Grilling

A few grilling tips:
-before you put food on the grill....

• let the grill heat up, heat makes the grill nonstick
• make sure the grill is nice and clean
  
• using a brush or rag rub a little oil on the grill

-Some things are better in direct heat, others in indirect. To get indirect heat turn on one side of your grill (or if you are using coals like me put them on one side) This allows you to slow cook some things and quickly cook others.

-If you are grilling chicken with skin on grill that side first. Let it cook most of the way through on that side, then when you flip it over you will have a super yummy crispy crust! (and this is coming from a girl that normally hates chicken skin)

-keep a thermometer handy, it is the BEST way to know something is done (then you dont have to keep cutting the meat open to see)

Memorial Day Grilled Chicken and Veggies for 2

Chicken

2 thighs skin on, bone in
1/2 c pineapple juice
1 T dry yellow mustard
1 T chili powder

Marinate for 1 hour.

Veggies

2 cobs of corn, sliced in thirds
2 tomatoes, quartered
1-2 potatoes, cut into large chunks
1/2 onion, quarters
2 carrots, sliced large
2 cloves garlic whole
olive oil
1 T ground mustard
salt and pepper

Mix it all together

Sauce (bear with me, it's good)

1/4 c pineapple juice
1/4 c sour cream
2 T dijon mustard

Mix together and refrigerate.

1. Start grill and heat, oil
2. Add chicken(skin down of course) and either use a mesh grill pan(we got ours from williams-somona) or skewers and cook the veggies, they take about the same amount of time.
3. Once the veggies are crispy and the chicken is to 160 degrees pull it off and serve with the sauce.

note: The sauce may sound a little strange, but I was just mixing the flavors that had gone into the marinade, it actually turned out really good. That is my advice for sauce, think of the flavors that are being hinted at in marinades or rubs, and mimic it in your sauce. easy peasy.

Fresh From The Garden

Over the weekend we drove back to our old house (that we moved out of a week ago) to clean up and pick up the last few items left behind. One of the best surprises was in our garden. The remains of four very dead tomato plants covered in plump, juicy, red tomatoes. We got about twenty, which is a pretty good haul considering we planted the tomato plants out of season and these were the very last of them. We brought them to our new home and decided to make a feast of the pickings.

Tomato Kebabs with Arugula Salad and Grilled Cheese

small tomatoes (the amount depends on the kind, ours were roma so they were on the big side, i would also suggest grape or cherry tomatoes), enough to fit on 2 skewers/person
1 onion (chopped in half then sections so you can skewer through a few layers at a time)
2 handfuls of arugula (which is a very easy and quick lettuce to grow, but also readily available at the grocery store)
Sour dough bread(we buy La Brea and slice it thick), 2 slices per person
pepper jack cheese
1 lemon
oil, salt and pepper


1. Soak skewers for 20 minutes, heat grill

2. mix 1 T oil, slat a pepper together, toss tomatoes in this

3. Slide tomatoes and onions alternately onto skewers (2 skewers per person I think)
4. put the skewers on the grill
5. Cut cheese and place on bread like for any open face grilled cheese
6. Add the grilled cheese to the grill when the tomatoes are starting to get slightly charred and juicy looking

7. Toss arugula in zest and juice of one lemon, salt and pepper
8. When the tomatoes have popped somewhat and look slightly shrively and the cheese is melted pull it off the grill

9. Serve with the skewers between two slices of grilled cheese(for presentation of course) and arugula to the side to eat with fallen tomatoes

enJOY