Grilled Sausage with Pasta and Grilled Baby Eggplant

This is another post featuring the vegetable.  We found some baby eggplant at our farmers market and wanted to try them.  Make an olive oil wash by mixing 1/4C olive oil with 1 clove minced garlic and some fresh oregano if you have it.  If not, use dry oregano.  Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise.  Brush on the oil, garlic, oregano mix.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Grill the eggplant for about 5 min until just tender.  Add a small piece of mozzarella cheese and serve with the grilled sausage and pasta topped with your favorite italian cooking sauce.

Grilled Lamb Chops and Vegetables

This post features the vegetables, especially the sweet potatoes.  Sweet potatoes bring to mind the gooey sweet apple and  marshmallow dish from Thanksgiving.  Hate them.  This recipe, adapted from Bobby Flay, presents savory rather than sweet potatoes.  The potato is first boiled until it is just barely tender.  While it is cooking, mix olive oil, minced garlic salt and pepper and an herb in a saute pan. (Bobby suggests oregano, we used rosemary) Saute until the garlic is golden brown.  For one large potato we used 1/4C oil.  Remove the potatoes from the water, cool and slice into wedges.   Coat the potatoes with the oil mixture, skewer and grill for about out 10 min.  This is the same amount of time it takes to cook the other veggies and the lamb (5 min. on a side for med. rare).  The squash and onions were tossed with olive oil salt and pepper before grilling.  We loved the potatoes this way. 

Seafood at the Tybee Island Condo

We visited Tybee Island, Ga recently and stayed in a condo on the beach.  Instead of eating out one night we decided to cook and eat on the balcony.  It was an adventure.  We bought the fish, red snapper, and shrimp along with the potatoes, salad and broccoli and brought it back to the condo.  It was then we noticed we had no oven for baking and smashing the red skins or broiling the fish.  We also found there was no salt or pepper in the place.  So, we improvised.  The snapper was pan fried in olive oil and garlic.  Fresh lemon was squeezed on before serving.  The potatoes were boiled and drizzled with oil.  There was no whisk in the kitchen so we dressed the salad with olive oil and lemon juice and tossed it.  The shrimp were boiled.  All in all not bad, but salt would definately have brightened the flavors.  The dry white wine we drank is visible too.

Roasted Baby Vegetables and Italian Sausage

This is about as easy as it gets and, while its not fancy, the flavors are wonderful.  We found some baby veggies at our farmers market along with the tomatoes.  Coat the vegetables with olive oil and salt and pepper.  Cook them on the grill along with the sausage.  With our Weber the cooking times were just about the same with the cover on so put them on at the same time.  The squash and onions were so tasty we see no need to let them grow up.  The tomatoes were dressed with balsamic vinegar and chopped fresh basil.

Beef Sandwiches with Watercress, Tomatoes and Red Onions - Adapted from Bon Appetit 2008

The original recipe called for thinly sliced Tri-tip roast beef but we used beef round barcciole.  Start by making the marinade which is 1/2C olive oil, 6T balsamic vinegar (the recipe called for white but we were out), 1/2t dry mustard, 2T brown sugar.  Divide the marinade placing some on the beef and reserving the rest.  Clean the watercress and place it in a bowl with sliced tomatoes and thinly slice red onion (you can use raw onion or saute it briefly in olive oil).  Place the vegetables in the marinade while you grill the beef.  The barcciole are very thin and require little more than flopping them on the hot grill and turning them.  Serve along with the veggies on grilled Artisan Bread.

The green beans were mixed with some thinly sliced red onion, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.  They then go into a grilling basket and onto the Weber.  Toss gently to prevent burning.  Serve the marinade as a dressing for the sandwiches.  Delicious with a big red wine.

Fish Tacos with Black Bean Salad

This is a totally new taste for use easterners but you in the west may have had them.  This pre-sentation is a melding of several recipes that we read.  Start with some firm white fish filets; we used catfish but cod or snapper would work nicely too.  Make a beer batter by mixing 3/4C flour with enough beer to make a light batter.  Season with salt and pepper and add 1T Chipotle Tabasco if you wish.  Dip the filets in the batter and fry in hot vegetable oil until golden brown.  You could also grill or broil the fish.  Make a sauce by mixing equal portions of GOOD salsa with sour cream.  Serve the fish with sauce topped with shredded cabbage and chopped fresh cilantro on corn tortillas; squeeze on some fresh lime juice too.

For the salad, mix drained and rinsed canned black beans with 1/4C diced celery, 1/4C diced carrot, 1/4C diced tomato, 1/4t ground cumin, 1T chopped fresh oregano, 3T olive oil and the juice of 1/2 lime.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pork Chops with Peach Chutney, Pasta Salad and Steamed Broccoli

These recipes have been here before except for the chutney or salsa.  Once again, the pork chops are from Costco which we feel are hands down the best chops available.  We made the "condiment" (2 generous servings) which we call a chutney by peeling and dicing one peach.  Mix the peach with one green onion, thinly sliced, 3T chopped fresh mint, 3T chopped fresh cilantro, 1t fresh lemon juice and 1t of Chipotle Tabasco sauce.  This Tabasco is not firey hot but does add a nice smokey flavor.  Mix all the ingregients and refrigerate to allow the flavors to blend.  The chops were grilled on the Weber for about 7 min on a side but the time will vary depending on the thickness of yours.

For the pasta (2 servings), cook 3/4C dry elbows to your preferred doneness.  Mix with 1/2C mayo, diced celery and carrot and some sliced black olives.  Season with salt and pepper.  

The broccoli was steamed as usual.

We think the peach chutney goes well with the chops