Last night I made some beef kabobs, adding some mushrooms, onions, green pepper and cherry tomatoes to the skewers.

Marinating with Food Saver

I marinated the beef in the recipe from Saving Dinner but used this Food Saver vacuum marinating dish to speed up the process. I also marinated the veggies for an hour or so in some vinaigrette.

• 3/4 cup dry sherry
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 tsps ground ginger
• 1 onion, minced (I left this out)
• 2-3 pound flank steak or top round or chuck, trimmed of fat and cut in 1″ cubes

Mix everything but the steak together in a small bowl. Cut up your beef and put in a shallow dish and cover with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. (The vacuum thing really does seem to help somehow, as I only marinated the meat for about an hour and it was fantastic!)

In a separate bowl, combine:

• onion wedges
• cherry tomatoes
• green and/or red pepper slices
• mushrooms

Beef and Vegetable Kabobs

Marinate in a simple oil and vinegar dressing while the meat marinates.

If you’re using wooden skewers, soak in water at least half an hour before cooking.

Thread the meat and vegetables on the skewers and cook on the grill 8-12 minutes, depending on how well you like your meat done.

Goes great with rice.

Here are the week’s menu suggestions for the week that includes the kabobs.

Restaurant Style Chinese Chicken

Poached Salmon with Creamy Horseradish Sauce

Cincinnati Chili

Great Greek Salad

Beef Kabobs

Lemon Roast Chicken

There are also do-ahead tips, a nice section of side dish recipes at the back, and a section on freezer cooking with four mini-sessions of chicken, beef, pork and shrimp recipes. (The freezer recipes are not casseroles and stuff you just reheat, but dinner “kits” of things like marinated chicken or chicken with artichoke sauce, shrimp creole and pork fajitas. When I used to use my freezer more, that’s exactly what made the most sense to me. I didn’t want to reheat frozen casseroles and call it dinner.)

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

My youngest loves pulled pork sandwiches and asked that I add them to the menu this week. The pork shoulder was not on sale, but even so, it’s still very cheap per serving.

I’ve got a couple of different recipes for pulled pork. This had a less tomato-ey base than I’d hoped for so I’d love to hear your recipes!  Still, this was good! Especially so with the homemade hamburger buns I made.

• 1 T oil
• 2 chopped onions
• 6 minced garlic cloves
• 1 T chili powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 12 oz chili sauce (1 small bottle)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1 T Worcestershire
• 3 lb. pork shoulder

Heat the oil in a skillet while you chop the onions. Add the garlic when it’s chopped and cook until the onions are soft, 5 minutes or so. Add the chili powder, black pepper, chili sauce, brown sugar, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a simmer, stirring. Turn off the heat.

There’s usually a large piece of fat covering the bottom of the pork shoulder. Cut that off and discard. There’s  plenty of other fat in the roast to keep it all moist!  Put the roast in the Crockpot.  Pour the sauce over the top and turn to either low or high, depending on how long you have.

High will take about  6 hours.

Low will take 6-12 hours depending on how new your slow cooker is! (New ones cook at a higher heat and will take less time.

I always turn my roast over about halfway through, just so it’s all getting cooked in the sauce.

When it’s done, use two forks to turn it into shreds, pulling the meat apart in the slow cooker or pulling chunks out onto a plate if that’s easier. Let the pulled pork simmer in the sauce until you’re ready to eat.

Serve atop homemade hamburger buns or some other split bread or bun.

Goes great with coleslaw. Here a few of my favorites:

• Corn and Cabbage Salad
• Coleslaw with Peppers but no Mayonnaise

I just realized I haven’t posted my standard mayonnaise based coleslaw recipe!

Cut whatever fat you can off the pork shoulder or pork roast. You won’t get it all for sure, but you can eliminate the big pieces of it.  If yours is tied together with twine, as mine was, just cut the twine away. You WANT the pork to fall apart!  Pour about a cup of barbecue sauce on it, your favorite bottled variety or your own homemade, and cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for much longer. You want to be able to pull it apart with two forks, so you want it really well done and soft and falling apart.

To serve, I usually add more barbecue sauce as the sauce in the slow cooker has been thinned down so much. Stir in the sauce and heat through, then serve on buns. Goes great with coleslaw on the side or in the sandwich.

I’ve got this recipe for coleslaw without the mayonnaise or you can mix up some dressing along the lines of:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 Tbs cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbs celery seeds

Adjust the sugar/salt/vinegar ratio to suit your tastebuds.

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 3 Tbs brown sugar
• 3 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp liquid smoke (optional)

Mix it all up and simmer very slowly, stirring now and then, for 30 minutes or so.

• 1/2 cup steak sauce (I used Country Bob’s but I think A1 would be similar)
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette (make your own or I used Paul Newman’s)
• 2 cloves minced garlic

I marinated them for just an hour or two, then grilled about 4-5 minutes per side (about 1″ thick). Yum!

Served them up with:

• marinated cucumber salad
• sliced tomatoes with olive oil and some herb mix sprinkled on top
• microwaved corn on the cob (leave it in the husk, microwave a few minutes, then husk it. The strings will come right off!)
• baked potatoes

A fantastic summer dinner. I forgot to take pictures though…

Lemon Butter and Herb Chicken

lemon butter chicken

For tonight, I’m doing a quick twenty minute marinade in a butter, lemon juice and herb sauce then basting and barbecuing. This came from an Orlando Sentinel article with 5 recipes for chicken quarters.   There are several good sounding recipes there so go check it out. I’m using fresh rosemary just picked from the garden. Mmm…. the scent alone makes you hungry!  I roughly halved their recipe and am cooking 2 legs and 3 thighs.

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• juice from half a lemon
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 tablespoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried savory
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• a healthy sprinkling of black pepper

Barbecued lemon herb chicken

Melt the butter, add the seasonings. Reserve some for basting and pour the rest over the chicken. Let sit 20 minutes or so, then grill until done, basting now and then. Cook over medium heat for about an hour.  It took me years to learn that chicken barbecues better over a lower heat for a longer time.

El Pollo Loco Chicken

This is another recipe from America’s Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family’s Favorite Restaurants. I’ll let you know tomorrow how it turns out, as I’m marinating the chicken pieces overnight and will grill them tomorrow.  The marinade reads well though!  And smelled good…  The recipe called for 1 cup olive oil. I’m not sure I would use good olive oil, or that much, if the cost is a consideration.  This made a LOT of marinade, more than enough for a whole chicken cut up into 8 pieces.  I’m using 7-8 chicken legs and thighs.

• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1 cup oil
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce

We’ve got fresh tomatoes for salsa, ripe avocados for guacamole and fresh cilantro in the garden so I’m planning on some nice chicken with tortillas, guacamole, and salsa tomorrow tonight. I’ll probably cook up some beans and rice too.

Related recipes:

• pinto beans
• black beans
• Spanish rice
• salsa

My daughter wanted a “simple” barbecue, that is hot dogs and hamburgers. But we were inviting lots of adults, including a few vegetarians and a few who eat no pork.   So first off, I bought all-beef hot dogs. I also decided to buy preformed hamburger patties to save time since we had a few other things going on around the same time.  I decided to add some chicken breasts and a few portobello mushrooms as well.  The hardest part was deciding about how many of each thing to plan on for 45 – 50 people. I figured two hot dogs per person and figured on about half hot dogs, slightly more than half hamburgers, half a dozen mushrooms, and a large tray pack of chicken breasts. (Note: I marinated the chicken breasts in my favorite chicken marinade and split them into two bags. I had one bag left over at the end so just froze them in smaller packs of 2 breasts per bag with some marinade in each bag.  I also had leftover hamburgers, still frozen, and leftover hot dogs, easy to throw in the freezer for later, so those will all get used up.)  We cooked a bit more than we ate last night but had hot dogs for lunch and green salad with sliced chicken and the leftover mushroom sliced up for dinner.

The menu I ended up with was:

• hot dogs
• hamburgers
• barbecued chicken breasts
• barbecued portobello mushrooms
• vegetarian baked beans
• potato salad (homemade and brought by my niece)
• pasta salad with veggies (homemade and brought by my niece)
• Chinese chicken salad (homemade and brought by my girls’ stepmom by request)
• fruit salad
• green salad

For appetizers we had:

• hummus and crackers (brought by a friend)
• chips and salsa (brought by a friend)
• veggies wraps (olives, red peppers, cream cheese, spinach leaves, grated carrots)
• spinach dip (bought at Costco) and French bread cubes
• pretzels and crackers and various dips and cream cheese (my youngest talked me into some raspberry chipolte sauce we sampled at Costco and I had some wasabi mustard dip I’d bought a while back)

And I bought a large sheet cake for dessert. This ended up at about $1 per person and was far better tasting and looking than I could have done! For smaller groups, I would have made dessert but for larger ones this works out great.

Oh I also made two large relish plates for the burgers which included a head of iceberg lettuce, sliced onions, sliced pickles, and sliced tomatoes. Ended up with leftover onions and tomatoes but those will easily get used up in various things or I can always just chop and freeze the onions.

I haven’t added up the cost but my main point was that you need to balance the time you have availalable and figure out what things might make sense to buy pre-made. While I normally make our namburger patties, for a large party I felt good about my decision to buy the preformed ones. Likewise the spinach dip. But I bought fresh fruit and made the fruit salad based on what looked good and ripe at the store (strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, watermelon, grapes and nectarines).  A neighbor was kind enough to loan me some fridge space (as well as outdoor table and chairs) so I made the salad up in the morning and refrigerated it till the party started. I did the same with the relish plates for the burgers.

Oh, for the bean dish I took this four bean casserole recipe in the crockpot and modified it to use vegetarian baked beans intead of the pork and beans and then left out the bacon. It was just as delicious as the original I think and might become my new standard since it’s a bit healthier.

Any of you have tips to share for large parties? This was fun but the largest one I’ve done that wasn’t a total potluck, although I did have some help as noted.  I don’t have an extra frig or freezer as some folks do so the neighbors’ offer of their spare frig space was a lifesaver. Same with the tables and chairs I borrowed. Oh, we did buy plastic table cloths to cover all the tables so they looked coordinated by the time we were done!  We bought a dozen helium ballons and tied a few to each table.  We lucked out with fantastic weather and I think the party was a success.

• chopped red lettuce
• alfalfa sprouts
• sliced radishes
• chopped avocado
• sliced mushrooms

The steak was a small tri tip strip I’d frozen previously. After thawing it, I put a bit of olive oil on it, then sprinkled both sides with seasoned pepper and garlic salt.  Barbecued about 4 minutes each side, let rest while I finished the salad, the sliced thinly.    I have some bottled dressings left over from various parties so I didn’t even make the salad dressing.

Great quick and filling dinner.  Plus I’ve got leftovers for lunch tomorrow, always a bonus.

For each head of garlic, cut the tips off to open up the cloves.  So if you don’t grow garlic, you may wonder “What are the tips?”  The opposite of the root end!  Basically, the cloves grow up into a point and the green shoots rise up out of the ground from the pointy end. So the tips you want to cut off come to a point. (And if you haven’t grown garlic, try it!  it’s so easy! Where I live, in the SF bay area, we plant towards the end of October and harvest towards the end of June. Each year, I set aside my largest heads to replant so I basically haven’t bought garlic in however many years I’ve grown it. I’ve yet to run out before the next crop is ready.)

So preheat the oven to 375 and cut enough off the tips of the bulbs to expose most of the heads. Find a baking dish just large enough to fit all the heads you want to bake. Rub a bit of olive oil along the bottom of the dish and place the heads cut side up in there. Pour just a bit of olive oil across the top of each head.  Bake 20-30 minutes, testing that the cloves are done by poking a toothpick into the exposed side. They should be soft.

Use in dishes like Potato Soup with Roast Garlic, use for a softer garlic bread, make a fantastic baked Brie appetizer by spreading some roast garlic, olive oil and pine nuts across the Brie, barbecue some fish with roast garlic and butter and lemon juice in a foil pan, mix in with some mashed potatoes, …  The options are nearly endless!

What’s your favorite way to use roast garlic?

So tonight I thought I’d experiment with their Carolina Chili Dogs. These were very good and I think a nice option to add for a cookout when you’re doing burgers and dogs.  They suggested that Southeners preferred their chili finely ground. To get this texture, they suggested cooling the mixture 20 minutes or so and then using your blenders or food processor. I just pulled out my immersion blender (love that thing!) and it did the trick just perfectly!  I used a pound of ground beef rather than their 1.5 p0unds because that’s what I had. And I upped the Worcestershire from 2 tsp to 1 Tbs because (a) I’d just used the tablespoon and b) we like Worcestershire.

• 1 pound ground beef (extra lean)
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 cups water
• 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 Tbs chili powder
• 1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp vinegar (cider or white)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Put the water and ground beef in a Dutch oven or soup pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Peel and chop the onion while waiting for this to boil.  Add the onion, reduce the heat to medium, and stir to break up the meat a bit.

Add the tomato paste, ketchup, chili powder, Worcestershire, vinegar, salt and pepper and stir until the tomato paste is dissolved and everything is mixed well, breaking up the meat chunks as you go.

Simmer over low heat about 15 minutes, until very thick, stirring now and then.

Serve on hot dogs with grated Cheddar cheese if you want chili cheese dogs. They didn’t suggest that so maybe it’s not a Carolina thing, but around here you get chili cheese dogs if you get chili on hot dogs.

NOTE: If you like boiling ground beef, I’d think you could reduce the water a bit and skip the blending because the ground beef will already be fairly fine.

You can definitely make the chili ahead of time and freeze in portions that your family will find useful. They suggest 2 Tbs per hot dog, so maybe 1/2 cup for a family of 4-5.