A Surpise Night Off - Giveaway Coming Soon!

I was supposed to work tonight, part of the Super Overwhelming Week, but ended up with the evening off.  Instead of leftovers heated up in a microwave, I got to cook up something new!  After a quick glance through The Guide, I picked out two recipes, the Sweet Pepper And Eggplant Bruschetta on page 81, and Beef Satay on page 142.  

 

 

The first thing to get ready was the marinade so that the kabobs would get happy.  I cubed the meat, pulled together the marinade, and then put everything together in a Ziploc bag.

 While they were in the fridge, I readied everything for the Bruschetta while The Forge was coming to temperature.

It was a pleasant evening to sit outside and grill vegetables and bread.

 This was a nice opportunity to try out a new toy.  This is an awesome time of year to pick up supplies and gear for grilling because all of the stores are closing out "summer" items.  I picked up some nice metal kabobs for about four bucks!

 I skewered the meat, added coals to The Forge (the Bruschetta was grilled over medium heat, whereas the Satay needed high heat), and began assembling the Bruschetta.

 After only a few minutes they came off the grill and I was ready.  I finished the dipping sauce while the meat rested.

I plated myself dinner and sat down to watch some TV.

 The Satay had an amazing depth of flavor.  I would never had imagined that lime and peanut would go so well together.  The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.  One of my favorite dishes is Phad Thai, which has final touches of peanuts and a squeeze of lime.  This had a nice balance of acidity, heat, citrus, and peanut.  The meat, however, was rather tough.  The recipe called for either beef tenderloin or top round.  I didn't feel like ponying up for tenderloin, but the top round proved to be too chewy.   The Bruschetta was rather nice.  It is a nice change of pace from tomato bruschetta.  The sweetness of the grilled red pepper and texture of the eggplant perfectly replaced the tomato.  

In other news, back to the giveaway.  Look forward to Sunday evening's post!  I've done some more research, and this Internet retailer has multiple sites, each with something for everyone!  I will post all details for the contest on Sunday!