Sunday, September 30, 2007

Need Zucchini Recipes

HELP!!!!! I need zucchini recipes. Our Zucchini plant won't stop and my kids are getting sick of the things. I need some creative recipes that my kids will eat (they're pretty adventurous). Please skip the zucchini bread recipe, unless it's something real different. I'm kind of tired of zucchini bread.

Kitchen Clean Up Crew

This is City Boy, or better known as CB. He does a crack job as my kitchen floor clean up crew. A one dog arsenal on all food that hits the floor, big or small it does not matter. I am his favorite human, not only because I'm the only one in the house who walks him regularly, but I am also the source of all things yummy. His favorite? Eggs. Oh yeah, and any type of meat that hits the floor.

Don't worry. His clean up duties are restricted to the floor, and the occasional lick on the bacon fat can under the kitchen sink. (when no one is looking) He's restricted from the dishwasher, refrigerator and all human used plates. It's still safe to eat at my house, and my floor is always clear of crumbs.

Chicken and Orzo Salad


This was a yummy dinner. My kids scarfed it down! I cooked two chicken breasts in chicken broth and then cubed them. I cooked one cup of orzo according to package directions. While that was cooking I harvested about a quarter cup of basil from my garden and chopped it up, cubed up a cup of Provolone cheese, chopped up a 14 oz can of small artichoke hearts (drained), seeded and diced an nice fresh tomato from Fortuna's Farmers Market, chopped up about a 1/2 cup of pitted Kalamata olives, shredded a half cup of pecorino parmesan cheese and crumbled a 1/2 cup of feta.

Once the orzo was done I tossed it with the chicken and 1/3 cup of Ken's Steak House Greek dressing which has feta, black olives and olive oil in it. Then I added the artichokes, provolone, tomatoes, olives and basil and tossed. Finally I added the feta and parmesan and gently tossed and seasoned with pepper. This is served on a bed of lettuce and seasoned with salt and pepper as desired, but with the feta, parmesan and Greek dressing, it really doesn't need very much salt.

I should have taken a picture of this salad, because the colors were really quite pretty, and it tasted even better then it looked.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Kitchen knife lessons

Dinner tonight is Chicken & Orzo Salad with Three Cheeses YUM! So while I cook, here's a little lesson for you to use in the kitchen:

Yummrific Soup



The soup I made last Sunday was DELISH! The lemon grass ginger and star anise gave it a very Thai, or maybe even Vietnamese flavor. The only thing I did wrong was not skim the fat. That was a bit of a mistake. It made the soup a little too greasy. Otherwise, very good! And, not too hard to make. Unfortunately it is all gone, and I have none to share so......You want soup?
NO SOUP FOR YOU! :-)

Sunday, September 23, 2007

What I hate about cooking....


CLEANING!!!! I love to cook, but as my husband will tell you, I'm a very messy cook. I didn't feel like cleaning up after myself last night, so I had a big pile of dishes staring me down this morning. I did my best to ignore them as I whipped up a breakfast of farmers market potatoes fried up with onion and garlic, locally cured bacon from our little Loleta Meat Market and farm fresh eggs from my co-workers chickens. I'm still full! I procrastinated as long as I possibly could before I finally cleaned up the whopping mess I left for myself. But it's finally done, and now to start the whole process over again. Tonight I'm making Oxtail soup. This takes 3 hours to cook, so as soon as I'm done here, I'm starting dinner. I found an unusual recipe on the web. It's a Hawaiian recipe from a web site in Guam. You can check it out here: The Scent of Green Bananas It appealed to me because it reminds me of Vietnamese noodle soup with the lemon grass and ginger. So soup in honor of the first day of fall, but a summery soup in memory of summer. This is what it looks like:
YUM!

I'll let you know how it all comes out.

The BBQ King

My husband is the Bar B Q King! Anyone who can cook chicken on a traditional briquette BBQ as well as he can is good! Damn good! Chicken isn't easy on a BBQ. It's real easy to burn the outside and still have raw meat on the inside. Not good! I use to cheat when I BBQed it. I'd bake it in the oven for a bit first. But it's just not the same cooked that way. John has it down to a fine art; getting the briquettes to the perfect temp before putting the chicken on. When it's done the skin is crunchy, almost like potato chips, but still full of juice. the meat is never dry, always juicy, and never raw. Perfection! That's the trick. Get the briquette's to just the right temp so the chicken cooks slow and steady. No flare ups, and no raw chicken. It was pretty good with my made up rub, perfectly steamed broccoli and Bush's baked beans on the side. Perfect dinner for the last day of summer. Today being the first day of fall, we're going for comfort food.....Oxtail soup with a twist!

Anthony Bourdain Decoding Ferran Adria

Saturday, September 22, 2007

First Post

Welcome!
This page is going to be about every aspect of food you can think of. Tonight, I'm starting simple. What's for dinner.

Dinner is steamed broccoli (why ruin the flavor with anything else) Baked beans (Bush's is the best if you don't feel like making your own) and BBQ'd chicken legs covered in my made up dry rub......lets see I put sage, thyme, celery salt, garlic powder, allspice, coriander and salt and pepper on it. I'll let you know how it all comes out. The troops are hollering for me!