Grilling, especially in the summertime, is one of the most popular ways to cook. When the flame meets the coal, that smell draws men, women, children, dogs and felines alike to the grill.Getting creative with the grill can be good for your health. Try to avoid the traditional fare — burgers and hot dogs, steak, pork and even boneless skinless chicken — all of which can produce cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) when grilled. HCAs are a group of mutagenics produced during the cooking of some foods. In this case, HCAs are produced when the foods listed above are grilled to well done. In January 2005, HCAs were added to the official list of carcinogens.So ... grill something else!Fish such as halibut and swordfish are great when cooked over a flame outside. Try shellfish (especially shrimp), on a skewer (try doubling the skewers for better control) with onions, peppers, pineapple chunks and any other local summertime vegetables you find in the garden or at the farm market.And don’t forget that the grill is made for more than just protein. It is also good for starches, fruits and vegetables.Potatoes, sweet or otherwise, make for great grilling. So does corn.Almost all vegetables, as long as they are large enough not to fall though the cracks, work well on a grill. Peppers, onions and squash are good choices. Asparagus, mushrooms, garlic and Brussels sprouts are wonderful. Fruit, especially stone fruits such as peaches, or apples and pears, as well as sugar-rich pineapples and mangos, can be delightful on the grill.Grill your fruit and serve it plain; chop it up into a salsa to go with your grilled meat; or dress it in cinnamon and sugar and grill it on kabobs as a dessert.Grilled peachesServes six 6 peaches, halved, pits removed; 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; 2 tablespoons melted butter; 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice; 1/4 cup brown sugarMix together all ingredients except the peaches. Dip the peaches into the mixture and then grill them until the exterior turns brown and caramelized and the fruit softens and becomes luscious. You can serve them as is, with ice cream or maybe some cookies. Or you can make a crumble: Remove the fruit from the grill and slice it into a pie tin. Mix 1 cup of oats (the kind you’d use for oatmeal), 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, diced, and a 1⁄4 cup chopped walnuts. Scatter over the peaches. Drizzle honey over the entire cobbler and cook at 350 degrees until the top is golden brown.Grilled pineappleServes two2 1/2-inch thick slices of pineapple (fresh and ripe); 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; 2 teaspoons honey; freshly ground pepperGrill until the pineapple turns a nice caramel color but be careful not to let it burn. Make criss-cross slashes with a knife on the slices of pineapple, for a nice presentation after grilling. Drizzle with the honey and lemon juice and add freshly ground pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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