Last Night’s Dinner- Finally a cooking post!

Posted: 2011/07/31 | Author: Lola | Filed under: Cooking | Tags: Alkaline Trio, Basil, Cooking, Garlic, Mozzarella, Olive oil, Shallot |Leave a comment

In the next 48 hours I will see not one but two Alkaline Trio live shows.    For the next 3 days, The Husband and I will be ALONE and FAR AWAY from  MiniMe and The Destroyer.    Before I get to take advantage of all that time away I had to make sure the house, and kids and etc was taken care of.   So last night I totally sent The Husband to Sam’s  Club and stole making dinner from him.   I am a fabulous cook. But ever since the reconciliation  I have found myself relegated to sous chef in my house.   One of the ways The Husband coped and relaxed during the almost divorce was to cook.   Before we  split up we used to both cook fairly evenly.  There is debate on who is the better cook.  He is by far the better baker, I am better at sauces. He is  an amazing smoker chef as well.  The place where I excel though is taking what’s left in the house  that seems like nothing and making an amazing meal with it.   That’s because of the way my mind works when I cook.  When I’m deciding what to make for dinner this is what I do.

I take a look at what we have in the fridge or what I need need to use up, and then I just start thinking about what sounds good with it. It’s pretty simple really. Just add some flavor you are craving and voila dinner.  Sorry if the pics line up wonky, but I’m done messing with it.

Last night’s  dinner started with the Italian marinade chicken, fresh local green beans, beets, garden slicing tomatoes, and spicy  field greens. Even better, other than the salad and corn, everything  was being grilled.  Chicken was simply done in a an Italian marinade of The Husbands concoction and grilled for about 8-10 min per side.

Grilled Beets:Chop of tops and roots. Wash, peel, slice in about 1/4-1/2 slices. lightly coat in olive oil.  Grill for about 8-12 minutes a side, flip repeat until done.   Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Grilled Green Beans with garlic and shallots:I rinsed and broke the stem ends off of the beans. A few of them I broke bad spots off. The bean’s got a light coating of olive oil in a cookie sheet. Then I peeled and sliced the shallots, garlic pressed the  fresh garlic on top of that. Sort of cut, mashed it all in with some sea salt, then tossed it with the beans and oil.   I  put the beans on the grill after the beets were flipped and left them in there for the remainder of the cooking time, about another 8-10 minutes or so.

Garden Tomato, Basil and Fresh Mozzarella salad:Slice the farmers market or garden tomatoes and leave them sit at room temperature.  Go pick some Basil form you garden and layer the rinsed and bruised basil leaves and fresh mozzarella between the slices.  Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Serve over field or other spicy greens.

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Corn on the cob and Garlic Naan:We also had corn to use up and Garlic Naan in the freezer.  Corn I just husked and trimmed and boiled for about ten minutes. Naan went onto the cookie sheet after the beans came off to get some of the left behind garlic and shallots. Then onto the grill at the end.

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The Final Result:  Grilled chicken, beets, beans and garlic naan. With  Caprese salad, corn on the cob.  Oh and  Friday’s Blackberry cobbler (also made by me) for dessert:

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