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!

Pesto Pizza

I apologize, but I can't stop talking about my garden.  It is gorgeous and overflowing.  And whenever I am out working in my garden, I can't stop the "OMG, I am actually good at this" train of thought in my head.  My basil was overflowing, so I had to cut it all down and whip up a batch of pesto.  (I also saved a small amount of my basil, in order to make basil cocktails.  All for the sake of this blog, of course.  See what I do for my readers.)

Pesto

• 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese

Directions

1.  Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. 

2.  Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

3.  If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.

If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.  (I freeze mine in an ice-cube tray.)

The possibilities of pesto are endless.....pasta, pesto grilled cheese, pesto chicken, pesto sandwich spread, and my favorite....pesto pizza!

Pesto Pizza

• pizza crust (cauliflower pizza crust, no knead-focaccia, or store-bought premade crust)
• pesto
• fresh grated mozzarella cheese (you must buy a chunk of mozz and grate it yourself.  No pre-shredded, please!)
• sliced tomatoes

1.  Prepare your crust.

2.  Slather crust with pesto.

3.  Top with cheese.

4.  Arrange sliced tomatoes.

5.  Bake according to the directions based on your crust.

Crust, slathered with pesto.  Resist temptation to lick the crust.  

Load up with cheese.  Shove handfuls of cheese in your mouth and then yell at the minis when they try to do the same.

Layer with gorgeous tomatoes from your garden.  Don't have a garden?  Go to a farmer's market.  Don't put crappy store-bought tomatoes on this pizza.

Bake to perfection.

Now I am a girl that is known for being to pack away the food.  Seriously.  I could have eaten this entire pizza myself.  But, I am a selfless mother that remembers to feed my minis, so I did share.  Next time, I'm making two.

Bucket Lists

Several years ago I decided that I wanted to put a running goal on my bucket list.  At the time, in my mind, there was only one goal worth putting on the list, and that was running the Boston Marathon.  However, in order to run the Boston Marathon, you have to qualify by finishing a qualifying marathon within a certain time.  So, I signed up to run the St. Jude's Childrens Hospital Marathon.  


Now, I wish this was an inspirational story where I could tell you I ran my qualifying marathon and finished with a qualifying time.  But I didn't.  I was on pace to do so and then something happened right after mile 20 and when I finished, I had missed my qualifying time by several minutes.  And as I limped away, completely chafed and missing 4 toenails, I realized something.....bucket lists are live documents and therefore are subject to being changed at any point in time.  So I happily went home and edited my bucket list, which now looks like this....

finish a marathon and live to tell about it.

I may be pointing out the obvious here, but training for a marathon involves a lot of running.  I discovered that while I do love running, I don't particularly love getting up at 4 am to run 20 miles in the rain on Saturday mornings.  The bright side to marathon training, and perhaps the thing I loved best was carboloading.  Every Thursday night for months I made the same pasta dinner and I wolfed it down with a loaf of garlic bread, completely guiltless.  Now, I am telling you right now....unless you are training for a marathon and burning 2000 calories in 3 hours every weekend, do not eat this pasta dish on a regular basis.  But, if you're curious as to what cream, butter, cheese, and pesto taste like, give it a try.  But just once.  Unless you're making an addition to your bucket list.

Anyway, the reason I am telling you all this is because the other day I stumbled upon this recipe, and after reading the bloggers description I had to try it.  Just to see if it topped my beloved marathon training pasta.  

Spaghetti with Lemon and Parmesan

• 1 cup (250ml (8.45 fluid ounces)) cream
• 3 cups finely grated Parmesan/Pecorino cheese
• juice and rind of one lemon
• 1tsp Dijon mustard
• 2tbsn freshly chopped parsley
• salt and fresh black pepper to taste
• 500g (17.64 ounces) spaghetti, cooked and 1 cup of cooking water reserved

• Combine all the sauce ingredients and mix well.
• Toss with the cooked spaghetti and add some of the reserved cooking water to loosen it up a bit if necessary.
• Serve with chopped parsley and some extra Parmesan if required.

Here's what I have to say about this dish.  I ate it.  Mr. McGhee at it.  The minis all ate it.  Success.  Nobody said one word about it.  It was neither great nor disgusting.  But, it was easy and quick to make, which was important because it gave me time to enjoy this.

I served the pasta with tomato parmesan.  

Tomato Parmesan

• tomatoes
• basil
• mozzarella, shredded
• parmesan/pecorino, shredded
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar

1.  Preheat oven to 450F.  

2.  Cut the tomatoes in half and lay on a baking sheet.

3.  Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper the tomatoes.

4.  Lay a basil leaf on each tomato.

5.  Pile cheese on top of basil leaves.

6.  Bake for about 10-15 minutes.  Then broil an additional 1-3 minutes until brown and bubbly.

We love these parmesan tomatoes.  I want to warn you though, the tomatoes are mushy.  I think that next time I will skip the baking and just broil to see if that keeps the firmness of the tomatoes a bit more.  

Before I sign off, I just want to say...I think it's important to have a bucket list in life.  I love to dream of adventures and challenges I want to experience in life, but I find that when I write things down, they often go from something I dream about to something I am doing.  It is amazing how when you put those dreams out there in the universe, the universe will find a way for those dreams to come true.  And for those of you with minis, show your kids what it looks like when mommy chases her dreams.  If for no other reason, than this......

Lunches and a crockpot dinner

I pack lunch for the Mr. and the minis everyday.  After breakfast, I feel that lunch is the most important meal of the day for the minis.  I don't know about your minis, but by dinnertime, mine are often too tired to really eat a good meal.  They'd rather read and do their homework.  Ah, not really...just thought I'd put that out there in case any of their teachers are reading.

Here's today's lunch.  Now, before you look at the picture, I am equally appalled as you are over the amount of plastic bags I used for today's lunches.  Wow, fail.  I need to get one of these but at $44 a piece, yikes! 

Today's lunch is plain greek yogurt with frozen raspberries (which will defrost by noon) to mix in.  I have gotten emails regarding greek yogurt....I know it's a tough one to get kids to switch too.  I suggest putting small amounts of plain greek yogurt in their flavored yogurt and gradually reducing the amount of flavored.  My kids love plain greek yogurt, which I guess makes me lucky.  It must be that "there are starving children in Africa that would do anything for this $1.19 cup of yogurt, so you better eat it and then lick the bottom of the cup when it's done.  And, no I don't care if you get in trouble at school for licking the bottom of your yogurt cup" lecture that I gave them.  Seriously though, on my to do list this week is to make homemade greek yogurt because that stuff is expensive!  I'm about to make my oldest mini get a paper route just to cover our yogurt budget each week.

Also in their lunch is a tortilla with homemade hummus and diced bell peppers and cucumbers, all rolled up.  I also included a grapes and yellow grape tomatoes.  If your kids don't eat tomatoes, I highly suggest you try giving them yellow grape tomatoes.  They are amazingly delish and my minis love them.  Just a warning, don't eat the entire 2 lb package at one time.  It can give you kanker sores and GI issues that may lead to embarassing moments on the treadmill at the gym later in the day. 

I also put in their lunches some grapes, a pumpkin muffin, and for dessert, dried mangoes.  And, much to the dismay of my minis, I do not put oreos in their lunch...even though they insist every single kid at school besides them, get oreos for lunch.

And tonight's dinner has been cooking since 6 am this morning.  I got this recipe from my sister back when I was a new bride and realized I had a man that thought dinner was a frozen pizza and Doritos.  This recipe is what she calls Italian Beef.  Basically, you put a roast in the crockpot with a can of peppercini peppers (check the ingredients, remember your peppers shouldn't have more than 5 ingredients).  I decided to get fancy this morning, and heated some oil in a stainless steel skillet, sprinkled salt and pepper on my roast and then seared it before putting it in the crockput.  I also threw in a few cloves of minced garlic.  When the roast is finished cooking, shred.  You can serve it over mashed potatoes or on homemade wheat bread/hoagie.  My plan is to serve it over mashed cauliflower with raw carrots and bell peppers on the side.

Mashed Cauliflower from about.com

• raw cauliflower- a medium head makes about a pound of florettes
• any combination of butter, milk, cream, or whatever you use when you make mashed potatoes - about 1/4 cup
• salt and pepper
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• parmesan cheese

1.  Break the cauliflower up into florets, or just chop. I like to cook it in the microwave in a container that I prepare and serve it in, but you can steam it. Cook it until it's tender -- a fork should easily pierce it.

2.  The easiest thing to do is to add the rest of the ingredients to the container the cauliflower is cooked in, and then use a stick (hand) blender to put it all together. Or you can put it all in a regular blender or food processor.

I've had a few people ask how the minis are doing with the changes and do they really eat what I cook.  The answer is they're doing good, and nope, they don't always eat what I cook.  I tell my kids I respect them and their opinions regarding their food preferences, however, I do not cater to picky eaters.  They get a plate full of the same things I have on my plate.  They need to try everything.  If they find something so horrible that they can't possibly eat it, they are welcome to find something else to eat...however, they must choose food from the bottom 2 drawers of the fridge.  So, on nights where they can't bear to eat my dinner, they usually will have an apple, banana, peppers, cucumbers, and some cheese and peanut butter.