Favorite Grilled Chicken

(photo credit)

Next up in my little grilling series, is (so far) my favorite grilled chicken recipe. This is one of my favorites to grill, because it just smells SO good while it's grilling. If I wouldn't burn my face off, I'd just position my head over the grill so I could just smell it as strongly and for as long as possible. (Or, at least the 14 minutes that it's cooking.) Here is the original recipe, but as usual, I've made a couple changes to it. Here is my version-

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons mustard
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/2 orange juiced
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions

1. In a large glass bowl, mix the cider vinegar, mustard, garlic, lime juice, lemon juice, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil. Place chicken in the mixture. Cover, and marinate 8 hours, or overnight.
2. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place chicken on the prepared grill, and cook 6 to 8 minutes per side, until juices run clear. Discard marinade.

Best. Steak. Ever.

(Photo Credit)

During the summer, we use our grill a lot. By a lot I mean, probably close to 6 days a week. It's miserably hot out, so the thought of heating up the house with the oven makes me want to melt. I thought that since I spend a lot of my time prepping dinners for the grill, I'd share a few of my favorites in my next few blog posts. First up, is the Best. Steak. Ever. Yes, the periods after every word is a must, I promise. I don't ask Noah (my two-year-old) what he wants for dinner unless I know I'm making steak, because it's what he always requests. You'll understand after tasting it.

These directions are for one steak, and only include the prepping part of it. Obviously it's easy to alter if you're doing more than one.

1 ribeye steak, close to 1lb

1 1/2 tsp Lawry's seasoning salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

4 tbls extra virgin olive oil (2 tbls for each side of the steak)

At least an hour before grilling....

-Pierce steak several times with fork or knife.

-Coat steak with 2 tbls olive oil.

-In a small bowl stir together seasoning salt, ground pepper, and cayenne.

-Coat steak with half of the seasoning mixture.

-Let sit at least 15 min

-Turn steak over and repeat all steps.

-If putting into fridge to marinate, remove from fridge an hour before grilling to bring steak temperature down to room temperature.

Happy grilling!

Before and After

This is the end table I mentioned way back here. I really thought I would have it done before now. Guess I was wrong. Woops. Anyways, it's been painted, received a "something pretty," distressed, and polyurethaned. That's a word, right? Eh, probably not. Here's the after.

This end table/night stand is currently for sale here, and here. Let me know if you're interested!

Pancakes for lunch!

Yesterday I had a bad experience with lunch meat, so I was looking for something relatively quick and easy to make for lunch for Noah and me, since lunch meat was out. Pancakes is what I decided on. It's been awhile since I've made them, but I thought I'd share my "go-to" pancake recipe. I've done these with so many different additives....blueberries, of course, chocolate chips, chocolate chips AND peanut butter chips, and last fall I added cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves for fall-like pancakes. I plan on adding pumpkin at some point too, but haven't done that one yet. They're thick and yummy. I don't even bother ordering pancakes in restaurants when I have the option, because these are better. Anyways, here's the recipe, with my changes in italics.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (whole wheat flour)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar (2 tbls brown sugar)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• cooking spray (I use butter. Lots of butter. I blame the southerner in me.)

Directions

1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

I realize the whole vinegar and milk thing sounds disgusting...and looks and smells disgusting, but it all works out in the end. Enjoy!

The blender is my friend

Recently I discovered a cooking trick, that I thought I'd share. During the summer, we do a whole lotta cooking on the grill, which means a whole lot of marinating. My favorite way to marinate is to do it in a zip lock bag since that equals no cleanup for me after dinner. Since Zip Lock backs don't exactly have a bottom to them, dumping stuff into them is a little bit of a challenge- until I discovered this. Take the blades out of the bottom of your blender, and stick the bag in that. Tada! No more challenge. Just dump, zip, and stick in the fridge.

A small before and after

This is a little metal tub thingy I found for a few cents at The Salvation Army that needed a little bit of a makeover. I liked it as it was, or really, as they were, since there were 3 of them, but as usual, I thought they could be better. Enter Rustolium's Heirloom White spray paint.

Better, right? Still not done though. Distressing makes everything better.

NOW it's all done. Slightly distressed to bring out the details, and give it a little personality.

Yes....no...maybe?....meh. (A project I'm not sure about.).

A few days ago a friend mentioned how she liked to make things out of books. I too like that whole concept, but have never really done anything about it. So, off I went to browse Pinterest to find something for future crafty endeavors. Sure enough, I found something, and I knew exactly where I wanted to put it. Problem is, now that it's done, I'm not sure I like it. I know the husband doesn't like it, but I didn't really expect him to. That's fine though - he pretty much lets me do what I want, unless it's antiquing the kitchen cabinets. I think that part of the problem with this project is that I didn't have any hot glue sticks. I have the gun, but no sticks. I even took the oldest boy-child and walked over to Target to see if I could get some there, but couldn't find any. (We did manage to find an orange slushie and potato chips, though.) All of that to say, the way it is, I kinda expect it to fall apart at any moment. At least it won't hurt anyone if it does.

The place I had in mind for this project was above our fireplace. You see, when we bought the house there was dark wood paneling. That was quickly painted over, and now it's a cream color. Problem is, there's a BIG open space between the top of the fireplace and our vaulted ceiling. It needs something. So, now I have a "something." Too bad I'm not sure if I like it.

So, without further adieu, my wreath-

There it is. Meh. I'm not exactly sure why it doesn't quite float my boat. There's nothing really wrong with it, I'm just not all that happy with it. But there it hangs, at least until I find something I like better. It only cost me about $3 so it's not the end of the world if I don't keep it up for long, right?