I am a Grill Master

So, I'm a grill master...it's official. I got off work early the other day and Ryan was super busy with school so I decided to cook him dinner. We have a little market in Mt. Lookout Square and I went in a while ago and wasn't really impressed. The market has a hodge podge of things from frozen dinner, to deli meat, to fresh veggies and wine. It also smells a little weird, but I think it's the combo of ingredients they carry. Anyway, I digress, I decided to try it out again and see what they had. The veggies they had left were a little banged up, but I found the best zucchini and yellow squash yet and 2 butterfly pork chops.

When I got home I told Ryan to continue studying and I would handle everything. I seasoned the pork chops with with salt and pepper, lemon pepper seasoning and a little red pepper flake. I sliced the yellow squash and zucchini in long strips and drizzled with olive and added some salt and pepper.

We had tons of pasta leftover from the last post so I just reheated that and also used the leftover balsamic dressing from the last post. We also saved the grilled onion from the last post and I put that in a saute pan with a few whole cloves of garlic and softened them up. The garlic helped them season it a bit more and we also added the balsamic dressing to the onions.

I rarely operate the grill (that is usually Ryan's department while I work on another part of the meal) but I have to pat myself on the back, I did a really good job. The pork chops were well seasoned and very moist and the grilled zucchini and squash were amazing. After I took them off the grill I poured the balsamic dressing over it and they just absorb all of the dressing and create a wonderful dressing. The pasta reheated very nicely too.

My dinner turned out really good, Ryan really enjoyed it and was happy not to have to help so he could work on his studies.

Saturday Night Dinner in 30 minutes

Ryan and I made a great dinner on Saturday. I'm going to go ahead and take credit for the recipe because I went grocery shopping Saturday morning and picked up a few things and came up with this meal: Sweet and Spicy Chicken sausage with baked redskin potatoes, zucchini and squash over fresh spinach. yum!

I have posted the baked redskin potato recipe before (click here)and I mistakenly said they were roasted redskin potatoes, but they are, in fact, baked. Anyway, they have to bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, so we started prepping. I washed and scraped out the eyes of each potato and quartered them and put them in a large bowl. I usually make this with peppers and onions, but I thought I'd mix things up a bit and so Ryan chopped yellow squash and zucchini and added it to the bowl with the redskin potatoes. Ryan also chopped 1 and 1/2 white onions and added them to the bowl. My only tip for preparing this dish is to make sure all of the ingredients are chopped in to equal size pieces so everything cooks evenly. I coated the ingredients generously with olive oil and added a lot of diced garlic, salt and pepper, dried basil, dried parsley, and crushed red pepper. That went on a foil-lined baking sheet and in the oven at 425 degrees for about 2o minutes. Another tip for this recipe is to make sure the potatoes, squash, zucchini and onion are spread out on the baking sheet. Check after about 10 minutes and stir the ingredients a little so each side can be baked.

After we checked on the potatoes and vegetables and stirred them, Ryan started on the chicken sausages. We have had a variation of these before, and I think they are nice to have every now and then. There are so many kinds of gourmet sausages and it's fun to try them out. Ryan cooked the sausages on a grill pan for about 15 minutes until they were browned slightly on the outside and warmed through.

While everything was cooking I came up with the idea of serving the baked potatoes and vegetables over fresh spinach. To add another kick of flavor, I drizzled balsamic vinegar over the "salad" and also added some lemon juice. The sausages were incredibly moist and I really liked the sweet and spicy flavor. The salad was a nice surprise, the balsamic paired nicely with the potatoes and zucchini and squash. It was a great Saturday night dinner that only took about 30 minutes to make! Take that Rachael Ray...