C-O-C-O-N-U-T

As someone who spent a good portion of my summers growing up at overnight camp, I have in my arsenal a veritable TON of camp songs. Songs like "Rise and Shine", "Green Grow the Rushes Ho", "Apple Blossom Time", "Today While The Blossoms Still Cling", "Mountain Dew" and of course"Desperado (not the Eagles song but rather "There was a desperado from the wild and woolly West/He wore a big sombrero and two guns across his chest/He went OUT east just to give the West a rest/And everywhere he went he gave his war hoot" and so on and so forth.

Ah camp songs, is there anything better? Not really.

In any case one of these songs goes by the name of COCONUT and if you will indulge me for a moment I am going to teach you all the lyrics.

C-O-C-O-N-U-T (<--- spelled out)
C-O-C-O-N-U-T
C-O-C-O-N-U-T (said at a faster pace)
C-O-C-O-N-U-T (said at a faster pace)
coconut. COCONUT! coconut. COCONUT!
Coooooocoooonuuuuut.

As you can see, it is a kickass song. And my friends The Cappellas certainly think so as well (I taught it to them years ago and I am pretty sure it is still one of their favorite songs either. How could it not be?). It became kind of a joke among us so when Adam and I invited them over for dinner last Friday I knew what the menu theme would have to be.

So on Friday I prepared:

Coconut Chicken Spears served with Coconut + Garlic Rice and Sugar Snap Peas
Coconut Lemonade Cocktail
and for dessert, Grilled Pineapple with Coconut-Pineapple Ice Cream.


Everything was easy to make, and nearly everything involved a little c-o-c-o-n-u-t.

First things first, the Coconut Lemonade cocktail was adapted from a non alcoholic beverage I found on BHG.com. This appealed to me because it's not super sweet, but it is creamy and fruity and super refreshing.

Coconut Lemonade (this is enough for at least two batches)

1 carton of pink lemonade
Stoli Vanilla (or whatever vanilla vodka)
Cream of Coconut (Coco Lopez)
1 package frozen raspberries
1 package frozen blueberries.

Combine 1/2 of the carton of pink lemonade and 2-3 tablespoons of the Cream of Coconut. Add 6 ounces of vanilla vodka (more if you had a particularly bad week, less if you are kind of a wimp)

Mix in 1-2 cups frozen berries and stir



Now onto the main course, another adapted BHG.com recipe! The sauce for the chicken was particularly tasty, as the sweet creaminess of the coconut milk was cut just enough by the heat of the curry paste. Mmmmmm.

Coconut Chicken Spears
16 chicken breast tenderloins
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 teaspoon green or red curry paste
1 teaspoon brown sugar
16 wooden skewers
1 tablespoon Chinese five spice powder
salt and pepper
2 key limes cut in half

Soak the skewers in water for at least a half hour before using.

Combine coconut milk, curry paste and sugar in bowl. Mix thoroughly and set aside.

Rub some of the powder on each of the tenderloins and lightly salt and pepper. Thread them onto the skewers straight through, without weaving.

Grill on medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes or until done. Serve with coconut sauce and 1/2 a key lime.



The rice I used was A Taste of Thai Garlic Basil Coconut Rice and it was perfect!! Not sweet, but rather kind of spicy which was the perfect accompaniment to the chicken and rich coconut sauce!
For dessert Adam cut up some fresh pineapple which we grilled over medium heat for about 7 minutes and served up with Hagen Daaz coconut-pineapple ice cream



I should also mention, all of these recipes are best prepared while singing the COCONUT song. Just so you know.