Grilling Time

Last week Friday was a beautiful start to Spring. The temperatures reached into the 60s by mid-day and the sun was shining. Unfortunately the weather didn’t look like it was going to stay for long and Wisconsin was going to be back into the 40s the next day.

So…..being the hostess that I love being, I texted my friend group and invited them over for my first grill out of the year. How I host a grill out is that everyone brings their own meat to grill and a side to share. I handle the grilling and supply a side myself, and then we eat, drink and talk about life. It sounded like I was going to have a great turnout and the Badgers were also playing that night in the NCAA Tournament and although I don’t have cable, the bar nearby did, so we planned to walk there after dinner. 

I did a test run earlier that week with my grill. I hadn’t been able to use it all winter because of a massive snowdrift on my patio. So when that finally melted, I opened up the gas on the grill, turned the knob and on the second try, it started right up. I planned to test the grill on marinated chicken breasts – thanks Sendik’s. And for the side, I sliced up some veggies I had in the house, added some seasonings and grilled those as well.

The grill did it’s job and cooked up the chicken perfectly. Last year, I bought a vegetable grill pan and it is my favorite piece of grilling gear. It is a metal pan and has small holes in it to release the moisture from the veggies but not have the veggies fall through.

Once everything was grilled up, I packaged it in my 9 X 13 pan with a lid and headed to my guy’s place.  Have dinner, will deliver!

He was so surprised with what I brought for dinner. The pan kept the food warm and steamy so it didn’t drive out on my short drive. Everything was delicious and we had happy bellies at the end.

Here’s my veggie recipe:
Use any veggies you like that are great to grill – potatoes, asparagus, peppers, zuchinni, onion, carrots.
If you are using potatoes and carrots, they tend to take a little longer to grill than other veggies. I helped them out by steaming them in the microwave for a few minutes before grilling them.

Chop everything into bite-size pieces. Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar. Add some Montreal steak seasoning and garlic powder. (I didn’t have onion to grill up so I added a dash of onion powder as well). Add a dash of salt and pepper, toss the veggies around to coat and you are ready to grill them. I would suggest stirring the veggies around on the grill every 3 minutes or so to prevent pieces from burning. The EVOO helps prevent sticking but if you don’t want to add the oil, spray both the veggies and the pan with cooking spray first.

When the veggies are done, transfer them to a bowl and add a Tbsp of butter to them. (You can skip this step).