Grilling weather...

We topped out at 26 degrees today.  Grilling weather!!

I have been watching the forecast, looking for an opportunity to do some grilling.  For one, I needed to roast the eggplant for Sandra's birthday meal on Saturday, and Saturday is not forecasted to be grilling weather.  For another, I am in dire need for some more grilled chicken, being in the throes of withdrawal.  And, well, I have been longing to try this recipe I spotted a while ago, Grilled Nectarine Salad.

Doesn't that look tasty???  Now, if you follow the recipe link and then click on the source link you will see that I ascribe to the layering method of salad building rather than the artfully-arranged method.  You will also note that I made the recipe into one of my meal salads, instead of just a side dish.

Michelle endured as my cupbearer again, even falling on her sword to say she could have less Gorganzola cheese since it is so darned expensive.  By cupbearer, this time, I meant she had to eat the whole meal with me, taking the first bite.  Her willingness to forego complete Gorganzola balancing smote me, so I ended up putting more on her plate.  Gorganzola is not a poor person's cheese.  However, I kept a portion for the next few days, when I finish off the other two nectarines, cut the rest of the cheese in two more portions, and then froze it.  That way, I can try other Gorganzola dishes later.

The funny thing is that I have recipe that I want to try which calls for Champagne vinegar.  I could not find it, at first, and so I bought white wine vinegar, thinking that might be close.  I did find the Champagne vinegar on Tuesday, so I had planned on returning the white wine vinegar.  However, the nectarine recipe ended up needing it!  Fortuitous, eh?

Having successfully grilled at 25 degrees, that is my bench mark for winter grilling weather.  Today, we managed 26 degrees, though it was forecasted to get to 30.  I am trying not to resent Mother Nature for her attempt to thwart my plans.  After all, I was able to roast the eggplant (and freeze it for Saturday), grill two large chicken breasts, grill the nectarines, and make another attempt at grilling pineapple.

My sous-chef slathered olive oil on both sides of the pineapple for me.  I got the idea of using the olive oil to prevent burning since that is what I had to do for the nectarines.  However, I learned the hard way that you should wait to brush the other side with olive oil until just before you turn it rather than to try and do all the olive oil application as prep work.

Three of my pieces had enough residual olive oil that prevented burning after flipping.  Four did not.  SIGH.  Why is it that I find grilled pineapple so bloody tasty???

Anyway, I also decided to make roasted garlic butter for myself and the long-overdue container for Marie and her beloved.  Mostly, this neglected task came to mind since Michelle offered a slice of homemade bread to accompany our salads and some of the roasted garlic butter I had made her.  Man, I forgot how incredibly tasty that stuff is!

And, then, I decided to go whole hog on food production and make more of the peanut butter honey truffles, some naan and flour tortilla dough, and some cinnamon apple muffins, since I have those two older apples still.

Of course, if you run the dishwasher after your mid-day feast, you might be hard pressed to make things that require a measuring spoon.

At least these didn't need one ... mostly.  Am I weird that it annoyed me a bit that I was one short for a perfect tray??  No, it did not go in my stomach.  I just rolled 55 of them.  I made a double batch, and then added an extra half cup of oats to the recipe because it seemed a tiny bit too sticky.

I put them outside to set, since it is so very conveniently cold, then packaged almost all of them away in one of my dessert containers ... but really these are snacks.  Hmm...  I made my cupbearer try one when she got home since these were my first batch all by myself.  I passed muster.  Yeah, Myrtle!

After that, it was time to pick out all the roasted cloves of garlic and mix up the two batches of garlic butter.  And, if you cannot already tell, my steam was running out.  I was very glad that Michelle got home from her outing and, thus, I had an excuse to cease food production.  I did empty the dishwasher though.  Those measuring spoons are ready for the morrow.

• Thai Honey Peanut Chicken
• Smoky Roasted Cauliflower (what am I thinking????)
• Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

Does that sound like a good slate of menus for Cookin' with Marie???  Maybe tomorrow night I can get to the naan dough and the cinnamon apple muffins.  Really, the tortilla dough could wait since I still have some store tortillas.  I just sort of liked the idea of my bread shelf in the freezer all filled up with dough balls.

Silly, Myrtle.
Who are you now???


I am Yours, Lord.  Save me!