Steak & Potato Kabobs

Oh hey there. Guess what? I made a full meal that I've never made before withOUT following a recipe. Pretty much, I made it up. I don't care if it was insanely simple, it made me happy and Dan and I cleared the plate so we obviously both enjoyed it!

Now before I dive into the 2-second "recipe" that is (just like the teriyaki chicken) so simple I don't know what to do about it... I would like to take this opportunity to tell my Aunt Marie that she was right. The produce and meat sections at Tony's Finer Foods are like nothing else I have ever seen. Mind you, my aunt has been telling me this for, oh, about a year, since they opened a Tony's just minutes from my house. But before I gained an appreciation for a home cooked meal prepared by yours truly, I wanted little to do with fresh cuts of meat and piles of fruits and veggies. In my own defense, I did go in to Tony's awhile back, but I headed straight for the cereal aisle, and balked at the fact that they wanted to charge me $5 for a box of my beloved Cheerios. Sorry Tony, I am an avid cereal eater, and therefore know that $5 for a snack sized box is ridiculous. I headed back to the other grocery store in the area (that I honestly despise, but can't argue too much when I compare their prices to Jewel), and didn't set foot in Tony's again until Dan and I decided to give it another shot and guess what, the power was out in the store. Sigh. Tony, I apologize again, but I am not buying meat from a cooler that's pumping off backup generators. SO, I finally decided to give it a third and final shot this past Sunday and headed over to do some solo grocery shopping (read: lots of fresh fruit, not a lot of fruit punch a la shopping with Dan).

Anyways, to make a long story short (ok, I know, it's already long)... the moral of the story is I spent $50 and came home with an insane amount of produce, chicken, pork chops, AND a newbie to me - "beef stew chunks". Gross name, right? But for $4 a pound I decided to give them a shot. These tasty little pieces were just begging to be skewered, and that is exactly what I did.

So here it is, my new summer-staple meat and potatoes...

Grilled Steak & Potato Kabobs

Ingredients:
- a little more than 1/2 pound large bite-sized chunks of steak
- 2 baking potatoes
- fresh garlic, peeled
- Kraft Roasted Red Pepper Italian with Parmesan Dressing and Marinade
- bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 15 minutes

I made 4 full skewers from the amounts above and have just a little less than half of the beef left that I bought.

1. Toss meat in a gallon-sized ziploc bag with about a cup of dressing. Shake it all up and place in fridge to marinade.
2. Turn on the grill. Or, have your boyfriend turn on the grill for you if you are afraid of blowing up the propane tank yourself.
3. Peel potatoes and cut in to chunks. Steam for 5-8 minutes.
4. Skewer it all up - alternate pieces of meat, potato and fresh garlic cloves.
5. Grill on all sides until meat is cooked to your liking, seasoning with a bit of salt and pepper and basting with the dressing left in the ziploc bag.

Yum.

A few things I learned while making this:
1. The little steamer basket that comes with most rice cookers works great when you don't own a pot steamer. But, a full 8 minutes steaming potato chunks is too long - next time I will probably only steam them for 5 minutes tops. The full 8 minutes left them too soft and several broke apart when trying to skewer.
2. Clearly, this "recipe" is my way of making typical kabobs that would usually involve peppers and onions and all those other things Dan and I don't like. I think I'd like to try it with onion just for the flavor, even though we wouldn't eat the pieces in the end. For people that like peppers and onions, I think this would be great seeing as the dressing has a nice peppery flavor.
3. Having a grill opens up a whole world of opportunities for fun simple meals! I'm excited to make more than just burgers and hotdogs this summer and expand the list of meals I would make again and again.

On another note, the lack of pictures on my blog lately is driving me crazy. I have some GREAT finds to share from a night out with Dan and Manda last weekend, but they are major project pieces so I'm waiting until I can show before and after pictures in the same post.