The Case of the Rotten Vegetables & The First Grill

FINALLY. It's warm enough to grill out. I have been waiting for this day, the first summer like day in Boston for a while. I love to (have Ben) grill us food. We were both feeling a little lazy as it is getting to the end of the week, and decided that we would just grill whatever was in the kitchen and not go out to the store. This turned out to be a tragic story of the case of the rotten vegetables.

What do we do with: brown baby carrots, mushy "fresh" spinach, soft and wrinkly peppers (green and red), brown "white" mushrooms, a green "purple" onion, soft potatoes (both red and Idaho) and white frozen green beans? Well you throw it all away. But what did it leave us with...not much. So we did find a medium size yellow onion and actual white mushrooms. I decided not to put these on the grill, to just let Ben grill up some chicken breasts for us and a couple of hot dogs for him. This did leave Ben with a very empty kitchen, so going shopping for fresh veggies will happen in the near future. Good thing it was trash night!


I sauteed down the mushrooms and onions in a pan together over medium to high heat and made a loverly side dish to our grilled food. Ben also said that if we added in a green pepper and grilled some sausages this would be the perfect Fenway replica of the Sausage Guy's offerings.

Mushrooms and Onions

1 medium size Yellow onion
7 or 8 White mushrooms
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp dried garlic powder

Pam a sautee pan and let it warm to medium to high heat. While the pan is warming slice mushrooms and dice onion. Add the mushrooms to the pan and let start cooking down for a minute or two, then add in the onions and just let cook down, they will start to sweat and let out their juices, then add in the salt, pepper and garlic powder. Continue to sautee until onions are starting to brown and are fully soft and mushrooms have reduced their size by half. Plate, top or just devour this really easy side dish to any meal.


Grilled Chicken

2 Boneless skinless Chicken Breasts
seasonings


I love my grilled chicken with just some salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Ben loves those premixed seasoning that you can pick up in any grocery store. Tonight he used a "char-grill" mix while I did the traditional seasonings (see above.) I don't want to over power the taste of the grill, and therefore like to keep the seasonings on the lighter side. This chicken was just as I love it, a little crunch on the outside and juicy in the middle. My boyfriend is the master of the grill.


Next time we may take a trip to the store to pick up some other vegetables, but the dinner miraculously worked out. Between the smell of the grill and the mushrooms and onions it smelled like a Saturday afternoon and the ballpark.