Grilled Cowboy Shrimp Salad

For a quickie dinner that still turns out delish...

Fresh shrimp, doused in a cilantro-lime salad dressing. Throw those babies over the grill and be sure to flip them often so they don't get too dry and burnt. Seafood grills super fast. (learned that lesson the hard way last week with my over-cooked tilapia)

Pair that with some Cowboy Salad

(all raw)
2 cups Chopped Red, Yellow, and Green Peppers
1/2 cup chopped Red Onion
1 large cucumber, chopped
a bit of EVOO
some Cayenne Peppa
some taco seasoning
teensy bit of suga (cane)
a few sprigs of cilantro (I use a lot)
salt, peppa

Mix it all and voila! yumminess

Now, put a heaping scoop of the Cowboy Salad over some Mixed Greens and then throw those grilled shrimps on top. One scoop of salsa (I used Cherry Salsa, so good straight from Michigan!), some Cholula Hot Sauce (duh), and a hefty few squeezes of fresh lime atop all of that.

I also had some grilled corn on the cob. It's pretty simple. Keep it in the husk (with a single slit in the husk) and flip it continually. It's good to get grill marks on the husk. I found that it took quite a while to get that corn to be fully grilled, so be sure that you allot enough time.

Oh, and of course a nice orangey beer (I had Oberon).

fresh n good :)

Quinoa-Cornmeal Beer Loaf

Don't let the name intimidate you. This side dish has potential. For dinner tonight, I grilled up some wild salmon (again... my family loves salmon), rubbed in a tequila-lime spice mix and then slathered with a mango tequila lime vinaigrette. Served over (or on the side of) a mixed greens salad with freshly grated organic Gruyere cheese and chopped cinnamon-cayenne nuts.

I got the idea for this loaf because I saw a recipe for a Quinoa skillet-bread. Tonight I was originally just going to make quinoa and keep it simple, but then as the time kept ticking without my fam showing up, I just kept adding more and more to the saucepan. I decided, hey, it's summertime.. why not some cornmeal? So I stirred that up. And it just didn't look very good... and then it started soaking up so much water, but I didn't want to add more water because I could tell it would taste bland. So I got to thinking.. what's liquidy and tasteful and summery and fresh?

Oh, Bud Light with Lime, of course! So I poured in enough to allow the quinoa and cornmeal to soak up. And it still didn't look complete at all. And no one was home yet. So I stuck it in a loaf pan, chucked some butter chunks on top, more salt, some Craisins, the juice of half an orange, and some orange rinds. Then put it in a 350 oven until the top turned golden. Then serve with honey dribbled over it.

All in all, it turned out pretty good!
But this is what I would change:

-more beer!! We could hardly taste it. I would honestly put in at least half a bottle. It has a really nice flavor pairing with the cornmeal.
-more salt... don't be fearful (like I was)... the beer will need it.
-add about 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour to thicken it up (mine was less of a loaf and more of a mush)
-more orange juice (only fresh though, of course). use the juice of a whole orange rather than just one half. and more orange rinds on top.

Sooo just more of everything. I guess it's good to go safe the first time, because now I know.