Chicken and Steak Kebabs

At every place we've been with the Marine Corps so far, the wives get together for "coffees." Imagine my surprise when I went to my first wives coffee in Lawton, OK and there was no coffee to be found. I quickly realized this is just the antiquated name for monthly get togethers that may or may not involve wine depending on the duty station. So far, I like the Hawaii "coffees" best because there is always wine, or alcohol of some variety. I hosted the June coffee this week and made some of my favorite summer foods. I thought I was going to have my very own grill-master home from the rifle range to grill up some kebabs for me, but he ended up spending the night in the field, so the griddle was an acceptable substitute.

For the steak marinade, I used
olive oil
red cooking wine - don't waste the real stuff!
a little vinegar
minced garlic
sea salt
a little cumin

I made about 25 steak kebabs with 2 pieces of steak on each, so the amount of marinade is really just dependent on that. I coated the meat and let it sit overnight.

For the chicken marinade, I used
olive oil
a little vinegar
cilantro
garlic
lime juice
cumin

I blended all of this in the food processor, coated the chicken, and let it sit overnight. I used squash, zucchini, and mushrooms on the kebabs.I only stabbed my finger about 4 times in the process of making 50 kebabs, so I consider this to be successful. I cooked them on the griddle, rotating them every couple of minutes or so. I kept them warm in the oven at 170 degrees for about 15 minutes until I was ready to serve them.