Ten Grilling Recipe Ideas for Memorial Day Weekend Grilling!

10 of my Favorite Grilling Ideas for Memorial Day Weekend. 

It's Friday, so I believe that's the official start of Memorial Day Weekend, even if some people have to finish work today before they can begin celebrating the arrival of summer. A few of my teacher friends are having their last day of school today, which any student or teacher knows is simply the best day of the year! I'll be doing a little entertaining and a lot of kicking back over the weekend, but first I thought I'd share a few ideas for things you might like to put on the grill if you'd like to kick it up a bit from basic burgers. I haven't decided what's going to be on my own grill this weekend, but all these grilling ideas are favorite recipes I love to cook, whether I'm grilling for guests or just throwing something on the grill for dinner. 

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Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Polder Digital Meat Thermometer with Probe and Timer

The rain and snow has finally stopped in Utah so it's starting to actually look like grilling weather, and I'm long overdue for sharing a recommendation for one of my favorite grilling tools, this Polder Digital Meat Thermometer with Probe that I got a few years ago as a birthday present from my blogging friend Elise. She recommended it when I was planning to cook prime rib for my dad and stepmother, and the thermometer took the guesswork out of knowing when my prime rib had reached the desired temperature. (Thanks Elise!) Since then I've used this often when grilling meat, and so many guests have been wowed by this simple little thermometer that I decided it was time to make it an official Kalyn's Kitchen Pick.

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Recipe for Mustard, Lemon, and Coriander Grilled Chicken Breasts with Lemon-Basil Vinaigrette

Here we are heading into one of the biggest grilling weekend of the year in the U.S., and in Utah we've been having so much rain (and snow!) that I ended up cooking these chicken breasts using my stove-top grill pan. I really hope the weather is cooperating where you live so you can grill outside, but either outdoor or stove-top grilling will give good results for this recipe. The marinated chicken breasts are grilled, then sliced on the diagonal and served with a lemon-basil vinaigrette, and if you don't have basil yet in your herb garden, I think a different herb, or even thinly sliced green onions will work here too.

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Recipe for Cucumber, Onion, and Parsley Salad with Feta Cheese

This simple Cucumber, Onion, and Parsley Salad with Feta Cheese has four of my favorite summer ingredients!

(Updated and added to Recipe Favorites May 2010.) I don't remember where I originally found the idea for this simple cucumber, onion, and parsley salad with feta cheese and lemon vinaigrette, but it ended up being a flavor combination I loved, and when I made it again recently I decided it was time to update the photos. This salad is a great way to use cucumbers from the garden (when you start getting them!) but when I don't have garden cucumbers, I use mild European cucumbers or small Persian cucumbers. If you're not sure about raw red onion, soak the onion in cold water for a few minutes to remove some of the bite. I used flat Italian Parsley from my herb garden for this, but curly parsley would work. I think simple fresh-tasting cucumber salads like this make a perfect warm-weather lunch, or serve this as a side dish for grilled meat.

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Friday Night Herb Garden Photos and Recipes Using Fresh Herbs: 2010 Garden Update #2

I know this garden update all about herbs may cause herb envy for some readers who are apartment dwellers or just not gardeners. Other people may wonder what's the big deal about cooking with fresh herbs. I can hardly remember now when I first started growing herbs and cooking with them, but now I eagerly look forward to summer when I can go outside and get herbs to use in the kitchen. If you're not currently using fresh herbs in your cooking, check some of the recipe links for each herb type to see how I use my own herbs, and maybe I can inspire you to grow a few pots of something in a windowsill if you don't have a garden space!

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Recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad with Parsley and Mint (Gluten-Free, Vegan)

Gluten-Free Tabbouleh with Quinoa replacing the wheat!

As soon as I discovered that I really do like quinoa, I started seeing interesting-looking quinoa recipes everywhere. I spotted this recipe for a quinoa-based variation of the Middle Eastern salad called tabbouleh (tuh-boo-lee), and since I love the simple Tabbouleh with Almonds that I make every summer when my garden has mint and parsley, I knew I'd enjoy this recipe. Authentic tabbouleh has more parsley and mint than grain, so this is more of a tabbouleh-like salad, but it was definitely very tasty. Normally I'm not a fan of tomatoes in tabbouleh, but they worked well in this recipe, and I was excited that I could use mint and parsley from the garden, even though the weather in Utah is still raining and I had to dash outside between cloudbursts to pick the herbs!

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Recipe for Salmon Patties

(Updated and added to Recipe Favorites, May 2010.) I don't remember my mom ever cooking fresh fish for the family, except for the very occasional time when my dad would go fishing and bring home Utah Rainbow Trout, which mom would pan-fry whole and we'd eat them with lots of lemon juice. However, I do have fond memories of my mom making salmon patties, made from canned salmon, and fried until they were crispy on the outside. I posted a recipe for these in 2005 when I first started my blog, but through the years I've been making them with less salmon, and considerably more green onions and other seasonings, and recently I experimented with using almond meal instead of bread crumbs, so I thought I'd update the recipe with my new favorite version. (Check the printer friendly recipe page if you want to see the original recipe.) These salmon patties may not compare with fresh wild salmon, but they're a frugal pantry meal that's very tasty.

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Five Fun Things on Friday (5-14-10)

Photo of Grilled Pizza from The Perfect Pantry

Am I the only one who notices how sometimes the weeks just go roaring by? Already it's Friday night and time for a fun recap of things I've spotted this week, starting with pizza on the grill.

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Recipe for Spicy Whole Wheat Sesame Noodles with Chicken, Green Onions, and Cilantro

Use leftover chicken and Spicy Whole Wheat Sesame Noodles can be ready in minutes.

Recently my brother Mark and his wife Lisa showed up at my house with a rotisserie chicken for dinner. Rotisserie chicken usually means leftover chicken, and I was very happy I had leftovers to inspire me to try this recipe, because I loved the savory and spicy combination of rice vinegar, soy sauce, fresh ginger, Thai chili garlic paste, and sesame oil in these noodles. The first time I made this I followed the recipe and used a whole pound of spaghetti, which made an enormous pot of noodles. My friend Margarethe and her daughter Martina stopped by and I shared the leftovers with them, but the next day when I ate my own share of noodle leftovers I decided most of the flavor was absorbed by the noodles, and it wasn't nearly as good leftover as it was freshly made. The next time I made it, I cut the original recipe in half, and that's the one I'm sharing here. This recipe has just a little grating of ginger root, mixing, and chopping to do while the noodles are cooking. It's easy enough to cook in about 20 minutes, and once you taste it, you'll want to make this whenever you have leftover chicken!

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Grilled Chicken Sanpete Kabobs Recipe

(Updated and added to Recipe Favorites May 2010.) This weekend is Mother's Day, the unofficial start of grilling season for some of you. May is also National Barbecue Month, so I thought it was a good time to make these Asian-flavored chicken kabobs and update the post with some better photos. This is a recipe I found years ago in one of the Salt Lake newspapers, and the "Sanpete" in the recipe title refers to Sanpete County, a part of central Utah where lots of turkeys are raised. What makes this marinade recipe a bit unusual is the addition of horseradish, which gives it a nice flavor and a slight kick. The marinade is great on turkey breast, but through the years I've used it mostly for chicken kabobs like this. This is a marinade you can put on the chicken in the morning when you go to work and let it sit in the fridge all day, ready to cook when you get home that night.

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Five Fun Things on Friday (5-7-10)

It's Mother's Day weekend, a time which makes me think about my loving and generous mother who died in 1998. I definitely hit the jackpot in the parents department, and this week when I went to make lunch for my dad, we talked about my mom and how much we miss her. Then today a friend sent me a poem about invisible work, and it made me think of my mom once again. It's a bit more serious than some of the things I usually share for these Friday Fun things, but if you like poetry, click through and I bet you'll like the poem.

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Recipe for Quinoa Salad with Avocado, Radishes, Cucumbers, and Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette

Do I dare confess that I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed this quinoa salad with avocado, radishes, cucumber, green onions, and a spicy cumin-lime vinaigrette? I've definitely been a slow adopter when it comes to quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) but recently when I wrote about cooking with quinoa for BlogHer.com, I made a promise to myself that I would try using it. Quinoa is loaded with nutrients, as well as being gluten-free and a source of complete protein, and it has a pleasant, somewhat nutty taste and slightly crunchy texture. Now that I realize I like quinoa so well, you can bet I'll be trying other experiments with this interesting seed that's cooked as a grain; meanwhile if you're also a quinoa novice, give this tasty salad a try and see what you think.

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Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Ian's 100% Whole Wheat Panko Breadcrumbs

I was walking through Whole Foods in Salt Lake City with my sister Sandee when I spotted these 100 % whole wheat Panko breadcrumbs, and I may have possibly let out a little squeal before I grabbed them off the shelf. If you've ever searched for 100% whole wheat breadcrumbs, you know how hard they are to find. Of course, you can make your own breadcrumbs from 100% Whole Wheat bread, but these are Panko breadcrumbs, which have a crisper, flakier texture than traditional breadcrumbs. I'm not sure if this is a new product, because I used to buy 100% whole wheat bread crumbs made by this company (but not Panko); then a few years ago they disappeared from the shelves, and even though I asked the store to order them, I never found them again.

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Recipe for Spicy Red Fish Stew

In my family room I have a huge collection of food magazines going back about 15 years, mostly Gourmet, Bon Appetit, and Fine Cooking, with some assorted issues of other publications. My magazines are arranged by month, and when a new month starts, I love to look at the past issues for that month to see what recipes the magazines were featuring at that time of year. It's been cold and rainy in Salt Lake for a few weeks now, so when I looked at the magazines for May, this recipe for Spicy Red Fish Stew from Bon Appetit, May 2004, was the one that jumped out at me.

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South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes Round-Up for April 2010 (Low-Glycemic Recipes)

Peperoncini Chopped Salad with Romaine, Red Bell Pepper,
and Feta was Kalyn's favorite Phase One recipe for April 2010.

Every month I'm always shocked at how quickly the calendar flips over and it's time for another Round-up of South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes that I've posted that month of spotted on other blogs. All the Round-Ups get added to the index page for South Beach Diet Phase One Monthly Recipe Round-Ups, and there are now over two years of monthly Round-Ups, so hopefully with that and the Index of Phase One Recipes from Kalyn's Kitchen, it's not hard to find good Phase One recipes (just in case any of you are gearing up for bathing suit season!)  (You can also use the label Low-Glycemic Recipe Round-Ups to see all the posts like this one.)

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