in vegetables, sausage, or smoked ham to your hearts content as they will only serve to enhance the flavor of the kebob. And in case you get any...

Don’t forget!  Enter Mario’s Ultimate Grilling Challenge for a chance to win a VIP weekend and the ultimate tailgate party with Mario and pal Rachael at Texas Motor Speedway on November 2nd! Smoking is the process of cooking something over indirect heat, for an extended period, part of which flavored smoke is introduced from chunks or chips of hardwood. You will need a charcoal grill or a smoker for smoking. If you have a smoker, follow the instructions, or just do it like you usually do. The Wood - The chips or chunks of hardwood can be hickory, cherry, oak or some...

Don’t forget!  Enter Mario’s Ultimate Grilling Challenge for a chance to win a VIP weekend and the ultimate tailgate party with Mario and pal Rachael at Texas Motor Speedway on November 2nd! Pretty much anyone who can tell time and grip a pair of tongs can grill a steak. But chicken is a whole different ballgame. With steak you just follow the mantra of “turn it before you burn it.” But with chicken you need to give individual attention to each piece of chicken. Otherwise you’ll wind up with a platter of half-burnt and half-raw meat, which is not only unappetizing...

Don’t forget!  Enter Mario’s Ultimate Grilling Challenge for a chance to win a VIP weekend and the ultimate tailgate party with Mario and pal Rachael at Texas Motor Speedway on November 2nd! Yes, you can grill pizzas and they are delicious. Here are some grilling tips from our friend, Mario Batali: Grilled Pizzas – You can buy pre-made raw dough at a pizzeria or a grocery store to make this recipe even faster and easier. If you decide to make the dough, keep in mind it needs to sit in the fridge overnight. As for the sauce, I love plain tomato puree...

Don’t forget!  Enter Mario’s Ultimate Grilling Challenge for a chance to win a VIP weekend and the ultimate tailgate party with Mario and pal Rachael at Texas Motor Speedway on November 2nd! A perfectly ripe tomato is a beautiful thing. Unfortunately, tomatoes need to ripen slowly under a hot sun and have a short season. So, while a fresh tomato sauce made with ripe tomatoes may be perfect in the summer, it is always better to use high-quality canned or packaged tomatoes during the off-season. I like two types: canned San Marzano tomatoes and Pomì, packaged in shelf-stable pint containers. Pear-shaped San...

Howdy folks. Hopefully you’ve read the news about my Ultimate Grilling Challenge and entered to win. If you are a burger fan, here are some essential grilling tips that should ensure perfect burgers every time: Here are some essential tips that should ensure perfect burgers every time: Meat – I like ground chuck  for my burgers, which is about 20% fat. It makes a nice juicy burger, but there’s not so much fat that it overwhelms the flavor of the meat. You can also go for ground round, which is 15% fat. Anything leaner and you’ll probably wind up with...