Grilling!!!

One night last weekend, Ryan and I decided to grill out. We stopped at Kroger on our way home from a day at the lake with his extended family. When we walked in we saw some pre-made kabobs so that gave us the idea... we decided to make our own. Nothing to fancy, just meat, peppers, onions, zucchini and squash. As we walked through the produce section, I couldn't resist a tub of fresh pineapple chunks. Grilled pineapple sounded heavenly, and it was.

Here is our basic recipe.

Beef and Veggie Kabobs

1 - 1.5 lb beef (we got the pre-cut kind)

1 zucchini

1 squash

1 green bell pepper

1 sweet onion

2 cups fresh pineapple chunks

Tony's Cajun Seasoning

Garlic Pepper

Worcestershire Sauce

Tabasco Sauce - Smokey flavor

Slice vegetables in bite sized pieces

Season the meat with Tony's, Garlic Pepper, a few shakes of the Worcestershire and Tabasco.

Sprinkle zucchini and squash with Tony's and Garlic Pepper

Skewer all meat and veggies. We have found that skewering with one item per skewer works best since some things take longer to cook. We also have this nifty skewer set with a stand that allows for the food to not sit directly on the grill.

Place food on hot grill and cook until done. I don't know how long, we just watch it and hope it doesn't burn.

This latest "kabobbing" attempt turned out fantastic. Our grill wasn't big enough for both trays of skewers so the pineapple was dessert. Mmmmm, I could eat grilled pineapple several times a week!

When we grill, Ryan likes to make stuffed jalapenos or stuffed mushrooms. He was in the mood for mushrooms so that's what he made. This is one of those recipes that isn't really a recipe. We just make the cheese stuffing up as we go...

Stuffed Mushrooms

Whole mushrooms, stems removed

1 block cream cheese

grated cheese (Mexican blend, cheddar, Parmesan, mozzarella, whatever you like)

garlic pepper

Tony's Cajun Seasoning

Mix the cheeses and seasonings. Our only advice is to start small and add more of each ingredient as you taste test. Don't go overboard on the Tony's because it makes it really salty.

Fill mushrooms with cheese mixture. Leftover cheese mixture makes a great dip with Wheat Thins.

Place on grill, on indirect heat, until cheese is melted and mushrooms are soft.

We are looking forward to our new house, with a nice, new, bigger grill! Too bad that's over a year away!

Beer Can Chicken

How do you get a husband that doesn't like chicken to eat chicken? Cook it with beer! I had often heard people talk about "Beer Can Chicken"... one of my High School friend's families called it "Beer Butt Chicken" which is really an appropriate term.

Sometime after we got married, I decided to give it a try. I had heard that the hardest thing was getting the chicken to stand up on the grill which always made me nervous. I was at Wal-Mart one day and found a little stand that is made specifically for beer can chicken, so I bought it and it's great.

What is so fantastic about cooking the chicken this way is that it stays VERY moist. Even though the chicken takes an hour to cook, its not dry. This is always Ryan's biggest complaint about chicken, that it's dry. Not the case with Beer Can Chicken!

There are probably many ways to season the chicken but this is what I do.



Beer Can Chicken
1 whole fryer chicken (about 4lbs)
1 can of beer, your choice
Tony's Seasoning
Garlic Pepper
Vegetable Oil

Preheat grill so that the coals/flames are on the outside of the grill. Chicken will drip lots of grease so you don't want it on the coals.

Drink (or pour out -- gasp) 1/2 can of beer. Carefully cut open beer can so it has a larger opening. Be careful -- don't cut yourself.



Remove all insides of the chicken and rinse the chicken. Pat chicken down with a paper towel to dry off some.

Rub chicken with vegetable oil, inside and out.

Sprinkle/rub chicken with Tony's and Garlic Pepper, inside and out.

If you have the little stand, place the can of beer in the stand. Place the chicken down on top of the can, so that can goes INSIDE the chicken. The chicken will be standing up-right, with legs at bottom, wings at top.

Place chicken on grill and cook for 1 hour or until it reads 180 on a meat thermometer.



I have no tips on how to cut the chicken up. I just do my best to get the breasts off and then cut off the drumsticks. It's not a pretty sight. I won't be going on any sort of cooking show anytime soon!