Learning to Grill

Fourth of July: Grilled Food picnic!
We had the most delicious beer-and-cheese brats from the Healthy Living butcher.  Holiday foods runs out at grocery stores on the 4th, so we were lucky to get the last four they had left.
I grilled veggie burgers for those who did not want brats.
We grilled corn and veggie kebabs of mushroom, bell pepper, onion, and summer squash.
Some of the kids turned their brats into Currywurst.
And there was watermelon.

I had the ingredients for strawberry/blueberry shortcakes, and the cake part bought at the store ready to go.  But we were all so full from our evening meal we passed on them.

Costco run to restock the house after our trip, and Costco had salmon that wasn't farmed.  Sliced the fish into manageable serving-sized pieced.  Grilled it by cooking on high heat skin side UP for at least five minutes, then flipping it skin side down, lower heat, until done.  Goes without saying: clean the grill first.  And, it didn't stick and fall apart!  Well, the skin stuck a little removing it from the grill at the end, but the fish stayed together, so that was a win to repeat.  Grilled summer squash and bell pepper quartered, no kebab.

Grilled again later that week.  Brats from Costco.  Also delicious as leftovers.  Served them with bbq-seasoned yam fries, and the pescatarian had leftover salmon

Thursday the 9th: made veggie chili and took it to party potluck, and found out it's not just my family that likes that chili.  I threw in the leftover summer squash, bell pepper, and bbq yam fries, chopped up.  Our hosts grilled italian sweet sausage patties and we ate them like hamburgers: how fantastic is that?  Very.  Will copy.  Also: balsamic vinegar over watermelon, purple and orange potato salad I wish I'd gotten the recipe for, and the most creamy vegetarian lasagna ever.

Friday the 10th: Our friends came to town!  I grilled brats again (delicious but not as fancy ones from Costco) and chicken, corn, veggie kebabs, and veggie burger.  Had pretzel rolls for the grilled food, that was a hit too.  Then on to the Ben and Jerry's Factory tour.  Ordered pizza for dinner.

Saturday the 11th:  for lunch it was sandwiches, leftovers, and the girls made pasta topped with pesto.  We ate out for dinner: Vermont Tap.  Made beans in the afternoon in anticipation of making more chili.

Sunday morning: divided the muffin batter and made half blueberry muffins, and the other half apple-cheese muffins.   Still feel like the food is running low and I'm not keeping up with the cooking since we got back from vacation over a week ago.

Fish Tacos

Fish Tacos
this time: tilapia, slaw, wheat tortillas, salsa, sriacha-mayo or yogurt.
slaw: red cabbage, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper

Quick Catfish in Cornmeal

Quick Catfish in Cornmeal

Once again, picking fish at Hannaford's and looking up a recipe on my phone while the fish is wrapped.  This was good and not too involved.

Grilled Salmon

Grilled Salmon with terikaki marinade
Quinoa
Green salad with Ginger-Sesame Dressing

Grill Experiments--Salmon and Bison

Menu
Grilled Salmon
Grilled Steak
Grilled Corn (Elote)
leftover acorn squash with quinoa stuffing
green salad.

Notes:
Grilled Salmon
Heat grill up to 325 F.
took much longer than 8 minutes.

Next time:
oil the grill.  Less olive oil on Salmon.  It dipped into drum and caught fire.
It was cooked just about right! despite temperature dropping too low in the middle of cooking!
Salmon was generally appreciated.


Bison Steak
heated grill up to 325 F
cooked to 135 F.

next time:
Serve red meat again, half the kids liked it.


Elote--
Took more than half an hour to cook.
Shucked corn
turn on various sides to get them slightly charred
smear on mayo/cheese mix
served paprika/cayenne/chili powder at table for sake of anti-spice child.

Next time:
char a little less, it will be fine, and faster.
make sure cheese is cotija.
divide smear; mix paprika/chili into most smear.

Cod with Potatoes and Saffron

Baked Cod and Potatoes with Spanish Seasoning
Cucumber Salad

Cod was a good deal at Hannahford's, so I bought 1.5 pounds.  I looked at my iPhone while she wrapped it, and found this recipe:
     Baked Cod and Chorizo
"Perfect," I thought, "I bought that amazing Spanish Chorizo weeks ago, and we need to eat it before it goes bad.  And I have a couple potatoes that need to be cooked soon."  I bought some saffron to fill it out.

The seafood lady gave me some salmon as well, to encourage me to come back and buy it another day.

When I got home: problems.

• The chorizo was growing mold.  It had been waiting months, not weeks.
• I couldn't fit all the fish in the iron skillet.

My husband came to the rescue, pulled out his big iron griddle, and basically took over the seasoning and cooking.  I felt bad about this because unlike me, he'd already worked a long day, and dinner was now late for everybody.  Seasoning was the basic garlic-cumin-salt-paprika-cayenne, with some saffron threads.

I had been nervous about the potatoes really cooking in the skillet, so I had baked them an hour before.  I sliced the two baked potatoes onto the griddle with the fish so they would be seasoned too.

For a side dish, I sliced cucumber and celery in the food processor, added some grape tomatoes and sliced green onions, and dressed it with salt and little olive oil.  I was going for something halfway between Israeli Salad and Spanish salad.

The potatoes were a hit.
The fish was mostly a hit.  The saffron didn't show up though; maybe it was lost when we switched pans.
The salad was small, and entirely eaten.