Grilled Zucchini Kabobs

Grilled zucchini can be so-so or one of the highlights of the meal. Sometimes it tastes soggy or dry, so it can definitely be a hit-or-miss veggie. We try to make it a highlight with this recipe.

4 medium zucchini, cut into 3/4 inch rounds.
1/4 c. Italian dressing
1 t. oregano
2 red peppers, cut into chunks
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese

Wet wooden kabob skewers for 30 minutes in water. Remove from water and then thread with zucchini and peppers in alternating order. Place kabobs on foil-lined platter and top with dressing and oregano.

Grill, turning once, for about 10 minutes (or longer if you like zucchini very soft). Remove from heat and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. This looks so nice on a plate next to our flank steak.

Grapefruit Flank Steak

Ruby grapefruit are fast becoming a favorite at our house. Crisp and refreshing, they pick me up in the middle of the afternoon and make a lovely, bittersweet dessert. When I'm cooking, I don't always want to go get a lemon or lime if I don't have it handy in the fruit bowl. So we've been putting more grapefruit (which we always have around) in everything we cook.

This recipe is the happy product of using grapefruit juice as a flank steak marinade. With ruby grapefruit so readily available in markets, it's an easy, fun twist on traditional steak.

2 lbs. flank or skirt steak (or any cut that's thin and ripe for marinating)
Juice of one whole red grapefruit
3 T. worcestershire sauce
1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1/2 t. cumin
1/8 t. chili powder

Place all ingredients in sealed gallon bag, and massage to marinate. Place in fridge for 1-3 hours to marinate. When you're ready to grill, remove steak, and place on hot grill for 3 minutes/side, depending on desired doneness. Doug would like it if we threw the meat on for 30 seconds a side! Discard marinade.

This is so good with grilled peppers and zucchini and a few tortillas. Yum!!

Grilled Mango!

Last summer, Doug and I bought a crap grill at a hardware store. While the grill probably would have worked fine if someone else put it together, unfortunately, we put it together. Keep in mind that it takes us two hours to change a bike tire, and that's putting our heads together. While we had fantasies of grilled pizzas, steaks, fish, and fruits, the grill didn't hold up to our ambitions and ended up on the curb for some other starry eyed couple with a little charcoal in their back pockets.

Fortunately, my dad recently came to our rescue. He let us pluck the old Weber family grill from behind his garage. It's over 30 years old, which means it will actually last, and even better, we didn't have to put anything together. Plus, it will be again impressed into service, which I like to think is what all grills really want, isn't it? We just had to clean it, which is, luckily, something we can do. We have this theory that things made a while ago were actually built to last, while today's appliances are built to serve you well for maybe six months. Perhaps one day I will have Doug guest blog about the 1950s toaster he's lugged across the US three times.

So it began today...our grilling season.

We had the usual meal...steaks, grilled potatoes in a foil pouch (what could sound more appetizing!?), grilled veggies. But out of desperation to use our aging mangoes, we decided to throw them on the grill and see what happens for dessert. What a great idea!

The heat intensifies the mango's flavor and really brightens it, waking it up, if you will. We just cut around the pit, left the skin on, scored the fruit, and grilled until it was slightly mushy but not fully mushy (about 7 mins on our grill).

At the same time, I threw a few tablespoons of butter, brown sugar, strawberry jam, and a splash of balsamic in a glass dish and carmelized it over the coals. When it was all done, we topped the grilled mango with a scoop of Haagen Dazs pistachio ice cream, which we had due to a miscommunication before Doug went to the store. :) And then the carmelized syrup. Yummy!

Mango sure adds a burst of flavor to the end of the meal. Hope you get to try this soon.