Tailgating in the Kitchen

Hello, my fellow culinary creators! It's been a few days, and for that, I apologize. June is going to be a very busy month for us...we've got three weddings in the next three weekends, and then other plans as well! But the good thing about all these events is that I get to experience lots of different epicurean treats, and then, share them with all of you!

Tonight, Oia graduated from Puppy Training, and we are proudly displaying her diploma on our refrigerator...the same refrigerator that I pulled dinner out of tonight! I went for a meal that I took from a magazine that a friend purchased for me at the check-out last summer. It's an entire magazine of tailgating recipes, meant for parking lots and fields, with outdoor grills and beer pong tables...there's nothing better than tailgating before a football game or outdoor concert in the thick of the summer. I use this magazine mostly for camping, BBQs and, well, tailgating...but once in awhile I like to bring the tailgating indoors. It's been a rainy few days, it's gotten much chillier and in order to continue the thought that summer MUST be on its way, I decided to do a little indoor grilling. I opted for the Sausage, Grape, and Gorgonzola Dolce Sandwiches and the Chopped Vegetable and Couscous Salad with Black Olive Vinaigrette.

I got my 2-burner grill pan out, and set it to heating while I prepped all the veggies for the couscous salad. I sliced some eggplant and zucchini, peeled a few carrots, quartered a head of radicchio and trimmed some scallions. I pulled all the other ingredients out of the fridge and lined them up as well. (You can click on the links above for a full ingredient list and instructions).

As I grilled the veggies in batches, I mixed up the vinaigrette for the salad with red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, black olives, olive oil and some black pepper. Check out this emulsion!

Once all of the veggies were grilled to perfection, I transferred them to a platter to cool while I assembled the sandwiches for my panini grill.

I split the sausages almost in half, like the recipe describes, and placed them on the hot grill to cook.

While the sausages cooked, I made my couscous by boiling some water and allowing the couscous to soak in it for 5 minutes, covered. I also chopped all of my cooled, grilled veggies for the salad and placed them into a large bowl. I stirred in the mixed herbs, lemon juice, salt, pepper, couscous, and vinaigrette. Because this salad can be served at room temperature, it can certainly be made in advance but I liked the heat that the veggies added to the mix right after it was made. It's a beauty though, isn't it?

And now, to assemble the sandwiches. I took the cooked sausages off of the grill. The recipe calls for baguettes, but I had some hot dog buns to use so I settled for those this time around. I didn't want to waste what I already had lying around. I placed some gorgonzola dolce on each side of the bun (the buns were small, and definitely would not have held the whole sausage so I split them up into two smaller sandwiches). Into the cheese, I pressed a few slices of red grapes so that they would stay fixed in place. On top of all this, I laid the sausages and then grilled them open-face on the panini grill.

A baguette definitely would have soaked up the melted cheese a little better and made for a sturdier sandwich, but the flavors were incredible together. Everything really popped, and the red grapes added a nice burst of freshness when you crunched down on one. The flavors of these two dishes melded very well together as well. The couscous salad recipe made a very large amount of food, so it's a great one for parties, that's for sure. The sandwich recipe can be altered to accomodate any amount of people...and it was very simple to put together - a great tailgating option!