This year mrChaos chose to make ribs for Father’s Day.  I made coleslaw and family brought corn salad, but I wanted another light side dish that would be fun and make good use of the hot grill.  Originally I planned on grilling up some thick pineapple rings but why stop there?  These fruit skewers make a great side, fruit salad, or dessert.  If you don’t want to use rum, you can use all fruit juice or simply omit the rum mixture.  You can also omit the spices, or add a little cayenne or cumin, but do not omit the powdered sugar.  It helps the fruit caramelize quickly on the grill.  Click here for the recipe »

Are you in a cooking rut? Need inspiration?  Confused about a recipe, technique or ingredient?  Simply send me your questions via email at katie at chaosinthekitchen dot com or post them to the facebook fan page.  I will post them here for the foodie public to respond to, along with a few of my own ideas.  So foodies, put on your thinking caps for our inaugural question:

Do you have any great lunch ideas for a brown bagger with limited access to a microwave and fridge? Hubby takes his lunch everyday and we have exhausted the sandwich option. I am looking for some great ideas and I thought you might be able to help.

–slmpetersen

Honestly, I am a poor choice for lunch questions.  Everyone in my house gets the same sandwich for lunch every day.  We rotate pb & j, ham and cheese, and turkey and cheese!  I am going to assume hubby can carry a soft or hard cooler with an ice pack in it (but not all of these would need refrigeration).

One thing that is a great substitute for sandwiches are muffins or scones (think of them as biscuits if its more manly).  For example these Bacon and Swiss Rye Muffins or these Quiche Lorraine Scones are a good sandwich substitute.  Also many variants of pizza bread need no refrigeration.

Salads are also a good choice since they only need to be kept cold, not cooked.  Cobb or pasta salads are a little heartier if your husband eats a big lunch.  This one looks great as does this one.  Depending on how adventurous an eater he is you could send bean and cheese burritos, at room temperature, or spring rolls, which just need to be kept chilled.

Just approach it the way you would any picnic.  Fruits, vegetables, salads, cheese, smoked meats, summer sausages, a variety of breads or pastries, cold chicken, chips and crackers are all good picnic fare.  He won’t notice a single, substantial sandwich is missing if he has a variety of foods to choose from at each lunch.

* Ok foodie public, here is where you come in-do you have any ideas for Stacy (and the rest of us who brown bag it everyday)?  How do you keep free of the sandwich rut?  Feel free to link up your own or your favorite blog posts.

I love a good salad, have I mentioned that before?  They are easy to make and can be as hearty or as light as you wish.  This Cobb salad is a great, hearty meal to take to work when you make everything in advance.  You simply throw it together and head out the door.  For a weeknight meal, it is a little bit of prep work but you can prep through step 6 at any point and then refrigerate until ready to eat.  Click here for the recipe »

Everyone should plant a tomato plant.  Most plants just absorb-water, sunlight, affection, good intentions-without giving much back.  They might flower briefly or continue to look healthy but there is very little immediate satisfaction gained by caring for them.  Which is probably why I have never been a very good gardener.  Growing tomato plants on the other hand is just about the most satisfying experience one can have.  Water them and give them plenty of sun and every day they reward you with new flowers, tiny baby tomatoes, slightly bigger than they were yesterday adolescent tomatoes, and finally tomatoes so deep red and juicy they threaten to split their skins.

This tomato was my very first home-grown-in-my-back-yard-by-my-own-hand-and-with-my-own-sweat tomato and it was glorious.  I am seriously concerned about ever being able to eat one of those tomato factory “on the vine” tomatoes ever again.  It looks like a tomato, round and red, but it is so much more tomato!  The flavor is deeper, the flesh sweeter, and the seeds and juices aren’t jellied and watery.  The only disappointment is that I only planted two instead of a dozen.

I enjoyed my first home-grown tomato as an old-fashioned southern tomato sandwich and it was so much better than I imagined.  Click here for the recipe »