the review: shrimp and sausage skewers with corn salad

I love grilling season. You can sit on the porch or in the backyard and smell the fantastic smells no matter what is cooking. The best part? Someone else is doing the cooking. Thanks, Honey.

Sunday night was officially the start of grilling season around here and a bang up night it was. We broke out the skewers and some Bourgeois Meat Market kitchen sink sausage for shrimp and sausage skewers. This is a go-to summer recipe for us. It is fast and super easy. The sausage is key here, so use really good sausage for this recipe. My favorite is the fresh jalapeño sausage from Bourgeois Meat Market. If you are not in South Louisiana, start looking for someone on Facebook who will send you some sausage. Or you could just go for a nice tasty chorizo like the recipe calls for and add some jalapeño to your shrimp marinade.

We have been making these skewers during the summer for years and it is different every time. The shrimp will take on a bit of the flavor of the sausage whether it be smoky or spicy. If you are not using a highly flavorful sausage, add a bit of salt and pepper to give the shrimp a bit of extra flavor. The avocado with lime, salt, and pepper is an excellent balance to this dish. Don’t skip it. Trust me.

We served our skewers on Sunday with a bit of grilled asparagus (olive oil, salt and pepper) and a corn salad. I’m almost embarrassed to talk about this corn salad here. I make it so often that I’m pretty sure everyone I know has had it and probably has the recipe. This corn salad exemplifies what I love about Ina Garten’s recipes: few ingredients in excellent proportions make for simple and tasty food. There is nothing to this salad but it is still my older kids’ most requested dish during the summer. We’ve served it so much that I think it has almost worn out its welcome.

Please, give it a try. Bring it to a potluck. You can’t mess it up and everyone will think you are the most wonderful chef. That’s right. You are the most wonderful chef.