Memorial Day Grill Out

This memorial day my family and I grilled everything you can imagine. The main dishes were jumbo shrimp with a jalapeno-toasted garlic vinaigrette and skirt steak kabobs with red chili paste and Teriyaki glaze. For the side dishes we had a mixed grill of vegetables, including: zucchini, yellow squash, Brussel sprouts, romaine lettuce, scallions, and portabella mushrooms.

The grilled shrimp with vinaigrette idea came from a Bobby Flay recipe from FoodNetwork.com. Bobby used prawns and habanero's, but we used jumbo shrimp and jalapenos.

Here is the recipe for the shrimp vinaigrette:




Ingredients:
1 tablespoon canola oil, plus 1/2 cup
6 whole cloves garlic, peeled
salt
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 to 1 1/2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
2 teaspoons honey.

What to do:
Pour the tablespoon of oil into a skillet over medium high heat and saute the whole garlic cloves until golden brown on all sides. Then add the browned garlic and all other ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.

We greased up the shrimp with olive oil and topped with salt and pepper, lemon juice and fresh chopped parsley. We grilled the shrimp until tender and juicy. Top the shrimp with the vinaigrette and get ready for a tasty extravaganza.


For the beef:
Ingredients:
Skirt steak

chili paste

Teriyaki sauce

Worcestershire sauce

grill seasoning

What to do:

Marinate the skirt steak rubbed in chili paste, Worcestershire sauce, and grill seasoning for at least 30 minutes. After marinating, cut into strips. Fold each strip over to conserve some of the marinade inside the fold, and then skewer with a wooden kabob soaked for at least 30 minutes in water.

Grill the meat kabobs until fully cooked and then sprinkle teriyaki sauce on top.

For the mixed veggi-grill:

List of veggi's:

zucchini, sliced into wedges

yellow squash, sliced into wedges

Brussel sprouts, cut into halves

romaine lettuce, whole leaves

scallions, and

portabella mushrooms, sliced

What to do:

Spread out all veggi's except the mushrooms onto a sheet pan and coat with extra virgin olive oil. Then sprinkle with salt and fresh cracked pepper (it really makes a difference). Add the zest of a lemon onto all of the veggies followed by the juice of the lemon. Finally sprinkle on some chopped parsley.

For the mushrooms coat with extra virgin olive oil and Worcestershire sauce. Then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and fresh chopped parsley.

After everything is seasoned throw all the veggies except the lettuce on the grill. Make sure to get char marks on all the veggies as this adds tremendous flavor! I don't think I could eat Brussel sprouts any other way. After the veggies you can wilt the lettuce on the grill.I hope you try this mixed grill feast!

Ribollita

Ribollita is an Italian soup that my mom and I saw Ina cooking on Food Network. It looked so good that we had to try it.

I will type the recipe up, embellishing on some of the things that we changed. We made a double batch, but I will type the single batch recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound dried white beans, we used Great Northerns
Kosher salt
1/4 cup good olive oil (the recipe calls for this, but my mom found Grape seed oil, which is suppose to have huge health benefits. We used that.)
1/4 pound large diced pancetta or smoked bacon (we used turkey bacon, I do not eat pork)
2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
1 cup chopped carrots (3 carrots)
1 cup chopped celery (3 stalks)
3 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (we used a lot of fresh ground pepper, and we also added a teaspoon of hot chili paste for a kick!)
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (yes, we added these too)
1 (28-ounce) can Italian plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
4 cups coarsely chopped or shredded savoy cabbage
4 cups coarsely chopped kale
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
6 cups chicken stock
4 cups sourdough bread, cubed, crusts removed (save those crusts though!)
1/2 cub freshly grated Parmesan, for serving (we enjoy Yoder's shredded aged Parmesan cheese if you can find it; tastes really good)

What to do:
Soak the beans over night, then the next day drain and place in 8 cups of water; bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and continue to simmer for about 15 minutes, until the beans are tender. Set beans aside to cool; do not get rid of the cooking liquid.
An alternative way to cook the beans is in a crock-pot. Place soaked beans in crock-pot full of water, turn on high and let cook for 6 hours.
Sometimes my family eats just the beans as a supper; add chopped onions, salt, and pepper to the beans and cook. Along side some homemade southern cornbread and some scallions in a glass of water, yum yum !
Ok, now on to the Ribollita; the beans are sitting to the side...
Heat the oil in a large stockpot. Add the pancetta, or turkey bacon in our case, and onions and cook over medium-low heat for 7 to 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the carrots, celery, garlic, 1 tablespoon of salt, the pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook over medium-low heat for 7 to 10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add the tomatoes with their puree, the cabbage, the kale, and basil and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for another 7 to 10 minutes.
Drain the beans, reserving their cooking liquid. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, puree half of the beans with a little of their liquid. Add to the stockpot, along with the remaining whole beans. Pour the bean cooking liquid into a large measuring cup and add enough chicken stock to make 8 cups of total liquid. Add to the soup and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Add the bread to the soup and simmer for 10 more minutes. Taste for seasoning.
It was at this point we added a teaspoon of hot chili paste for a kick, and lots more cracked pepper. We also took the left over bread crust, drizzled with grape seed oil, salt and pepper and toasted in the oven until they became crunchy.
We topped our soup with these 'crunchies' and lots of Parmesan cheese.
This soup was so full of flavor, we will definitely do a repeat.

Valentine's Day Gifts

Just wanted to blog what my Dad got me for Valentine's day, 2009.

I do not drink so he bought me a bottle of my favorite sparkling grape juice and a box of Lindor chocolate truffles.

He bought my Mom a bouquet of flowers, of which Mom plucked one off for me and placed in a little decorative boot.
This is ironic because my family nickname has boots as one of the key words.
All-in-all, I thought it was sweet of my Dad on Valentine's Day.