Makin' a BBQ.

I had a tough time coming up with a menu for our little get-together on Saturday. We had a house full of picky eaters, and I was really puzzled as to how to I was going to cook for everyone. We also have no grill, which makes it really tough to do a BBQ. So... I decided to do a BBQ anyway. Here was our menu:

Mini-Man Burgers
Italian Stuffed Turkey Burgers
Veggie Burgers

Corn (Mom and Dad brought the cobs!)
Tortellini Salad (I made the recipe with regular pasta also, so Kevin could eat it)
Asian Cucumber Salad

Chocolate Cake (Thanks, Mom!)
Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies


I thought this meal came out pretty tasty. The Mini-Man Burgers are an Alton Brown recipe, and they got rave reviews. It's really a very interesting method of making a burger. It really sucks in all the seasonings, and makes these little sliders, reminiscent of a White Castle burger. The turkey burgers were good, but they really should have been grilled on a real grill. It was so hard to tell if they were done, when I cooked on the stove top, and frankly, I served several undercooked burgers, which sort of upset me.



I totally spaced, and didn't take any photos of the tortellini version of this salad, but this is the rotini version, that I made for Kevin, and anyone else who was anti-cheese. The salad has a really nice balsamic dressing, with sun-dried tomatoes and red onion. It is really tasty, and the tortellini version had halved cherry tomatoes, which made it super colorful and pretty. I will definitely make this again. It's easy and delicious.




This Asian Cucumber Salad is a really nice, fresh, light salad. It's a great addition to a BBQ, in my opinion, because it's flavorful, and not starchy. Kevin likened it to a seaweed salad, but with cukes. I would highly recommend this one - it's also super easy.

Barbecued Chicken with a Mustard Glaze and Curried Couscous Salad

You may have noticed that I cook a positively absurd amount of chicken, rice, and potatoes. Well, there is actually a reason for that. You see, I was a vegetarian for about 10 years. I was even a vegan for a couple of those 10 years, so I am very attached to vegetarian food. I love grains, vegetables, soy protein, etc. Several years ago, I went back to eating poultry once in a blue moon, but I haven't really gone any further. In fact, for a very long time, I wouldn't even eat poultry at home. I would reserve it for special occasions, when we would go out to dinner. As Kevin and I decided to start this blog, though, I agreed to start eating chicken at home. This is actually a big deal for me, so I am proud to be tasting the food I cook at home.

Kevin, on the other hand, is almost dairy free. He despises cheese, milk, butter, and cream, which definitely limits our mealtime goodies. If I can hide dairy in whatever I am cooking, it's fine, but there is no way to mask cheese. I've tried. He can tell. Anyway, I have gotten very creative in my cooking, but we are still somewhat limited. Hence, the chicken, the grains, and the potatoes.

Anyway, last night's dinner was thrown together very quickly, though, when I planned it, I assumed it was going to take forever to put together. The Barbecued Chicken came from a Cooking Light recipe. I have made it before, but not since coming into the possession of a grill pan. I really liked the flavor of the chicken, and it stayed juicy, and retained the flavor of the sauce. The Curried Couscous was a recipe from Ina Garten (a.k.a The Barefoot Contessa). My friend, Katie, made this recipe for book club once, and I loved it, so I decided to give it a try. The recipe calls for red onion and currants, neither of which I had on hand. I wanted to use raisins, but Kevin gave me the head-shake on that idea. I think it would have so much better with those 2 additions, because it would have added another dimension to the dish. It had a nice flavor - in fact, I really liked it, but there was something missing (um, perhaps onions and currants?). I would make this again - the right way. All in all, this was an easy meal, with a good, solid flavor, and it used a lot of things that I had on hand in the kitchen.





The Critique
Loved the chicken - very juicy, tasty well cooked and just overall great. 4 bowls



Cous cous - not the biggest fan of slightly warmed food. It was a little strange because the carrots were raw but the cous cous was cooked and it gave the entire meal a luke warm temperature. It kind of reminded me of food that was sitting in your car on a hot day that wasn't supposed to be warm. However, the next day, I reheated it (actually Marji reheated it for me) and fully warmed with the chicken cut up into pieces, it tasted delicious. 3 bowls.

Chinese Chicken Salad with Wonton Chips

I made lunch for my mom and dad today. Actually, my college friend was supposed to join me, but she had to cancel last minute, so I invited my parents instead. Anyway, I decided to make baked wonton chips, and a Chinese Chicken Salad. The chips were easy to make, but took a while I thought they came out delicious, and they are really versatile, in that you can season them however you want. The salad was a Food Network, Ellie Kreiger recipe, and we all really liked it. It's very light and summery, and I doubled the dressing so we'll have more for the weekend, since I have extra salad. It was also relatively easy to put together, though there were a lot of little things to prepare (toasting almonds, draining and rinsing mandarins, baking chicken, etc.). I rarely make elaborate salads, but this one was well worth the work. My mom called it, "The perfect ladies lunch." I agree, though Kevin liked it a lot too. I will definitely make this again if I have friends for lunch. We'll work on the leftovers this weekend.
Plain old wontons.
Seasoned wontons.
Baked!

This made tons!


Square vs. triangle.

Ready to serve.

A Chinese food array.


I served the chicken separately, so I made sure everyone got as much as they wanted.

Pretty, huh?

Lunch is served!

We're full.

Well, the chips were a hit.

This is what Maya thought of it.

The CRITIQUE

Wonton chips - These chips were delicious and very unique. I'm a fan of burned things and they had a very well done, light chip flavor to them. The texture was great - extra crunchy. I really enjoyed the flavor of garlic and salt. Not too salty - just the way I like it. Mmm. Gerry thought they were the best chips he's ever had in his life. Not too shabby, Chef Marji. 4 bowls.



Chinese Chicken Salad - It had a wonderful sesame, Asian dressing mixed into it that tasted great. I loved it. Very light, healthy, and not drenched with too much dressing like you find in so many places. There's no need to feel embarrassed to ask for the dressing "on the side" with this salad because just the right amount of dressing is on it (if you like light dressing like I do). The chicken pieces were too big, so when I suggested that smaller pieces would make it even better, Marji said, "there's your knife". Also, this is one of those foods that I get sick of in the middle of eating it. So because of that, plus the acromegalic chicken, I give it 3 bowls.