Tuesday Kebap Dinner

Good weather was forecast, and I had a hankering for kebap yesterday, so I stopped at the Jewels on the way home yesterday and grabbed some chicken breasts and a green harissa marinade.

I cut up one package of chicken and marinated about half in the harissa, and tossed the other half in some calypso spice rub and let them sit overnight. 

Tonight, I cut up a couple zucchini, skewered the chunks along with the chicken, and slapped them on the grill. 

Kebap are a good quick-cooking dinner, the steel skewers help cook from the inside, while the outside cooks from the direct grill heat. They were done in two shakes, to 180F internal temperature.

YUMMY! That green harissa marinade is deceptively spicy, and the calypso rub had a nice non-hot spice. The zucchini were awesome skewered like that, next time I might do those long skinny eggplants along with!

Rainy Saturday Spinach Pizza

We got our errands done early, and wanted to dig into DVRed TV, so I whipped up a spinach, pepper, and turkey pepperoni pan pizza. I used plain-wrap pizza crust in the tube from the local market, and made sauce from canned tomato paste and tomato sauce with minced garlics. 

An oil spritz on the pan, and in goes the dough, stretched and pressed into place, topped with sliced mozzarella cheese, then moderately sauced. The spinach, frozen blocks, were thawed and squeezed to eliminate excess moisture, was spread across the sauce.

Italian spices came next, then the turkey pepperoni, and the sliced "ancient" peppers. These peppers are orange, sweet, maybe eight inches by two inches... I found them a couple years ago at an "international" grocery store and have been hooked ever since.

A quick sprinkle of romano cheese and into the oven, for a good 45 minutes...

"Are you sure it isn't overdone? Burned?" 

Nope, it was the dark spinach that inspired that quote...

But... It was a very tasty combination - even though I forgot to add the ripe olives... 

Half-vacation-day Steak Dinner

I took a half-day vacation to do some springtime chores, like putting in the garden, and thought a nice juicy steak would hit the spot for dinner.

Marinated for 24 hours in bulgogi marinade gave it a nice flavour, along with caramelizing on the grill. I also grilled some asparagus as a warm side. 

Along with that were two cold sides - a handful of carrots for crunch, and some cucumber salad that I made this afternoon.

I peeled, seeded, and finely diced two cucumbers, and tossed with:

Dried mint

Fresh grated ginger

Fresh Key lime juice

Freshly ground black pepper

A couple chopped leaves of fresh Thai basil.

Yum! I wish I had more Thai basil, mint, and even cilantro to play with, but I will save that for next time...