Summer Grilling Goodness

It's August, which means we're midway through the dead of summer, with about a month to go. This also means that at this point, we're getting tired of salad and watermelon. Ok, I take it back, I can never get tired of watermelon, but we're definitely in need of some variety in the diet. Hence, when I ran across this quinoa salad from Canadian Living magazine on a blog, I thought it sounded like an excellent change of pace (along with some egg salad). However, since I was not paying attention when I grocery shopped, I had to make do with what I had (no big surprise). So, my version is a tiny bit modified (as described below). 

Grilled Vegetable Quinoa Salad with Chipotle Vinaigrette 

Salad: 

1 c. quinoa, uncooked

2 bell peppers, quartered

1 zucchini (green or Mexican), cut in 1/2 in. thick strips, lengthwise

4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced in diagonal 1 in. chunks

1/2 c. goat cheese, crumbled

3 T. cilantro, chopped

Chipotle Vinaigrette

3 T. olive oil

2 T. red wine vinegar

1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced

2 t. honey

1/2 t. cumin

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1. Boil quinoa in 2 c. salted water for 12 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with fork and let sit for 15 minutes. 

2. Meanwhile, whisk together vinaigrette ingredients and set aside. 

3. In large bowl, toss peppers, zucchini, carrots and 3 T. vinaigrette together until coated. Place on greased grill over medium heat, and grill until charred and tender (between 8-115 minutes, depending on the size of the vegetable chunk). Cut into large chunks and return to bowl. 

4. Add remaining dressing, quinoa, cheese, and cilantro. Stir to combine. Serve immediately. 

Serves 6.

Back to School with Ice Cream!

Every year, as people reluctantly trickle back into Phoenix in July and August (having spent as much of the summer as possible out of the heat), my church holds its annual Back-to-School Ice Cream Social. This event holds two purposes: 1-it raises money for a scholarship fund to help kids attend church schools, and 2-it functions as a blessing on the year, by praying for students of all ages, teachers, support staff, and parents. As I was preparing the ice cream I planned to bring, a friend said that she would have just bought some gourmet ice cream. I said, "No, you don't understand. Everyone who volunteers to bring ice cream is volunteering to bring an ice cream freezer of homemade ice cream." So, the event also ends up being a bit of an ice-cream potluck.

This year was a battle for me to get the ice cream done, since we had been camping all weekend. (Technically, we were yurt-ing :-) We stayed in a large, round, structured tent in northeastern AZ. Good times :-) See pictures.) We got home from camping at about 4:45, and I needed to leave the house at 5:45 with a finished freezer of ice cream AND shower. Yikes.

I picked a strawberry ice cream recipe, because I'm pregnant and that's what I'm in the mood for. And strawberries were on sale for 77 cents per container. :-) I was a little worried about the ice cream given that I had never made it before and it had no eggs (raw or cooked) in it. Every ice cream I've ever made has some amount of eggs in it. But, the reviews on the recipe sounded good, so I gave it a shot. After an ultra-fast shower, I chopped bunches of strawberries and mixed up the batter.

Going against some people's recommendations, I multiplied the recipe times 1.5, hoping it wouldn't overflow my 5 quart ice cream maker, which I'd never had happen. I felt pretty safe given the fact that this recipe seemed to make a lot less, and in reality, only filled up my ice cream maker about 2/3 full. (My normal recipe ends with "Then fill up the rest of the ice cream maker with milk to the top rim." Expansion has never been a problem.) I put the ice cream in to churn at 5:20, and at 5:43, the motor finally stopped. (Trying to "freeze" ice cream outside while its 105 degrees is a fairly humorous battle. I was outside adding ice at least every 5 minutes. And salt. Lots of salt.) The ice cream definitely did eventually expand enough to fill the entire container, but it only overflowed a tiny bit.

When I got there, my strawberry ice cream and I were standing among the likes of such flavors as Wendy's Frosty flavor, Very Peanut Butter, Blueberry, Coconut, and Mango Habanero (and 3 different versions of vanilla). As I dipped out my untasted ice cream for people when they walked through the line, people kept coming back and commenting on how creamy it was, that they loved the texture, and the generally yummy flavor. When I finally got a chance to enjoy some, it turned out they were right :-) I got the original recipe from Allrecipes, but modified it just a bit. Below is the 1.5x recipe along with my adaptations. (And a potluck success: I went home with an empty container!)

Summer Strawberry Ice Cream

2 c. cream
4 c. half and half
1 1/2 c. white sugar
1/3 t. salt
1 T. vanilla
3 c. mashed strawberries (to desired consistency)

 1. Combine all ingredients and mix with hand mixer or whisk. Pour into 5 quart ice cream maker bowl and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.

(Top picture: our yurt, in Lyman Lake State Park, near St. John's, AZ. In Steve's words, "all the good parts of camping, and none of the bad parts," i.e. setting up tents.)
(Middle picture: Darla & Steve Schrock and Laura Glass-Hess as we go on a self-guided petroglyphs tour at the campground.)
(Bottom picture: Darla has mastered the Jet-ski --probably due to the compressing features of the wetsuit--and celebrates accordingly.)