Need a Little Spice in Your Life?

My life is super exciting this week as I recupe from surgery.  (Yawn!)  By next week I imagine I'll be back in the Money Town scene, but for now I'm playing a hermit.  Letting my perky size C boobs heal up before I undoubtedly flash them at someone in town.

I had a couple topics to write about today and I decided to scratch all of them for the time being.  I wanted to do something different and change things up a little bit.  Most of my readers come from outside of California, and I thought I'd give you a little glimpse of the California lifestyle today.

Because the weather here is pretty nice year-round, we tend to use our grill for cooking year-round also.  (I'm going to make all my southern readers shudder when I tell you we call it a barbeque, not a grill.)

Spicy food is also pretty common in Southern California because we are so close to Mexico.  I grew up eating a wide variety of spicy food.  Briefcase grew up on the east coast and he is still shocked to see our kids throw Tabasco and/or salsa on everything.  Briefcase had never even tried salsa until he went to college in the south.  

In any case, I thought I'd share with you an easy summer dinner we had recently.  It might be something you're interested in trying yourself if you don't mind a little "kick" to your food.

It starts with thin skinless chicken breasts and this:

The Chili-Lime Rub is available at Williams Sonoma for $10 (you can get it online from them also).  There is enough of the rub in a can for more than one meal.  (And no, they are not sponsoring me to write this!)  It's a little spicy, but not overpowering.  Really, the rub just provides a nice blend of spices.

It takes maybe a minute to rub the spices into the chicken:

After that it's another few seconds to throw it on the grill:

I like to chop up a medley of veggies to cook in a mesh pan on the grill at the same time.

A lot of time we husk corn and throw it directly on the grill too.  There's no reason to turn the stove or oven on at all in warm weather.  The veggies are done when they look like this:

The chicken is done when it looks like this:

It's so easy!  

It takes a few minutes to scrub down the grill when you're done.  In addition to being quick and easy, the rub makes the chicken really flavorable.  It's a great day to day choice for yourself, but it also makes an easy meal for guests.  

If I were all Martha-Stewart-ish I'd have a picture for you of the meal displayed beautifully on a plate.  

Um ... I'm nothing like Martha Stewart, did I mention that?

© Twenty Four At Heart

Comments

[Alan]

Taaaaaasty...and it tastes like chicken! (Oh wait...it IS chicken!)

[di]

You and I were definitely on the same wave length when we did our posts today. Except that we call ours a grill no matter which coast we live on. :-)

DI
The Blue Ridge Gal
(the rub looks delish!)

[Donna in VA]

That looks fabulous! And I DO love me some easy!
I'm planning a 50th birthday party for my ex (don't ask) and his family (there's alot of them) and I was trying to think of something different besides steak or hamburgers to grill. What a great idea!!
Thanks.

[ballerinatoes]

Yum! Will be trying that rub...also, I've meant to tell you, I've made your spinach salad several times and I love it! As does the fella, which is a feat unto itself. Except he picks the strawberries out. At least he's eating the spinach...right?

[Jan]

Ahhhh, you've made me drool. If only there were a Williams-Sonoma in Podunk...of course, if there were, and they sold this rub, it would have a marinara base, just like everything else around here.

*sigh*

[tonya cinnamon]

that actually looks pretty yummy :)
ive never saw that here in the TN stores :/ can you buy it off line somewhere?
we only do barbecues if we have a get together LOL.

[Kelly]

That looks yum! I think I'll order some online from WS. How are you feeling? Is it getting better?

[Beth Christians]

Looks delish! Thanks for the idea, and glad you are on the mend!

[Pseudo]

Ah, California grillin'. That lime rub looks excellent.

I've always wanted an outdoor kitchen/patio. It's too hot over here to cook in the kitchen a lot of the year.

[Linda]

YUM! That looks awesome! Thanks for the tip! We try to grill out most summer nights too. I love it! No kitchen duty for me:)

[Sandra]

That looked great. I'm digging that veggie pan. That was a lot of chicken. Are the IL's here yet or do your boys eat 3 pieces each? :0)

[Elaina]

Sounds yummy!

[melissa]

I'm on the east coast, but I also have my 9 year old trained to put tabasco on her mac & cheese. This looks awesome! Check out the Habanero Lime Salsa at Trader Joes if you have one close by, it's AMAZING!!!

[Beautiful Wreck]

It looks yummy. Makes me wish my GRILL was not broken. :)

[emmysuh]

A) The food looks great.

B) I keep having an impulse to ask to see a picture of the post surgery boobs, but I'm pretty sure that's inappropriate or makes me a wannabe pornographer. So. I desist.

[Mama Dawg]

Now I'm hungry!

[Lori]

This sounds fantastic! Even though we live in the frozen tundra, called Minnesota, we use our grill in the winter too. I do veggie's in much the same way...so good. This rub sounds good so will have to look into it. Thanks for sharing!

[Kari-Mel]

This looks totally scrumptuous! I wish you were here to cook for me! Glad you're healing up well before your in-laws invade!

[sometimessophia]

Looks delish'. We'll use our fingers and eat right from the grill. (Everyone knows that Martha is a biotch anyway... and you are divine.)

[Jason]

Mmmmmm. I just ate dinner but I'm hungry again!