What I Ate Wednesday

Tonight was another grilling night. Like I said, I want to do lots of grilling this summer, especially with fresh food. Not that we do a lot of grilling with un-fresh food. Dinner was on me tonight and consisted of grilled steak, grilled sweet potatoes and grilled corn-on-the-cob! I LOVE summer, have I said that already?!Grilled Corn-on the-Cob

In the past we've had some issues with grilling corn, it burned or the corn doesn't cook fully.  This time I soaked the corn, husk and all- this way the corn steams itself.  The husk may burn and can even catch on fire, but man, the corn was good tonight! Hip- Hip- Hooray!   Cook for 30 minutes, rotating every 5 minutes or so. I know, it looks completely charred and dryed out- but it WAS NOT!

 Grilled Sweet Potatoes!

For the sweat potatoes, I skinned them and sliced them.  Then to speed up the grilling process I heated them for 5 minutes in the microwave. Sometimes our veggies, specifically the potatoes don't fully cook through.  The nice thing is that because the potatoes were hot, the 2 Tbs. of butter melted right quick. I also added 2 Tbs. of brown suger, cayenne pepper(there's my heat- surprise, surprise!), some kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. I then poured them onto aluminum foil and wrapped them up.  Then grilled for 30 minutes 15 minutes on each side. 

For the steak, I prepared this before hand so that it could marinate.  I pounded it a little and then I added EVOO, seasoned salt, garlic powder and freshly ground black pepper. I did this to both sides, then put it in the fridge for about 45 minutes.  We grilled it for about 15 minutes.  We seared it on each side to "lock" in the flavor.  

Everything finished at the same time! I'm so pleased. Nothing had to be left on longer and we were able to eat all the food at the same time. SCORE!

 Different angles!

 Also, I forgot, cherries for dessert---mmmmm

Oh and I also made fresh mint tea, per Gary's request.  He didn't even end of drinking it. Yours truly did. Ahh perfectly refreshing on a 100 degree day!

Look who also wanted some of the deliciousness! 

What are some of your Summertime favorites?! What's your favorite thing to grill?

Summertime and the Grilling is Easy

Okay, so my goal this summer is to utilize the grill, A LOT!

I don't grill for just me, so it has to be when both Gary and I are home.  Apparently tonight he is grilling kabobs! YUM!  I mean when we use the grill we don't heat up our place and there isn't too much mess.  

So, tonight, along with the chicken kabobs we will have grilled peaches and grilled asparagus! I LOVE summer fruits and veggies! I can't wait for nectarines to be at the market!

I also love Eastern Market which is where we like to buy a lot of our fresh food. It's a little more expensive, it's kinda kitchy too, but we area also supporting local farms which I like.  
 
Gary made grilled chicken kabobs with grilled pineapple----Mmmmm! The chicken was moist and the pineapple gave it a nice refreshing summery taste. The asparagus was grilled perfectly. I love the smaller asparagus more than the thick. I don't like crispy asparagus...it was seasoned with EVOO, kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. I washed it all down with an icy cold glass of water with lemon!

For dessert I grilled peaches and glazed them with a sugar, balsamic and freshly ground black pepper reduction. The recipe called for a sprinkling of bleu cheese, which one we don't have and two I don't like, but....we had feta, so I thought why not?!  It actually tasted pretty good. Gary even ate a half a peach. He doesn't eat peaches, so at least this is a step in the right direction!

 I was a little unsure of how the balsamic glaze would taste, but it was yummy! Loving Summer! Bring on more grilling!

Grilling- that's what's up!

So excited that grilling season has begun!  We don't actually have our own grill. It would be great if we did, but the condo building we live in has a communal one. I am pretty sure that we are the only ones who use it.  It's great because we are on the ground floor and really close to the grill.  


Gary is the grill master, but we both create the yummy creations.  You should look at our spice cabinet, well actually it's more like containers right now. I would love to be more organized, but we just don't have the room to get all the fancy schmancy things from Bed Bath and Beyond.  On my next to buy list is a vegetable/seafood grilling basket.  


Last night we had grilled chicken tenderloins, couldn't find thinly sliced chicken, but the tenderloins worked equally well.  Gary seasoned them with, garlic, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and EVOO.  We let them marinade in the fridge for about 30 minutes, surprisingly the chicken soaked it right up.  

I have never been a fan of asparagus ever since I was little.  My mom would make it frequently since she and my dad were a fan of it.  Maybe it is the way that she prepared it, I dunno.  I hated it, I would cut it up super small chew real quick without tasting and swallow real quick followed by a swig of milk (it does a body good).  Up till about now at 29 years of age I haven't chosen to eat it.  The other night we were at a friends and they threw some asparagus on the grill, being polite I took some and YUM!  So I decided to try it myself.  

Recipe:
1) 1 bunch of asparagus washed with ends cut off.  
2)  2 tbs of EVOO
3) 1/2 tsp of Kosher salt to taste
4) 1/2 tsp of freshly ground black pepper
5) 2 cloves of garlic chopped


Add all ingredients into a Ziploc bag and shake, let marinade 20-30 min.  


** This is when I wished we had a grilling basket.


I skewered the asparagus which was supposed to help with the flipping of the veggie with the hopes that none would fall through the grates---which did work.....but.....I used metal skewers, thus when Gary flipped them one of the ends flipped up and landed on his wrist. Metal+heat+ skin= burn!  

Did I enjoy the asparagus?! YES! It was flavorful, crispy, good....too bad it makes your pee smell not so great.  Guess I've found a "new" veggie to enjoy. 

I placed our chicken on some lettuce, as an edible garnish, topped the chicken with some shredded 5 Italian Cheese mix and added some fresh avocado on top-mmmmm