Grilling Time

Last week Friday was a beautiful start to Spring. The temperatures reached into the 60s by mid-day and the sun was shining. Unfortunately the weather didn't look like it was going to stay for long and Wisconsin was going to be back into the 40s the next day.

So.....being the hostess that I love being, I texted my friend group and invited them over for my first grill out of the year. How I host a grill out is that everyone brings their own meat to grill and a side to share. I handle the grilling and supply a side myself, and then we eat, drink and talk about life. It sounded like I was going to have a great turnout and the Badgers were also playing that night in the NCAA Tournament and although I don't have cable, the bar nearby did, so we planned to walk there after dinner. 

I did a test run earlier that week with my grill. I hadn't been able to use it all winter because of a massive snowdrift on my patio. So when that finally melted, I opened up the gas on the grill, turned the knob and on the second try, it started right up. I planned to test the grill on marinated chicken breasts - thanks Sendik's. And for the side, I sliced up some veggies I had in the house, added some seasonings and grilled those as well.

The grill did it's job and cooked up the chicken perfectly. Last year, I bought a vegetable grill pan and it is my favorite piece of grilling gear. It is a metal pan and has small holes in it to release the moisture from the veggies but not have the veggies fall through.

Once everything was grilled up, I packaged it in my 9 X 13 pan with a lid and headed to my guy's place.  Have dinner, will deliver!

He was so surprised with what I brought for dinner. The pan kept the food warm and steamy so it didn't drive out on my short drive. Everything was delicious and we had happy bellies at the end.


Here's my veggie recipe:
Use any veggies you like that are great to grill - potatoes, asparagus, peppers, zuchinni, onion, carrots.
If you are using potatoes and carrots, they tend to take a little longer to grill than other veggies. I helped them out by steaming them in the microwave for a few minutes before grilling them.

Chop everything into bite-size pieces. Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar. Add some Montreal steak seasoning and garlic powder. (I didn't have onion to grill up so I added a dash of onion powder as well). Add a dash of salt and pepper, toss the veggies around to coat and you are ready to grill them. I would suggest stirring the veggies around on the grill every 3 minutes or so to prevent pieces from burning. The EVOO helps prevent sticking but if you don't want to add the oil, spray both the veggies and the pan with cooking spray first.

When the veggies are done, transfer them to a bowl and add a Tbsp of butter to them. (You can skip this step).

Throw Together Creamy Veggie Soup

I call this soup my "Everything but the Kitchen Sink" dish. I follow a very basic recipe from Food Network to get the base going (probably could have figured it out on my own but I was lazy) and then jazz it up with lots of healthy veggies.

This recipe yield just a few servings, so I doubled it (and maybe a little more).

Get the onion sauteing in the butter and it's smooth sailing from there.

I should have fine-tuned knife skills by now, but I'm still sloppy. No cut fingers (knock on wood) but I am just not coordinated to go fast with a knife for dicing.

I added some other spices, including paprika, thyme, celery seed and garlic powder and limited myself to three cups broth and one cup water. I didn't want to overdue it on the salt. 

I used a bag of mixed frozen veggies that had a cheese sauce already in it to add some extra flavor. Then some frozen peas, fresh broccoli and diced ham were thrown in. Right at the end, I added some fresh parsley and about a cup of shredded cheese that I had leftover.

Just need for it to simmer and you are ready to use your Whipper Doodle (immersion blender). Due to an incident last week with said blender, I was extremely careful to keep it completely submerged in the soup. I did scoop out about a cup and a half of the veggies so the soup wouldn't be completely creamy.

This really turned out stellar. And it's really not all that bad for you. Some butter and cheese but you need your daily dairy intake right?

Because I have to have something to dunk in my soup, I picked up a cheddar biscuit mix at the dollar store.  Not realizing it only made five biscuits, I was a little bummed, but it was a perfect side to dunk.