Labor Day is a sort of all-encompassing holiday for many people. It represents about 800 different things in this country. Days off work, cookouts, retail sales, and family time. It also represents the beginning of the school year and, my personal favorite, the end of summer. The day after Labor Day is the official start of autumn. It’s like the unofficial grim reaper of all fun summer activities. For me its a knight in shinning armor, here to rescue me from forehead sweat, and pit stains. But as we all know, any holiday revolving around food will eventually pull me in whether I like it or not. I am simply no match for the smell of a charcoal BBQ grill (pun intended).
We had a big celebration this year at my grandmother’s house, as we typically do on holidays and special occasions. I’ve been on a shish-kabob kick for the past few months, so I decided to rub it off on my family. Along with my aunts famous million cheese mac & cheese, homemade loaded potato salad, and tons of other things. I got a few extra shish-kabobs from the deli to take home and experiment with on my own.
I’m in no position to call myself a grill master of any sorts. I can count the number of times I’ve ventured out onto the grill on my own. Many of those times ending with me digging burgers out of the hot coal with a fork because they’ve somehow slipped between the cracks. I know my place when it comes to the grill, and It’s on the sidelines fanning the smoke away. This weekend I decided to be adventurous, and grill the left over kabobs at home with my tiny, little mini grill (don’t make fun). Here’s the just of what went down.
Steak Marinade:
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup bourbon or other whiskey
- 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp. Tabasco
- Cracked black pepper to taste
Chicken Marinade:
- half stick melted butter
- 1 good spoon full of jarred minced garlic
- cracked black pepper to taste
- 1 Tbs. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. hot pepper flakes
- 1 Tbp. good italian seasoning
Let chicken and steak marinade for at last an hour in the fridge, if you can do it overnight it’s even better.
What are grilled shish-kabobs without fresh, grilled corn? incomplete I’d say! I wanted to kick the corn up a notch, so I made a mesquite BBQ butter to spread on top before the corn hit the grill. Just to give it a little extra flavor.
Mesquite BBQ butter recipe:
- Half stick room temp. butter
- 1 Tbs. Mccormick mesquite BBQ seasoning
Seems like a lot, but it was actually pretty simple. The only step left is to actually grill the food on my miniature grill, and eat!
You’ll want to grill the corn for around 10-12 minutes before you put the meat on. The corn takes a little longer, plus I like for my grilled veggies to be a little more charred. Sub-consciously, it’s probably to prove to people that I actually did cook it on the grill.
Not to toot my own horn, but I have to say that I was extremely happy with the turnout. It’s not typical that everything ends up the way you want it when you tackle a meal like this (for me at least) so this was a pleasant surprise. I’d like to think that Ina Garten is somewhere, giggling because she’s proud of me.
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