Clark Melissa - The Deen Bros. Get Fired Up

Copyright 2011 by Deen Brothers Enterprises, LLC
Photographs copyright 2011 by Ben Fink Photography

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York

B ALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Deen, Jamie.
The Deen bros. get fired up: grilling, tailgating, picnicking, and more / Jamie and Bobby Deen, and Melissa Clark.
p. cm.
Summary: The Deen Brothers present 100 all-new recipes and entertaining ideas for outdoor gatheringsProvided by publisher.
Includes index.
eISBN: 978-0-440-42364-5
1. Outdoor cooking. 2. Cooking, AmericanSouthern style. 3. Cookbooks. I. Deen, Bobby II. Clark, Melissa. III. Title.
TX823.D44 2011
641.578dc22 2010047462

www.ballantinebooks.com

v3.1

This is for Aunt Peggy,
and in loving memory of Uncle George.
Because yall did, we can.

ALSO BY JAMIE AND BOBBY DEEN AND MELISSA CLARK

The Deen Bros. Take It Easy

The Deen Bros. Cookbook: Recipes from the Road

The Deen Bros.: Yall Come Eat

W hen we were boys, wed run in through the front door after school, stop in the kitchen to grab a snack, then head right out the back door in about the time it takes to shout, Mama, were home! Mama used to call us a couple of yard apes, we spent so much of our childhood outside. We dont have holes in the knees of our dungarees or scrapes on our elbows anymore, and our lives are a bit more complicated than they used to be, but we still love to fly straight out that back door as often as we can. The only difference is that now, were not just tossing around a ball back there, were cooking dinner at the same time.

For a couple guys like us, whose livesat work and at homerevolve around food, cooking out in the fresh air is pure recreation. Its about the simple joy of being outdoors, taking it easy, and working up a major appetite. Whether were doing , cooking outside is our ideal way to end any dayeven days spent cooking in the kitchen of The Lady & Sons! And over the years, weve grilled, picnicked, tailgated, and beach bummed our way into more than a cookbooks worth of favorite recipes. So we figure its about time we shared them with yall.

These arent recipes for entertaining in grand style. Most of the food in this book is made for paper plates, not good china (well, you might want a nice platter for the , but you dont need more than one hand to eat half the things in this book). Fancy or not, the foods were sharing here make for special meals. Eating them is a memorable occasion because its so fun just being outside.

Everyone loves a backyard barbecue, and were no different. Just the smell of one of our neighbors out grilling is enough to get us going. You sniff that good smoke in the air and you know theyre having fun. Then, before you know it, youre so hungry youve got to figure out a way to get invited, or head out and grill up something for yourself. The best thing about grilling might just be that its the perfect excuse for kicking back and doing less work, since cooking outside almost always means more hands on deck, less mess, and more time to goof off and enjoy yourself. When else do you invite folks over, tell them to bring the beer, let them do the cooking, then send em home saying, Best party ever, man!

Some of our tastiest meals are the lazy ones that happen when were sitting out back with a cold drink on a hot night. What happens if you bust out a tube of biscuit dough and throw it over the coals? we might ask. (The answer, on .)

We dont limit our grilling to the backyard either. As you may know, Jamie considers tailgating at a Georgia Bulldogs game to be a sporting event in its own right. From the back of his truck, hell grill you up everything from .

Working on this book, we got to revisit all those memories of past summers and favorite recipes. Of course, the weather didnt always cooperate. Since we tested these recipes year-round, we had the opportunity to picnic indoors quite a bit, and we can tell you that while a big blanket on the grass in the warm sun helps set the scene, at the end of the day, its the food that makes a great picnic. Whether youre packing up some for a day at the park or a brown baggers workday lunch, youre bringing the good times with you wherever you go.

Thats the spirit that inspired this book. To us, cooking outside is an opportunity to celebrate living in this beautiful country, our own beloved Southern landscape, and take the time to enjoy great meals with great people. We hope youll make our recipes part of your backyard barbecues, picnics, tailgating parties, or beach trips, too. Now yall go on outside and work up an appetite!

G rowing up in Albany, Georgia, we were always outside kids. From an early age we were running around barefoot, making a mess of our clothes and being total boys. Considering that we love to be outdoors and we love food and cooking, its no surprise that were natural-born grillers.

As with a lot of families, our dad was the one who grilled. Hed be out there lining up barbecued chicken or ribs on a big old cooker that hed fashioned out of a fifty-gallon oil drum cut in half and welded back together with some hinges and racks (also known as a Texas hibachi), and our mouths would just be watering while we tossed around a football or a baseball. So grilling has always seemed like play to us. You get yourself a cold drink in one hand, a pair of tongs in the other, leave the dirty dishes in the kitchen, and invite over enough friends, and you hardly know youre lifting a finger to make the meal happen. Plus, anytime theres more meat and less mess on the menu is a good time in our book!