Cans are okay

Tonights dinner is pretty much assemblage cooking.  The only thing I did was boil water, grill chicken, open a can and run my timer.  For all of that, however, I have a colorful and tasty plate that was economical, easy to prepare, and low heat.  I like low heat in a summer kitchen.

Yesterday I put some chicken breasts in a zip top bag with Stubb's Marinade for chicken.  I have tried the pork and beef versions but they are not as good as the chicken kind.  The chicken marinade is heavy on the vinegar giving the meat a tang and zip that offset a grilled crust nicely.  I have found that marinading overnight leads to a juicier and more flavorful breast than just basting or dry rub alone.

Tonight I pulled out three breasts and as they were coming up to room temperature I prepared the Quinoa.  I discovered Quinoa a few years ago while looking for an alternative to rice, brown rice, and potatoes.  Since I have been cooking with it it has become far more available and because of that it has become a more regular grain on my table.  One of the reasons that Quinoa is a regular during the summer is because of the "low heat" preparation.  I put one part Quinoa and two parts water in a pan, bring to a boil, boil for five minutes, remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for 15 more minutes.  After the 15 minutes are up I dress the grain with olive oil and an acid of some sort, today it was red wine vinegar.

I put the chicken on the pre-heated grill and cooked to my preferred crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside doneness.  (This usually takes a good 10-15 minutes with multiple flipping and moving the breasts into, and out of, the hot spots on my grill)

While the chicken was cooking I put together the last part of the meal, and the title of the post.  I opened a can of sliced beets from Stop and Shop.  I have made my own beets, I have opened cans of beets.  I cannot reliably tell the difference except when I open a can of beets I don't look like I have been skinning large animals.  I will continue to use canned beets, the convenience and lack of pink cuticles make it worth the lack of effort; plus my summer kitchen is kept that much cooler.  Over the beets-from-a-can-that-kept-my-summer-kitchen-cool-and-taste-as-good-as-the-ones-that-make-my-hands-look-like-a-skinner I crumbled some feta cheese.  After mixing and grinding on a bit of black pepper my meal was complete.

In all, my stove was on about 8 minutes, one burner only; the cool summer kitchen was preserved for the most part.  My grill was on for about 30 minutes total between the warm up and the cooking.

And there you have it: Dinner is served!