Gena's peachy bread pudding. Photo: Erica George Dines Photography

Part of a continuing summer series by grilling expert Gena Knox.

Growing up in Georgia, my summer jobs always revolved around produce. From the time I was eight years old, I worked selling boiled peanuts, silver queen corn and peaches on the side of the road.

Once I turned 16 and could drive, I began working at a local packing shed, Lane Packing, selling peaches and peach ice cream in their retail department. At the time, it was not air-conditioned, and you can only imagine how sweltering it was in July. I gave tours to Northerners, who were fascinated by the process of packing peaches, and was always entertained when I had to explain exactly what boiled peanuts were.

Needless to say, peaches were ample in our household and we never ran out of ways to cook with them. Fresh peaches not only pair well with grilled meats and seafood, they are also delicious simply grilled on their own.

Three of the state's top-producing peach farms are within a 15-mile radius of my hometown. Lane Packing Company, Taylor Orchards and Pearson Farm all produce top quality peaches, and you are missing out on the taste of summer if you don't order a box to enjoy yourself.

Get my Bourbon Peach Bread Pudding Recipe after the jump.

Gena's favorite wines to pair with grilled foods.

Part of a continuing summer series by grilling expert Gena Knox.

Cooking and entertaining outdoors pairs perfectly with nice summer wines. But the traditional Pinot Noir you drink with your sautéed salmon doesn't complement grilled salmon quite as well. Grilling gives foods a rich, woodsy flavor, so in return, the wine you drink should have a little more body.

For tips, I visited Athens' own Gosford Wine, which is co-owned by Hugh Acheson, a local chef and two-time James Beard Award nominee. There I met Taylor Carmichael, who is full of wine knowledge. He gave me a step-by-step lesson on pairing wines with my favorite grilled foods.

Get Taylor's suggestions and Gena's filet mignon recipe after the jump.

Part of a continuing summer series by grilling expert Gena Knox.

In a perfectly organized world, I would love to plan summer grill-outs several days in advance so I could spend hours thumbing through magazines and cookbooks and dream up amazing menus to try. Of course, my world is hardly perfect when it comes to planning meals in advance.

Take today for example. As I am driving to work, my husband calls and tells me we are spending the weekend at his parent's mountain house with some friends. While I realize I am not obligated to cook the meals, considering my profession and the fact that I do love to cook -- I feel like it is my duty. All of my friends are so generous with helping, so I am lucky in that respect.

When I need a last-minute grilling menu, but still want to cook something spectacular, I choose a good quality meat or seafood and pull out one of my fresh salsa recipes for the topping. This always seems to wow the crowd even though it takes so little effort.

Get Gena's salsa recipes after the jump.

This is the first in a series of blog posts by grilling expert Gena Knox.

Although it is a little early for summer tomatoes, I discovered beautiful red and yellow beets, huge heads of Bibb lettuce and fresh eggs at the farmers market here in Athens, Ga., last Saturday. My garden is already full of herbs such as parsley, basil and oregano, so adding them to what I found at the market created a fresh, seasonal menu that didn't take all afternoon. The minimal time I spent in the kitchen reminds me that if you cook seasonally with fresh ingredients, the less you have to do to make them taste delicious.

Memorial Day kicks off summer and (hooray!) grilling season. Outdoor entertaining, summer garden parties and casual, last minute burger grill-outs consume my summer months and I love every minute of it. See what I cooked up with my finds (blue cheese-and-bacon deviled eggs for starters) and the recipes after the jump.

Stone fruit is abundant right now, and while it's lovely to eat a peach, plum or apricot just as it comes, sometimes you get tired of simply eating the fruit out of hand. Cobblers, pies and jams are all fine and good, but sometimes, putting halved fruit on the grill is a simple and delicious way to finish off a barbecue (if you aren't grilling out, it's also wonderful to briefly saute up the halves in a little butter on the top of the stove).

Here Gillian has taken some ripe apricot halves and set them on the grill to soften them up and enhance those sweet fruit flavors. Yum!

Thanks for adding your pic to the pool, Gillian!

The 4th of July weekend is a time designed perfectly for picnics and cookouts. There's really no better way to celebrate the nation's independence than by firing up the grill and cooking up some burgers, dogs, chicken drumsticks or ribs. I personally don't have big plans to do much in the way of grilling (not having any outdoor space will do that to a person), I have been invited to a couple of picnics and will be throwing together a red potato salad with an olive oil and vinegar dressing, and a creamy coleslaw with purple and green cabbage.

I want to know what the rest of you are cooking this weekend. What's going on your grill, in your picnic baskets or out on the buffet? How do you handle vegetarian and gluten-intolerant guests? And most importantly, how are you ending the meal?

Since 1990, cooks from all over the country have gathered at the Sutter Home Family Vineyards in California's Napa Valley to compete in the Build a Better Burger contest. Award-winning cookbook author James McNair has gathered recipes from the first 15 years of the contest and compiled them into this volume, which carries the same name as the contest.

The contest defines a burger as, "any food produce that can be ground, formed into patties, grilled and served on or between a bakery product." Those loose guidelines make for some really creative burger making and the best of the recipes (both the winning ones and the judges' favorites) have been included in this book.

It's a lushly photographed book, with lots gorgeous pictures of food, panoramic scenes of the Napa countryside and maybe just a few too many shots of the Sutter Home label. It would make a great coffee table book for the individual who loves burgers and grilling. I'm not sure how conducive it is to actual cooking, but it's a good one to flip through when you're in need of inspirational ways to spice up your backyard cookout.

I've eaten more lettuce in my lifetime than I can count, but as far as I know, it has all been raw. I've heard tell that lettuce soup is quite delicious (I have a feeling that is due in large part to the amount of butter and/or cream that those recipes contain), but nary a spoonful has crossed my lips. However, the looks of the romaine hearts in the picture above, with their vivid grill marks (and the picture a little further in the Slashfood pool of the salad that resulted from that grilled lettuce) has me thinking that cooked romaine might just be the way to go. The next time I take possession of a friend's grill, I think I will have to try it out. Lucky for me, the recipe is right here.

Thanks myfeasts, for adding your image to the Slashfood Flickr pool!

Today's Feast Your Eyes post is my attempt at stretching out the relaxation and outdoor cooking of Memorial Day just a little bit longer. This image, of a freshly grilled basil burger, was taken by Flickr user Coneslayer and from the looks of things was pretty darn delicious.

How did you spend your Memorial Day weekend? If you made some good food and took pictures, make sure to upload them to the Slashfood Flickr page, so we can all see your tasty creations.

As you fire up the grill this Memorial Day, you may want to take a moment to pay homage to the people who first brought you the hamburger. There is a lengthy and fascinating article on the history of the hamburger on What's Cooking America. While there is some debate about who created the first hamburger, Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut has a strong claim to the title.

According to What's Cooking, "Louis ran a small lunch wagon selling steak sandwiches to local factory workers. A frugal business man, he didn't like to waste the excess beef from his daily lunch rush. It is said that he ground up some scraps of beef and served it as a sandwich, the sandwich was sold between pieces of toasted bread, to a customer who was in a hurry and wanted to eat on the run."

You can still get hamburgers today at Louis' Lunch. However, don't expect to get any ketchup. The Louis' Lunch website states that their hamburgers "have changed little from their historic prototype [and] are still the specialty of the house. Each one is made from beef ground fresh each day, broiled vertically in the original cast iron grill and served between two slices of toast. Cheese, tomato and onion are the only acceptable garnish -- no true connoisseur would consider corrupting the classic taste with mustard or ketchup."

According to 2camels.com, the standing record for watermelon seed spitting is 68 feet and 9 1/8 inches set by Luling, Texas local Lee Wheells in 1989. I can't even imagine spitting that far. Sure, it's gross, but you've got a take a minute and be impressed with that skill. I wonder what the practice regiment was for that.

Looking to start a new family tradition? How about hosting your own Memorial Day watermelon seed spitting contest? Be sure to measure how far the seed goes so that you can track progress over the years. Make sure to not buy those new-fangled seedless watermelons. Those are no fun!

Let me know how long your family's winning seed spitter performs.

I tend to think of Memorial Day Weekend as the time when the summer grilling season really starts to heat up. While the weather has already been nice for as much as a month in some areas, by the end of May, nearly everyone is having a surfeit of warm, sunny days and is ready to move the bulk of their cooking outdoors (so as to avoid heating up the kitchen).

Here at Slashfood, we're going to spend a lot of time focusing on all this summer outdoor cookery. We'll have a bunch of posts up for you this week, to get you ready for the weekend, but we'll be writing about grilling, barbecuing and even what to do if you don't have any outdoor space in which to grill, all summer long. Our friends at AOL Food are also featuring grilling this summer, so make sure to check in over there often for fresh tips, tricks, recipes and bbq related quizzes.

To get you started, here are some grilling links from past years:

1. Seven kabob recipes from Real Simple
2. Bobby Flay's grilling for Dad's Day
3. Maple Chipotle Glazed Grilled Corn
4. Maple Bourbon Barbecue Sauce
5. How to grill corn on the cob
6. Cook outdoors in style with this Barbecue Belt
7. No room for a big grill? Try this tiny, bucket-styled one.
   
8. Slashfood weighs in on the gas verses charcoal debate.