Lemonade with grilled lemons and watermelon and peach chutney with whiskey and onions recipes brought to you by McCormick Grill Mates.
This past weekend, my husband and I hosted one of our favorite annual events of the year… our dear friend and independent recording artist, Shannon Curtis, played a house concert in our “bubble”. We provided the food and drinks, Shannon provided her amazing voice for entertainment and our friends helped to be a part of a most wonderful, good for the soul, outdoor experience.
You can bet for sure you’ll read more about our house concert in an upcoming Happiness Report, but for this post, I wanted to tell you about some of the great food and drinks we had!
Per tradition, my husband made his award winning pulled pork sandwiches. They were snatched up pretty quickly and I never was able to take a picture of them. The one change he made was instead of using his normal rub, he used McCormick Grill Mates Sweet and Spicy Rub. I’m probably not supposed to be sharing that he cheated on his own rub recipe with a McCormick rub, but his secret is safe with us, right? Considering the fact that they were all gobbled up, I think everyone loved them!
My job was to figure out sides and drinks. In true shirking responsibility fashion, I decided to ask you all for recipe ideas on the Dine & Dish Facebook page (thank you!!) and also turned to the McCormick Grilling Flavor Forecast for inspiration.
The two recipes I chose to use from the McCormick 2013 Flavor Forecast were this Peach, Sweet Onion and Whiskey Chutney as well as Fresh Lemonade with Grilled Lemons and Watermelon. Both of these recipes incorporated some of the 2013 flavors and encouraged us to think a little outside of the box and to grill things other than the traditional meat and vegetables! Grilling bread for the Chutney was a first for me and I’ve never grilled lemons nor even thought about it before. This has definitely inspired me to try grilling other citrus fruits as well as using the gas grill for grilling different breads more often! Both of these recipes were hits, that’s for sure!
In addition to being tasty, these recipes were also so easy to make ahead of time, so they could be served when needed and I didn’t have to take away time from our guests cooking in the kitchen.
A special thanks to McCormick and the 2013 Flavor Forecast for the inspiration and help with our outdoor summer concert. I wish you all could have been here in person to be a part of this wonderful night!
Peach and Sweet Onion Chutney
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium sweet onion such as Vidalia, chopped
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Chile Pepper Ancho
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons bourbon whiskey
- 3 ripe peaches diced (2 cups)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat oil in medium skillet on medium heat. Add onion; cook and stir 5 minutes or until just caramelized. Add raisins, sugar, cinnamon, ancho chile pepper and salt; cook and stir 1 minute. Add bourbon whiskey; stir to loosen browned bits in bottom of skillet.
- Mix peaches, lemon juice and vanilla in medium bowl. Add onion mixture; mix well. Cover.
- Refrigerate at least 1 hour to blend flavors.
- Serve over grilled slices of Italian or French bread.
Notes
Peach and Sweet Onion Chutney
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium sweet onion such as Vidalia, chopped
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Chile Pepper Ancho
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons bourbon whiskey
- 3 ripe peaches diced (2 cups)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat oil in medium skillet on medium heat. Add onion; cook and stir 5 minutes or until just caramelized. Add raisins, sugar, cinnamon, ancho chile pepper and salt; cook and stir 1 minute. Add bourbon whiskey; stir to loosen browned bits in bottom of skillet.
- Mix peaches, lemon juice and vanilla in medium bowl. Add onion mixture; mix well. Cover.
- Refrigerate at least 1 hour to blend flavors.
- Serve over grilled slices of Italian or French bread.
Notes
Disclosure: Special thanks to McCormick for providing compensation and products for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.
First, I want to live next door to you. Second, grilled lemon?!? Are you kidding me?? YES!!!
I want to live next door to YOU! 🙂
Seriously, I want to be neighbors with you! So fun! And this Peach and Sweet Onion Chutney?? WOW!! I love that!
Funny thing is – none of my neighbors came Friday night. They were all gone! 🙂 Either way, it is a great place to live and the chutney was amazing!
What a fun concert!!! And please pass that chutney, gorgeous!
Isn’t it great? So flavorful!
Duh, why haven’t I grilled lemons?!
You must, soon! 🙂
what a cool night! i love to grill my bread, in fact i had some last night drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with garlic. Great with pasta!
We’re totally going to be grilling bread a lot more often. Who knew?
Ummm yum!! Such a fun twist on lemonade. Can’t wait to try both recipes out.
Thanks Mique! I hope you will! Such great flavors.
Such a fun party! And great recipes too!
It really was a great party. Shannon is amazing!
Oh girl! I love both of these recipes. I adore grilling unconventional things like fruit all summer long. Any way to keep from using my oven and cutting back on cleanup is key for happy summer living!
I’ve grilled peaches and pineapple before, but I’m totally going to broaden my horizons!
Try adding smoke to the mix. I’ve smoke/grilled pineapple before and it was outstanding!!
Oh my Kristen these look AMAZING, wish we were neighbors….yum yum. I just pinned these as they are wonderful recipes. Love that this is a mocktail. Need more of those for friends that come by that don’t drink alcohol. It’s a fun drink that can be enjoyed by all. Thanks for sharing.
I appreciate the pin Nicole! I have a lot of pregnant friends right now so enjoy having something fun they can drink!
Thanks for the sweet comment!
I wish I lived in KC so I could hang with you!! Grilling lemons and a fun party?! You are amazing!!
You must be such a fun neighbor to have, Kristen! So much fun always going on! And these recipes – pinning to make on on the weekend!
Wow…great sounding drink and OH SO PRETTY too! Love it.
I knew I should have made that 4 hour drive!!! looks amazing Kristen!!
You have such an adorable neighborhood where everyone comes together to hang out! So fun. PS totally want that lemonade!!
This sounds like so much fun. Private concerts in the driveway with friends are definitely a good time. That lemonade is calling my name. I can’t wait to try it by grilling up a few lemons of my own.
I want to live on your street!! And holy heck, I would never think to grill lemons like this!
What a fun neighborhood event, and those recipes sound delish!
Wow!! You are so creative! Absolutely inspiring!
Nyttig info. Fortunate meg personlig jeg oppdaget nettstedet ditt ved et uhell, samt Iam overrasket grunnen til at denne spesielle hendelsen didnat forekommet tidligere! Vi lagret dette
It looks as though you had an amazing evening! I love the idea of grilling the lemon slices for the lemonade.
All f it just looks ahhh-mazing!!!
Still waiting for Shannon to come to Florida! We have a lanai just WAITING for her awesomeness!
Wow, that looks like it would be so much fun 🙂 that chutney looks incredible!