Spicy kebabs skewer the old dinner routine

I found myself working from home one day last week and it occurred to me at the last minute that if I wanted a fighting chance of everyone eating dinner at the same time, I'd have to hop to it.  So at 4:30, I found myself faced with the prospect of either taking the easy route with some prepackaged something or other, or trying a traditional meat-vegetables-starch dinner from scratch.  I opted for the latter.

So I quickly grabbed some chicken breasts and plunged them into a sink full of warm water, which I find defrosts meat quicker and more evenly than our microwave.  And then I drew a blank. I had an utter void of any inspiration for what I could realistically do with these chicken breasts.  So once they thawed out, I patted them dry and laid them out on the cutting board.  And still had no ideas.

I tried closing my eyes and imagining something we'd not had before at home and that would also fall within the acceptable range of our picky eaters at home, and I still came up with nothing. Then I decided to simply focus on what might simply be tasty, and the next thing I know I was dusting the chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, celery salt, cumin and then cayenne pepper for a good kick.  I turned them over and did the same thing and suddenly it hit me - I should put them on skewers!

I started to dice the chicken, and I sprinkled a little more cayenne to be sure they had a kick, and then I skewered them.  I heated the grill so it would sear the meat at first, and then I quickly put the flames on the lowest setting so the chicken cooked slowly.  I rounded out the meal with steamed broccoli and rice, but any other green vegetable would also do nicely, along with couscous or quinoa.


When I put it all on the table at 5:45, the broccoli and rice sparked no reaction. But then when I went to the grill and brought in the kebabs, everyone perked up at the novelty of it.  And then we took our first bites - yum!  It's amazing how delicious the simple and straightforward can be!

So it turns out I found a way to skewer the old routine.  Lauren's out of town, Lilly is at a friend's house tonight and I have two of Alex's friends spending the weekend with us, so I plan to skewer dinner for them all tonight.  I expect I'll get the same reaction to the novelty. I'll just have to keep the boys from turning the skewers into weapons and playing at the table. That's a whole different challenge, but I think I'm up to that one, too...

The Massengill Manhattan

I work with a great guy named Russ Massengill, and it turns out that he likes to entertain.  I learned this one day when a group of us went out for some after-work beverages and Russ started boasting about how he had come up with the "perfect" manhattan. As he described it, I became interested because it sounded so simple, and admittedly I've always been a little intimidated by mixed drinks, but I thought I could manage this one. 

We had some of our neighbors stop by this past weekend, so I quickly assembled a "tasting committee" and started pouring.  And we found that this was indeed a mighty good drink. Our committee found the drinks to be a little strong, so I added chilled filtered water and that seemed to take the edge off.  I also have a strong preference for cold drinks, so keeping the booze in the freezer is my tweak to this recipe.

So for your imbibing and entertaining pleasure, I present the Massengill Manhattan:

Put these ingredients in the freezer at least 2 hours before serving:

• 2 shots     Bourbon (preferably Wild Turkey 81)
• 1 shot      Cointreau (orange liqueur)

Put these ingredients in the refrigerator at least 2 hours before serving:

• 2 shots    Chilled filtered water
• .5 shot     Sweet vermouth
• 1 dash     Maraschino cherry juice
• 4 dashes  Angostura bitters

The Tasting Committee

Pour the above into a stainless shaker filled with crushed ice. Swirl well and then pour into a frozen martini glass. Garnish with a Maraschino cherry and add ice as needed.

To get these ingredients, you'll have to go to the liquor store for the Bourbon and Cointreau. The Vermouth and Angostura Bitters are both sold in the wine section of our local grocery store.

As with any good recipe, you should take this as a starting point and tweak it as you go along, and be willing to make changes based on what your guests like. 

I invite you to share your thoughts with a comment, or if you're active on Twitter, Tweet the URL of this post with a shout-out to @RussMassengill.

Cheers!  JB