Cooking with George

So my ESS Sabrina has been downloading things for the past several months getting ready for the Big Adventure.

Understandable.  I'm not getting ready for a Big Adventure, yet still I am trying to get rid of things.

Hilarious, if you are on the receiving end.  Because there's a certain ballet when your friends are trying to offload all of their stuff to everybody.

Basically, after a couple of months, the conversation would be:
Sabrina: Hey I was wondering if you would......
Me: No.  I'm good.
Sabrina:  I was going to say like to have drinks.
Me:  Oh, sure! Yeah.

However, the drink thing was just a ploy, because I would still wind up with something. (However, ESS Sabrina, everything has been put to use, thank you very much!!!)

So, one of these conversations, I was prepared to say no, when the item in question was her George Foreman grill.

Whoa, wait, hold up, back up, YES, I WILL take that!  An agreement almost nullified several weeks later by a clueless spouse.

So, recipe time.  The main reason I wanted it was to make paninis.  It does great with paninis, however, if you want to go dump $300-$500 on a 'panini grill', knock yourself out.

Turkey Brie Panini
Turkey deli meat (thick cut is good, but thin cut heats through better)
Baby arugula
Apple butter (try to find a small batch jar, better than the Musselman's brand)
Brie (triple cream is best, but beggars can't be choosers)
Ciabatta bread

If you can get Ciabatta that is already sandwich size, awesome. If you buy the loaf, cut to make roughly square shape sandwich size.  You can trim the crown off (rounded part on top of loaf) if you wish.

Brush olive oil on the outer sides of bread, it was suggested to me that I add herbs when I do this, will try next time.

Spread Apple Butter on the inner sides of each side of bread.

Place turkey on one side

Place brie and arugula on other size.

Assemble, place in Foreman grill (I went with High) until grill marks are on bread and cheese has started to melt into gooey wonderfulness.

This is a great savory sandwich, it has sweet from apple butter, slightly bitter from arugula and mellow brie goodness.

****You can also make paninis on your boat.  Same assembly, but use grill (or grill pan on stove) and wrap something heat proof and with some weight in foil to apply the 'press' to the sandwich, you'll have to flip it this way, but still get an awesome sandwich.

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So since my first attempt with George was successful, I figure it's time to open the experimental kitchen now that my husband is out of town.

Second attempt grilled marinated veggies and yogurt marinated chicken.  Not a hard fast recipe here.
Veggies: Veggies of choice, Olive oil, spices of your choice (I used Mediterranean influence) let marinate for 1-4 hours.  I put my veggies on a skewer to cook.
Chicken: Boneless chicken breasts, plain greek yogurt, olive oil (just a bit to help loosen yogurt), garlic, spices (oregano, thyme, basil, etc), hot sauce (Lottie's is my current favorite), lemon zest

Thing that I never understood, about the George Foreman grill (which I should have working at McDonald's during college, duh) is how fast things will cook.  So, I whipped out veggies and then chicken in short order.  It was awesome.  I used eggplant, cherry tomato, onion for my veggies since the zucchini and summer squash wasn't looking very appetizing at the store.

I think if I had let the grill recover a bit more after the veggies, I would have got more even score marks on the chicken.  Nevertheless, still juicy and delicious.