I’m going to go ahead and say spring has officially sprung. That means picnics and pot lucks are quick to follow. I think we could all use a few go to easy recipes to take to our spring and summer picnics. So I’m making a request! Do you have a great recipe that you would like to share with the world? Please send it to me! If you have a picture of the finished product even better! You can email your recipes to webbnews@webbweekly.com. The recipe doesn’t have to be ‘picnic’ related, just anything you think makes for a great dish or meal.

In the meantime, here is a simple, light recipe that you can easily make for any upcoming gathering!

Ruby Beet Chicken Salad Skewers

Prep time: 25 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Servings: 8
• 1 jar (16 ounces) Whole Pickled Beets
• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus additional, to taste, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper, plus additional, to taste, divided
• 4 1/2 tablespoons stone ground mustard, divided
• 1 1/2 tablespoons, plus 1/3 cup, orange marmalade, divided
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
• 1 large lemon, zest and juice (1/3 cup juice)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 bag (9 ounces) leafy romaine lettuce pieces
• 1/3 cup chopped almonds, toasted
• 1/3 cup crumbled blue, feta or goat cheese

Heat oven to 375 F. Drain beets; set aside.

Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. In small bowl, combine 1 1/2 tablespoons mustard and 1 1/2 tablespoons marmalade. Brush mixture over chicken until completely coated. Bake chicken on rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil about 20-25 minutes, or until juices run clear; set aside.

To make vinaigrette: In medium bowl, combine remaining mustard, remaining marmalade, chives, lemon zest and juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Slowly pour in oil while whisking vigorously until completely combined.

Slice cooled chicken into 1-inch pieces. Onto each skewer, thread one beet, one piece of chicken and 4-5 pieces of lettuce; repeat two times for each skewer, adding one beet at ends. Repeat to make eight skewers. Place skewers on large serving platter.

Stir vinaigrette; drizzle lightly over skewers. Sprinkle with almonds and cheese. Serve with remaining vinaigrette.

We covered the eats, now onto the heat!

If you’ve been following along, I have set out to try some of the hottest food in the world. If you are keeping score, so far I have tried the world’s hottest ramen, ghost pepper tortilla chips, scorpion hot sauce, the blazin’ wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, I did the ‘Choco Challenge’ which was chocolate with black reaper peppers and most recently, I tried Black Mamba Six hot sauce, which is about 750 times hotter than a jalapeño and twice as hot as pepper spray. You can check out the ridiculous video on the Webb Weekly Facebook page.

That means I only have one challenge left to conquer. The World’s Hottest Chocolate Bar. For reference, jalapeños come in at around 8,000 on the Scoville Scale (the official scale used to judge the hotness of peppers). Carolina reapers sit at around 1.5 million. Pepper spray is around three million. The World’s Hottest Chocolate bar comes in at a SCORCHING 9 MILLION! As of this writing the chocolate has been ordered and I am just waiting for it to arrive, so make sure you keep an eye on our Facebook page this week to check out what should be a hilarious video of me attempting to take on this challenge!