Chicken and Beef Shish Kebabs

My dog and I are off to the vet today. She has grown quite weary of the vet in her old age. She shakes like a leaf soon as we enter the door. In her defense, she has gone through quite a lot there. 2 major surgeries and 2 minor ones. So, it's safe to say she knows the deal and it's rarely a good one.

When she was a puppy she would put anything and everything into her mouth. When we first got her, within the first two days she became very sick. We found out that she had a bouncy ball lodged in her intestines. I have no idea where the bouncy ball came from. We had no kids running around, so there weren't any bouncy balls running around either. I'm pretty sure that was our first sign that she was going to be.....something else.

Since then she has found a way to eat an entire bar of soap, tin foil, my favorite shoes, an entire chicken and the list goes on. None of those did any harm, in fact she gained the ability to blow bubbles out her butt and we were able to test tin foils advertising as non-stick. FYI, it truly is. Nothing stuck to it, it came out cleaner than it went in.  She has provided us with a book load of memories, days of unconditional love and uninterrupted listening, hours of cuddling, and minutes of nose nudging.

Now that she is 11 1/2 she doesn't run as fast as she used to and her arthritis makes it difficult to jump up on the bed. She also has these small strawberry looking growths, which is common to her breed. She has had a few of them removed, and that is what we are going to the vet for today. To have one on her rectum checked out. 

This is her opening up a christmas gift this past Christmas.

During the summer, her and I both love to spend our days outside. These days she loves to just lay around and soak up some vitamin D. 

I'm sure I've said before how much I love to grill when the weather is beautiful. Yesterday I grilled some marinated chicken and beef shish kebabs. They turned out rather well, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you. I used two different marinades, one for the chicken and one for the beef.

Chicken Agave Marinade
1/2 c agave nectar
7 oz pineapple juice
1/4 soy sauce
1/4 teriyaki sauce
4 ramps or shallots, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced

You will also need for the chicken kebabs:
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken, cubed
1 red onion, cubed
1 red pepper, cubed
1 green pepper, cubed
3 c pineapple, cubed

Beef Beer Marinade
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tblsp black pepper
1 tblsp red pepper flakes
1 tblsp smoked paprika
1/2 c beer
2 tblsp vinegar

You will also need for the beef kebabs:
2 lbs beef, cubed
1 white onion, cubed
1 green pepper, cubed
3 c mushrooms, cubed


To prepare: If using wooden skewers soak in water over night or as long as possible. Prepare marinades, by combining all ingredients in a large liquid measuring cup.  Use 1/2 to marinade meat and 1/2 to marinade vegetables. For the chicken kebabs, I used 1/2 of the marinade for the chicken, 1/4 for the vegetables and 1/4 was reserved to turn into a sauce. Marinade meat and vegetables for at least 1 hour or over night.

To prepare skewers layer vegetables and meat in any order desired. I used the vegetables and meat combinations listed above, but you can use any combination you might like. However, you want to try to pick meat and vegetable cubes that are the same size to place on a skewer, so that everything cooks in the same amount of time.

I started grilling the chicken kebabs first, because chicken takes a little longer than steak or beef. Grill on high heat to get a good sear and then move to lower heat to finish cooking. Make sure the chicken has reached an internal temperature of about 165 F. About mid way through the chicken, I added the beef kebabs. Grill the beef on high heat to your liking.

You should rotate the kebabs to grill on all sides. If the meat easily pulls off the grill plate, then the kebabs are ready to be turned. Take the reserve chicken marinade and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Whisk in 1/2 tblsp cornstarch and lower heat to a simmer. Cook until it thickens. You can baste the chicken kebabs with this the last 5 minutes of grilling.

I served this on top of a bed of rice. They were easy and looked rather pretty, if I do say so myself. 

Apricot Chicken

Hello, hello, hello.  I've spent a great deal of time today trying to capture a picture of a hummingbird. Patience was probably key. Unfortunately, I don't have very much of that. Well, I guess it actually depends on the situation. I'm pretty patient with my students, but that's about it.

The hummingbird was elusive and hasty. So, I set up a tripod, changed the settings on my camera and waited. I'm still trying to figure out how to capture a bright picture with a very high shutter speed and a small aperture without boosting up the ISO. I would just like to be able to get rid of the graininess. Anyway, this is the result.

So, I saw this 'diet cleanse' online. It looked pretty interesting and doable so I thought I'd give it a try. It was only 7 days and anyone can do anything for 7 days if they really want to, right? It was something like only eat fruit on the first day, only vegetables and a baked potato on the second day, on the third day you can have both, etc. Well, today was day one so I was to eat only fruit.

Do you know what fruit consists of? SUGAR and WATER. That was never made more apparent than today. Ok, there are some other nutrients and minerals in fruits, but nothing that makes you go mmmm that was good, I'm totally not hungry any more.

I tried drinking glasses of water, but that too was no successful trick for my growling stomach. So, I made it until 5 pm and decided I was done. There is no way that I can work out for an hour a day and only live on fruit.

Be that as it may, it did inspire me.....to pair fruit with my chicken! That is exactly what I've done. I've made this chicken a few times. I have no idea where the original recipe came from, it's pretty much just how I remember to do it now.

Apricot Chicken

6 boneless skinless chicken strips

1/2 lb dried apricots, halved

1 medium vidalia onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 to 3/4 c chicken broth

1/2 c apricot preserves
1 tblsp cornstarch
2 tblsp water

splash of olive oil

salt and pepper

Splash a bit of olive oil on the bottom of skillet just to cover it. Salt and pepper both sides of chicken and saute in skillet until brown. The brown stuff on the bottom of the skillet is needed for flavor, so just let the chicken go. 

Prepare onions, garlic and apricots like so.......

Remove the browned chicken and add onions and garlic. Add a little salt and pepper. Saute until soft.

Add apricots and warm through. Then add the chicken stock to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil. Make a slurry out of the cornstarch and water (mix them together well in a cup) and add to the apricot sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. Lower the heat to a simmer. Cut the chicken into chunks and place back in skillet. Let the flavors meld together for ~15 mins. 

You can serve this chicken over a bed of rice or pair it with any sort of vegetable you like, either way it's pretty delicious for its simplicity. Give it a try! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Lemon Chicken Pasta

Spring is in the air. It most definitely is, because there are signs of life everywhere.

There are signs here.......

and here.........

and even here.....all just right outside my door.  

Which all made me in the mood for something a little on the lighter side. Something that would waken up my senses. And after some contemplating I decided on lemon. Whatever I made would just have to contain lemon. And chicken, because that's what was on hand. But something filling, because I was hunnnngry. So, pasta. Yes, pasta usually does the trick. And so I bring you lemon chicken and pasta. I also had Brussel sprouts on hand, so you'll need some of those for this dish too.

Lemon Chicken and Pasta

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken

1/2 stick of butter

1/4 c. chicken stock

1/2 c. fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tblsp chives, chopped

2 tblsp parsley, chopped

2 tblsp thyme, chopped

1 package Brussel sprouts 

lemon infused grapeseed oil

linguine or spaghetti pasta 

parmesan cheese

Prepare Brussel sprouts for roasting. (If I buy unprepared Brussel sprouts I usually pull the first couple outside layers off and sometimes cut off the bottom tough part. Also, if they are large I cut them in half.) Once prepared drizzle them with lemon infused grapeseed oil, salt and pepper and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, layer them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for 25 mins at 400 oF. 

Meanwhile, brown the chicken in a skillet with a tablespoon of grapeseed oil. (You want the skillet hot, the grapeseed oil does not really smoke like an olive oil would, so be careful that it does not get too hot). Once chicken is browned/cooked, remove and shred it. Deglaze the bottom of the pan with chicken stock and lemon juice. Then add the butter, garlic, chives, parsley and thyme. While the sauce is coming together -basically waiting for the butter to melt prepare pasta in salt water as the pasta package suggests. Once the butter is melted and the sauce is warmed through, add chicken back to pan. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the Brussel sprouts once roasted and then the pasta. Mix the chicken and sprouts through the pasta. Salt and pepper if needed. Serve topped with some big chunks of grated parmesan cheese.

A few side notes: I used a whole medium sized package of pasta-I honestly have no idea how much it was and I quite frankly think determining the amount of pasta needed to feed a family is one of the most difficult things to do in the kitchen. I generally use a handful, a generous handful.

I used grapeseed oil from WildTree. Their zesty lemon to be exact. They have a lot of infused oils that are quite good, but a little goes a long way. 

And voila! You get this lemony delicious chicken and pasta dish.