Bobby Flay: Boy Gets Grill

I don't know that I've ever made a Bobby Flay recipe before. No real reason, just haven't. But being that it's summer and we like to grill as much as possible, I picked up his cookbook, Boy Gets Grill (sequel to Boy Meets Grill) at the library a week or two ago. What I have discovered is that it's a darn shame I haven't cracked open one of his cookbooks earlier - so many of the recipes I've glanced over are calling out to be made. I wonder how many times I can renew this at the library before they make me bring it back?

The first recipe we tried - Crispy Bacon and Corn Quesadillas - we liked very much, but we had a number of problems in the preparation.

#1 - The first problem wasn't at all related to the recipe - it was the weather - it was pouring. DH should win the prize for the world's most committed and dedicated griller - he's grilled in the rain twice in the last week, one of them a thunderstorm.

#2 - Grilling bacon can be kind of tricky. At least for us. I guess the grill was too hot:

#3 - Getting double-decked quesadillas onto the grill - oil side down - can be tricky too. I don't know how DH finally got them on, but I think he flipped them oil side down onto a plate first and tried to sort of slide them off onto the grill. He did manage to successfully flip them, but again, not so easy to do.

Crispy Bacon and Corn Quesadillas
with Avocado-Cherry Tomato Relish

#4 - Bobby Flay has crazy ideas about portion sizes. Our tortillas were 8-inch instead of 6-inch, but even with a 6-inch, a whole double-decker tortilla is a pretty large portion for us. Okay, so large portion sizes aren't really a problem, but still........

With the rain pouring down, I asked DH if he wanted to just do everything inside, but as I said, he was committed. And it did taste better - the tortillas had a nice charred/grill flavor to them, but the bacon - not surprisingly - was over done. I'll have to make sure that DH really keeps the grill a bit on the cooler side if we attempt bacon on the grill in the future.

The quesadillas were tasty - corn, bacon and cheese - can't really go wrong there - but the avocado relish was fantastic (though mine was probably chopped a bit too coarsely to really be considered a relish). I've made salads using similar ingredients before, but for some reason, this one tasted so much better. Maybe it was the jalapeno - that's something I don't normally use - I just don't think of it. Or it could have been the chives - again, something I don't normally use in this kind of dish as red onion or scallions tend to be the more commonly used ingredient. Bobby's actually does call for red onion, but I forgot to buy any, so I snipped some chives from the garden and they were really good with the rest of the flavors.

In the end, it all worked out and DH declared that it was worth the flaming bacon, the pouring rain and the tricky flipping. And since he's the grill master, who am I to argue?