Dip Leftovers, or what to do with a leftover veggie tray.

Today at work our Dean held a potluck, I took a veggie tray and mixed up a double batch of the Wind Ridge Herb Farm Garlic Lovers dip.  (Wind Ridge is a vendor at Stronghold)   After the potluck was over I still had about one batch of the Dip, and a small metric ton of carrots left.  (OK, not really, but there was two compartments in the tray full)   I decided to try a little something with the dip when I got home.    I thawed some chicken breasts, and then coated them in a good thick coating of the dip. I then placed them on a wire rack  in a baking pan.  I set the oven for 350 degrees, and set the timer for 40 minutes.   When that was cooking I tossed the carrots into the steamer pan, and sprinkled a little basil over them and steamed them.   In addition to these two items,  we prepared pene pasta with a nice vodka sauce.   After the forty minutes were up I turned the oven to broil,  to brown the chicken a bit.

When all was done, it turned out to be an excellent meal.    And best part, there’s not a lot of leftovers in the veggie tray.

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Grillin’

Tonight I grilled asparagus, and bourbon glazed steaks, with a side of wasp nest…
Yes, wasp nest…
I started the grill up, and opened it only ot have a number of wasps fly out at me, but fortunately they seemed a little gassed and were not to interested in stinging me. The little buggers had decided to start building a nest hanging from my top grate in my grill… BAD MOVE on their part.

Tonight on the Grill – Vegetarian’s Delight

Tonight I went all vegetarian for dinner.

• Eggplant, and Tomato stacker’s with Fetta cheese: Slices of eggplant and tomato brushed with a mixture of red wine vinegar, rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper are grilled individually then stacked in layers with feta cheese. The stack is then grilled a bit longer to melt the cheese.
• Grilled Zucchini stuffed with goat cheese
• Corn on the Cob

Tonight on the Grill – Something fishy

Tonight on John’s grill:

• Grilled Salmon steak brushed with a mixture of lemon juice, fresh ground pepper, and a little thyme
• Grilled Asparagus, brushed with a little sea salt, black pepper and olive oil.
• Noodles alfredo

YUM. The salmon was definitely good especially considering this was my 1st time grilling salmon. I’d like to know when I actually decided I liked salmon? I’ve never been much of a fish fan… I think perhaps I should blame Jon Baade and sushi…

The asparagus was tasty as always, although it’s getting hard to find decent fresh asparagus, and I fear we are at an end for the season.

Tonight on the Grill – July 3rd edition

Tonight’s grilling involved fresh zucchini, polish kielbasa, and shells and cheese.   The kielbasa  took about 15 to 20 minutes on medium high heat and was straightforwardly simple grilling.   For the zucchini, I cut a V wedge length ways, and in the wedge i placed strips of muenster cheese, and replaced the wedge.   I then brushed the whole thing with a mixture of olive oil, pepper and a tiny amount of salt.  This was placed on my grill tray along side the kielbasa on low heat.    Once the zucchini was tender I placed another strip of cheese on the top of each and let it just barely melt before serving.

Yum… 🙂

Sprecher Makes BBQ?

Tonight I plan on grilling ribs.  I am always looking for something new to try on whatever I grill.  I happen to love to use rubs on things, and thought I might rummage through my collection of sauces and rubs to see what I had.  I couldn’t find any dry rubs left.  Huh…  Can’t imagine how I let that happen.  Fortunately the grocery store in Sandwich,  “Art’s”  always has a really good selection of seasonings, herbs, etc… Thankfully Wal-Mart has NOT put them out of business.  Its a little store, and things are stacked nearly to the ceiling, but I find that adds to the charm. Besides, you NEVER know what you might find there if you just keep looking.  Today was no exception.  I wandered the store for a good half hour, and found a number of rubs, I picked up a couple and continued to wander.  As I did I spied another area of seasonings I had never noticed before.  This section contained a whole host of assorted BBQ sauces I’d never heard of, and so I started examining them.  As I did I discovered a bottle with the name Sprecher on it, and was surprised.  “Sprecher makes BBQ sauce!?!?!?… OOOOOOH WANT!”  So I bought a bottle. I have opened it, and WOW! YUM!!!  The ribs are now sitting in the BBQ sauce, the idea of using a dry rub long since passed from my mind…  yum yum yum yum yum…