A Salute to ReTorte and her Delicious Lemon Basil Chicken!

I’d like to give a shout out to The Wandering Coyote. She is a great writer, a kick-ass chef and all around cool person. She is also on of my favorite food bloggers, writing up and sharing some good recipes over at ReTorte.

One of the many amazing series she’s involved with is 101 Uses for a Roasted Chicken. There has not been a chicken recipe of hers that we haven’t enjoyed. The fav still stands at the lemon artichoke chicken (her recipe is Here) but I assure you…try any of her recipes and you’ll end up with a Coyote Recipe File like I have!


This is a recent Coyote posting from Magazine Monday and 101 Uses for a Roasted Chicken.

With lots of lemon and basil. Simple yet elegant ……and comfort food as well.



We found a big fat roaster – 6 pounds, it looked like a teen aged turkey – and wow, you ought to see the leftovers. With the lemon stuffed inside the cavity this assured the meat would be moist with a faint taste of lemon. I modified Wandering Coyote's recipe slightly using more lemon and garlic.




Ingredients used are..........

2 lemons
5 garlic cloves, 2 were cut in chunks and the rest were diced
1/4 cup minced fresh basil, divided
1 roasting chicken
1 tbsp butter, shaved
salt & pepper

Zest one whole lemon then cut in half. Juice the lemons and set juice aside.

Slice two garlic cloves into chunks. Place sliced garlic, 2 tbsp basil, and an entire lemon, cut in half, inside the chicken cavity.



Place chicken, breast side up, in roasting pan and pour lemon juice over the bird and inside the little crevices of the wings.

Take remaining chopped garlic & press into the bird along with the lemon zest. Then I shaved off little pieces of butter, not much and wedged them into the creases and put a few thin sheets over the breast. Salt and pepper, put a bit more basil on it and get ready to roast.



Since this roaster weighed in at almost 6 pounds I roasted at 350 degrees for 2 hours.

The house had a tantalizing aroma of roasted meat and lemon...fabulous and really whets the appetite.

Now let it sit for 15 minutes if you can stand it....look at it all browned and garlicy and lemony..... mmmmmmmmm



Serve it with green beans and a glass of Black Box wine, the Cabernet Sauvignon went well.



We liked this one and it made great soup with the leftover chicken after enjoying two dinners.

There are many wonderful recipes you can find over at ReTorte...just surf on over and see what attracts you. Again, there are just so many that I had to select the most recent one I printed.

Oh...try her quesadillas! You won't be sorry.

Let me know which one becomes one of your favorites :D

Award, Bread, Ile de France Cheese and other unrelated items........

I am playing catch-up with emails, reading blogs, news, etc. after being away from the laptop for three days.....and I wanted to acknowledge a cool award I received from ReTorte...behold!



I'm honored and appreciate it much!

Also, I'd like to share with you cheese lovers, at least lovers of The Ile de France cheese , that their site has a coupon for one dollar off one of their yummy cheeses.

You will have to register on their site but it’s free and best of all, you’ll receive a quarterly magazine with recipes and play cheese games.

Don’t ask…just swing by the site because it’s fun and you can win cool cheese prizes. I haven’t yet but I’m still having fun :D

And...I tried my hand at bread making again and came up with a winner! I'm rather excited about it and will post the photos tomorrow. We also tried the Wandering Coyote's Lemon Basil Chicken recipe and...yummy...I will have those photos up soon too.

I'm slow...especially this week. Playing catch up...........

Magazine Monday - Spicy Chicken and Mushrooms

I am joining the Magazine Monday posters again over at Creampuffs in Venice. Swing by and check out that great site. Yummy stuff.

Spicy Chicken and Mushrooms - The recipe claims to make 4 servings, 20 minutes of prep and only 10 minutes to cook.

I will say, it was easy…super easy…..but I made way too much in anticipation of this being a dish we’d all fall in love with. Alas…it was a bit spicy and an otherwise unremarkable use of chicken. That being said, anyone who tries this may think it’s one of the best chicken dishes yet….so, let me know what you think if you try it.


Here are the ingredients called for……………



(Ignore the oatmeal...how did those boxes get in the photo?!)

1 Tbsp. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. minced ginger

2 cups sliced mushrooms

4 scallions, diced

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon each salt and pepper

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 ½ Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce

1 Tbsp. rice vinegar

½ cup chopped cilantro

3 cups cooked rice (optional)


Are you ready for easy? This is it!

Cut chicken into pieces and have your bowl of veggies ready........



Heat oil in skillet over medium heat, add garlic and ginger. Cook about a minute until softened.



Add mushrooms, scallions, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Cook three minutes stirring often.



Reduce heat to medium, add chicken to pan; Cook stirring often for 4 minutes or until cooked through.



Stir in soy sauce, vinegar and cilantro. Cook 2 minutes.



Serve over rice.



This was good, it had a good flavor and I could use less red pepper I suppose…..but for us it was one of those meals that if you’d had it in a restaurant you’d say, “That was good but I won’t order it again.”

I did make too much because I doubled the recipe. Should have just saved all those luscious mushrooms and half the chicken for something else. Between Tristan not being home, and the fact that there is too much left and we don’t want it for the next evening, I froze the remainder to have for a lunch when we are outta soup.

From Family Circle, November 2008 issue, page 179

If you try it and like it please let me know!

St George Island Weekend

We just got back from a great weekend away from .......everything!

I am still trying to figure out how to make a public Picassa album to share photos but in the meantime.....here we are at the Blue Parrot on St George Island, enjoying a margarita and beach time.......



The conch fritters were sooooo freakin' good!



They went very well with margaritas....we both opted for salt on the rims. Should have stopped at one each as it was an appetizer stop........



There were many things to takes shots of......cats were all over the island! The bridge over the gulf made for a nice shot...pretty any time of day and many local joints to get oysters and drinks........



We walked in the surf..........



Rode on the Harley to Apalachicola and visited many shops, bought postcards and saw shrimp boats.......



Two evenings we sauntered over to Harry A's restaurant and listened to jazz saxophonist Karl Dappen play while we enjoyed dinner. If you have a chance to hear Karl play...you'll enjoy it. Very mellow.




I don't think the folks that own Harry A's voted for Obama.........



The ride home was cold. It started out so nice but we didn't take winter gloves or liners....still....it was fun. Lots of pretty scenery.......









I'll publish the album link if I can figure it out........

Peach Crisp

Well, the recipe is meant to be a blackberry crisp...but we modified a bit.

Join me over at IHCC for Nigella's latest inspirations for the theme Potluck.........

You'll need the following for a peach crisp. If you want to follow Nigella's directions, replace the peaches with blackberries.

* 2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 teaspoon cornstarch
* 1-1/2 teaspoons water
* 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
* 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 cup cold butter
* Vanilla ice cream

Directions:

Place peaches in a greased 1-qt. baking dish.



In a small bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, water and lemon juice until smooth. Pour over berries. Combine the oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over berries.





Bake, uncovered, at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until filling is bubbly. Serve warm with ice cream.

We didn't have vanilla ice cream so we plopped a scoop of chocolate on the crisp. Really good.....



Nigella Express, Workday Winners section, page 52

Definitely one I would like to try again...maybe a different fruit...but I'll tell you...the peach was excellent.

News on Aja, the travel trailer and a short trip

A few days ago I wrote about Aja's luxating patella and the need to get a thyroid test.

Here she is after a neck shave and a blood test. She was a trooper.



Just a quick shave, slurp out the blood sample and she was on her way within minutes. I was hoping for a report the next day (last Friday) but they did not have all the results in yet.

Last evening they called and here's the scoop.

According to our vet, her Thyroid is normal, and Free T-4 is low, so she is borderline on having a problem. Medication not recommended at this time, but she does need to get some exercise. Now that the weather is cooler, she's a lot happier to go outside. So, back to trying to get her to walk more, stay on her diet and see how it goes for the next few months.

The Luxating patella is a grade 2, so no surgery needed just yet. The vet stated if it progresses to her limping, holding her leg out to the side...then it's time to repair her knee.

Maybe more info than anyone needs...unless you have a breed of dog that is afflicted with luxating patella.

See her jiggle as she plays....



We have been fighting a cold here and that just completely drains you....Girlichef knows! You can't sleep well, tired all day....thankfully it has run it's course...at least the yucky stuff.

Travel trailer ....wow, did we ever have fun with this box on wheels. Trips to Manatee Springs, Seminole State Park in Georgia, Torreya....lots of fun trips. But we just haven't been using it and decided to sell it.

Craig's List was definitely the way to go. It was sold in a day. Maybe that's an abnormally short time but I'm pleased to say it's off with a family that will use it well.



I almost lost Hextall as he was in and out of the trailer while the buyers looked around. The doors were actually shut and locked when we heard him meowing inside. Thankfully he was pulled out or he'd be in another state now!



Last but definitely not least...we have a nice ride planned to St George Island and hope to get in lots of relaxing, seafood and margaritas. Photos to come.......

Crockpot Wednesday

Joining in on Crock pot Wednesday over at Dining with Debbie has gotten me to use my crock pot more often. A winning situation all the way around – dinner is ready when I get home and the sweet aroma of a hot meal cooking is a very nice thing to come home to after a tiring day.



Ingredients I used, because this is what was in the pantry before pay day…………

1 ½ lbs. ground beef and a patty of frozen ground turkey which was sitting alone in the freezer

I medium onion, chopped fine

6 scallions, chopped including lots of the green part

½ cup white wine

1 heaping TB chili powder

1 heaping teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon ground cumin

3 minced garlic cloves

1 (15 oz.) can black beans

1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes and about ¾ cup of diced tomatoes that were in the fridge

1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce




Simple. Brown the beef and that bit of turkey. Drain the fat off.



Tip into the crock pot and put all the other ingredients in the pot on top.



Stir well. I started the cooker on HIGH about 5:30 PM and let it cook until 10 PM. Turned off the heat and removed the crock. Don’t you just love the removable crocks? They are so much easier to clean.

Note: Tip about cleaning off hard cooked bits – fill the empty crock with hot soapy water and toss a dryer sheet in to soak. Later on, the dryer sheet can be gently swished against the cooked on bits and it comes out easier.

I put the chili into a casserole dish and let it cool a bit then refrigerated overnight. Next day I put the casserole dish in a 300 degree oven and let it heat again for an hour.

The nice thing about this is, we all know chili is better the second day, and it was. The black beans were a good addition – we don’t like the thicker red kidney beans.

I served this with cheese quesadillas, sour cream and Newman’s Own Salsa. You can see it was accompanied by Pabst beer…sometimes a good cheap beer is just the ticket!



A good hearty meal when the temperatures turning cooler....



If you try this one give me a shout and let me know if you like it.
Cheers!

Bourbon Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Here is a shout out to fellow foodie blogger 5 Star Foodie for her great recipe for Bourbon Tenderloin. I had a clip which I thought was a slide show but...it is totally messed up...so I deleted it.

Ingredients you'll need are: 1/3 cup bourbon 1/4 cup brown sugar 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon ground sage 1 teaspoon dry mustard 1 pound pork tenderloin For the corn puree you'll need...... 3 ears of white corn 3 tablespoons butter Salt to taste Combine first seven ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Place the pork tenderloin in a plastic bag, cover with marinade, seal, and refrigerate for at least 5 hours. (Sorry about the blurry shot of Jack Daniels) Don't forget -Let it sit over night in the fridge......... Prepare grill. Take the pork tenderloin out of marinade, slice it into 1-inch medallions (about 12), and sprinkle lightly with salt. Grill the pork medallions for about 2-3 minutes per side or until cooked through. Meanwhile, cook the corn for about 10 minutes in a salted boiling water. Cut the kernels off and place those in a food processor. Add 3 tablespoons of melted butter and mix well. Strain, pushing the corn puree out with a wooden spoon as much as possible (will be about a cup of corn puree). Serve pork medallions with corn puree. The corn puree was wonderful - I highly recommend you prepare this as a side. We also served with Mississippi Mud (porter pilsner mixture, roasted sweet potato and turnip, cranberries and of course, bread. Thank you 5 Star Foodie for posting this delicious meal on your blog. We all enjoyed it very much!

An Award!

I logged on to check out the blogs, recipes, etc and was quite pleasantly surprised to find I had received a very nice award from Cathy over at Accountants Can Cook.

If you have not checked out her site I would recommend you do - Great recipes, great sense of humor and she's a motorcycle girl. Now how cool is that :D

Now, check out my cool award below.



It is proudly displayed on my sideboard.....

I will be updating about Aja, our weekend, getting a cold (just before an upcoming trip - yikes) and of course...food :D
But I wanted to acknowledge this lovely award from my foodie buddy Cathy.

Thank you Cathy!

Nigella's Pollo Alla Cacciatora

Nigella says this is an old favorite, cooked "the hunter's way" which grants a certain amount of culinary license. I can tell you....it's a new favorite of ours. This one is a real winner. From the photo in Nigella Express I was wondering about the addition of the beans....I am so glad I tossed them in.

What a nice texture and taste they added to this version of chicken cacciatore.

Join me over at IHCC for Nigella's latest inspirations for the theme Midnight Sneaks.........

Ingredients needed are........

1 tablespoon garlic infused oil
1/2 cup pancetta cubes (I used more like 3/4 cup)
6 scallions finely sliced
1 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
1 pound chicken thigh fillets, sliced into pieces
1/2 cup white wine (I may have added a tad more )
1 can (14 oz) chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 (14 oz.) can cannellini beans, optional


Start by chopping the pancetta, scallions, garlic and rosemary.



Fry up in a bit of garlic oil. Then add bite sized chicken pieces and stir.



Now add tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients except the cannellini beans...........



After it has simmered 20 minutes add the beans, put the lid back on and serve after 10 minutes.



We served this dish over angel hair pasta and it was a nice combo of flavors.



I highly recommend this one.

Nigella Express, Hey Presto section, page 296