Fresh | Grill bread a warm, delicious summer tradition

Summer is for grilling, for sitting on the porch sipping coffee in the morning and something cooler in the heat of the afternoon. In the evenings, one of my favorite places is my back porch. If there's food on the grill and a cold beer nearby, all the better.

I wanted to share a few of my favorite grill recipes. One of the markers of summer for me is grill bread.Like any good recipe, this one is a tattered page from a magazine -- Good Housekeeping from 1998 actually -- with the brown stains and wrinkles that mark a well-used recipe. I love how simple it is. It's perfect to make ahead and then throw on the grill for an appetizer.

Start with a package of yeast, 1/4 cup of warm warm and a teaspoon of sugar. Mixs those in a large bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. When that's sort of frothy, stir in 1 1/2 cup flour, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 to 2 teaspoons salt and 1 cup warm water.

For some reason, probably relating to chemistry, the recipe says to use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture. I say use a wooden spoon because that seems the proper tool to be making bread with -- people have been doing it for thousands of years. Appease the bread gods, slow down and plug into the rhythms of something we humans have been doing in every culture throughout our shared history.

Once all that stuff is combined, gradually stir in another 2 cups flour. Once it's mixed, turn the dough out onto the counter and knead it until its smooth and elastic, adding a bit more flour if needed to keep it from getting too sticky. At this point, you can add herbs or other flavorings. I usually try to add fresh roesmary, chopped very fine. Now, put the dough into a greased bowl and turn once to coat the whole thing and let it rise until doubled, about an hour.

After the dough is done rising, divide it into several pieces. If you want larger pieces of bread say 10 inches across, divide it into about 4 pieces. If you want smaller pieces, divide it into 6 and roll the pieces into balls. If I'm in the middle of some other prep, I'll let these rise a bit too, but if not, you can put them on the grill right away.

At this point, grilling these is pretty much an art. If you want thinner, crisper bread, stretch the balls into large thin circles. If you want thicker, chewier pieces, pat the balls into thicker, smaller circles. Throw them on the grill and flip them as they brown, 2 to 5 minutes each side. Pull them off, cut them up or tear them in half, and eat them as fast as you can without burning yourself. They are fantastic.

Another favorite of mine is grilled baby potatoes, also simple. Buy a bunch of tiny potatoes, or bigger ones and cut them into small pieces, but not so small that they fall through the grill into the fire. Boil them until they are tender, but not falling apart, this ensures they are fully cooked and just need to brown on the grill. I mix up some olive oil, sea salts, lots of garlic, and herbs and then toss the cooked potatoes to coat them. Again, you can do this a few hours ahead of dinner and have everything ready to go. Once the grill is hot, just toss them on. Let them brown, roll them around the grill a bit until you've got some nice crispy parts and then take them off. Toss some more salt on them and enjoy!

In working on this column, I also grilled some corn and chicken, and you can go to the photo blog at yakimaheraldphotos.com to get recipes and see the photos that rounded out this meal. As with most of my favorite recipes, all of these are easy to whip up, easy to double or triple to serve a bunch of friends. Because that's the other key of summer cooking -- taking the time to kick back and enjoy the people who you most want to spend those long summer evenings with.

* Fresh is a photo/food column by Yakima Herald-Republic photographer Sara Gettys.