Dinner On A Stick

Last weekend, The Hubs & I made a quick trip to our lake house for some much needed get-away-from-the-city time. We would spend all of our time there if it wasn't for those pesky little things called jobs (which are needed to even have the lake house). The weather was perfect! We got in a long boat ride & even caught some fish. See...



It must be written in the Man Code somewhere that "If you are at/near the lake, you must grill." The Hubs insists that we cook out every time we are there. Which in all honesty is fine by me because instead of hovering in the kitchen while we womenfolk try to fix dinner, the men all stand outside around the grill with cold beverages & talk about...well, I'm not really sure what they talk about.

(Side note: I don't know what men talk about because every time The Hubs talks to one of his friends, he & I have the following conversation:

Me: What did ______ have to say?

The Hubs: Oh, not much.

Me: But you talked to him for an hour. How is _______ (wife/girlfriend)?

The Hubs: I don't know. She didn't come up in our conversation.

You'd better believe that if I just talked to my friend for an hour & he asked me what my friend & I talked about, he'd get all kinds of details about her, her family, her job, her significant other, etc. that he didn't even want to know. I guess that's just the difference in men & women.)

Anyway...where was I? Oh, yes...grilling.

We typically grill steaks or burgers and occasionally fish, but this time I decided to do something a bit different. I decided we'd have "Dinner On A Stick" aka Kabobs.

Dinner On A Stick is SUPER easy. All you need is this:



Some of these...



And the whatever meat & veggies you'd like to put on your skewers. I'd recommend any of the following:

Chicken Breast
Steak
Shrimp
Bell Pepper
Onion
Cherry Tomatoes
Zucchini
Squash
Mushrooms
Carrots
Eggplant

Directions:

1. Cut all ingredients into bite sized pieces.

2. Put all ingredients in a bowl. Pour Italian Dressing over the top. Toss to coat.

3. Cover & put in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 2 hours, occasionally stirring.

4. While the meat & veggies are marinating, soak wooden skewers in water so they don't burn on the grill. Sharp, flaming stick can be dangerous.

5. When you're ready to make dinner, preheat the grill and start your Dinner On A Stick assembly. Slide the ingredients onto the skewers, alternating meat & veggies.

6. Be sure not to squish the ingredients too close together on the skewer or they won't cook evenly.

7. Grill for 4-5 minutes; Turn and grill 4 minutes more or until meat is cooked through.

I love this meal because it really is a meal unto itself. You've got your meat & your veggies all in one! All you need is a salad, some bread & dessert and you're good to go!



My Tid-Bits:

* For the steak, I used one of those bacon wrapped fillets because its what I had on hand. I just removed the bacon & chopped the steak into bite sized pieces. You can also buy pre-cut kabob beef at the grocery.

* If you want to use shrimp, I'd recommend you put them on their own skewer because they will cook much faster than everything else (about 1.5 minutes per side).

* These are great for informal events where people are nibbling while visiting with other guests. However, if you plan to serve these at such an event, I highly recommend you use the short 4" skewers rather than the long ones. They are much less awkward to eat while standing/visiting.

* These are also great for tailgating! We typically cook out before every A&M football game with our dear friends A&S. These are easy to make ahead & throw on the grill before the game.


Here's to many more fun weekends at the lake!

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