Grilled Things!

It's that time of year, folks! The weather's warm, but not stuff-sticking-to-other-stuff hot, the sun's out, the kids are out on the sidewalk, playing double dutch and chanting inappropriate phrases that we inadvertently taught them... it's time to grill things.

Now, this is somewhat embarrassing to admit, but, uh... I'm not much of a griller. I know, I know, that little comment is going to cost me a man card, but I'm used to stovetops and ovens - things with measurable heat outputs and whatnot. The grill remains this bastion of unlimited heat and finicky cooking surfaces.

But I wasn't going to let that stop me. Not on a day like today. No, chicken was on sale, and it's time I get over my fear of grilling.

Of course, chicken needs some sort of tasty basting substance on it. Mine started with a desire to get rid of the remaining honey mustard dressing in my fridge, and swiftly became an amalgam of random ingredients lying around my kitchen.


Prep was easy; I just dumped everything into the blender and gave it a whirl. Since I wasn't measuring anything, tasting it as it went became necessary. Also, don't ask me for a recipe, I don't think I'll ever be able to come up with this again. Regardless, it turned out to be a delicious paste that I then proceeded to lather up my chicken breasts with.


You may notice that two of them are butterflied to match the thickness of the less well-endowed chicken products. Who has mad knife skillz? Yo.

But I couldn't just eat chicken. No, I had to prepare some sides. Some corn, perhaps, drained from a can and packed in foil with butter and thyme?


Yeeeeeees. And I'll need a starch of some kind. Perhaps this here proscuitto bread.


Hmm. But I need some excuse to grill it. Oooh, I know! Let's accordion it and stuff it with butter and cheddar!


That'll do.

Suffice to say, grilling was a success. The chicken came out all crusty and tasty:


The corn... oh, man, you should have smelled it when it came off the grill. Gah, it was delicious.


And the bread, well, you know what happens when you melt cheese on bread.


Yeeeeeeeah. That happens.

This is going to be a good summer. I gotta hone my grill skills, so look forward to some fun grilled concoctions as the months lead on!

Bacon Grease Dinner Rolls

The ongoing saga to make use of the Strategic Bacon Grease Reserve continues. I mentioned in my Anniversary Lamb post that we had these dinner rolls from the breadmaker with them. I have to admit, I wasn't totally sold on this idea. I made bread, swapping out the butter for bacon grease, and something was... off... with the texture. The mouthfeel wasn't quite right, like it was too moist, and the bubbles were too big, so it wasn't exactly structural.

The good news is that I didn't have this problem this time around. The bad news is that I can't give you a recipe -- breadmaker recipes are specific per bread machine, so if you don't have the same breadmaker as I do, I can't help you. And if you do have the same breadmaker, you already have the recipe. But don't despair. Just about any breadmaker should include a dinner roll recipe, use it with the "dough only" setting.

Divvy up the dough into equal portions. To get that nice exterior shell, pull the outside edges down and around themselves, then gather them into a point and secure it with a pinch.



Arrange them on a cookie sheet evenly, then set them somewhere to rise. Luckily, the house was a little humid and a little warm, so rise, my little yeasty minions! RIIIIIIIIIISE!





Wa ha ha ha! Brush a little more bacon grease on top for a little browning, then bake:



Nice little bit of browning there on the underside:



Check out the lovely texture:



And it hollows nicely, creating a little bready shotglass for a bite of lamb:



Awesome. Still have a bit of bacon grease to go through, so the bacon grease shall return.