I love to grill. Even though the weather is getting cold and many people are braising and slow cooking every night. I’m not, I just like cooking outside. But sometimes, you just don’t want meat. Good thing there are other things that you can grill! I mean, of course we all know about grilling corn and other veggies. But really, my favorite thing to grill is pineapple. And after that, pretty much any fruit. So when I found this recipe, I was extremely excited. And then went ahead and make it about ten times this I discovered the recipe last summer. Continue reading
Tag Archives: grill
Cedar Plank Salmon
Technically, grilling season is almost over. But I’m not ready to start cooking inside just yet…you’ve never been in my kitchen in the summer. It is just too hot! So I spent a lot of the summer in the yard cooking. I figured out that meat and chicken aren’t the only thing you can cook on the grill. I decided to change it up a little and make some salmon using cedar planks I picked up from Whole Foods. I’ve never actually eaten plank salmon, and I don’t really like strong smokey flavors…talk about an impulse buy. But since I bought the planks, I had to try it. Turns out, the salmon was great! It wasn’t too smokey, but definitely tasted different and stronger than if it was just cooked in the oven. There was no fishy flavor, and the simple topping imparted the perfect amount of spicy sweetness. I’m definitely going to be using these planks a lot this grilling season. Continue reading
Meatless Monday: Roasted Corn Salad
Summer corn is here! That means that we eat lots of corn and get it stuck in our teeth. Yuck! This corn salad is a better way to eat that same corn without getting anything stuck in your teeth!
This recipe has quite a few steps, but ones that you can skip and have the store do for you, like roasting peppers and shucking corn. I did it all myself, but no one will know if you buy roasted peppers and use canned or frozen corn that you just roast in the oven for a while. Actually, what a great way to make this recipe in the winter when fresh corn isn’t available. As long as you don’t skimp on the fresh cilantro, I won’t tell anyone.
The flavors just get better when this sits, so make this ahead of time. Having company? Make it the day before and let it sit in the fridge. It’ll make your life much easier and it will make the salad taste better. I was going to add some black beans to this, but didn’t have any in the pantry. Turns out, I think it was perfect this way, but add the beans if you want to (a great Meatless Monday way to get some protein). Then let me know how it is. Maybe I’ll add those next time.
Ingredients:
- 3 ears white corn
- 1 red pepper
- 1 shallot, chopped
- Salt and pepper
- Chili powder
- About 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro.
Directions:
1. Season the corn with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Roast or grill the corn for about 15 minutes. Let cool.
2. Roast the red pepper over an open fire, rotating when the skin is black. When blackened, place in plastic bag and let steam for about ten minutes. Remove from bag, peel the black skin off, and cut into strips. Cut the strips into small pieces (about the same size as the shallots).
3. Combine the shallots, roasted peppers, salt, pepper, chili powder, and cilantro in a bowl.
4. Remove the corn kernels from the cob – using a sharp knife, hold the corn so that it is standing, and cut downwards. Don’t worry about all the kernels separating from each other, that’s part of the fun of homemade corn salad!
5. Add the corn to the bowl, and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you like cilantro as much as I do, add more!
See the bowl I used? It’s my favorite! I have it in three sizes. They make it in red, too, but I haven’t seen it since Adelaide’s closed.
Grilled Lemon Chicken
People always say that chicken on the grill is hard, tough, and dry. Well, they never tried butterflying a chicken, marinating it for a day, and grilling it with a brick weighing it down!
So remember when I told you that I successfully butterflied a chicken? It’s because I wanted to grill a whole chicken! Now that summer’s here, it’s actually too hot to turn on the oven, and I’m trying to use the grill as much as possible. Hamburgers and steaks get boring, so I’m giving some different types of dinners a try, including Ina’s Tuscan Lemon Chicken. Not only was it an impressive dish, it was actually quite easy. After marinating for 24 hours (yup, I prepped the dinner the night before, while cooking that night’s dinner), I just put the chicken on the grill and waited, flipped, and waited some more. The result? A VERY juicy chicken dinner.