Grilled Peaches & Oatmeal

Ah that time of year is upon us.  You know, the one where there is a slight breeze in the air, the mornings are cooler, the leaves are juuuust barely starting to turn.  It's almost fall.  You can recognize it by the increasingly annoying Facebook posts about football.  It's almost as annoying as Facebook during election time.  I understand I am the minority that doesn't care AT ALL about football, but come on people, work with me.  If you insist on posting about how excited, or sad, you are about _____ team, ____ game, or _____ player, then first take a quick gander at your news feed and use this opportunity to post something original.  To really make your mark.  "Go Broncos!!" and  "I love you Payton!!" are examples of unoriginal content.  Perhaps think to yourself, "Hmm, 4 people have already said this.  Maybe, just maybe, I should say something else, or nothing at all."

By the way, Colorado people looooove fall.  It's like, "trendy" to like fall out here.  I'm just saying, it's okay to like summer too, Coloradans, it's ok.  Can you sense how "judgey" I am lately?  I think recent levels of elevated stress have sent my filter running.  It's probably temporary, but maybe not :)  One of my last posts started with a 2 paragraph rant and was later reduced to just the slightly annoying dog accident and  good ol' "moth-in-the-shirt" story.  Now there is no editing...it might become that kind of blog. Excited?!  Hey, thanks for reading ;-)

On another note, this time of year is awesome because of peaches.  That's right, peaches.  (Finally she is getting to the food part...)  Colorado has the best peaches I'm convinced.  They come from a little town called Palisade on the western slope.  It's a lovely place with fruit stands on every corner.  And wineries!  I'm a little obsessed with peaches right now because they are soooo ripe and perfect, and there is such a small window every year to get good peaches.  My daily peach consumption is currently averaging 3 peaches per day.  I have been singing to myself "...millions of peaches, peaches for me..." for the past week.  I'm almost as annoying as Facebook football fans.

When Sunday breakfast came along this week, I was sad that we didn't have eggs, but excited that we had peaches.  Still sad about the eggs.  I thought Denny would be sad too, but he hid it well.  When I suggested peach oatmeal, he was all over it.  You know me, always wanting to grill sh*t, so there I went.  Grilling at breakfast.

This is really simple and a nice little way to spice up boring oatmeal.

4 ripe peaches, pitted and halved
1 14 oz. can coconut milk, unsweetened
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground nutmeg1½ cups sugar
(Cinnamon or vanilla ice cream also works!)
Rolled oats, or quick oats

Halve the peaches and dip in coconut milk, then in sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg mixture.  Grill for about 5min on each side until you get some nice grill marks.

Cook oatmeal per instructions on package.  Spoon into bowl, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or drizzle generously with honey, place peaches on top.
(We used the extra coconut milk to cook our oats, with a little water to make up the difference.  When sweetened with cinnamon sugar and/or honey it tasted great!  Without a sweetener, not so much.)

Recipe adapted from Gilded Fork.

Greek Tacos & Tahini Pesto

I hope you all had a great labor day weekend!  One of the highlights of the past few weeks was scrounging together a recipe that turned out to be really tasty - Greek tacos with tahini pesto.  I know it's silly, but it's the little things that can make a big difference :)

On this particular day, I think life was starting to get to me and affect my mental state.  The day started with Kora (my elderly dog) having a not-so-little "accident" all over the living room 5 minutes before I was supposed to leave for work.  Not her fault, and I love her to pieces, so I cleaned it up and moved on.  When I was walking into my elevator to head to work, I felt an itch in my shirt.  Out flew a moth (GROSS!), which left me feeling itchy and icky all day long.  Which resulted in me spilling some of my breakfast on myself when I got to work.  Fast forward through a pretty rough day of "ugh's" "oh crap's" and discouraging emails, I am finally in the kitchen ready to make this thing that I wasn't totally sure about.  All I knew was that if my senses were correct, it would probably taste pretty darn good.

Your basic pesto is made of some kind of herb, some kind of cheese, some kind of nut, and small amounts of garlic, lemon juice, and not-so-small amounts of some kind of oil - usually olive oil.  I had everything but the nuts.  For the herbs, I pretty much killed what was an already ill basil plant by using all of its remaining leaves.  Tahini was the only thing we had that came to mind to sub for nuts because it is kind of peanut buttery.  It is also kind of a stretch for pesto, but I went for it anyway.  It was a brand spanking new jar so when I struggled to open it (and finally succeeded, ah-HA!) the top layer of oil flew all over.  Right on schedule for that day.

Up until now I was still thinking this would be a "pasta pesto" but when I tasted it I knew I had to think of something else.  The tahini was the abundant flavor, rather than the basil, and I started to think Greek, hummus-like spreads.  I could picture it more on a sandwich-Gyro-type-thing rather than mixed in with any type of noodle.

So, looking at my other dying herb plants (I blame my lack of a green thumb on the fact that I have only been able to garden in pots and on patios, and not at all on the fact that I have gotten really bored with watering lately) I thought of one of my favorite marinades which just so happens to be a Greek one.  This used up some of my dying rosemary and parsley.  Win-win.  Rummaging through the fridge resulted in finding corn tortillas, 1/2 of a yellow squash donated by a co-worker (thanks Ivy!), a bell pepper and some goat cheese.  We usually have some kind of meat in the freezer, so I thawed some chicken.  Boom.  Greek Tacos.

This was definitely a "clean out the fridge" sort of meal, but it was probably the best of the sort that I have ever made.  We ended the night with full, happy bellies; major garlic breath (you have been warned); and a couple of beers under our belts.  All was good by the end of the day.

Tahini Pesto
3tbsp grated parmesan cheese
1/4c olive oil
3/4c basil leaves
2tbsp tahini
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic (you could go with less if you don't want it to be too overpowering)
1/2tsp pepper

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.  You can make this the day before and keep in the fridge.

Greek Marinade
2 chicken breasts, chopped into about 4-5 large chunks

1/2 Large yellow squash, seeded and cut into 1/4" thick strips (or about 3 small yellow squash, halved)
1 Green bell pepper cut into 1/4" strips

1c olive oil
1/4c lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
2tbsp dijon mustard
2tbsp dried oregano
1tbsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1tsp dried thyme)
2tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (or 1tsp dried rosemary)
1tsp pepper

Wisk all ingredients (other than veggies and chicken) together in a bowl.  Place chicken and veggies in a large ziploc baggie and pour marinade over the top.  Zip the bag and work the mixture throughout so everything is covered.  Put in the fridge for a minimum of 1hr, but can stay in the fridge for up to a day.

Grill chicken and veggies until tender/cooked through.  Let sit for 5-10 minutes, and chop into 1/2" pieces.  Set aside.

Tacos
Cucumber and red onion for garnish
Goat cheese (optional)
Corn tortillas

After cooking the chicken, place corn tortillas on the grill.  Only a minute or so on each side, watching carefully.

Spread a little (or a lot) of pesto on each tortilla to your liking, pile on some chicken and veggies, and top with cucumber, onion and a sprinkle of goat cheese.  We served ours with some couscous :)

Grilled Pizza...The Love Of My Life

I promised you more grilled stuff so here is something that not many people do with a grill, but it is probably one of my favorite grilled foods.  GRILLED PIZZA!

Me and two of my friends (Rebecca & Ingrid) are master grillers (of pizza).  We've done this several times at Rebecca's house on her charcoal grill and have all agreed it is some of the best pizza we have ever had.  So on, like, day 2 of having our grill, we decided to grill pizza (it was more like I forced the idea on some of our friends and Denny and promised it would be the best pizza of their lives).  In the end, it all turned out pretty good, and was definitely edible.  But, our small gas grill did not perform the same way as Rebecca's larger charcoal grill.  The olive oil from the first pizza, dripped into the flames below and shot a burst of flames through the center of the pizza, which caught the pizza on fire and burned a hole in the center :)  We managed to save the rest of the pizza though.

The other pizzas turned out better.  I did not roll the dough out as thin, we turned the heat on the grill down a little lower, and had one person rotate the pizza dough often so that it didn't burn.  In the end, dinner was really enjoyable and it's definitely something I want to do on a regular basis.

Anyway, this is how you grill a pizza.  Many people are skeptical that it even works because the dough is so pliable.  Instinct tells you that the dough will slip through the grate, but you have to have faith.

What you will need:

A ball of pizza dough (You can get fancy and make your own, but I buy the pre-made stuff that the Whole Foods kitchen makes.  They also have sauce and shredded mozzarella right there too.  I think theirs tastes the best)

Sauce and mozzarrella

Toppings of your choice (I like to have another good cheese on hand, like feta or goat cheese, as well as veggies and meat)

Olive oil

Plenty of grill spatulas and friends to help with flipping :)

Get ready to grill:

Preheat the grill to a medium heat.  Have olive oil, pastry brush, and all toppings handy near the grill.

Meat toppings should be pre-cooked, and maybe even the harder veggies too.  You will just be cooking the pizza until the cheese melts, so there isn't much time to cook the veggies.

Clean and dry a portion of your countertop.  Coat the counter with a generous helping of flour and divide the ball of dough into two.  Coat the dough with flour and roll flat with a rolling pin.

With a pastry brush, coat one side of the rolled dough with olive oil.

When the grill is hot, carefully place the flattened dough onto the grill, olive oil side face down.  (This step will provide the most entertainment, but you will get the hang of it)

The dough will cook and harden fairly quickly, so once you have placed it on the grill, immediately brush the top side with olive oil as well.  Once the dough starts to bubble and hold its form, carefully flip the dough to cook the other side.

Immediately start putting sauce, cheese, and all toppings on the pizza and close the lid.

It should only take a few minutes for the rest of the dough to cook and the cheese to melt.  Once the cheese is melted and the toppings are heated through, the pizza is done.

Slide the pizza off the grill and onto a cutting board.

Slice and serve!

What I love most about this recipe is that it is totally up to your imagination.  There is no right or wrong way to make a pizza - the possibilities are limitless!  Some unusual ideas for toppings are:  roasted garlic, asparagus, fresh herbs, prosciutto or other cured meat, chicken sausage, etc.

I also like this blog post for grilled pizza.

Simple Pleasures | Summer Grilling

After setting up our camping grill to BBQ our 4th of July 'brats and corn (which didn't come out half bad!), Denny and I FINALLY broke down and bought a real grill this weekend and are thrilled!  A grill is something that I have never had, believe it or not, but have always wanted.  Many of the awesome recipes that I have earmarked require a grill, and I have always had to settle for pan frying or broiling.  It's just not the same.  Grills make food taste better, plain and simple.....if you do it right.  Apparently this takes practice.

The first thing we did when we left the "grill store" was go to Whole Foods and pick up 2 juicy steaks. I owed Denny a nice dinner, so he picked out a ribeye and I picked out a top sirloin.  When we got home I promptly made us pineapple mint mojitos while he set up the grill.  I immediately started to search how to properly grill steaks (he likes his more on the rare side, and I am a medium rare girl).  After letting some potatoes and corn get close to done, I put on the steaks, exactly as directed.  2 minutes on each side - high heat.  Then 3 minutes each side on the medium heat side of the grill.  Then we removed the steaks and let them sit.

I could tell when I finally cut into my piece of steak that I had overcooked it.  Sad times.  Because Denny's steak was a thicker, more quality cut, his survived but was definitely more well-done than he would have liked, but he didn't complain.  I rarely allow myself the opportunity to eat steak, so in no way did I let mine go to waste.  Dipping it in ranch dressing also helped, as it does everything.

I am hoping by the end of summer that we are master grillers, but only time will tell!  Still, we are so excited to try many more recipes and share them here!  In the meantime, make yourself one of these mojitos :)

Pineapple Mint Mojitos

6 pieces cubed pineapple

10-15 mint leaves

2tsp lime juice

1oz rum

Sparkling water

Ice

Blend pineapple and mint until smooth, split mixture between two short glasses.  Add lime juice and 1tsp sugar, fill with ice.  Add one shot of rum, fill remainder of glass with sparkling water.  Stir and enjoy!