Farewell summer BBQ

I am seriously in the BEST mood today.  Why, you ask?  Yesterday, it was 90 degrees out and felt like summer when I went to bed and today, when I woke up....AUTUMN!  Today's high is 62 degrees and overcast.  Now, I LOVE summer, but there's something about the seasons changing that make me happy.  And autumn  is my a close second when it comes to my favorite seasons because, to me, autumn means two things....boots and yoga pants!  

Another thing I love about fall is the veggies....sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkins, root vegetables...love them all!  So look forward to seeing some recipes with those soon.  But, today I am going to share one last summer BBQ recipe.  I can't believe I haven't shared this chicken recipe yet because this one is amazing!!!  And it's very versatile, you can cook it for your beer-drinking, euchre-playing friends or you can make it for your wine-drinking, art-discussing friends too.  

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and pepper
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4-inch slices, halved, and patted dry
• 4 chicken breasts, about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds (chicken needs to be thin)
• 2 large tomatoes, cored and cut into 1/2-inch slices

1.  In a small bowl, combine the basil, vinegar, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Slowly whisk in the oil until it is thoroughly incorporated. 

2.  Transfer 3 tablespoons of the vinaigrette to a bowl and toss in the fresh mozzarella pieces, coating the cheese with the vinaigrette. Set aside. Reserve the remaining vinaigrette for the cooked chicken.

3.  Pat the chicken pieces dry with a paper towel and season both sides with salt and pepper. Grill the chicken and tomatoes on a hot charcoal or gas grill until the chicken is browned and cooked through and the tomatoes are lightly charred, about 2-3 minutes per side (depending on the thickness of your chicken and heat of the grill).

4.  Transfer the cooked chicken to a platter. Top with the tomato slices and drizzle with the reserved vinaigrette. Cover the chicken with an even layer of mozzarella and tent the platter loosely with foil. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes. Serve.

Mix your marinade.

Drizzle it on your mozzarella slices.  After I took this pretty picture, I gave it a good stir so that the cheese slices were coated all over.

Grill your tomatoes and chicken.  We used gorgeous yellow tomatoes from our garden.  We are awesome like that.

 Serve with the tomatoes and cheese layered on the chicken.  

This chicken is delish.  My tiny mini and I thought the tomatoes and cheese were better than the chicken. The boy minis and Mr. McGhee disagreed.  Must be a girl thing!

CPS...and muffins, of course!

So I spent most of my Saturday fearful that a neighbor was going to call CPS and my minis would be taken away from me.  You see, I walked into the living room on Saturday morning and I saw this......

And this.....

Now, you may be thinking that looks like innocent minis watching Saturday morning cartoons.  Well, it's not.  Mr. McGhee won't let our minis watch cartoons on Saturday morning, rather he insists that they watch this show.  If you haven't heard or The Wildman (or Turtleman, as his faithful fans like my minis refer to him as), you may be thinking that this is another educational show (ala the crocodile hunter) that Animal Planet airs to educate our youth.  You are mistaken, if that is your impression of The Wildman.  The Wildman is a backwoods Kentuckian who catches trouble-causing rodents, reptiles, and animals with his bare hands.  The show includes segments such as "hillbilly hygiene" and I am fairly certain that the Wildman uses swear words, although I have a hard time understanding what he is saying most of the time.

So, yes.  I am concerned that my sweet minis are going to be taken away from me and placed in a home where they adults make more appropriate choices in television programming.

And since I was stressing about this, I do what I always do when I am stressing.  I make muffins.

Banana Muffins

• 2 cups flour (I used white whole-wheat)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 1/3 cup mashed overripe bananas (I used 8 bananas, which I believe is quite a bit more than the recipe called for.

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Put muffin liners in your muffin pan, or grease your muffin/bread pan.

2.  In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

3.  In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.  Stir in egg and mashed banana until well blended.

4.  Stir banana mixture into flour mixture, stir just to moisten.  DO NOT OVERSTIR!  

5.  Pour batter into prepared pan.

6.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin/bread comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan (I never do this....oops!)

**You can add vanilla extract and additional spices (cinnamon, etc) to the banana batter, if you chose.  I normally do, but I was such a nervous wreck over the Wildman debacle that I forgot.  The muffins were still tasty.  I did, however, remember to throw some chocolate chips into one of the muffin pans.  I wanted my minis to remember me fondly.**

Here's my batter, chock full of bananas.

Here is my muffin.  

These are a good, basic banana muffin.  My minis love them.  They keep well for several days and are perfect to stick into lunchboxes.  These muffins shall not be consumed during brain-cell sucking television programming.

"Hey, I made panckaes!"

If you're my friend on Facebook, you already know that yesterday I posted this picture with the comment "This is me."

It's received a lot of laughs and comments from my friends.  But, I feel like I need to clarify a few things.

1.  I am a smart woman.
2.  I am an opinionated woman.
3.  I follow politics closely and will happily go toe-to-toe with anyone that wants to debate me.
4.  I think that on a National platform, politicians are all self-serving and in the pockets (or pants) of large corporations.
5.  I firmly believe that if you want to make a difference in the world, stick with a local, grassroots organization.

That being said, I do make amazing pancakes.  And french toast.  And I think that there are a lot of women who make incredible french toast that could get more done in the 10 minutes that it takes them to make french toast than most of the men running our country can do in 4 years.  See.  I can rant too.

French Toast

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• dash of cinnamon
• splash of vanilla extract
• 10 to 12 slices bread (I only use Great Harvest Honey Wheat.  Because I love them.  And guess what?  They love me too.)
• butter
• maple syrup (100% pure maple syrup).

1.  Break eggs into a wide, shallow bowl or pie plate; beat lightly with a fork. Stir in cinnamon, vanilla extract, and milk.

2.  Over medium-low heat, heat griddle or skillet coated with a thin layer of butter or margarine.

3.  Place the bread slices, one at a time, into the bowl or plate, letting slices soak up egg mixture for a few seconds, then carefully turn to coat the other side. Soak/coat only as many slices as you will be cooking at one time.

4.  Transfer bread slices to griddle or skillet, heating slowly until bottom is golden brown. Turn and brown the other side. Serve French toast hot with butter and syrup. 

Soak your bread on each side.

Let the excess batter drip off a bit.

Cook until brown on each side.

Pure maple syrup and butter.  

My minis love french toast.  It's a fun alternative to pancakes.  Not that pancakes aren't awesome.  Because they really are.  Totally facebook status update worth.

Grilled Artichoke. Seriously! Grilled artichoke!

Yesterday I left you with a bit of a cliff hanger regarding this picture....  

So, I've got to know.  Did you lose sleep or do you have no clue what I am talking about?  If not, read yesterday's blog post.  Grilled leeks will change your life.  For the better, of course.

And that mystery vegetable that is boiling with the leeks is artichoke.  And you can grill artichoke too.  Incredible, isn't it?  Goose-bump worthy.

Here's how you do it.

Grilled Artichoke

• artichoke (I only did one, major mistake, I should have done 5).
• olive oil
• garlic, minced
• fresh grated parmesan and romano cheese  
• sea salt

1.  Cut the artichoke into 4 quarters.  (Is that redundant?  4 quarters?  I could have just said quarters, right?)
2.  Boil until tender, about 10 minutes.
3.  If you're smart, let them cool completely.  Once cooled, remove the choke (inner part) and any hard, prickly outer leaves.
4.  Drizzle with olive oil.  
5.  Stuff grated cheeses and minced garlic in between the leaves (this step is important, it's messy, but very important!)
6.  Sprinkle with sea salt.
7.  Grill each side, about 5 minutes, until cheese is brown and crusty.

Here's your artichoke.

Cut it in half.  Then cut each half in half.  That way you will have quarters.

Boil for about 10 minutes, until tender.

Pull out the choke and any prickly leaves.

Drizzle with oil.

Sprinkle with cheese and garlic.  Make sure you get in between the leaves with the cheese and garlic.

Toss these babies on the grill.  Laugh at the neighbor when he teases you to step away from the grill.  Pity the families that think only men can grill.

After cheese is brown and crispy, these are ready to eat.  

These are delish.  They got 2 thumbs up from Mr. McGhee and the minis.  If you want to be amazing like me, serve them with the grilled leeks and my new favorite chicken dish (details coming soon......)

Grilled LEEKS!!!!

This past weekend was Labor Day.  I don't know about you, but I feel like Labor Day weekend is an official good-bye to summer.  So, the McGhees celebrated by spending the weekend together and outside as much as possible.  

I had big plans for Friday night's dinner.  However, after school on Friday we took the minis to see the movie, The Odd Life of Timothy Green.  If you haven't seen this movie, it comes highly recommended from the McGhee family.  Just remember to bring tissues.  And make sure you push up the arm rests so you can snuggle up.   We left the theater with the "feel-goods" and I don't know about you, but when I have the "feel-goods" I want to relax and enjoy them.  So, we went home, poured some wine, made a fire, stuck a weenie on a stick, and called it dinner.

The minis taking the plunge.  Look at that sunset. 

A (processed) hot dog on a stick.  It's what's for dinner.

Post-dinner diving contest.  The photos are shaky because it is dark out.  I swear, the wine had nothing to do with it.

Roasting marshmallows and holding her baby at the same time.  What a mama.

Rocking her baby to sleep.

Me and my boy with the funny looking foot.

Ah.  What a night.  And I hope you all can forgive me for, yet again, failing on my unprocessed kitchen.  Hot dogs and marshmallows.  For some reason it felt right on that night.

You will be happy to know that I whipped up back into shape the rest of the weekend.  And, as a tribute to the end of summer and BBQ season, I will post my new favorite grilling recipes this week for you.

The first one is grilled leeks.  I sent my minis out to our garden to get some leeks and this is what they came in with.

The only thing I have ever done with leeks is make absurdly addictive asparagus.  And apparently it wasn't that addictive, because I had no desire to make it again this weekend.  But, I remembered a picture I had seen in a magazine of grilled green onions, and I figured if you could grill onions, you could grill leeks.  And, lo and behold, you can!

Grilled leeks 

• leeks
• olive oil
• salt

1.  Cut the leeks at the place where the green goes from whitish-green to green.  Cut length-wise and then again in half.  Wash well under cold water to get any grit out.

2.  Plunge the leeks into boiling water for about 2-3 minutes.  The leeks will turn a real bright green color, that's when they're done.

3.  Plunge the leeks into ice water to stop them from cooking.

4.  Dry the leeks off.

5.  Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt.

6.  Cook in a grill pan on the grill until crispy.  (We experimented, we did some directly on the grill and some in the grill pan.  Putting them directly on the grill gives you nice looking grill marks, but we found they were crispier when done in the pan.  It's your choice.)

Cut here.  

Cut lengthwise and then cut each stalk in half.  Wash well in cold water.

Boil for about 2-3 minutes.  What are those artichokes doing in there?  Coming soon......

Plunge in ice water for about a minute or so to stop the cooking.

Dry off with a paper towel.

Drizzle with oil and salt.

Grill in a grill pan.

Grill until brown and crispy.

This is what I have to say about these grilled leeks.  These are a MUST TRY RECIPE.  They were crispy and delish.  They lasted 30 seconds in our house.  The minis were bonkers over them and Mr. McGhee and I had a hard time sharing.  But we did.  Because we didn't want to listen to the whining are self-less, generous, loving parents.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

Do you ever have one of those nights where it's 5:00 and you think, "urgh.  I've got nothing planned for dinner."  If you say you don't, then I don't believe you.  And I don't want to be your friend, you overachiever.

Last night I was dreading dinner.  I opened the fridge and I realized I had two chicken breasts and that's about it.  And then I saw something else that was in my fridge.  A bottle of store-bought premade salad dressing.  (I had bought this salad dressing when we had company over in case they didn't like my homemade.  Turns out, they loved my homemade dressing.  So this sinful (more than 5 ingredients) bottle of salad dressing had been sitting in my fridge ever since then.  Staring at me.  Taunting me with its convenience).

I didn't even think twice about grabbing a ziploc, throwing in the chicken breasts and dumping that dressing all over it.  I let it marinate for about an hour and then Mr. McGhee threw it on the grill.

I had some tortillas that I warmed up on the oven.  I smeared the tortillas with hummus , and filled with strips of the chicken, feta cheese, cucumber sticks, tomato slices, and olives.

We rolled up the tortillas and scarfed these down.  My minis loved them.  Mr. McGhee and two.  And I was happy because they were happy.  I'm that type of girl.

We ate our tortilla roll ups with fruit salad.

The best part about this meal is there was absolutely no clean up.  Well, no clean up for me, at least.  I told Mr. McGhee he could clean up while I went upstairs and put my tiny mini in the tub while I read my book gave my tiny mini a bath.

Portobello Mushrooms!

I thought I would share last night's dinner with you.  Last night's dinner was intended to be Sunday's dinner.  But, it rained all day Sunday and Mr. McGhee wasn't in the mood to stand outside in the rain and cook.  So instead, Mr. McGhee and I stayed inside and watched this out the window.

This is our boy minis, outside in the pouring rain, jumping from the top of their swingset and trying to use an umbrella as a parachute.  Sometimes I wonder if my boy minis are really smart.  Or really....errr.....not smart.

Meanwhile, my tiny girl mini was inside doing this.

So, Mr. McGhee and I decided we weren't cooking, and packed up the minis and went out to eat instead.  And that's how Sunday's dinner became Monday's dinner.

We had gone to the farmer's market on Saturday and bought two beautiful portobello mushrooms.  I love the meatiness and earthiness of portobellos, so I was pretty excited to try grilling them.  I decided to try them two different ways, one following a recipe from Bobby Flay's cookbook and one of my own.  

Here's Bobby Flay's recipe for marinated grilled portobello mushrooms.

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• pinch of red chile flakes
• 1 tbsp finely chopped thyme leaves
• 2 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley leaf
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• kosher salt and ground black pepper
• 8 portobello mushrooms
• 1/4 cup canola oil

1.  Heat grill to medium.

2.  Whisk together vinegar, mustard, garlic, red chile flakes, thyme and parsley.  Slowly whisk the olive oil until emulsified.  Season with salt and pepper.  Store in fridge for up to 4 hours.

3.  Brush both sides of mushrooms with canola oil and season with salt and pepper.  Place mushrooms on the grill, cap side down, and grill  until golden brown and slightly charred, 4 to 5 minutes.  Turn the mushrooms over and continue grilling until just cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes longer.

4.  Remove the mushrooms from the grill and cut into 1/2 inch thick slices.  Place the mushrooms in a large bowl, add the marinade, and toss to coat.  Let marinate at room temp for 30 minutes before serving.  Mushrooms can be stored for up to 4 hours in fridge before serving.

Assemble your ingredients for the marinade.

Slowly add your oil.  Fridge for up to 4 hours.  DO NOT put mushrooms in marinade until after they are cooked.

Remove the stem.

Coat with oil and season.

Toss on the grill, cap side down.

Flip and cook the other side.

Slice mushroom.  

Toss mushrooms in marinade and let sit for 30 minutes.

I thought these were very good.  Mr. McGhee didn't love them, he said he preferred my shrooms over Bobby's.  Smart man.

Heids McGhee's pesto portobello  

• portobello mushroom, stem removed
• canola oil
• salt and pepper
• pesto
• goat cheese

1.  Brush both sides of mushrooms with canola oil and season with salt and pepper.  Place mushrooms on the grill, cap side down, and grill  until golden brown and slightly charred, 4 to 5 minutes.  

2.  Turn the mushrooms over and smear top of the mushroom with pesto and spinkle with goat cheese.  Grill an additional 4-5 minutes.

3.  I served these with fresh garden tomato slices on the side.

Remove the stem.

Brush both sides with canola oil and season with salt and pepper.

Grill, cap side down for 4-5 minutes.

Flip over and smear pesto and goat cheese slices on top.  Grill an additional 4-5 minutes.

These were delish.  You could eat these alongside a grilled steak or chicken breast, or they could easily stand alone as the main dish.