Whether folks in your neck of the woods call gathering around a grill a BBQ, a cookout, a wienieroast, or just another Monday night, it is always a recipe for a fabulous evening.

Since we are inquisitive and adventurous gals when it comes to food, we decided to try out a few non-traditional items (as well as old standbys) on the grill. Our first: littleneck clams.

The first order of business when you buy clams is to soak them in water with a little bit of flour. After about 20-30 minutes of soaking, the clams will spit out any icky silt they may have been chewing on.

Once you get your grill going (we used an adorable baby Weber charcoal grill), simply arrange the clams on the grill in an even layer and wait until they open up — only about 5 minutes for most of them!

…while the clams cooked, we also got some tasty herb & shallot compound butter melting on the grill…

Toss the cooked clams into a bowl, pour some butter, lemon juice, or other type of aromatic broth over the top, and get eating!

These little guys were heavenly — much more tender and juicy than you would expect them to be!

Next up — burgers. Cooking time depends on the size of your burgers and they type of meat, but our 1/3 lb guys cooked for about 4 min on each side for medium rare. We threw the buns on the grill as well… and since we couldn’t let the rest of that compound butter go to waste it contributed nicely to the burger experience.

Our third course was: mmmm, grilled corn.

Pull back the husks on all of the ears of corn, making sure to leave them attached. Remove the silk, rub the corn with a bit of vegetable oil, and put the husks back on as best you can.

Put the corn on the grill, and cook for about 10-15 minutes total, making sure to turn the ears so they are cooked evenly on all sides.

Yet another fabulous opportunity for the compound butter… it tasted great on the corn too…

To finish off our grilling experience on a sweeter note, we tossed some ripe local peaches on there.

Cut in quarters and brushed with a little maple syrup, they cook for just a few minutes before ending up in a bowl over some vanilla ice cream.

Deeeelicious!