A Perfect Summer Dinner

We had one of the best dinners of the season this past Saturday night, and for the most part, we can thank one man:

In The Big Picture section, we recently posted our trip the the Farmer’s Market this past Saturday morning, and our stop at Walter’s Specialty Foods stand.  That’s ‘the man’ behind the table there….Philemon Walters.  Phil sells a fine line of specialty items that can really put the magic in your cooking!   I told you all that we bought 3 things from Phil, and I’m about to tell you about 2 of them in this post!

Caribbean Spice Rub.  We’ve tried to make rubs ourselves, but they were always a little….lacking. Not this stuff!   Just read the ingredients….this stuff has KICK.  But it’s a good kick!  The kind of swift kick you NEED. ; )

Our rub didn’t look like that either.  It’s almost…..beautiful.

We rubbed it all over our chicken, after a little olive oil to help it stick……

…and threw it on the grill!

Then……Michael brushed on one of Phil’s special BBQ sauces.  Oh boy!!

After taking a few photos, I was in the kitchen making a salad & dressing, with the window open to the deck where Michael was grilling.  I could smell the chicken as it drifted into the kitchen, and it smelled soooo good.  I knew we were about to have a whole new dining experience!

The salad was made, the table was set, and we just threw the corn on the grill.  So we were ready to sit down, say Grace together, and eat!!  None of us could take a bite of that chicken fast enough!!

And it did NOT disappoint us!!  The rub gave the chicken a little more texture and kick, with a few different flavors going on.  Then the sauce on top really, really complimented the rub.   It’s sweet n’ sassy…just like the label says!  The combination of the run and sauce was de-licious!!  The kids were loving it as much as we were!  They all had more chicken.  Well…..and salad.  I made a lovely light summer salad: a spring mix, mixed with spinach, a balsamic vinegar dressing and a sprinkle of feta cheese.  It was the perfect side for our chicken.  We’re going to try that rub on steak next.  Bet THAT’LL be good too!!

We were just as excited to try our corn, because we were grilling it this time, and we had never done that before! YIKES!  We didn’t know WHAT to expect.

We pulled off the top layers of husks, leaving on 2-3 layers.   We pulled the remaining back, without detaching them, and removed all the silks.  Then we pulled the husks back up to cover the corn ears, and put them on the grill for 10 minutes, rotating them a little every 2-3 minutes, until they were brown all the way around.   Then we took them off and brought them in to eat after the chicken and salad.

Oh-my-GOODNESS!!  Perfection…..unbelievable perfection!!  One of the kids (I even forget who….I was so into my corn), took a bite, and we couldn’t WAIT for Daddy to try it.  The look on his face when he took that first bite. Well…..all we did as we ate our corn, was talk about how unbelievably good it was.  The best we had EVER had. The whole meal was just amazing.

Michael said when he bought the corn at the Farmer’s Market, the guy at the stand told him he’ll be back for more the following weekend.  He’s right……we will!  And while we’re there, we might as well stop at Phil’s stand too, and pick up another sauce or something, to try!!   You can check out his whole line of goods at his web site, and order via e-mail or phone.  I’m sure he’d be happy to make recommendations or suggestions of how to prepare different things, right over the phone or in e-mail.  He was very helpful and nice with us.

Honestly,……we feel like we’ve got a few cooking secrets up our sleeve now!  ; )  You just can’t get stuff this good just anywhere!