Showers, smart fiancé, more grilling, brine that bird!

I'd like to start this post with congratulations for my lovely fiancé, who just found out she passed her NAPLEX exam and is now a licensed pharmacist. It is a goal she has been working towards for the last 8 years. Congratulations, baby! I love you and I am very, very proud.

We had a very nice wedding shower in Benton at Northside Church of Christ last Sunday. Lots of gifts were brought and the ladies there did a great job.  This was my first wedding shower, which I suppose is the way it's supposed to be for guys. We've got two more shower/receptions scheduled following the wedding. One will be at Pleasant Valley Church of Christ on Saturday, September 11th, and the other will be at 7th and Mueller Church of Christ on Sunday, September 19th. We both hope that all our friends and family can make it out to celebrate our marriage with us at one of these events. FYI - the bride and groom are registered at Belk, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart.

Did you know central Arkansas is one of the most naturally beautiful spots in our country?  Recent visits to Petit Jean Mountain, Pinnacle Mountain, and the Buffalo River have convinced me that there aren't many places in middle America that can compete with Arkansas' natural glory.  Head over to my Flickr page to see pictures from some of these visits.

One of our aforementioned shower gifts was a very nice Char-Broil grill given to us by Tiffany's parents Paul and Debra Parris.  Seeing as I have been grilling with a rusty old two-burner gas grill (purchased for $40 at a yard sale) for the past year, I was extra excited about this one. I've used it twice since getting it put together Monday evening (an adventure in itself).  What a difference good equipment makes! Consider last night's dinner: BBQ-spiced chicken breast (seen above).

Whenever I cook chicken (or pork, for that matter), I always begin with a brine. A brine is basically a saltwater solution that increases the juiciness of meats by osmosis. Basically, the salt in the brine moves back and forth between the water and the cells of the meat, taking moisture with it. While the salt continues to move in and out of the meat, the moisture is trapped in, resulting in a succulent and juicy cooked product. This process does take a bit of extra effort but trust me, it's worth it. Meats should be brined for at least an hour and up to overnight. Be sure to rinse your meat well after removing it from the brining solution.

The key to perfectly grilled chicken (regardless of the cut) is to incorporate dual-zone cooking. This concept is sound for both charcoal and propane grilling applications. The chicken should receive a quick sear on either side over high heat (roughly 4-5 min per side) before being transferred to lower heat to finish cooking. For gas grills, this is simple. Just set one burner to high heat and another to low, and you're done. If charcoal is your fuel of choice, bank the coals to either side of the grill so that there is a gap in the middle. Place a disposable pan filled 1/3 of the way up with water between the two mounds of coals, and you're ready to go. Cook the meat over the cooler section of the grill until the juices run clear and/or the meat hits an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  As always, allow the meat to rest for at least 5 minutes before cutting into it.

BBQ-Spiced Grilled Chicken w/Blueberry-Strawberry salad 


Ingredients:

For the chicken:

• 2lbs split chicken breasts, skin on
• BBQ spice rub of choice
• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce of choice, warmed 
• 4 cups hot water
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• canola oil

For the salad:

• 1 pint strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1/4 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 50/50 spring salad mix
• 1/2 red onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup feta cheese
• 2 tbsp fresh basil, sliced
• 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped

To make the brine, combine water, brown sugar, and salt in a pot over medium heat. Heat, stirring occasionally, until dissolved. Allow brine to cool completely and pour into a large ziptop bag. Place chicken into bag with brine, making sure chicken is completely covered. Store in the refrigerator for at least an hour or up to overnight.

Put all ingredients for the salad in a large bowl and toss to combine. Cover and store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Preheat grill, using dual zone setup described above. Remove chicken from fridge, pour out brine, and discard bag. Thoroughly rinse chicken and pat dry. Coat chicken with canola oil and generously top chicken with BBQ rub ( I use the Neely's recipe with a little added red pepper and garlic powder) and kosher salt. Be sure to rub spices into chicken. Place chicken, skin side down, onto high heat section of the grill and cook for about 5 minutes or until skin is crisp and dark grill lines appear. Flip chicken and cook for another 5 minutes. After both sides are seared, move chicken to the cooler section of the grill and cook until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees, turning occasionally. Once the internal temperature hits 160 degrees, brush BBQ sauce onto both sides of chicken and remove to a cooling rack Allow chicken to set before removing. Serve with remaining BBQ sauce on the side alongside the salad topped with vinaigrette of choice.  The end result should look something like this:

mmmm.....

Grillapalooza, one month and counting, and more!

Greetings, everyone! I hope that in the midst of this brutally hot weather you all are staying cool and hydrated. I had the opportunity to ride along with a few of our service technicians at work this week, and I now have a much greater appreciation for my air-conditioned office.  Mom is coming to visit tonight, and we plan to hike to the waterfall at Petit Jean mountain Saturday morning.  An ominous forecast of scattered thunderstorms threatens our plans, but hopefully it'll hold off.  I'll be sure to take and post pictures, as that hike will take us through some beautiful scenery.

Thursday marked the one-month point in the countdown to our Hawaii wedding. Excitement is in the air, and we are (hopefully) paid up, planned up, and ready to go. I still need to buy some books for the flight, which is long enough to require the showing of two movies.  Fortunately, the fiancé and I landed window seats so we won't be wedged between any large and/or smelly people.  I hope that everyone got an invitation to our reception, to be held in September at Pleasant Valley Church of Christ. It's going to have an island theme.  We'll have our wedding video playing, pictures on display, and appetizers and cake for everyone. It's going to be fun, so we hope everyone can make it!

Am I the only one who prefers the wailing buzz of vuvuzelas to the countless political ads currently running on TV and radio? Do people really make voting decisions based on thirty seconds of finger-pointing and fact-stretching? Stop the pain, please. 

It's been grill week at the Summitt house. I don't think I even ate a supper that wasn't cooked over an open flame. I love using the grill because

1. food cooked over an open flame tastes great and, 
2. my kitchen stays clean.

Marinated and grilled chicken, grilled pizza (oh yeah), and BBQ chicken kebabs all passed through my kitchen this week. The kebabs were excellent.  Onions, peppers, marinated chicken, and pineapple were skewered and grilled to perfection, then given a brush of hot BBQ sauce right before being removed from the grill. They're delicious and healthy to boot. Try them and be amazed. 

Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Kebabs

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 3 bell peppers ( I used red, orange, and yellow)
• 1 large red onion
• 1 pineapple, diced (instructions here)
• 1 jar marinade of choice 
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp Cavendar's Greek seasoning
• 1 cup BBQ sauce of choice, warmed
• salt and pepper
• canola oil 
• skewers

If you're using wooden skewers, be sure to soak them in cold water for at least 1 hour.  Cut chicken breasts into large chunks, place into zip-top plastic bag, and cover with marinade. Store in refrigerator for at least 1 hour, preferably 2. Cut peppers and onions into large chunks, place in a bowl, and add Cavendar's and olive oil. Toss to coat and set aside. Cut pineapple and dice into large chunks. Remove chicken from bag, shake off excess marinade, and place into a metal bowl. Preheat grill to medium-high. Assemble kebabs by sliding food onto skewer, beginning and ending with pieces of onion. I assembled mine in the following order - onion, pepper, pepper, chicken, pineapple. You should be able to get three pieces of chicken on each skewer. Give kebabs a sprinke of salt and pepper followed by a thin coat of canola oil.  Place kebabs on the grill and cook for five minutes. Turn and cook for 4-5 more minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. You might have to rotate some kebabs a third time to catch uncooked surfaces. Just before removing, lightly brush kebabs with warm BBQ sauce. Remove from grill and allow food to sit for 5 minutes before eating. 

Memorial Day, Grilling, Oil, and the Media

Greetings from Little Rock, everyone. Here's hoping you all have fun activities planned for the upcoming extended weekend. I, along with several friends, will embark on a three day long float trip down the Buffalo River. This will be an exciting venture for me, as I have never been much of an outdoorsman.  However, I have girded my loins (whatever that means) with plenty of bug spray and sunscreen, and I shall battle the elements with great fervor.  I'll probably be the designated cook for the trip, so I've been tossing around some ideas for simple (yet flavorful) meals I can make using campground equipment and utensils. We'll be fishing, so seafood could be on the menu.  Cheese-stuffed brats and burgers would be doable as well.  

Memorial Day is the traditional start of the fabled "grilling season," a time when men everywhere rise from their La-Z-Boys, grab big bags of charcoal, pounds of meat, and a gimmicky apron and give their poor wives a break from cooking by firing up the grill.  Now I could be wrong, but I believe God intended all meats to be cooked over an open flame.  Quality grilled meals offer unbeatable flavor, texture, and an overall dining experience that can't be replicated in the kitchen.  Poorly grilled meals, however, have the texture and flavor of rawhide.  In light of this, allow me to offer a few tips to all the backyard chefs out there:

1. Heat control is everything. Too much heat and you'll be eating charcoal for dinner. Too little, and your food won't be done till next month. A grill thermometer is ideal for measuring temperature, but if you don't have one, use your hand.  Hold your hand, palm side down, over the top grate of the grill and count how long you can keep it there until it's too hot to stand. Two seconds means you've got "high" heat, 3-4 seconds is "medium-high," 4-5 seconds equates to "medium," and six or longer equals "low." Most grilled meats will be cooked over medium or medium high heat, so react accordingly. 
2. Beware of over-seasoning.  I'm a salt-and-pepper guy, so this might be a matter of personal taste.  It bugs me to no end when fine cuts of meat are subjected to 300 different seasonings, marinades, and other outside influences. You might as well eat the trimmings if you're going to cover the meat's flavor like that.  I prefer my meat (especially burgers) pre-seasoned with kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and MAYBE a bit of garlic powder.  There are exceptions of course, but don't go overboard.  Let the meat speak for itself. 
3. Burger Rules - due to their popularity, I'm going to give burgers get their own little sub-section of rules.
1. Flip once. Cook the burgers over medium-high heat, four minutes per side and only flip them one time. That's all.  There's no need to rotate your poor patties into submission. You'll only release the juices inside the burger, and that's not a good thing (no matter what George Foreman says).
2. Don't mash. This is a cardinal, no-exceptions-allowed rule of burgering. Please, please, PLEASE don't mash the burgers while they're cooking. You will be left with dry, cotton-mouth-inducing lumps of meat. Yes, I know that every diner scene ever filmed contains a burger cook whose sole purpose is to squash the meat to produce that pretty 'sizzling' sound. Well, that sizzling sound is made by escaping fat.  Fat smashed out of the meat cannot flavor it when it's in your mouth.   So, you ask, how do I keep the patties from balling up while they're cooking?  Simple - when you are forming your patties, flatten them out and stick your thumb in the very middle, leaving an indention.  This indention will expand back out while you're cooking. By the time the burgers are done, the patty should be in roughly the same shape it was when you formed it - nice and flat. They'll be juicy and delicious as well. 
3. Melt the cheese. We've all had a fast food burger that was hastily thrown together without giving the cheese time to melt. Not good. Be sure to let the cheese get nice and gooey before pulling from the grill. I like to top my burgers with cheese about a minute after I flip them. This gives the cheese just enough time to melt nicely.  Freshly shredded cheese will always melt more cleanly than sliced cheese will, so use it if you have access. 
4. Let it set. Resist the temptation to dive directly into your cooked meat as soon as it comes off the grill. Instead, pull the meat off the grill, lightly cover it with aluminum foil and allow the meat to set for five minutes.  This gives all those flavorful juices you've worked so hard to keep inside the meat time to redistribute and settle down.  If you cut right in as soon as the meat comes off the grill, they're just going to spill out all over your plate. The meat will still be plenty hot in five minutes, so be patient. Use the time to throw together a nice salad or put ice in the glasses.  

Wow, that was a bit long-winded.  Grilling is great fun and will always produce delicious food as long as the cook is skilled. Hopefully these tips will help.  I'll be back later this week with an easy burger recipe. 


Is it just me, or is anyone else fed up with the media's treatment of the BP oil spill?  Give me a break, guys. I suppose that, in this day and time, I should expect everything to be politicized.  The American public has been trained (brainwashed?) to automatically take a partisan side on every single news item or event that comes down the pipe.  Media types latch onto this and treat every story as though it were a cut-and-dry conflict with good guys and bad guys.  This is simply not the case, especially with this disaster. Is it a big deal? Absolutely.  The ecosystems of the Gulf coast are fragile enough as they are, and it will likely take years for them to recover from the oil spill. But at some point, we all have to accept this ordeal for what it really is - a worst-case scenario come to life. There is not a "bad guy" in this situation.  BP has smarter people than  you and I working around the clock on a solution.  They've called in all the help they can from rival oil companies as well.  They are not "dragging their feet" or slacking around while billions of gallons of oil spew into the gulf. It takes time, resources, and luck to plug a hole that is 5,000 feet under water. The saddest part for me is that our president was so quick to jump on the BP-bashing bandwagon.  I have heard the Obama administration tell us that they would "keep a boot to the throat" of BP until this situation was resolved.  Is that kind of imagery really necessary?  Why not tell us that they will "curb stomp BP into submission" or ""hold a gun to BP's head" until they fix the leak?  It's political posturing and finger-pointing, and it makes me sick. Sadly, in today's political climate, it's become necessary. 


Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone....take a little time to remember the guys and gals who died so we could have the day off work.  Be safe!

Lemon-Blueberry Bread

Time for a throwback recipe blog!  I made some lemon-blueberry bread for small group last night. It was wonderful.  Each bite was full of bright, summery flavors and just the right amount of citrus-y tang.  I made some white chocolate-cranberry oatmeal cookies as well, but that recipe stays between me and mom.  Here's the recipe for the bread:

Lemon-Blueberry Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cu AP flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp butter, softened
• 3/4 cu sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cu evaporated milk
• 1 tbsp grated lemon zest ( 2-3 medium lemons)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Cu fresh blueberries
• Lemon Glaze
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cu sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Weigh out 1 1/2 cups flour (6.75 oz) and sift into a small bowl with salt and baking powder. In an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, allowing each egg mix completely before adding the next. Add lemon zest and vanilla extract and mix well. Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, starting and ending with flour. Toss blueberries in flour, dust off, and fold into batter.  Butter and flour an 8.5x 4.5 in. loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees until internal temperature reaches 195 degrees, about 50 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean. Set bread, still in pan, on a cooling rack to cool. Combine ingredients for lemon glaze in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved.  Poke multiple holes in the top of the bread with a toothpick or skewer and pour warm lemon glaze over bread. Allow to cool for 20 minutes, turn out bread onto cooling rack, and allow to cool completely. Serve as is, or topped with warm blueberry syrup.

Not to change the mood or anything, but I honestly wonder about this world sometimes. Last night at small group, we talked a bit about a girl who was attacked and nearly kidnapped at random. A man knocked on her door, claiming to have found a dog and asking if she could identify it. She opened the door and he attacked her, breaking her jaw and causing various other injuries. He handcuffed and, after rummaging through her apartment, dragged her to his car, threatening to kill her if she screamed. She did anyways, alerting the neighbors.  Her attacker dropped her and fled. Fortunately, this creep was apprehended and is in police custody.  I really can't fathom the kind of evil that must exist in a man's head to make him want to carry out this kind of attack. I wrote a couple of weeks ago that the enemy is strong in this world. Events like this remind me how strong the enemy really is. And honestly, I have trouble understanding why God allows these kinds of things to happen. There has to be a line somewhere, right?  This man was caught, but how many escape to harm again?  Our world honestly seems to be degrading to a historic moral low, and I wonder how long God's justice will be contained for this kind of evil. This is a tough subject for me. Am I the only one?