Introducing Creativity To The Alternative Diet: Many of us have segued from traditional dietary lifestyle to alternative dietary lifestyles, i.e. Gluten free, Vegan, Grain free, Real food, etc. What are we discovering?? These recipes are NOT mediocre!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Pleasing Panzanella


We did the mushroom/chicken/panzanella/banana menu last night. Saturday night . . . perfect for a BBQ. It was so good, and fun to make as well! My husband is back home, so I got to try it all out on him. He loved it as well. I did everything by the recipe, except . . . freshly grated nutmeg. Did you guys get an actual nutmeg and grate it? I just used the already ground up stuff. And I don't have a microwave, so I warmed the oil/garlic on the stove--don't think that made any difference. I couldn't get portabellos so I used normal white mushrooms. They were big, but not as big as portobellos, so they were FULL of stuffing. Mmmm . . .
The chicken and salad were GREAT! We love the tomato/olive oil/basil/garlic combo. It's like bruschetta in a salad. Panzanella is good anyway, but to make it using the grill made it WAY better.
The bananas were fantastic! We went down to the gelato store and bought some vanilla in a takeaway and then made it with the optional chocolate sauce. I loved the combination of the cinnamon and chocolate. And my husband said "That was [explicative] good," (sorry, I know this is a family site, he can be a bit 'colorful').
It was so fun to make the whole meal on the grill. Thanks for great recipes! I will make this again and again . . . and keep it in the back of my mind for when we have company for dinner.
Finally, a big thank you for the recent recipes that include basil. I have three basil plants that are growing out of control. I think you can see two of them poking up in the photo. I was pleased as punch to be able to hack so much off of it between the panzanella and the basil lemon limeade from Serena (review to come shortly). Super!

3 comments:

stacita said...

Alyssa, I thought the bananas were pretty fucking good myself! :) We have a lot of basil too, so every summer we make pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays and then put it in ziplocks in the freezer. We pull out cubes of it for pasta, pizza and sandwiches until almost Christmas!

Rachel said...

I was going to say, I love Adam's 'color' and now I'll say I love all my friends 'color'! Adam and Stacy, you make me laugh so hard!
Alyssa, great review! I love learning things about your daily life that we don't mention on the phone, i.e. the basil plants.
I agree about good panzanella being even better on the grill!!!

Cahill Clan said...

I am so glad you enjoyed the meal! I actually do have a nutmeg that i grate off of but sadly it is in my storage with the rest of my kitchen items and house! It is much better than the already ground but hard to find! I certainly wouldn't buy a whole one if I didnt use nutmeg often!