Cleaning the grill: Why didn't they make this thing with removable grills? I'm guessing in George Foreman's house, he doesn't do the dishes...

You probably already know that the grill cleans best while it's still hot. But this doesn't mean you have to clean it right after cooking. You can also just warm it back up again and clean it off.

Well, I just received the grill for Christmas from my grandma, and I didn't really have much of anything in the house to grill. So instead of going to the grocery store, I decided to try these out. I also didn't like the amount of grease they cooked in, it made them too mushy. Sounded like a good thing to test out this grease removal of the grill.

Suffice it to say, this is now the way I'm cooking them. They still tend to get a bit greasy, but they come out a little crisper.

Now I know what they meant by "lengthwise." You have to turn these things so they go up&down, parallel with the bars of the grill. This actually works pretty well, both on frozen and thawed hot dogs. Lots faster than boiling them. They also don't make much mess and clean up is easy.

This works, although not spectacularly. They tend to get rather burnt from how long it takes to cook them all the way through, and although they don't come out soggy from being boiled, I can't say the flavor was improved any.

Ok, this looks promising. The Top Ramen noodles I used are the kind that come in the plastic wrapper as a little brick. You can get them in a variety of flavors for 6-10 of them for $1.

I first cooked the noodles following the directions on the package, except I put in the flavor package early on. This helped to get the flavor cooked into the noodles better. After cooking them, I drained them and placed them on the grill. This made the noodles a little crispy, but not totally. I probably could have left them there longer, but I didn't really want to burn them.

I think the next variation on this experiment is to drain the noodles and then add an egg or two and some shredded parmesan or jack cheese and then grill.

This works just fine, but unfortunately, Toaster breaks are not very good. They're just flaky pastry filled with Velveeta cheese. Velveeta cheese is very nasty.

This didn't work very well. The sausages were just too large. I actually only cooked one, but the grill just wouldn't close, and would tend to squeeze the sausage right off the front. Also, because the sausage was so thick and frozen, I mostly ended up scorching the outside of the sausage while waiting for it to cook.

Partway through I sliced the sausage in half, which improved the cooking. Unfortunately, it also made a huge mess cuz the cheese and the grease mixed and spread all over.

This is ok. Not quite as good as the Chicken Tenders, but not too bad. The egg rolls were small, so they didn't take too long to cook. The first try I tended to burn them a litte, the second try they weren't evenly heated. But it does seem to help make them less greasy.

After the success of the Top Ramen noodle experiment, I decided maybe this would be a better way to cook the pot stickers.

Nope, not really. They still come out too soggy (my complaint with boiling alone), and the flavor is not noticable improved. Perhaps I need to find another brand?

This works fine. Much faster to cook them this way than baking them in the oven for 30 minutes. They're a little difficult to determine when they're cooked through. After doing this a few times, they do seem to start to sizzle when they're done. Still trying to figure out how to add the sauce though. Putting on the grill doesn't work, it heats up so fast it practically explodes.

Ok, this time I boiled the noodles, drained them, then mixed in two eggs and some grated cheese. The problem came when I poured the whole thing on the grill. The egg was so liquid it kept running off. Once the egg had cooked enough to stop running, I just poured the run off back onto the top of the grill where it cooked.

You want to make sure you do this with a clean drip tray. You're going to want to pour the egg run off back into the grill after it stops dripping into the tray.

Ok, this is like above, but this time after the patty was done, I heaped grated cheese on top, then lowered the lid and let it melt the cheese. As the cheese melted, the lid would close further and further. The moment the lid stopped moving, I knew the cheese was fully melted and I opened it back up. It only took a few seconds to melt the cheese. Still no solution for the sauce though.

I found some frozen dinner rolls in the freezer while looking for something to eat, so I decided to try this one. The rolls are the kind I usually get for making Piroshki with.

I placed the rolls directly on the grill, still frozen solid. After cooking for just a bit, I discovered I had some squashed rolls. I cut them in half to see how cooked they were. They weren't fully cooked, so I put them back on the grill. I let them go for a little bit longer, but they didn't rise or anything.

• French Toast