Summer Favorites

Hey, y'all

I'm just walking around out here in the yard, just enjoying all the pretty flowers and everything

and it's just an absolute perfect day. And today, I'm going to be making a basil chicken on the grill

and I'm going to be making lime shrimp wraps. And later, Michael's going to be stopping in

to help me make a tasty macaroni salad. And I'm finishing up by making a strawberry shortcake

So I hope y'all will come into the Smokehouse with me, because today is all about summertime favorites

I'm so excited, y'all. I can't hardly stand it. It's the beginning of summer

perfect day. It's not too hot. And I'm all about summertime favorites today. You know

in these recipes, I really could cook inside. But why when I've got a great day out here in the

smokehouse and I can take advantage of the water and the warmth and just the fun of being in the

smokehouse. So the first recipe that I want to share with y'all is a succulent lime shrimp

lettuce wrap. I'm gonna marinate my shrimp now in a lime marinade and I'm

gonna start with three tablespoons of fresh lime juice, two tablespoons of

vegetable oil, one tablespoon of soy sauce, one tablespoon of fresh grated

ginger. Gives you a little heat and a whole lot of flavor and now I'm gonna

toss in one clove of minced garlic. Now I've got my shrimp here peeled

deveined, detailed, and I'm just gonna put them over in our marinade and I'm gonna

put this down here in the refrigerator and I'm gonna let it marinate for about

30 minutes. Now you'll want to make sure you don't let it over-marinate because

because this will get mushy on you very quickly if you over-marinate it, so we don't want to do that

Now, I've got some that's been here in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes

And you can see what it looks like. It's taken on a little darker color

because of the soy sauce. You'll want to take your shrimp after marinating

and just dice them up into nice bite-sized pieces. Now step back here to the grill

And in our pan, I'm going to put just a little bit of vegetable oil

Not much, just a little bit. And to my pan, I'm going to add

a half of a diced red bell pepper. And I'm going to add one can of water chestnuts

This is going to give us a nice crunch in our wrap

And I've just diced those up about the size of the bell peppers

So we're just going to let that saute for a few minutes. And in the meantime, I'm going to come up here and I'm going to dice up some green onions

I'm going to give them just a little bit of split right there on the white end

And I'm going to throw these in the pan with my bell peppers and my water chestnuts

So we've got a lot of nice flavors going on in this, don't we? The lime, the ginger, the onions, the bell pepper, the water chestnuts

Okay. We'll throw those in there. So you see what I mean about being able to prepare this dish inside

But it's just so great to be outside today. It's just fabulous

All right, so these are coming along nicely. So we're going to let those saute for a minute

And then it's going to be time to add our shrimp. Let's toss in our shrimp

We're going to cook them until they're opaque. There we go. Our shrimp are in

And we're going to stir these together with our vegetables until they're not quite done, but almost

All right, so our shrimp are almost done. Now I going to just pour in one tablespoon of soy sauce We certainly don want them overcooked So now we ready to put our wrap together

Now I'm going to use the Boston lettuce leaf for my wrap

Now you can use an iceberg lettuce, you can use a fancy green curly lettuce

you can use romaine. but I love the velvety feel of this Boston lettuce

So now all we're going to do is just spoon our lime marinated shrimp into our lettuce

and we're just going to tuck and roll. What a great snack this is going to be

and very low in calories. You know, if you didn't like shrimp, a lot of people are even allergic to shrimp

You can always use chicken on these. Just want to drain that so your lettuce leaves won't get soggy on you

I just have to taste this. You know, this is just almost like a snack before our real meal

Mmm. Mmm-mm-mm. This has a little Asian flair, you know, along with the ginger and the lime

Ooh. When we come back, y'all, I'm going to be cooking up a basil chicken on the grill

and for dessert, a heavenly strawberry shortcake. And later, Michael's gonna be stopping in

to help me make a tasty macaroni salad. So don't go anywhere, y'all

Hey, y'all, welcome back. Today's show is all about summertime favorites, and the next dish is a fresh basil chicken

Now, I've got boneless, skinless chicken breast here, and I'm going to start by just seasoning them up

with a little salt, a little pepper. Oops. All right. Now back here on the grill

I've got a stick of melted butter and I'm going to wash my hands just very quickly

I don't want to get that chicken on my other foods yet

We're going to get it on it soon enough. All right, I'm going to take some fresh basil, and I'm just going to chop this up

You know, I think basil is probably one of my favorite herbs as far as the smell of it and the flavor of it

All right, there we go. We've got that minced up pretty good

Y'all will have to excuse me. I just got through making lime shrimp wraps, lettuce wraps

and I have slung stuff all over me. So, y'all, please excuse the way I look

but, you know, things happen, especially when I'm outside at the grill

Okay. Now I'm going to take my chicken, and I'm gonna brush it with this basil butter

And it's gonna give our chicken such flavor. These are beautiful chicken breasts

Nice, fat, plump ones. Okay, so let's walk over to the grill

We're gonna have to be careful and keep an eye on our chicken

because it's loaded with that butter, and we all know that butter burns

And I'm going to wash my hands very quickly. So while our chicken is cooking

I want to make another special butter that I'm going to serve along with this chicken

I've got one stick of butter that I've brought to room temperature

I've got two tablespoons of minced fresh basil. I've got one tablespoon of fresh grated Parmesan cheese

and a fourth of a teaspoon of garlic powder. I'm just going to whip this up

And you can see how easily that came together because my butter was so nice and soft

Okay, so just that quickly. Now you could If you wanted to serve this with a fresh broiled fish or fresh grilled fish or a steak all you need to do is form this into a log and wrap it up in waxed paper and put it in the freezer

And then you could pull it out and slice it and have everybody a little slice to go on top of their fish, chicken, or meat

So there we go. That's all ready. That was super simple. All right, let's come over here and check on our chicken

because I want to baste it one more time with the basil butter

Oh, and look, that grill, that fire is just perfect. You can see it's cooking nicely

Mmm. All right, let's give them a quick flip. Looks fabulous. All right

I'm gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we're gonna finish up our chicken

and guess what I'm fixing for us for dessert? Strawberry shortcake! And later, a delicious macaroni salad

Hey, y'all, welcome back. You're just in time. I'm taking the chicken up

I've made a wonderful fresh basil chicken on the grill. I've got a wonderful basil butter to serve along with it

A little fresh basil on the tray. Come on in here and look at this

Look at my chicken. Look at that. Oh

Oh, it's hot. Mmm. It's so good. The basil just does so much for it

All right, I'm ready to move on to the next dish, which is a wonderful strawberry shortcake

Now, we're gonna have several layers to this strawberry shortcake, and we're gonna make us a gelatin layer

I've got one cup of sugar. I've got three tablespoons of cornstarch

And I want to whisk those together, because I don't want this lumping up on me

And now I'm gonna add three tablespoons of a strawberry gelatin. Now I'm gonna add one cup of water

And I'm gonna move this over to my grill, and I'm gonna cook this just until it thickens

All right. Now I happen to have some of this already cooked and cooled down

This is gonna become really thick after you cool it. Can you see the consistency of that

I mean, it's really, really thick. To our gelatin, I'm going to add two cups of fresh strawberries

that I've de-stemmed and sliced in half. And I'm just going to fold those into our gelatin mixture

All right, now I'm going to come over here and I'm going to make our custard

I've got one 8-ounce package of cream cheese that I brought to room temperature

and I'm going to add one can of sweetened condensed milk. I could just eat this stuff straight out of the can

So good. All right, now we're just going to cream these together

Whoa! I couldn't do that again if I tried. All right. Now I'm going to fold in one 12-ounce topping

you know, the frozen topping that you just pick up in the freezer

at your grocery store. All right. So that's already taken on the look of a custard, isn't it

Okay. So, we've got two of our layers ready. Now we're going to work on the cake

Now, I've just bought a cake from the deli at the grocery store

an angel food cake. Now, you can make this from scratch, but, you know

by the time we get all our stuff on it, who's going to know the difference

So, I'm just going to cut this up in cubes. You could really just pull it apart

probably pull easier than it'll cut. So I gonna take half the cake and toss it in the bottom of my trifle dish This is going to be so pretty And now I gonna add a little bit of my strawberries

Now I'm gonna put me a nice fat layer of custard on top

You know, recipes like this just make me giggle. All right, now we're going to come in there with the rest of our cake

All right, now let's put on the other half of our strawberries just right on top of our cake

Looks delicious. You could put whatever you want to on top of this

I think I just want to put my face. All right, now I just want a garnishing with a few strawberries

Or we could just do half strawberry pieces on top just like this

I think that's right pretty. I love seeing the inside of a cut strawberry

I think they're so pretty. the little fresh mint. And look at our fabulous dessert

See if I can do this without messing it up. Mmm

It is so good. It's low on labor, big on flavor. Of course, that was almost a rhyme, wasn't it

Well, listen, when we come back, how about a nice macaroni salad to go with our chicken

Sounds good, doesn't it? All right, now I want to share with y'all a quick and easy recipe

Hey, Paula. Well, hey, Michael. You've done with your yard work. Yes, I am

You've had a shower, even. Well, can I help you? Yeah, I'm making macaroni salad

Yum. Mm-hmm. This is so simple, y'all, even Michael can make it

There you go. So I've cooked off two cups of macaroni. We're going to add three hard-boiled eggs that I've cut up, Michael

Okay. We're going to add one cup of celery. Now we're going to add a fourth of a cup of chopped bell pepper

a couple of tablespoons of green onions, and now we're going to add a little pimento just for color

And if you don't like that, we can leave that out too. All right, now we're going to add one cup of mayonnaise

Yum. We're going to add a teaspoon of lemon pepper. We're going to add one teaspoon of house seasoning

And then we're going to add a little bit of mustard. Now you can use just a yellow prepared mustard or you can use Dijon

And we're adding like a tablespoon. So just mix that together, Michael

Okay. And while you're stirring, I'm going to add some fresh ground pepper

because I know how you feel about that. It does take a good bit of salt

for your macaroni salad because that starch is just going to soak it up

And why don't you pour that in our bowl over there, Michael? A pretty little bowl

Just put it in there. That looks great. So take your bowl of macaroni salad and follow me

I want to take you to the table and show you everything that I've been cooking

while you've been working in the yard. Okay, come on in, honey, and bring that macaroni salad

I can't wait to show you everything that I've made today. I know you've been busy

but I've been making summertime favorites out in the smokehouse. I think everybody's going to love all these recipes that I've made today

They are just yummy and perfect for a nice summer day. All right, Michael, I want you to taste a little bit of the macaroni salad that you made

I want to taste them. Oh, it's so good. Isn't that yummy

Mm-hmm. Delicious. The one thing that I've got on my table today that I know that you're going to love and appreciate is a strawberry shortcake

Yeah, I've already seen that. You saw it? Yeah. It looks great

I hate that I've got to run, but Michael and I got some strawberry shortcake, Dee

And as always, you know that I send y'all love and best dishes from my kitchen to yours