It seems when we grill my Little Chefs are starving! I don’t think it is because it takes longer to cook on a grill but because we are starting to cook later then usual. If we are past our regular dinner time my Little Chefs get a little unpleasant. Instead of making them wait why not make appetizer skewers that can be eaten while everything else is still cooking. The key is to only make enough to for the kids to be happy, not enough to fill them up. We still want them to eat all their dinner!
Skewers are always fun to grill. There are so many different ingredients and flavor combinations that work well on skewers. Today we are using peppers, bread and shrimp to make appetizer skewers. Little Chef A cut pieces of pepper. The different colors make it more appealing to the eye.
Next she cut pieces of bread, we used a baguette. I would recommend cutting the bread into flat pieces, not the triangles you see here. Why? The pepper is flat and the shrimp is flat. If the bread is cut in the same manner everything will cook more evenly and have better grill marks. The triangle cut is a problem because it does not allow the pepper and shrimp to lay flat on the grill, it holds them up so they don’t touch the grill, therefore the bread gets very toasty, even burned, and the pepper and shrimp are not cooked well. Ultimately you will have better results if your bread is cut in round disks similar to the shape of the shrimp. If you need to clean your shrimp make sure you do that before continuing to the skewers.
When the peppers, shrimp and bread is prepared you are ready to go for the skewers. It is best if the wood skewers soak in water for at least 30 minutes prior to cooking so they do not burn on the grill. Little Chef B helped out with skewering. Kids love to skewer food because in my experience they love to create patterns all the way up the stick. It is best to use two skewers, not one like you see here. The two skewers will hold the 3 ingredients in place without twirling around the skewer.
Build all your skewers at once and put them somewhere to wait.
Take one skewer at a time and roll it around in olive oil. This method is easier for Little Chefs. The other option would be to coat each ingredient in olive oil before putting them on the skewer. I decided I did not want to clean up all that oil. I just knew it would be all over if they used that method. Season with salt and pepper and hand it to an adult to place on the grill.
Cook on one side then flip and cook on the other side.
As much fun as they have making the skewers they do not have fun eating off the skewers. It is much easier and safer to remove the food from the skewers before consuming.
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