Dinner on the Grill

I love to grill.  Seriously.  I use the grill whenever I can because I feel like it just makes everything that much yummier.  I decided that I would show you a delicious dinner that I made the other night and show you a couple of pointers that maybe you already know, but maybe you don't.

I found this marinade at the grocery store the other day and YOU GUYS, this stuff is amazing!  Seriously!  It made the chicken tender, flavorful, and so so good.  Anything you get from Famous Dave's is going to be good.  I especially love their signature spicy pickles.  If you like pickles, you MUST try these.  They are the best on hamburgers.  Trust me.  You will never go back to ordinary pickles on hamburgers again.  It's the same with their signature spicy relish. It is the best on brats or hot dogs.

(They aren't even paying me to say this.  I just REALLY like it and thought I would pass it along.)

Moving on.  I decided to grill up some chicken tenderloins, pineapple, and some zucchini that was straight from my garden. It was all so good.  Here's a couple of tips.  When grilling, I always spray my grill with the Pam grill spray first.  It makes it so that the food doesn't stick to the grill.  

If you're cooking pineapple, sprinkle it with brown sugar before hand.  It makes it extra tasty. 

To cook zucchini, sprinkle it with olive oil, salt, and pepper before you stick it on the grill.  It helps to enhance the flavors.

The chicken will be the most tender if you cook it at a lower temperature for a longer time.  I know that sometimes I get impatient waiting for the chicken to cook and am tempted to crank up the heat, but this will just dry it out.  Keep the temp at around 300 degrees on the grill.  Also, don't pierce your chicken.  It is tempting to do it to test if it is cooked through or not, but it will make all the juices flow out of it and make it so that it isn't as delicious and moist. 

 There's a couple of tips for you and hopefully they were useful!  What you have in the end is a delicious and healthy meal for your family.

A Recipe for a Perfect Valentines Dinner

My husband loves pizza.  Not just any pizza, pepperoni pizza.  He would eat it everyday if he could.  So, for Valentines Day, I decided to skip the steak and shrimp and I went with Pizza instead.  To make it extra festive, I cut the pepperoni into hearts using a cookie cutter. 

Valentine's dinner wouldn't be complete without Martinelli's Sparkling Cider.

 I also had a cute little helper making the pizza right along with me.  I think Lillie got more flour on her than on the counter, but it was a fun dinner to have her help me with.  She ate the pepperoni as I would cut it, and would also help me knead the dough.  It made me think that I should let her help me more often.  Hmmm...maybe I should make her an apron too.  Watch for that in an upcoming post :)

(These pants are supposed to be all purple :))

What about you?  Did you have any fun Valentine's dinner ideas this year?  I would love to hear about it!

P.S.  I decided to make a facebook page for Just Between Friends.  There is a like button on my sidebar.  You can follow me on facebook, or not.  I won't ever require you to do it for a contest or anything.  I just thought it would be a fun way to get to know my readers!  Can't wait to see you over there!

Teriyaki Chicken

I meant to make something yummy for dinner last night, but it just wasn't in the cards.  So you are really going to see what I made for dinner tonight.  I am going to admit that I have made this recipe before and it is a family favorite.  It seriously is the best teriyaki sauce that I have ever tasted.  Ever.

Here is the recipe from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook.  (best cookbook ever)

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs trimmed (I actually used boneless, and it still works great.)

Pepper

2 tsp. Vegetable oil

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup sugar

2 TBS mirin, sweet sherry, or dry white wine

2 tsp. grated ginger

1 garlic clove minced

1/2 tsp. cornstarch

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

1. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season with pepper.  Heat the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking.  Add chicken, skin-side down.

2. Weigh down chicken with a heavy pot.  Cook until the skin is a deep mahogany brown and very crisp, 15 to 20 min.  (the chicken should be moderately brown after 10 min.  If it is very brown, reduce the heat; if it is still pale, increase the heat)

3. Remove the weight and flip the chicken over.  Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook, without the weight, until the second side is brown and the chicken is thoroughly cooked about 10 min.

4. Meanwhile, whisk the soy sauce, sugar, mirin, ginger, garlic, cornstarch, and pepper flakes together.

5. Transfer the chicken to a plate.  Pour off all of the fat from the skillet.  Whisk the soy mixture to recombine, then add to the skillet and return to medium heat.  Return the chicken to skillet, skin-side up, and spoon sauce over the top.  Continue to summer until the sauce is thick and glossy, about 2 min more.

6.  Eat it up. yum. yum.

Here it is cooking

Yummy.

Dig in!

Make it for your family.  Trust me.  Your family will thank me.

Shrimp Scampi

I am NOT off to a very good start.  I thought this was going to be the most amazing dish, and while it did taste good, I messed up.  It doesn't look too appetizing because of my mistake. 

I chose Shrimp Scampi because we love shrimp.  My husband used to hate shrimp until he married into my family.  Now he loves it. 

Anyway, here is the recipe.  It is from the Taste of Home cookbook (I got it for Christmas from my little sister).  I only used 1/2 of what the recipe calls for though because I only needed to feed 3.

Here it is cooking.  This is where I made my mistake.  (duh)  I think what I did wrong was I let the butter melt in the pot like I was supposed to, but then let it get too hot.  That made it so that the whole thing turned dark.  It was just overcooked.  So my advice to you if you are still going to chance it and try it, is; Don't overcook it.

I am going to try it again sometime because like I said, it tasted good.  I think it could taste AND look GREAT if I would have cooked it right.  I guess this is what it's all about though.  You gotta learn from your cooking mistakes. (or you could just learn from mine.)

My rating: 1-5 stars (5 being good)

The recipe........4 stars. (only because it still tasted good)

My cooking skills.... -1 stars.