....choose your accessories wisely while sunbathing.

I had the pleasure of doing a little sunbathing with Miss Cupcake by our pool yesterday. As an amateur at this new "sport" I wore my accessories as usual. I have a St. Christopher pendant that Miss Cupcake gave me for our first Christmas together (No, I'm not catholic. I'm just into catholic art). I never take this pendant off, and not knowing the art of turning over, adjusting your body, etc, I got the coolest tan line ever! Without posting a picture of my man chest I will try and describe what it looks like. The tan line looks like a necklace with 2 balls positioned right next to each other on my chest. Yes, yes, your dirty mind is 100% accurate this time. Please try to contain yourself. Ok seriously, I can hear you laughing, and if you're going to make it to the end of this post you're going to have to pull yourself together. (if needed go ahead and call a friend to tell them about the tanline this guy who's blog you read got)

Now that you're ready to move on, this week has been exciting. Miss Cupcake and I purchased our own little charcoal grill. It's lime green, and looks like an old pail bucket. We got it on sale at Crate & Barrel for $24. Since purchasing it, we've used it every night. The first night we made homemade pizza on the grill, and last night we made kabobs. Here are some pics of how they turned out. (Yes that's me in the picture, my anonymity is gone. Also shown is the pendant mentioned in the paragraph above. OK OK geeze I didn't mean to get you all worked up again. Moving on!) The pizza was absolutely delicious, and the kabobs were really good, (they would've been better, but Miss Cupcake's love for Montreal Steak Seasoning accounted for a large over peppering lol, I jest). They were still good though, and we plan on using the leftovers for some delicious omelets.

The pizza dough was purchased from Whole Foods. You can go to their pizza counter, and they will sell you the balls of dough they use for their pizza. On the pizza we put olive oil as the sauce, shredded mozzarella, cherry tomatoes cut in half, marinated artichokes, roasted garlic, and a generous helping of goat cheese. First we rolled out the dough and cooked it on one side on the grill for 8-10 minutes (our grill wasn't too hot, so just make sure you don't burn it). Then we flipped it over and added the toppings to the cooked side, and placed it back on the grill. We let it cook for another 15 min until all the cheese was melted and the dough was nice and crisp. It was Delicious, and the only thing I would've changed is roasting the tomatoes on their own before putting them on the pizza. When doing the halves of cherry tomatoes as we did, the juices stay inside until bitten into, and then come rushing out like napalm in your mouth. Another way to make sure this doesn't happen is just be patient and wait for the pizza to cool a bit before taking a bite, but sadly patience is a virtue I've managed not to pick up quite yet.

The kabobs were cubed pieces of top sirloin steak from the HEB. We marinated the steak in Allegro Original Marinade, and some minced garlic and olive oil for 3 hrs before skewering. On the kabobs we alternated steak with green, red, and yellow bell peppers, as well as pieces of fresh onion. Before putting on the grill we sprinkled the kabob with olive oil and montreal steak seasoning. It is important to know that the olive oil helps the seasoning stick really well, so only put the amount you want to actually eat with each bite on there, because none of it will fall off during cooking. We cooked them on one side for 10 minutes, and then flipped them and cooked for another 5.

Growing up in Oklahoma you learn how to tell when steak is done properly (if you don't then your only chance at making friends is buying a ton of beer). So the most important part is just keeping an eye on the meat. The vegetables will cook pretty quickly, so just keep an eye on that meat. Nobody likes a dried, tough, and chewy kabob. However, if you get that perfectly juicy medium rare, then the amount of praise from your guests will never end.

*Quick tip for entertaining, if when your guests arrive you start by pouring them cocktails and then cook the food in front of them, during that hour or so of preparation they will become quite intoxicated, and your praise will be far more animated once the food is ready.

Let me give you an example. I once made cheese stuffed mushrooms for some coworkers at a dinner party. Everybody took a long time to get there, so some of the guests had been drinking non stop for over an hour before I even started the prep. Before I put the mushrooms in the oven I drizzled them with olive oil, and got an applause! 10 minutes later once everybody had a few in their stomach, you would've thought I was a celebrity chef. I was giving recipes, fielding compliments, and taking praise like Brad Pitt in an Anne Curry interview.

Well that's all for today folks. Happy America Day. Grill something, drink too much, and when in doubt DEEP FRY!