Grilling and Chilling, 35 Recipes

 

We're well into optimal grilling season. I say optimal because I tend to grill year round. I've been known to have Hubs shovel a path of snow off the deck from the slider to the grill. But in this part of the country, there truly is a grilling season. There's nothing I love more at the end of a hot day than for us to grab a cold cocktail, throw dinner on the grill, and wind down. Grilling and Chilling.

For the most part, dinner prep is pretty easy, often just a matter of marinading the main course in the morning and sticking it in the fridge. Added bonuses are not heating the house by turning the oven on, and easy clean up, since Hubs cleans the grill.

Oh, and to make things even easier, I'll often prepare cold sides ahead of time and have them in the fridge. Check out my Apple Cider Chive Potato Salad, my Blueberry Bagel Salad, my Greek Pasta Salad, my Pasta Salad Bites, my Summer Orzo Salad, my SW Ranch Picnic Salad, my Vegetable Ranch Tortellini Salad, and/or my Smoky Slaw, for some make ahead chilled side dishes.

Because there are plenty of hot days still ahead, I thought I'd put together some of the grilling recipes I've developed over the years. 35 of them. They're pictured below in groupings, with the recipe links for you to click on just below the pictures:

 

Chicken, Chicken, Chicken

Caprese Chicken Kabobs

Marinted, grilled chicken meets caprese salad in this easy, flavorful dinner.

Jamaican Ranch Chicken

Mix up this simple 3 ingredient marinade in the morning, grill for about 20 minutes at night. Doesn't get much easier than that.

White Wine Mustard Chicken

Whisk together this 5 ingredient marinade, refrigerate with the chicken, then just grill when you're ready. Couldn't be easier.

Monte Cristo Skewers

Inspired by the Monte Cristo sandwich, marinated chicken and ham are threaded onto skewers and grilled.

Orange Teriyaki Chicken

This teriyaki marinade with the added hint of orange is a crowd pleaser

Onion Poppy Grilled Chicken

Just 3 marinade ingredients add so much flavor to a grilled chicken meal.

Seafood

Thai Shrimp Skewers

A warm weather lunch or dinner, Thai Shrimp Skewers is a marinated and skewered shrimp dish with red pepper and pineapple. A flavorful meal that grills up in minutes.

Grilled Scallops in Garlic Wine Sauce

Grilled sea scallops are served over rotini, tossed in a light sauce of wine and broth with garlic and green onions.

Glazed Salmon

A simple, light, flavorful dish. This glaze is everything!

Easy Grilled Halibut

A flavorful marinade and under 15 minutes on the grill is all you need for a quick healthy dinner.

Grilled Maple Balsamic Shrimp

Quick and simple, just marinate, skewer, and grill.

Orange Balsamic Salmon over Broccoli Slaw

Salmon is marinated, grilled and served over broccoli slaw dressed with the same marinade.

Pork: chops, tenderloin, medallions, and riblets

Creamy Horseradish Pork Medallions

Sliced pork tenderloin, marinated in a creamy sauce with a little bit of a kick, and grilled. Leftovers make great sandwiches, too!

Grilled Apricot Mustard Pork

Bold flavors are the key to these marinated, grilled pork tenderloin medallions. Slice and marinate in the morning, grill for about 15 minutes at dinner time.

Honey Peanut Pork Medallions

Pork tenderloin is sliced, refrigerated in a flavorful marinade, and grilled.

Beer BBQ Pork Chops

This sauce is so simple, and the grilled pineapple and red pepper are the perfect addition.

Tomato Crusted Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin, marinated in a tomato and wine sauce, then grilled.

Grilled Blackberry Pork Medallions

Marinated in and basted with a blackberry barbecue sauce, these pork medallions grill up in minutes for a delicious summer meal.

Whiskey Grilled Riblets

These riblets take some time but they are SO worth it. They start with a dry rub, are baked in the sauce, then grilled when ready. 

Grilled Dry-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin

Wrapping the tenderloin tightly with the dry rub imparts so much flavor. Refrigerate, then grill.

Here's the Beef

Grilled Skirt Steak

Packed with flavor, but another easy recipe. Marinate for up to 36 hours in the fridge, then grll in under 20 minutes, rest adn slice. Great for cookouts and parties too!

Grilled Steak and Pepper Pizza

Grilling adds so much flavor to your pizza. And they're fun to make!

Grilled Steak Roll-Ups

Thin slices of beef are stuffed with vetetables, rolled and grilled. Easy enough for everyday, fancy enough for company.

Grilled Asian Flank Steak

This flank steak is bursting with flavor. Marinate up to 48 hours, grill, and slice. A cookout favorite.

Sandwiches

Sweet Chili Turkey Burgers

Lower in fat, bursting with fresh flavors. A great addition to any cookout.

Grilled Eggplant Sandwiches

Grilled eggplant is topped with cheese and vegetables, and served on a toasted Ciabatta roll.

Grilled Marinated Portobello Sandwiches

You won't miss the meat in this hearty vegetable version of a burger.

Pepperoni Pizza Burgers

Burgers and pizza, a perfect match.

Glazed Kielbasa Sandwich

Glazed kielbasa and vegetables are skewered and grilled. Tastes just as good over rice or mashed potatoes as it does in a sandwich.

Sides, Sauce and Seasoning

Italian Style Grilled Zucchini

Zucchini proves that grilling isn't just for the main dish. And this side dish comes together in minutes.

Simple Grilled Squash Packets

Only 4 ingredients go into this side dish. Chop, mix, and grill for a delicious main dish accompaniment.

Grilled Spiced Cabbage

Cabbage is drizzled with a marinade and grilled. Cabbage never tasted so good!

Grilled Mini Naan Poppers

A fun interpretation of Jalapeno Poppers that only takes a few minutes to cook on the grill. Perfect for an appetizer or side dish.

Jamaican Jerk Seasoning Blend

This blend can be used as a dry rub on pork or fish, Mix it with vegetable oil to marinate chicken, or add to soups and stews.

Tangy Horseradish Steak Sauce

A bit of tang, a bit of a bite, a delicious enhancement to your grilled steak

Happy grilling. And chilling.

Inconvenient Convenience: Word Counters

 

Counting my words again!

Today my fellow Word Counters and I are sharing our monthly group post. Each month, one group member picks a number between 12 and 50. All participating bloggers are then challenged to write something (or a few somethings, as the case may be) using that exact number of words. Today we share what we all came up with.

This month's number is 33. 

It was chosen by Me!

~ I've often used this post to air my complaints about the lack of customer service. Today it's about convenience, inconvenience, being denied the choice of shopping in store, being forced to shop online.

~ I like the convenience of shopping online, comparing prices, availability, ship time and fees, even having the convenience of being able to choose store pick up (if that's an option), or home delivery.

~ What I don't like is not being able to see and touch the merchandise. They can use all the descriptive words they can imagine, but it's just not the same as hands on.

~ Hubs needed a new laptop, knew what he wanted, but it was expensive. After daily checks, Hubs found it on sale. We checked our local store and success! Hubs and PurDude drove off. 

~ They were gone quite a while when PurDude called to ask what time I'd planned dinner. Dinner I knew immediately that had to be a bad omen since it was only one thirty.

Chicken and Snap Pea Dinner

~ So . . . they found the laptop, and took it up to the counter to pay. But it was ringing up at regular price. "That's because," the clerk explained, "you're looking for the online price."

~ Could he get the online price? No. Hubs had to stand in the check out line and order it online for store pick up. Once ordered, Hubs asked again for the sale price.

~ No, again. PurDude and Hubs were told that they now had to wait about an hour for order fulfillment. To fulfill the order, for the item Hubs was holding, in the checkout line.

~ Almost two hours later they returned empty handed. Update: the order is in the fulfillment queue and would be filled when his turn came, no exceptions for a customer standing there, they'd email.

~ Six hours later, after speaking to another store employee, Hubs was told the order was being expedited (LOL), he'd be emailed soon. Seven hours after ordering, the store closed. No email, no laptop.

~ Silence from Best Buy. The order wasn't ready in an hour, or another half hour, nor was it being expedited. All lies. Twenty seven hours after ordering, they agreed to turned it over.

~ Their claim of shopping convenience? Turning away a customer holding expensive electronics in one hand and a credit card in the other, telling him to pay online, then wait . . . a day? Decidedly inconvenient.

Here are links to the other Word Counters posts:

On the Border 

Messymimi’s Meanderings 

Chicken and Snap Pea Dinner         

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups instant brown rice

2 cups cooked chicken, chopped

1/3 cup Canadian bacon, chopped

3 oz snap peas

1 can chicken and rice soup

1 1/4 cups chicken broth

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8 X 11 baking dish.

*Sprinkle the rice evenly onto the bottom of the baking dish. Top with the chicken, Canadian bacon, and snap peas.

*Mix together the chicken and rice soup, chicken broth, onion, garlic and pepper. Pour even into the baking dish. Cover with tin foil.

*Bake for 30 minutes. Carefully remove the tin foil, and bake for another 30 minutes, until the rice has absorbed the liquid.

*Stir before serving. 

 

 

Where's my Rose?

 

 I've got a thorn in my side.

OK, it's a splinter. And it's in my foot. But that splinter in my foot has become a thorn on my side.

Let me just (try to) explain, since it's the end of November and freezing cold out, how I got a splinter in my toe. It's not exactly barefoot weather. But two things make that untrue for me. First, I use the grill for certain foods, no matter the weather, and second, the best lighting for recipe photography is out on my back deck. Sometimes I'll put shoes on, like a normal person, other times, like if it's just to flip over the Grilled Orange Balsamic Salmon, I'll get lazy and just run out there barefoot.

Which is what I did this time. And got punished with a splinter in my big toe.

Not usually a big deal, I can often just work the top layers of skin with a pin and gently ease it out. This one was more difficult. Not only did it go in straight up and down (so deeper) as opposed to at a more workable angle, but that made it harder to see.

So I worked at it. With a pin the first day, with tweezers the second, then with both together. After a shower so the skin was softer, and I even tried a nail clipper. 

Thorn on my side.

The "thorn in my side" saying has biblical roots, both in the Old Testament and New Testament. There are also nuances as to the interpretation. The thorn can be seen as a reminder from G-d to remain humble. But it has also been interpreted as a message, sent from Satan.

I'm going with the Satan thing. 

Now I'm not a proponent of bee stings, far from it. Last summer, College Boy stepped out the front door and onto a bee that was apparently on the door mat and got stung on the toe. It hurt. A lot. And then it stopped hurting. 

But a splinter that has mastered the art of subterfuge, secreting itself, and avoiding eviction? That's a problem. 

It's a problem for two reasons. One, because I can feel it when I walk, but especially because it becomes most uncomfortable when I'm standing for long periods of time. Like when cooking or baking.

Honey Mustard Chicken Casserole

 

Second, a piece of wood in your flesh can be a vehicle through which bacteria can make a trek into your blood stream. OK, maybe that's extreme, but it's possible. And clearly this little sliver has worked its way into my headspace.

So yes, (sing it with me) Poison warned us, way back in the 80s, to beware, That "every rose has its thorn." But what has become painfully clear to me, is that not every thorn, at the very least, comes with a rose.

Like the one in my side.

And my toe.

Honey Mustard Chicken Casserole         

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

5 slices deli black forest ham

2 cups fresh spinach

1/2 cup mayonnaise

3 TBSP sweet hot honey mustard

1 TBSP pepper jelly

2 TBSP honey

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8 X 11 baking dish.

*Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Spread into the baking dish. Chop the ham. Sprinkle over the chicken, followed by the spinach.

*Whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, pepper jelly, honey, salt and pepper. Pour over the spinach, then top with the cheese.

*Cover and bake for 1 hour.

Horny Honey and Runaway Rum: Fly on the Wall

 

Welcome to a monthly Fly on the Wall group post. Today 3 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house. At the end of my post you’ll find links to this month’s other participants’ posts.

Do you know the difference between gulp and guzzle? I recently had it explained to me.

We'd had wine with dinner, and at the end of the meal, Hub's second glass was still full. I went to do the dishes.

Me: Anything else for the dishwasher before I run it?

Hubs (handing me his empty wine glass): Just this.

Me: Did you just guzzle that wine?
Hubs: No.

Me: But that glass was full less than a minute ago.

Hubs: I did not guzzle it, you don't guzzle wine.

Me: So, did you dump it in my planter?

Hubs: No, I gulped it. 
Me: Umm, so you did guzzle it.

Hubs: No, guzzle is to drink it all down at once, I drank it in 3 gulps.

Well, at least he didn't dump it into my planter.

 

 

Every now and then I make my Apple Cinnamon Ring, it's easy to make and everyone loves it.

When I made it last week, I had to change it up a bit, due to what I had on hand.

Hubs (after taking a bite): I think maybe something was wrong with the apple you used. Try this, it doesn't taste right.

Me: That's probably because that apple is a pear.

Hubs was giong out to get his hair cut and asked if I needed anything while he was out. I told him I had a list of things, but I didn't need any of them right away. He asked what I needed, just so he'd know. I gave him my list, six items on it, and again told him nothing was needed this minute. Hubs sat down at the desk and wrote out my list.

Later he came home with everything I'd asked for.

Me: You didn't have to make all those stops, I told you I didn't need all of this right away.

Hubs: I wanted to get it all before I forgot.

Me: How could you forget? You wrote out a list.

Hubs: The list, that's what I'd end up forgetting.

Hubs: What's for dinner?

Me: I knew what I was going to make, but now I'm not sure.

Hubs: What changed your mind?
Me: I thought I might try a different ingredient.

Hubs: Oh yeah, what?
Me: Shampoo. 

Hubs: Did you say shampoo?
Me: Yes, I was in the shower this morning and noticed the shampoo bottle says that it's vegan.

Hubs (walking away rolling his eyes and commenting under his breath): I suppose next we'll be washing our hair with soy sauce.

College Boy (walking into the kitchen): Hey, mom, what are you making for dinner?

Me: I'm trying a new casserole.

College Boy: It doesn't have shampoo in it, does it? Dad was muttering something about dinner and shampoo.

Me: No. It has rice, chicken . . .

College Boy: Sounds good.

Me: And snow peas and carrots.

College Boy: Yum.

Me: In a teriyaki sauce.

College Boy: Oh, I'm really not a fan of teriyaki sauce.

Me: How about I add a little shampoo?

Teriyaki Chicken Casserole

Hubs is watching college football as I walk into the den. I stop in my tracks when I hear the what the sportscasters are saying:

Sportscaster: That quarterback is high, he's been high this whole game.

Me: Did they just say he's high? How would they know? Has he had the munchies on the sidelines or something?
Hubs: That's what they said, but not what they meant . . .

Just then I hear the sportscasters say something about removing the quarterback, and execute.

Me: Execute. You can't execute someone because they're high. Not in this country, anyway.

Hubs: They're saying that he's been throwing the ball too high, consistently missing the receivers. And that he should be removed if he can't execute his plays. And you need to go find something to do and stop ruining the game.

Me (walking away, mumbling under my breath): Fine, see if you don't end up with shampoo in your dinner . . .

I had typed up a new recipe I was trying out, proofread it, and headed to the kitchen. Once I had tried it out, I made the adjustments to the recipe that I had made while making it, then proofread it one last time. 

I was about to publish it, when my eye caught what I hadn't seen both the first time I proofread, and the second time.

The recipe was supposed to include 1/4 cup of honey, and definitely not 1/4 cup of horny.

Hubs comes into the den and I'm laying on the floor with my head in the bar and bottles all around me.

Me: Damn it.

Hubs: Something wrong in the bar?

Me: I lost the spiced rum.

Hubs: What do you mean you lost the spiced rum?

Me (starting to sound frantic): I lost the spiced rum, I lost the spiced rum. I cannot find the spiced rum.

Hubs: Maybe we don't have any.

Me (rolling my eyes): Of course we do. And I need the bottle for a recipe picture for my blo9g. 

Hubs: When did you last have some?

Me: Just an hour ago.

Hubs: It's 8:30 in the morning.

Me: And . . .?

Hubs (walking away): Unless it's hiding from you, I'm sure you'll find it.

About 20 minutes later:

Me (yelling to Hubs down in his man cave): Found it!
Hubs: The spiced rum?

Me: Yes, I have it.

Hubs: Where was it?

Me: In the kitchen, right next to the horny honey.

A blogger posted a picture of her new recipe, a cake. Along with, of course, a description.

Now let me just say that I'm not making fun of her, English is clearly not her first language, and I commend her for her efforts to communicate in English, which she often does, effectively.

But I really had to laugh at her explanation at using new (to her) ingredients. She said:

"I am glad I tried it. Never give up not trying and always create the cake with additional ingredients as long as it never kills you."

I'm thinking something got lost in the translation here. 

Apparently, I don't speak southern as well as I had thought. Well, not really speak it so much as understand it.

 

I was watching a true crime show, taking place in Alabama. The prosecutor, in his thick southern accent, was laying out his case. He explained that just 10 days before the murder, the victim's wife insisted that he get a new wheel.

 

A new wheel? Did she want to be sure the car was in good shape once he was gone? If it needed a new wheel, how is this evidence against her?

 

While I was trying to figure out what that meant, he showed his proof. A new will. Dated 10 days before the victim's death.

 

Ah, will. Well, that makes a hell of a lot more sense.

 

 

 

Now click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:

Menopausal Mother

What TF Sarah

Teriyaki Chicken Casserole

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 small boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

3 TBSP pineapple juice

1/4 cup soy sauce plus 1/3 cup, divided

3 TBSP brown sugar, divided

1 tsp minced garlic, divided

3/4 cup vegetable broth

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp ginger paste

1/2 tsp sesame oil

2 green onions, chopped

1 1/2 cups instant whole grain brown rice

1 large carrot

6 oz snow peas and/or snap peas

Directions:

*NOTE: the chicken can be marinated, cooked, and chopped up to 2 days in advance.

*Trim the chicken breast halves and place in a gallon size plastic bag. Whisk together the pineapple juice, 1/4 cup of the soy sauce, 1 TBSP brown sugar, and 1/2 tsp minced garlic. Pour into the bag with the chicken, refrigerate, turning now and then for 2 hours.

*Remove the chicken from the marinade, discard the marinade, and cook the chicken completely any way you choose (skillet, air fryer, grill, baked, or broiled). Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces. If using now, set aside. If precooking, refrigerate and bring to room temperature when you're ready to proceed.

*Grease a 9 X 13 casserole dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

*Sprinkle the brown rice into the bottom of the prepared dish. Shred the carrot with a potato peeler and sprinkle over the rice. Top with the pea pods and the chicken.

*Whisk together the vegetable broth, water, 1/3 cup soy sauce, 2 TBSP brown sugar, 1/2 tsp minced garlic, the ginger, sesame oil, and green onion. Pour over the casserole.

*Cover with tin foil and bake for about 40 minutes, until the rice has absorbed the liquid. Stir and serve.