Hail Caesar (...salad that is)

Grilled Caesar Salad with Chicken

Seems strange to grill lettuce; however, the concentrated heat of the grill teases out the natural sugars in food, which, in turn, creates caramelization and extra layers of flavor. So, back to the grill it was.

Let me start out by saying, I tried to follow a recipe and make my caesar dressing in advance, but my blender and I got in a fight...and the blender won. Apparently the blade's not working and the "dressing" leaked out of every side. So Jared to the rescue with pre-made caesar dressing. DIY dressing to be attempted at a later time.

To make the salad:

-4 hearts romaine
-2 English muffins, split
-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (6-8 oz each)
-Olive oil
-Salt & pepper to taste
-1/4 cup black olives, pitted and sliced
-1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
-Parmesan cheese (which, I actually forgot to add at the end!)


Preheat the grill. Cut the romaine down the middle lengthwise, leaving the root end intact. Brush romaine, muffins, and chicken with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill chicken 4-5 per side until caramelized and no longer pink--remove to rest.

Place lettuce and English muffins on grill. Cook lettuce 1-2min, just enough to lightly char and wilt the leaves. Cook muffins until brown and crispy.

Slice chicken into thin strips. Cut muffins into bit-size pieces. Arrange with olives and sundried tomatoes over lettuce halves. Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle with cheese.

PB & What?!

Saturday night I was left to fend for myself. Jared was working, my dad was at the Braves game, and Alisa...well, who knows.

Do you ever get a craving every now and again for a classic--a flashback to your childhood--a good 'ole peanut butter sandwich? Well, this was the exact state I was in Saturday night, but I didn't want any ordinary PB&J sandwich, I wanted to spice it up and get creative with a basic. In comes:

Grilled Peanut Butter, Apricot, Banana & Coconut Sandwich
(now that's a mouthful)



-2 slices of wheat bread
-Peanut butter (all natural for me!) spread on one slice
-Apricot preserves spread on the other slice
-1/2 a banana, sliced thick
-Sprinkling of shredded unsweetened coconut
-Handful of mini-chocolate chips


Once assembled, I toasted my creation in the toaster oven until lightly browned on both sides and served alongside carrot sticks, apple slices, raisins, and pretzels.

Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri

I'm like the mailman: "neither ran nor snow nor gloom of night...." will keep me from grilling. Of course, my luck, it starts to rain right around dinner time. I had an internal debate about whether I should just bring my meal indoors or continue on with my outdoor grilling. By the time I was ready to cook rolled around, the rain had lighted to a drizzle and the thunder and lightening were long gone; so back to the grill I go.

Chimichurri Sauce

-1/4 cup red wine vinegar
-3 tbs water
-4 cloves garlic, minced
-Salt & Course ground black pepper
-1 tsp red pepper flakes
-1/4 cup olive oil
-1 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley


Mix the vinegar, water, garlic, 1 tsp each salt & pepper, and red pepper flakes. Whisk in the oil. Once everything's blended, whisk in the parsley. Set aside

The sauce was very good and flavorful. The red wine vinegar gave it a nice kick. Next time, I think I will chop the parsley in a blender to get a more fine chop.

Grilled Steak

-1 1/2 lbs skirt (flank or sirloin works just as well)


Heat grill until hot. Season steak with salt & pepper and place on hot grill. I was told, for medium-rare to cook 3-4min per side; however, this left the steak too rare for us Freeman's. So, back on the grill the steaks went. After another 5 min of so, we took them off and they were still pretty pink in the middle, but at this point it was late, starting to rain a little harder, and, well, I'm impatient. I need to play around more with steaks and grilling times to get that perfect combination, but this would have to do for tonight. I usually like my steaks medium, and this was just under, but it was still delicious, juicy, and full of flavor.

The steak was drizzled with the chimichurri sauce and served alongside 1 bunch grilled scallions (trimmed of the roots and placed on the grill just after the first flipping of the steaks) as well as grilled pita/tortillas placed on the grill at the same time.

Out and About: Atlanta

I've decided that, in addition to posting my own creations, I will also post an overview and my review of restaurants on my "list." You see, every city I visit (or, in this case, live in) I create a list of the top places I want to eat at. Most people create places of things they want to see, museums they'd like to visit, attractions, etc....but nope, not me. I tend to eat my way through cities.

So now that I'm officially (despite what my dad may say) back in Georgia, I will start here. Jared dragged (yes dragged) me to his doctors appointment in downtown Atlanta with the promise of lunch afterward (hey, who am I to pass up a free meal?!). As we were pulling in to the office complex I just happen to glance across the street and notice Gladys Knight & Ron Winans Chicken and Waffles and, since it's on my list, decide it was fate and that this would be the perfect time to check it off.

A little bit of history: The concept of chicken and waffles was born in Harlem, New York at Well's restaurant where they severed many celebrities into the late night hours. Many couldn't decide if they wanted breakfast or dinner, so both were served! The menu consists of your traditional southern soul food. We knew that one of the entrees we would get would be the chicken and waffles (better known as the "Midnight Train"); the other we turned to our server and her expertise and went with the "Smothered Chicken."

So........

Midnight Train: 4 southern fried jumbo (and, yes, they were indeed jumbo) chicken wings and one original waffle

(I apologize for the quality of the pictures; they were taken on my blackberry as this was an impromptu trip and I did not have my camera on hand)

-The chicken was perfectly cooked--moist on the inside, crunchy and perfectly seasoned outer skin. Not overly greasy like most fried chicken places.

-The waffle was a malted blend and, with just the slightest drizzle of syrup, was the perfect combination of sweetness


Smothered Chicken: A tender, boneless, fried chicken breast smothered in their homemade gravy served over a bed of white rice and served with 2 sides and a cornbread muffin

-The chicken was the same story. The gravy on top was delicious. Thick and creamy (2 words not normally in my cooking vocabulary) and full of flavor. The white rice, in my opinion, did not add too much.

-Side #1: Mac & Cheese. SO good. One of my weaknesses. Not overly cheesy. Baked to produce a nice golden brown crust on top.

-Side #2: Squash Casserole. A mixture of zucchini, yellow squash, and onions baked to a sweet taste. And sweet taste indeed...it was almost like a dessert. Kinda a shame you can take something so healthy and innocent and take it to the dark side. Naughty and nice, but oh-so-good.


So verdict....Not a place you'd go often (unless you want your cholesterol and pants size to increase), but a must-try once if you're ever in the Atlanta area.

Grilled Pizza

I'm a big girl now; I unhooked, exchanged, and reattached the propane tank all by myself (and without exploding anything or anyone!) Soooo, that means: grilling time again!

Tonight was a Grilled BBQ Mango-Chicken Pizza (yum)

I used store bought pizza dough from Publix (the Publix by me has this neat little diy pizza section where they sell everything you'd need to make your own pizza--I just needed the dough). One of these days when I have the time, I plan to make my own dough from scratch...but that was not tonight. I'm almost ashamed to say that I chose the regular Italian dough over the multi-grain one. Me?! But, an aside, multi-grain isn't all that great...now wholegrain, that's another story, so I guess I don't feel THAT bad.

On that note, pizza dough is harder than I thought to stretch out. It's so elastic and resilient. After putting up a fight with it, will call it a tie between the dough and me. I did manage to stretch it out, but not as much or as perfectly round (for an OCD person like me) as I would've liked. I now have a new-found respect for pizza makers.

The dough is the star of this pizza, not just the blank canvas for toppings. Once the dough was stretched out, it was grilled on either side over medium-high heat for about 3-5min/side. Watch closely as this is a quick cooking method and you don't want the dough to burn!

Once one side was perfectly grilled, I took them off the grill to dress them. After flipping them, (grilled side up) I spread the slightest layer of tomato sauce, layered some thick slices of tomatoes, sliced grilled onions, chopped BBQ chicken (which I had in my freezer pre-cooked and defrosted and tossed with BBQ sauce), diced mango, and a sprinkling of cheese. This was returned to the grill to finish cooking.

The grilled pizza was phenomenal! Forget the toppings for a moment (yes, they were delicious), but the crust was something else. It was crispy and crunchy on the outside, yet soft and doughy on the inside. Warm. Smoky flavored. Yum yum yum.

Spaghetti & Meatballs...A Classic Done MY Way

So, for starters, I'd like to point out that I am sitting here blogging at Ogelthorpe University watching a 9-year-old's tennis lessons and getting paid $14/hr to do so (good work if you can find it!). And let me just say, yes, this 9-year-old could kick my butt in tennis....but, I think I have him in the cooking department!
On that note, I noticed we had 4 boxes of spaghetti in our pantry so I decided to make use of that. In addition, I still had 1/2 the package of ground turkey leftover from my grilled pear turkey burgers from the first blog. So I put 2 and 2 together and decided to make spaghetti & turkey meatballs. Like last nights meal, I did the prep work(making the meatballs) ahead of time, before "work."

Meatballs

-1/2 lb ground turkey
-~ 1/4 cup (Italian seasoned) bread crumbs (remember, I don't do well with exact measurements...I usually just eyeball, but for the sake of this blog, I'll guesstimate)
-1 egg (lightly beaten)
-Sprinkling of Italian seasoning (to taste)
-Salt & pepper
-Sprinkling of Parmesan cheese


Combine all ingredients in a bowl and form into balls. Cook in a saute pan drizzled with olive oil over medium heat until well-browned on all sides...my ended up losing somewhat of their ball-shape during this time--oh well, it's all about taste, right?! And taste good the did! The combination of the seasoning played well together and were delicious if I do say so myself!

Sauce

-1 12 oz can (stewed) tomatoes--these happened to be flavored with garlic, oregano, and basil (any canned tomato would work, these were just one of the many I had lying around in my pantry) (Oh, and make sure to drain them before adding them in the pan)
-1/2 an onion (I used vadillia b/c they were on sale) diced/chopped/sliced (whatever!) sauteed
-~1/8 cup of tomato sauce
-1/2 spoon full of basil pesto


Combine all ingredients in a pan and simmer over low heat until ready to use When I got home, all I had to do was make the sauce, boil the noodles, reheat the meatballs, combine & serve.

I decided to make some garlic bread to go alongside the pasta. This was done ahead of time as well.
Using the leftover bread from the previous nights meal, I sliced it, spritzed it was spray butter (hey, 0 calories), rubbed it with minced garlic, and sprinkled it with Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese.
To finish it off, I toasted it in the toaster oven for 5-8min until lightly browned.

Seared Salmon Sandwiches

....Hey(!) That's an alliteration (My English teachers would be proud).

On that note, I apologize for the lack of blog posts this past week. I know my millions of followers (ha!) have been disappointed. I have been at the beach for the past week: Hilton Head. We have gone there the majority of summers of my life since I was 6 months--a Freeman family traditions. We have always gone out to eat while there (it was the one week of the year when my mom didn't have to cook--it was her vacation as well). I, of course, would not have minded in the least cooking a meal of two, but, tradition is tradition and so we went out to eat...every night. Now that's not to say the food was not utterly delicious and I may or may not have gained a few pounds.

But I'm back and ready to cook up a storm! Still need to exchange my propane tank, so until that gets done, grilling will be put on the back burner (no pun intended) for now. I decided to mirror my meal last night after one of the hidden, off-the-beaten-path Athens restaurants I stumbled across in my last days there: The White Tiger: a little, run-down white shack with delicious homemade, organic foods and chocolates! One of the things Jared and I split there for lunch was this delicious salmon sandwich so that was my inspiration for dinner.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, Alisa and I have a sort of babysitting business we're running this summer, so I'm working 2-6pm every night. Since I wasn't sure how long it'd take me to get home (47 min, thank you Atlanta traffic), I did all my prep work earlier in the day, including cooking the salmon.



Salmon

-3 (4-6oz) salmon fillets
-Juice of 1/2 a lemon
-Salt & pepper


Pre-heat a skillet over medium heat and spray. Sear salmon on both sides 2-4min per side. Then I just placed in a tupperware in the fridge and reheated in the microwave when I got home.

To construct the sandwich, I spread (lite) veggie cream cheese on both halves of a multi-grain roll. Topped with lettuce (iceberg...it was on sale!), cucumber slices, onions, the salmon, and capers.

This was served alongside fresh veggies and pretzels. So easy and so delicious!

Girl Meets Grill

So let me first start off my saying, I never in my life thought I would be a blogger. With that being said, welcome to my first blog entry: "Girl Meets Grill." As summer approaches, it's time to get out of the kitchen and onto the grill--and almost anything tastes better grilled. I've never grilled anything before in my life...that was always my mom's job and she never got around to teaching me. And...needless to say, my dad was no help. So, with the help of Jared, we attempted our first dinner on the grill (and were lucky, because apparently we had just enough fuel to cook our food).

Grilled Pear Turkey Burgers

-1/2 lb lean turkey (This made 3 decent sized burgers)
-Thyme, Rosemary, Poultry Seasoning, Parsley, Minced Garlic, Salt & Pepper (When I cook, I don't do well with direct measurements. I usually go by smell and sprinkle a little of this and a little of that until I'm satisfied)
-1/2 cup bread crumbs
-1 egg (lightly beaten)
-1/2 pear (finely chopped--save the other half for topping)


Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Form into 3 patties. Grill over medium-high heat 5-7min for side flipping ones and making sure not to press down as this will release those delicious juices (and don't forget to spray the grill BEFORE you place the burgers down.....yah, we forget, but not the worst thing that could happen for a first time griller) Once the burgers were done, they were piled high on a roasted garlic bread I had purchased from Kroger(which, by the way, was phenomenal and definitely added a whole other level of flavor profile to the burger) , toasted lightly on the grill, and spread with a fig preserve. This was also accompanied by lettuce, tomato, and the other 1/2 of the pear sliced and grilled as well (about 2min per side). This was served alongside with corn (grilled of course) and pretzels (which, no, I did not grill).

I must say, I was very pleased with myself at how great these burgers turned out and that I mastered the art of grilling!