A Tale of Two Meals

This last weekend we had two couples over on successive nights.  Unfortunately as is so often the case these days, I only took pictures of half of each dinner.  But through the genius that is de-I I am going to put together a single coherent post that seamlessly combines the two as if they were one meal!

How...how you say de-I can you accomplish this.  Even though we know you can turn Cheetos into fine dining and can get countless people to throw their lives away on your hiking trips.  How can you pull this off.  Be patient locust (grasshoppers older sibling).  All will be revealed.

Getting Started - All of the initial cooking was based upon grilling

Marinating chicken

I've mentioned this in the past but I take the marinade basic components (onions, garlic, carrots, wine) and add flavorings as suits my mood (thyme, rosemary, Worcestershire sauce, lemon), pulse them in the blender, put into plastic bags and let sit refrigerated overnight. 

Marinating vegetables

I had a variety of root and non-root veggies

Here I'm prepping kohlrabi.  I also had potatoes and I parboiled those.

I just used some oil and this cool strong, sweet Chinese vinegar I got from my shopping spree.

I was also marinating red bell pepper, mushrooms, eggplant, and yellow squash

And there was shrimp as well in oil, red chile powder, Mexican oregano, lime juice and cilantro

Before grilling the chicken, I wash all the marinade off and dry and oil the chicken

The chicken was cooked indirectly but the shrimp went on first over the direct heat for just a couple of minutes.  The chicken took about an hour and half with indirect heat.

Now here is where day one stopped as far as pictures.  I actually used part of the shrimp to make a Mexican style shrimp cocktail and then served the chicken and veggies as is.

However, I purposely had cooked more than I needed with a next day menu in mind!

Next Day's Meal

I made an aioli (a garlic mayonnaise) and served the leftover cold roasted potato, kohlrabi, and shrimp as a first course.

I made a broth out of the chicken bones and some Indian spices then made a rice pilaf with the chicken meat and the left over non-root roasted veggies.

See.  Easy.