Blue Cheese Mushroom Burgers…

Summertime = grilling. Period. There’s nothing better than spending all day out by the pool, drinking, snacking and grilling up juicy burgers! Joel and I have been trying new and different burger recipes lately (speaking of which, I can’t wait to try these bad boys), and these are our favorites so far. Some of my very favorite flavors are sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions and blue cheese…so why not put them all together on a burger? YUM! We gobbled these up and couldn’t wait for leftovers the next day! Grilling is one of the best parts about summer…especially awesome burgers like these!

Blue Cheese Mushroom Burgers

4 beef patties, 1/4-1/3 pound each
4 hamburger buns
1 large yellow onion, very thinly sliced
2 cups sliced button mushrooms
2 ounces blue cheese
2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
salt
peper
olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sugar
splash red wine
dijon mustard

Preheat the grill to high heat. Grill the patties to desired doneness (about 5 minutes on each side).
Add a little olive oil to a skillet over medium-low heat, cook the onions for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the 1/4 teaspoon sugar, salt and pepper. Continue cooking until the onions are translucent and caramelized. Set aside.

In a skillet over medium-high heat, cook the mushrooms, worcestershire sauce, red wine, and pepper until mushrooms are softened.

To assemble: Spread the burger buns with the dijon mustard. Place the patties on the buns and top with onions, mushrooms and a generous sprinkling of blue cheese. Serves 4.

Recipe source: Sing For Your Supper

**Keep a lookout- I’ll be guest blogging this recipe over at Oven Love soon!

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Mushroom Fajitas…

Happy May, y’all! It’s going to be a good month, I can just feel it! It started off especially awesome since Cassidy slept until 9:30 this morning! Hallelujah! AND, Saturday is Cinco de Mayo, so you know what that means- Mexican food and margaritas all around! Yee haw! Speaking of Mexican food- Joel and I made these amazing mushroom fajitas Saturday and BOY, were they good! I’m kind of obsessed with mushrooms, so the idea of a fajita centered entirely around garlicky grilled portobello mushrooms is fantastic in my book! I marinated the mushrooms in a garlic/lime juice/oil mixture and Joel grilled them; then we topped it with pepper jack cheese and grilled onions and peppers. Served alongside my grilled corn salad (always a favorite!), this was one amazing meal!

Mushroom Fajitas

2 portobello mushrooms; stems removed and sliced into thick slices
1 red onion, sliced into thin rings
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup vegetable oil
juice of 2 limes
salt
cilantro
shredded pepper jack cheese
4 corn tortillas

Combine the garlic, oil and lime juice in a small bowl and toss with the mushrooms to coat. Allow to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and grill mushrooms over medium-high heat until soft, about 2-3 minutes on each side. Grill onions and peppers about 10 minutes until soft. Top the corn tortillas with the mushrooms, vegetables, cheese and cilantro. Squeeze over additional lime juice if desired. Serves 2.

Recipe source: Sing For Your Supper original

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Grilled Hawaiian Pork Chops…

Hellooooo, grilling season! I feel like we’ve already done more grilling so far this Spring than the past two Springs and Summers combined! We just can’t resist it! When the weather is sunny and beautiful, there’s nothing better than the smell of something delicious cooking on the grill. And let me tell you, this pork smells heavenly while it’s cooking! I have no doubt people all over our neighborhood were sniffing and wondering where that glorious smell was coming from! My mom has a recipe for baked Hawaiian chicken that’s so amazingly good, I thought I’d experiment with pork chops on the grill. It did NOT disappoint! I can’t wait to make this again and again!

Grilled Hawaiian Pork Chops

4 boneless pork chops (at least 2/3 inch thick)
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon cooking sherry
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Place the pork chops in a large ziploc bag. Whisk together the soy sauce, garlic, sherry, cayenne, lime juice and ground ginger and pour into the ziploc bag with the pork chops. Seal the bag and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Preheat the grill to medium-high heat and cook the pork chops for about 3 minutes on each side until done. If using a meat thermometer, it should reach 170 degrees internally.

Serve with grilled fresh pineapple, if desired.

Recipe source: adapted from my mom’s recipe

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I just want to start off by saying, there are tons and tons of food blogs out there. Many with better pictures than mine, better writing skills, and just better overall food-blogginess; yet you’re here right now, reading mine. So thanks. Thanks for sticking with me and reading my silly posts and taking the time to comment- it really makes my day. My pictures may not be crystal clear and totally flawless, but you know what? I sort of like them that way- that’s exactly how our food looks before we sit down and dig in. I don’t spend an hour adding tiny pieces of parsley, or taking a cloth and wiping away stray crumbs or melted cheese that doesn’t belong. I like stray crumbs. 🙂 And I like my blog. And I’m thrilled beyond words that you like it too. So again, thanks. Thanks for being really fantastic readers. I really, really love you all.

Ok, now that I’m done being sappy- here is a fantastic recipe for quesadillas. We made these this weekend and ate like big-fat-pigs! I was originally going to make these (do those not look insanely delicious?! I can’t wait to try them!), but didn’t have any bbq sauce. Then I remembered how much we adored the chicken kabobs I made a few weeks ago, and decided to just make quesadillas out of them (Good call, Amy!). These were cheesy, slightly sweet, a little spicy….a totally delicious meal! Can’t wait to make them again!

Grilled Chicken, Pineapple and Veggie Quesadillas

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup Lime Ponzu, plus more for brushing (If you don’t have this, just use soy sauce, a pinch of sugar and a little lime juice)
fresh pineapple, sliced (you’ll only need about 1/4 of the whole pineapple)
1 red bell pepper, cut into slices
1 red onion, sliced into rings
1 jalapeno pepper
pepperjack cheese
cilantro
large tortillas

Place the chicken in a large ziploc bag with 1/2 cup of the ponzu and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
After 2 hours, grill the chicken over medium-high heat (about 5 minutes on each side). When the chicken is nearly done, add the peppers, onion and pineapple to the grill and brush with the additional ponzu while cooking. Turn only once and remove as soon as the chicken is done cooking.
Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes, then slice diagonally.

To assemble: preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle a little pepperjack cheese on two tortillas (as much as you like- I used about 1/3 cup for each), then top with the sliced chicken, pineapple, peppers and onion. Top with a sprinkling of cilantro then place another tortilla on top of each. Bake for about 5 minutes, just long enough for the cheese to melt.
Cut quesadillas into 4 pieces. Serves 2.

*To keep the edges of the tortillas from curling up on the sides, dip your finger in a little water and brush along the outer edge of the tortilla just before baking.

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Grilled Chicken Fajitas…

First off, I want to thank you all for the birthday wishes! I feel like my readers and my food blogging buddies are my real life friends- it means so much to be able to share my special day with all of you! I had a fantastic birthday; my sweet hubby treated me like a queen and I loved every minute of it (you gotta take advantage of it whenever it comes around, girls!)! And the piece of chocolate cake that was as big as my head (seriously!) that I had at dinner was the cherry on top of a great day!

Now on to the good stuff- fajitas! Sometimes I feel like the only Tex-Mex I ever fix anymore is fajitas; but we just love them so much it’s hard to stray away from them! Normally when I make fajitas, I use steak and cook them in a large skillet with beer, salsa and a few other “secret” ingredients- they’re pretty hard to beat, if I do say so myself! However, when we go out to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Joe T. Garcia’s, I always, without fail, order their chicken fajitas. They’re slightly sweet, spicy and amazingly tender and juicy. So when I saw this recipe for grilled chicken fajitas that called for brown sugar, I knew I had to try them! The finished product was excellent and we really enjoyed them- they weren’t quite as good as Joe T’s, but hey, no one could EVER live up to Joe T’s standards! I suggest you give these chicken fajitas a try next time you’ve got a hankering for good Tex-Mex; you won’t be disappointed!

Grilled Chicken Fajitas
The Way the Cookie Crumbles, originally from Cooks Illustrated

1/3 cup juice from 2 to 3 limes
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
table salt and ground black pepper
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds) pounded to 1/2-inch thickness
1 large red onion, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds (do not separate rings)
1 large red bell pepper, quartered, stemmed, and seeded
1 large yellow bell pepper, quartered, stemmed, and seeded
8-12 (6-inch) flour tortillas

In a medium bowl, whisk together the lime juice, 4 tablespoons oil, garlic, Worcestershire, brown sugar, jalapeno, cilantro, 1 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper. Reserve 1/4 cup marinade in a small bowl; set aside. Add another teaspoon salt to the remaining marinade. Place the chicken in the marinade; cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 15-30 minutes. Brush both sides of the onion rounds and the peppers with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and season with salt and pepper.

Remove the chicken from the marinade and place it smooth side down on the grill over medium-high heat; discard the remaining marinade. Place the onion rounds and peppers (skin side down) on the cooler side of the grill. Cook the chicken until it’s well browned, 4 to 5 minutes; using tongs, flip the chicken and continue grilling until it’s no longer pink when cut into with a paring knife or an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers about 160 degrees, 4 to 5 minutes longer.

Separate the onions into rings and place them in a medium bowl; slice the bell peppers lengthwise into 1/4-inch strips and place them in the bowl with the onions. Add 2 tablespoons reserved unused marinade to the vegetables and toss well to combine. Slice the chicken into 1/4-inch strips and toss with the remaining 2 tablespoons reserved marinade in another bowl; arrange the chicken and vegetables on a large platter and serve with warm tortillas. Serve with rice, refried beans, sour cream, grated cheese, salsa and additional cilantro if desired.

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