I'd say we've hit the dog days of summer. Even my dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback who really should be fine with warm temperatures, is complaining about being too hot. All he wants to do is lie around all day in the air conditioning. Which, frankly, is awfully appealing to me as well.

But dinner won't make itself, and there are only so many times I can serve hamburgers and grilled potatoes before I’m facing a family revolt. It’s time to rotate a few more easy — and maybe a little bit more imaginative — recipes into the mix.

Like many children, my son is a sucker for food on a stick. Back before he was smarter than we were, we would resort to threading fruits onto skewers to entice him to eat them. He’s on to us now, though, so it’s just meat skewers these days.

This is my current favorite poultry grilling marinade. It’s just spicy enough to be interesting, and there isn’t a particularly long marinade time. I use sambal oelek, a chile pepper sauce that my family fell in love with when we lived in the Netherlands, but you can substitute dried chile flakes if you don’t happen to have some sambal in your fridge.

I’m also including a recipe for Vietnamese quick pickled vegetables, which make an excellent side dish in this weather. They, too, are quick to put together (especially if you have a julienne peeler), and really only need to pickle for an hour to be super tasty.

And if you really want to get crazy, you can take a skewer of chicken, some of the pickled veggies, a few sprigs of cilantro, a couple of jalapeno slices, and a little bit of spicy mayonnaise (I just mix Hellman’s with Frank’s Red Hot hot sauce) and a section of crusty baguette and call it a banh mi!

Jessica’s summer chicken marinade

Ingredients
2 tablespoons rice wine or sake
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon sambal oelek or 1 teaspoon dried chile flakes
1 tablespoon minced or grated ginger
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts, cut into small, approximately 1-inch pieces

Instructions
Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl, then toss with the chicken. Once the chicken is coated, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to marinate for at least an hour.

While the chicken is marinating, soak 6 or 7 wooden skewers in water to prevent them from burning when on the grill.

Once the chicken is marinated, thread the pieces onto skewers and grill, on a well-oiled grill, over medium-high heat for about 10-12 minutes or until the juices run clear, turning regularly with tongs.

Remove the chicken from the grill and serve immediately.

Vietnamese pickled vegetables - recipe from userealbutter.com

Ingredients
1/4 pound cucumber, julienned
1 pound daikon, peeled and julienned
1 pound carrots, peeled and julienned
2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
1 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1 cup sugar (you can substitute 3/4 cup agave syrup)
1 cup warm water

Instructions
Pat the vegetables dry. Combine the vinegar, salt, sugar, and water together until the sugar and salt dissolves. Place the vegetables in a jar large enough to fit them all and pour the pickling liquid into the jar so that all of the vegetables are submerged. Store them sealed in the jar in the refrigerator for one hour or up to 5 days.

Jessica Webster leads the Food & Grocery section for AnnArbor.com, a part of the MLive Media Group. Reach her at JessicaWebster@annarbor.com. You also can follow her on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's email newsletters.