Well, hello there! It’s been ages! How are you?

It’s been a little quiet on the blog lately and this is for a few reasons.  One, finals.  Yikes.  I had a super extra large course load Spring semester and to be honest the last couple weeks of April and the first week of May were kind of a blur.  Then, the day after I submitted my last paper I hopped on a plane planes to Kathmandu, Nepal as part of a study abroad program with my school.  It was an amazing experience and I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of some awesome projects taking place.  I am already thinking about another trip next May if I can swing it with classes, practicum, etc.   We ate really well on the trip and I tried to document the cuisine as much as possible so I hope to get up some Nepalese posts in the future.  I also had some hosting issues and my site needed some maintenance.  After several phone calls with my hosting company, the site is back up.

Right now I am back in Chicago and the weather is perfect.  This means it’s time to bust out the grill! We had a couple of people over last night so I made some citrus marinated flank steak and chicken breasts.  Yum!

Meat!

Served with homemade quac, saffron rice, veggie kabobs, and corn on the cob.  We decided to eat outside because the weather was so nice.  Also, earlier in the afternoon Hubs and I successfully took out a hornets nest that was taking over the patio with its evil dive-bombing dwellers.  O’Mara’s vs. angry hornets.  O’Mara’s won in a blazing victory*. Let this be a lesson to any other scary, stingy insects that wish to inhabit our backyard!!

*Blazing victory looked a lot like me swinging a broom around like an idiot while screaming F-bombs and my husband and I squealing as we ran back into the house several times during the hornets retaliation. Eventually Raid was added to our offense (as well as more squealing and general panic) and victory was ours. Eventually.**

** It is also possible that we looked like such imbeciles during this maneuver that the hornets decided they didn’t want to live in the backyard of such idiots and left on their own free will.  Either way, we win. Yay!

Here is the recipe I used:

Ally’s Citrus Meat Marinade:

6 oz. can of pineapple juice

Juice of 3-4 limes

½ cup soy sauce

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

Dash of sweet paprika, cayenne

1 tablespoon Cumin

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper

Mix all ingredient well adding the olive oil last.  Cover all sides of meat well with the marinade.  Let it marinate for several hours, preferably overnight.  I used this marinade on the flank steak and the chicken.

Not only does it taste good, but marinating meat before grilling, specifically with acidic ingredients, is also good for you.  Read about the benefits here and here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful summer!

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