Dining In

Finally! We have rediscovered the kitchen! It has been a long time since I've had a fully-stocked kitchen and time to cook. But we have finally gotten settled in enough that I was able to make my first grocery trip and plan out a few meals. Tonight it was WAY too hot to cook indoors, so I planned a meal on the grill. We had chicken, Italian veggies, and cinnamon apples on the grill as well as steamed corn on the cob. YUM! The veggies are a basic staple in our summer diet. We basically chop up fresh broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, peppers, onions, zucchini, and whatever else, coat it with olive oil and Italian seasoning, and grill them in a grill basket. Delicious and simple. The apples are the total opposite of a staple. In fact, I just made them up today *LOL*. I was talking to Lucas' mom, and she said something about eating apple crisp. I thought, "Mmmm, that sounds great. Maybe I'll make some for dinner," at which point I realized that would incorporate heating up the oven, which I was trying to avoid at all cost. So, I decided to experiment. If it worked out, great! Cinnamon apples for dinner. If not, we were out five apples and a handful of spice. No big deal. Here's what I did: Pealed & diced 5 apples. Threw some sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch (although I think next time I'll use more cornstarch than I used tonight... they were a little thin) on them and mixed it all up. Then I put the apples, 2 ice cubes, and 3 pats of butter into a foil pack and threw them on the grill. I think they grilled for about 30-35 minutes... they were very tender and tasty. Worked like a charm! Will definitely be doing that again. Sounds like a great topping to some vanilla ice cream!