Tuscan Grilled Vegetable Packets

Connie and I just spent a weekend at our favorite B and B. It's not your traditional B and B for two reasons.  One, it's a separate house and two, nobody serves you your breakfast.  You've got to cook it yourself.  But, that's ok because Maggie has a fully furnished kitchen AND you're presented with a wonderful selection of breakfast goodies.  We found eggs, sausages, ham, honey greek yogurt, fresh fruit, frozen blueberries, pancake mix, milk and juice.  Plus, she's got the goodies to make s'mores and to bake cookies if you so desire.  The house is on Maggie's family farm.  It's beautifully decorated and SO very comfortable.  There are two bedrooms, full bathroom with laundry facilities, a very well furnished kitchen, a living room and a dining area.  Outside, there's a hot tub, gas grill, fire pit and lots of patio furniture.  You're welcome to explore the farm - which I'd highly recommend since Maggie's an incredible gardener.  The farm's in Borden, IN which is a hop, skip and jump from Starlight, IN - home of Huber Winery.  Yup, you're all of three miles from Huber Winery.  And, go a bit further and you can eat some of the best country cooking around at the Huber Family Farm.  The best part?  It's wonderful and doesn't break the bank!  You can find a link here:  Rosewind Farm Bed and Breakfast.

When we go down to Rosewind, I pack a big cooler of goodies and prepare to cook for the weekend.  This time, there was a wine tasting dinner at Huber Winery so I didn't have Saturday dinner to fix.  Friday night, however, was a production. 

We started with shrimp cocktail.  I wanted to make shrimp and feta omelets Sunday morning and the rest of the bag of shrimp had been in the freezer long enough.  Time to use them up. I mixed some prepared seafood sauce with a LOT more horseradish and spooned the sauce into martini glasses.  Then, the shrimp were arranged around the edges.

That was followed by a little soup.  I'd used about three cups out of four of frozen turkey broth I had.  The other cup needed to be used up.  Maggie'd told me to help myself to anything in the garden.  Garlic chives were ready to be picked.  So, a few of those along with some finely chopped and sauteed mushrooms went into the broth.

Dinner was a couple of little steaks marinated in Worcestershire sauce and plenty of pepper, rosemary potatoes and Tuscan Grilled Vegetable Packets from Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Grilling 2.  Well, they were supposed to be grilled but the B and B was out of aluminum foil and I didn't want to hike up to the main house and get more.  So, I did them on the stovetop.  They were quite good.  I kind of wondered about the chili sauce in the marinade but it turned out to be a good addition.  One word of caution:  The recipe calls for baby zucchini and yellow squash.  I should have either used less of both since I could only find the "normal" size or I should have used more of everything else.  The dish was a bit overwhelmed with squashes. 

Tuscan Veggie Packets

Ingredients:
for the vinaigrette
1/2 c oil and vinegar dressing (the recipe calls for Newman's Own, I used olive oil and red wine vinegar)
1/4 c finely chopped fresh basil (there was none to be had at the grocery so I used a couple of teaspoons of dried)
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T chili sauce
1 t Italian seasoning

for the veggie packets:
8 oz baby cremini, sliced
8 oz zucchini, sliced
8 oz yellow squash, sliced
1 orange bell pepper, cut into strips
1 small red onion, thinly sliced

Directions:
Get your veggies all sliced and ready to go. 

Combine the dressing ingredients and mix well.  Make six foil packets with heavy duty aluminum foil.  You'll want the packets about 12" square.  Fill them with a mix of the veggies then drizzle on the dressing.  Seal the edges well.  Grill over medium heat on a hot, oiled grill.  Alternatively, if a grill isn't available, you can prep this on the stovetop.