Jerk Marinade and Sadness

Well, this year was round three in shittiest b-days ever. It was a little bit more good than bad--moreso than the others at least. Last year consisted of me and Dustin having 3 finals on my Monday birthday. Also, graduation was a few days after that, so that instead of celebrating my b-day on the weekend, I got to attend my b/f and friends' grad ceremony. Ya know the one I should have been in, but instead am never going to graduate because of MATH, yeah that one.

So I was incredibly depressed and had to force myself to appear happy for others, when deep down I was resenting every single one of them with a burning fury. Uggh. This year, no one is in town to celebrate with me as everyone has long since graduated and moved away, my b/f has a grown-up job now and it was his first 8-5 week, so he can't party with me, and the one friend I do have spent her time ignoring me and refusing to come out with me for the dance parties that surrounded my gloriously depressing day o' birth, aaaaand then left town for the weekend. Nice. Anyway, several days before that wretched, cursed day, I was able to have a pretty nice bbq and drinking sesh with a few friends. Here is what it entailed:

Veggies marinated in Newman's Italian dressing (thanks, Carolyn):

yellow squash

zucchini

mushrooms

bell peppers (red and green)

Meats:

chicken breasts in jerk marinade

Hyvee teriyaki marinated steak

Jerk Marinade:

3 green onions

3 cloves garlic

2-4 habeneros (I used 1 jalepeno and it was not even remotely spicy)

6 TB olive oil

1 whole lime, juiced

1/4 cup fresh minced thyme

1 tsp allspice

2 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper

Opt. 1 mango, chopped up

Place green onions, garlic, habaneros, mango and spices into the blender, mix thoroughly and add lime juice and mix again, add olive oil in a thin, steady stream (or scrape onion, pepper mixture out of blender and whisk in the olive oil. Let chicken sit for about a half hour- an hour and then toss onto a hot grill.

I would like to note that I did not approve of marinating the veggies with italian dressing. Many hail the italian dressing marinade as an easy and delicious alternative to making their own marinade but like many "quick and easy" food stuffs, I find this both unecessarily lazy, and disgusting. I mean cum on, it's only tossing together some oil and acid and maybe a few spices. Honestly, I only allowed it because my friend was bringing over a bunch of veggies, and when she offered to bring the dressing, I felt it would be in poor taste to tell her that she disgusts me.

I'm actually kind of glad it happened because it'd been a while since I'd been forced to consume the hated marinade, and thus decided to give it a chance, especially since it was Newman dressing. I was sadly proved right, as so often happens; it was pretty gross and sort of ruined the vegetables for me.