Grilled Lemonade

How do you grill lemonade? Well, you tie it into a chair and play "Good cop, bad cop" until it confesses. Alternatively, you could try this awesome recipe created by Dr. Charcoal, Marcus Wang, senior scientist at Kingsford Charcoal. I have tried it with and without alcohol, and both are excellent. It's also sure to make you the talk of your next barbecue, and not in the "He's not wearing that again, is he?" kind of way.

What you'll need:
6 pounds of lemons (about 16 lemons)
.5 cups water
.5 cups sugar
.5 cups honey
2 rosemary sprigs (optional)
1 cup Four Roses Bourbon
Ice

What you'll grill:
1. Cut the lemons in half and dipt the cut half in sugar. Set aside on a tray.

2. Combine water, sugar and honey in a saucepan or disposable aluminum tray. Add a couple of sprigs of rosemary (optional but delicious) to the saucepan.

3. Heat up a gripp grill with Kingsford Charcoal for medium-high heat. For additional rosemary flavor, throw a handful of rosemary sprigs on the hot coals just prior to grilling.

4. Grill the lemons, cut-side-down, until nice grill marks appear (about 5-7 minutes). Remove the lemons and set aside to cool.

5. While grilling the lemons, place the saucepan with honey syrup on the grill. Heat the syrup until sugar and honey are fully dissolved and the desired amount of rosemary flavor has been infused into the syrup.

6. When lemons are cool, squeeze the juice into a pitcher. Since they've been grilled, they should be easy to squeeze by hand. Add syrup and water to taste, bourbon, and ice. Stir well and serve.

Southern Smoked Sangria

Aka, Louisville Sangria. Either way, it's mighty tasty, even for this seldom-drinker. Of course, it's all part of the plethora, the smorgasbord, the galaxy of information I learned at Kingsford U this past weekend. (Lots more to come on that.) This recipe was created by Josh Perry at Pican, which has an accent mark in the title I can't reproduce, and is pronounced "pee-kahn," just as I pronounce "pecan."

What you'll need:
6 oranges
4 lemons
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups water
6 chipotle peppers (or as Paula Deen pronounces them, "chi-pole-tay" peppers)
6 ounces Four Roses Bourbon
12 ounces Seghesio Zinfandel
12 ounces soda water

What you'll grill:
1. Build a fire using Kingsford charcoal for indirect cooking. To do this, build a two-zone fire by situating the coals on only one side of the grill, leaving the other side void.

2. To create smoked citrus juice, cut lemons and oranges in half along the equator (the fruits', not the earth's) and place them on a disposable aluminum pan or aluminum foil. Then, place on the void side of the grill for at least 30 minutes, making sure to keep the grill temperature at 225 degrees Fahrenheit with the lid closed. (For tips on controlling grill temperatures, visit Grilling.com.)

Remove smoked fruit from grill and let cool. Then juice until there are 4 ounces of smoked orange juice and 2 ounces of smoked lemon juice, reserving unsqueezed citrus for garnish.

3. While citrus is cooling, combine brown sugar and water and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally to dissolve the suagar. This can be done over direct heat on the grill. When the sugar is dissolved, add chipotle peppers and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

4. Once the brown sugar-chipotle syrup has cooled, combine bourbon, zinfandel, 4 ounces smoked orange juice and 2 ounces smoked lemon juice, along with 3 ounces brown sugar-chipotle syrup in a resealable container and shake well.

5. Transfer the mixture into a pitcher filled with ice. Add soda water, stir, and serve. Garnish with remaining slices of smoked oranges and lemons.