TWICE IS NICE: Grilling

TWICE the meat:
Without major fourth of July plans this year, Chris and I thought we'd treat ourselves to a nice home-cooked dinner. Not having cooked lobster before, I was inspired to make a surf and turf dinner by Giada De Laurentiis while watching Giada at Home. We grilled a beautiful Ribeye with fresh-cracked sea salt, grilled Giada's Lobster Tails with Clarified Lemon Butter, and made her Corn and Black Bean Salad with Basil-Lime Vinaigrette. The lemon zest made the butter sauce, and the salad was so refreshing. It was a deliciously light summer meal made easy with the grill.

The long and short of the matter is that I've never cooked a Giada recipe I haven't loved. I own three of her cookbooks and constantly watch/look up her recipes online, and all I've cooked have reasonably small ingredient and procedure lists to follow. She has a way with getting the most out of simple flavors. She's my go-to lady for cooking for guests.

TWICE the salad:
That leads into this past Friday; we had family guests for dinner and knew who to look to for menu inspiration. Having loved the fresh corn, mango and vinaigrette from her Corn and Black Bean Salad with Basil-Lime Vinaigrette, we manipulated the ingredients a bit for its second time on our table: double the fresh corn, minus the garbanzo beans. The combination of corn, black beans, and red bell pepper, plus the sweetness of the mango and freshness of lime and basil-- yum!

TWICE the grilling:
We partnered the mentioned salad with her Grilled Chicken with Basil Dressing from Giada's Family Dinners cookbook and a simple butter lettuce salad. Instead of using chicken breasts we substituted chicken thighs for added moisture. Having poured the basil dressing over all of the grilled chicken, a few cuts into the meat we realized it needed a few more minutes on the barbecue. It turned out that grilling that dressing into the meat was perfect. I'd recommend twice-grilling on purpose-- once to cook through without the dressing and once after coated with her fresh basil dressing to bake in the flavors. It's some of the best grilled chicken we've had: well-seasoned, zesty and juicy.

Recipes:
Lobster Tails with Clarified (Lemon) Butter
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/lobster-tails-with-clarified-butter-recipe/index.html
Corn and Black Bean Salad with Basil-Lime Vinaigrette
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/corn-and-black-bean-salad-with-basil-lime-vinaigrette-recipe/index.html
Grilled Chicken with Basil Dressing
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/grilled-chicken-with-basil-dressing-recipe/index.html