We are out on the patio today.

Wait a minute, what was that?

Did our folie artist go rogue again?

There's no pool on the patio behind the Trader Joe's mothership.

But we do have a grill.

That's better.

We're outside on inside Trader Joe's.

I'm Tara Miller, director of words and phrases and clauses.

And I'm Matt Sloan, the culture and innovation guy at Trader Joe's.

I mean, it is hard to believe summer is almost half over.

It's a little crazy.

I don't know about you, but we've been doing lots and lots of grilling at our house this summer. Yes, always. I mean, we're like Quest for Fire. Okay. I think we should talk to Alex. He's back to give us some tips about what to grill and how best to grill it. Alex, welcome back to the podcast. Excited to be back. Today is very focused on the grill. There is always something during summer that I absolutely love, but I don't want to turn my oven on to cook. I like that. I like using the grill as the kitchen. Take it outside, everybody. It's not just to grill a hamburger, right? You can heat things, you can toast things, you can warm things. I mean, why waste all that hotness? Exactly. It's my motto for life. Why waste hotness? The grill is preheated and I think we're ready to throw some stuff on. Preheated grill, that sounds like a best practice. Preheating the grill is the best way to make sure that your food's not going to stick. That and having a clean grill. I like to clean my grill before I cook and after.

That way I'm always walking up to a clean grill, and I preheat it medium, high heat. And if there's anything on there, I'll let it go for 30 minutes. It'll burn off anything that would potentially stick to what I'm going to cook. Okay, this is a good tip. So two things we have today. The first one is a fun play on meatballs.

We recently launched a new Italian home style meatball, and we saw some recipes going around people making meatball sliders. It inspired us to try it on the grill. Okay. We started with our... Meatballs on the grill. But they don't look like meatballs to me right now. But they did five minutes ago. And all I did was I took a meatball and I gently smashed it between my hands and formed a really simple patty. Science, everybody. So you made ostensibly a smash burger with a meatball. Exactly. If you're making a smash burger, when I've seen people do this, you basically roll the meat up in a little ball and you smash it.

But now it's pre-seasoned and super flavorful. Exactly. If you're making a smash burger, when I've seen people do this, you basically roll the meat

up in a little ball and you smash it.

But now it's pre-seasoned and super flavorful. I think that pre-seasoned is the real interesting angle. So talk about it, because you don't have to do anything to season-wise. I'm not adding anything to this. No salt, no pepper, nothing. We can top it how we want when it's finished, but we're just throwing plain smashed meatballs on the grill.

So I'm going to make a confession right now. top it how we want when it's finished, but we're just throwing plain smashed meatballs on the grill.

So I'm going to make a confession right now. I tried this yesterday on my own just to see what would

happen, and I almost set the world on fire, not because they tasted so good, but because I literally

almost set the world on fire. Isn't that an old Ink Spot song? I don't want to set the world on fire?

I think it is.

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