I know there are Strong Internet Feelings about sponsored posts, and I understand them, truly, but I have a few strong feelings of my own and most of them involve wine. (And, alright, CW shows.) So when I was recently given the opportunity to try out a few bottles of Mondavi wine in return for a post about my favorite summer recipes (and how Mondavi wine pairs well with those summer dishes), it sounded like a fun project right up my alley. And, hey, I live in Texas. I usually only manage through a Texas summer with the help of a lot of wine and ignoring our oven almost entirely for dinners on the grill instead.
(The grill that I should have probably cleaned before taking pictures of it.)
Anyway, we have so many dinners that we outsource to our grill during summertime, and a few of those favorites include veggie fajitas (we have no official recipe, other than throwing all the vegetables we've got onto the grill, though peppers and mushrooms are almost always a staple) and burgers (my particular summer favorite is a turkey burger with Swiss cheese, on a sourdough English muffin).
(Veggie fajitas!)
But, as I tasted the Mondavi wines, I realized that each of them--the Chardonnay, Scarlet Five, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Blonde Five--would all compliment my absolute favorite summer meal. Kebabs. The great thing about kebabs is that you can use almost any protein and almost any veggie and it becomes an easy, delicious, perfect-for-summer meal, made on the grill. And we always seem to make a ton of food when we opt for this dinner, so it's perfect when we have friends over.
We usually use the same marinade for our kebabs, regardless of what we're actually grilling.
Kebab Marinade
- 1/2 cup worcestershire sauce
- 1/8 cup soy sauce
- a few dashes of liquid smoke
- 2 T of olive oil
- cracked black pepper
- a little Old Bay seasoning
We marinate our protein--usually shrimp, chicken, beef, or salmon, cut into bite-sized pieces--and our veggies--mushrooms, peppers, potatoes, asparagus, onions, whatever else is on hand--in a bag for a few hours in the fridge and then place all the protein on their own kebab sticks and all the vegetables on their own. The protein (especially shrimp, of course) takes a lot less time than the veggies, so time accordingly!
I serve with a salad or garlic bread or on top of rice. Whatever is easy and on hand. The thing about summer dining is that you're already suffering through insane heat (at least I am), so why not make dinner as easy as possible. Also, Mike prefers to manage the grill, so by "easy" I mean that I get to sit on the porch drinking wine and then I get to continue sitting on the porch when dinner is served. Easy indeed.
Depending on your meat, you can pair these kebabs with any of the Mondavi wines I tried--chicken with the Blonde Five; beef with the Cabernet Sauvignon--and it just makes all that work and lawn care and SUMMER HEAT more bearable. And, honestly, I have to give a special shout-out to the Mondavi Chardonnay because I don't particularly care for that kind of wine, so I put off trying it when my samples came, but when I did, I was SO pleasantly surprised. I'd seriously buy it for myself in a heartbeat, and it's a totally reasonable price point ($7/bottle). Seriously, I was in no way asked to say this specific thing about this specific bottle, but I genuinely wanted to. (And the bottle has since been fully consumed, ahem, so I need to go out and re-purchase.)
I'd love to hear what you're grilling this summer, so I can try out some new dishes. I've even got wine left over, if you want to meet me on my porch.
Oh, a couple things of notes about Mondavi: Mondavi wine is sold nationwide in every US state, and a percentage of each bottle sold between May - August is donated to Intrepid Fallen Heroes (up to $50,000).
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I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.