September 2, 2008
Amidst game-watching and Labor Day barbecues, I learned something this weekend. An out of town guest from St. Louis left his mark on Chicago by sharing a trick to make burgers stay juicy when you grill them. See those holes that were poked in each hamburger patty? That’s the secret to a juicier burger, friends. That’s all it takes.
So how does it work?
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June 9, 2008
Kabobs may just be my new favorite way to barbecue! I love the all-in-oneness of sliding all your veggies and meats onto skewers and letting them grill up. We bought these long metal skewers (I can’t seem to find them on the Crate & Barrel website to give you a link…) that were really excellent. Each skewer held so much food - easily enough for one to two people. But before I tell you how delicious the food was, let me back up a little.
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April 29, 2008
Much like Maxine, I took part in my own grilling extravaganza recently. The minute the sun came out and it was bearable to be outside for more than 5 minutes, I took to our poor little grill that had just endured the harsh cold and snows of Chicago winter. After a 6-7 month hiatus, it was quite happy to be back on its feet again, but not as happy as I was to eat: grilled asparagus, grilled corn, grilled hot dogs, and grilled zucchini. YUM!
Now, this particular incident happened some two weeks ago (before Passover) and ironic as it isn’t, we’re back to cold temperature and even some SNOW! Looks like I’ll have to wait a few more weeks before the real grilling season begins. Argh Chicago.
But in the meantime, let’s relive the experience (and maybe all you fellow cold temperature-bearers can live vicariously).
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April 23, 2008
It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was lamenting the never ending Chicago winter with soup recipes, but the great thing about Chicago is that one day it’s winter and the next it’s full-blown spring: thunderstorms, warm nights and all. Last night was a particularly warm evening that was just begging for some barbecue and a leisurely dinner on the balcony. And that’s just what we did.
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October 1, 2007
We’ve been having a LOT of company over lately, which naturally means we’ve been cooking a lot. When I say we, that usually means my mom has been cooking, but for one of the meals this weekend, I came through with some help.
My mom chose the menu of salmon and grilled/roasted vegetables, served with some rice casserole. Now, I know I said I had my official goodbye to summer, but it appears the good weather has been sticking around a bit longer this year (with the exception of today…now it’s gloomy and chilly, go figure), which made for some more grilling action.
She started off with these beauties: some zucchini, asparagus, and peppers in shades of red, orange, and yellow. We also grilled up some butternut squash and mushrooms that aren’t quite pictured here. All they took was a tad bit of seasoning and the heat of the grill to turn into the most delicious side dish on Earth.
But the salmon (my doing) was another story. My mom was tired around the point we had to cook the salmon so she decided to leave it up to me. Well that’s just great, I have never cooked salmon before so a lack of supervision made me very nervous. She did however leave me with some beautiful-looking salmon (seen above) and I guess that’s the half of it. The crazier thing was that for the past couple years, I’ve sort of hated salmon so the fact that I was marinating and cooking it for everyone was somewhat ironic.
Long before I knew I was cooking, my mom decided we’d grill the fish on cedar planks, so they were soaking away outside like so (excuse the background, we had to put it outside so it wouldn’t leak):
I decided to soak the fish in lemon juice and dill because on the occasions that I do enjoy salmon, that’s how they’ve been prepared. I didn’t really measure. I just sort of squirted the juice and shook on the dill by sight. I let them sit for a half hour and then put them on the grill like so:
The smell that the cedar planks gave off was so enjoyable that it made me sad I didn’t do this every day of summer ( if you can grill something with cedar planks, do it just so you can smell the beauty). I couldn’t wait to taste the flavor that would seep into the salmon.
But, all that wondrousness aside, my salmon seemed to flare up with fat as soon as it hit the grill. When I first put the salmon on, I sort of missed one of the planks, and some foamy white stuff started to form on the hot grill. I wasn’t sure if it was a reaction to the sugar in the lemon juice I was using (I used a combination of bottled and fresh which may have been a mistake) or the fat.
Eventually the foam all went away though and we had some pretty good looking salmon that took in rave reviews from our guests. But then I actually tasted it and thought it tasted kind of fatty! I’m sure our guests were just being nice because I wasn’t so pleased. I’ve had way better, and the lemon flavor didn’t seem to seep through enough!
So, readers, please help. What did I do wrong?
-Hillary, wondering if she should have tried this recipe for Baked Dill Salmon
Editor, Recipe4Living
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September 24, 2007
So summer is officially over, as of yesterday, September 23rd, and like most people, I’m sad. But, you see for me, the summer ending doesn’t just mark the end of the warmest season, it officially ends and separates me from studenthood. I am now officially a working woman; let the fall make it official.
But be that as it may, the more depressing thing is that this summer did not feel like summer at all. Just about every week of it had its gloomy days, tainting most of the warm weather with humidity and clouds. It wasn’t until the first couple weeks of September that the sun truly came out.
So in these past few weeks, my mom (yea ok I still live at home, but cut me some slack, I just graduated) has been doing a lot of grilling. Let me tell you, there is nothing like grilling to whip up a quick, yet amazing meal and on this warm, sunny September day (a couple weeks ago - I’m catching up on blogging from the holidays), she did just that.
And look how colorful it all was! She grilled corn on the cob, skirt steak, red and yellow peppers, and miniature zucchini and yellow squash blossoms. For dessert, we had watermelon (it wasn’t grilled but I’ve heard grilled watermelon is fantastic) so all in all, it was probably the most epitomizing summer meal I’ve ever had.
With that, I say goodbye summer.
And if you haven’t had your goodbye yet, might I recommend that you do with some of the recipes below. At this rate, summer may be around for another month or so, it seems to have gotten off to a late start.
Summer Squash Casserole
Grilled Steak
Zucchini Bread
Best-Ever Corn on the Cob
Watermelon Sorbet
-Hillary, happy she had an easy fast!
Editor, Recipe4Living
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