Herb Grilled Chicken

Chicken

That few minutes yesterday really paid off today! Dinner took 15 minutes from start to finish!

The herb-marinated chicken came out great! All of the herbs - and the wine - were present, but none of them overpowered the flavor of the chicken. Starting with good chicken is the key. It seems that most times when one buys that massed produced commercial chicken nowadays, it's so flavorless that if you don't marinate or add some sort of sauce, you end up with a blah bird on your plate. A free range organic bird may cost more, but it's the difference between eating at McDonald's or eating at Le Bec-Fin. It's worth it.

To round out the dinner was a tortellini dish that tomorrow will make a great cold salad. While cooking up the tortellini, I cooked up some onions, garlic, Italian peppers, and mushrooms, and then added roasted tomatoes in oil, kalamata olives, and roasted red peppers. I then mixed the tortellini in with the veggies and called it good!

Who says they don't have time to cook?!?


Advance Planning

Marinades

10 minutes in the kitchen this morning will save me lots of time today and tomorrow... I made a couple of simple marinades! (Well, actually, I put some chicken and a brisket into ziplock bags and added some stuff.) Really easy!

At yesterday's grocery shopping spree, I bought 4 chicken breasts and a small beef brisket. I love bbq'd brisket, and chicken is a mainstay in our house - so many things to do with it. And since it's hotter (and muggier) than hell outside, grilling is the only way to go.

I bought a 4-pack of avocados the other day and want to use them up before they turn into guacamole on their own, so I thought grilled chicken on a bun with sliced avocado and tomato would make a lovely lunch. (I also bought a packageof ww buns, and wanted to use them up before they turned into hockey pucks...) A nice Mexican-inspired marinade would work well with the avocado... So... into the ziplock went a bit of safflower oil, garlic, cilantro, cumin, and chipotle powder, salt and pepper. Done.

I had originally thought simple BBQ sauce would be fine for the brisket, but since I'm doing Mexican for lunch, Asian would be better for dinner. Into the next baggie went soy sauce, safflower oil, a bit of sesame oil, star anise, szechuan peppercorns, chopped garlic, and rice wine. Also done.

For tomorrow's chicken, I went out to the herb garden and picked fresh basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and parsley. Into the baggie it all went with more fresh garlic, olive oil, and some white wine. It should make a pretty good addition to a big green salad.

10 minutes, three meals, and I'm now ready to lounge around the pool. Oh. Wait. i don't have a pool. Maybe I'll start grilling that chicken for lunch!

A couple of hours later and I'm feeling juuuuust fine! the chicken sandwich came out most excellent! I made an adobo mayonnaise by adding a bit of adobo sauce from the canned chipotles in adobo that were in the 'fridge. A bit of avocado and we had great, sloppy sandwiches!

About 3pm I'll put the brisket on the grill to s-l-o-w cook!


Burgers on the Barbie

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I've had a hankerin' for a burger, lately. One of my most favorite meals in the world is a good, greasy burger - and I mean a real burger, not one of those microwaved things you get at a {urp} drive-thru with clowns or crowns...

So, having the fixin's at home, I set out to create...

I had a package of meatloaf mix in the freezer - the ground pork, veal, and beef mixture - and figured I'm not going to be making meatloaf any time soon (it was another scorcher with high humidity, today) so time to get creative.

I minced half an onion and 3 cloves of garlic, added chipotle powder, a bit of cumin, and a bit of cheddar and caramelized onion cheese, salt and pepper, and formed into patties. (I froze four for another day and time...)

I quartered some baby purple and yukon gold potatoes, added some olive oil and S&P and set them on the grill. When they were about 3/4ths done, on went the burgers... A couple of slices of cheese on top and voila! Dinner!

The buns were dressed with mayonnaise, thinly sliced onion, yellow tomatoes and avocado. I came thiiiiiiis close to cooking up some bacon to add, but resisted at the last minute. The burgers didn't need it!

They were properly gooey and juicy, with avocado and tomato sliding all over the place, making a mess of everything.

I have a theory that the more napkins one needs when eating a burger, the better the burger. We both went through several...

I'm trying to think up something fun for the 4th of July... Our friend Dorrie is coming down from Boston with her 13 year old son to stay with us for a week, and I'm thinking an all-day food fest while lounging around the pool is definitely in order. I'll keep ya posted! :)


More Salads

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Salads. ya gotta love 'em. Greens mixed with whatever... Just lots of fresh produce put on a plate. As Tony the Tiger said... "They're Grrrrrreat!"

I put a small piece of London broil on the grill and proceeded to overcook it a bit. We were out front gossiping with our new neighbors - much more fun than standing over the grill!

But the salad was great, nonetheless. The plates were a Goodwill find many years ago right after we bought our home in San Leandro, CA. Victor went away for three days on a business trip, and when he came back, I had put a table in the back yard, painted each of the four chairs the same colors as the plates... Matching tablecloth. It was so festive and gay... What was I thinking?!?

But the plates are fun - and they do remind me of summers past. And I think I paid 25 cents a piece for them.

What a deal!


Turkey on the Barbie

No, I haven't stopped cooking. in fact, I'm probably cooking more than ever. It's just that I haven't been making the time to 1) take pictures, and 2) actually sit down and write here.

I've been pretty busy updating websites, lately. After finally learning the basics of CSS, I'm redoing a whole slew of sites. It keeps me off the streets.

So... yesterday during my weekly shopping excursion, I picked up a turkey breast. It's called a "hotel" breast, because it just has the top part of the carcass - breast and wings - and all bone-in. I put it on the grill.

I heated the grill, and then turned off the center heat. After wrapping the bird in bacon I placed it in the center, turned down the other two knobs, closed the lid, and walked away. About three hours later, we had a GREAT bird!

I was craving a good ol' turkey sandwich, so...

  • Whole wheat bread slathered in mayonnaise...
  • Sliced heirloom tomatoes
  • Sliced avocado
  • the aforementioned bacon

What a taste treat!

I served them with a manchego and apple salad I found in Bon Appetit a while back:

  • 1 chopped apple
  • 1 cup cubed manchego cheese
  • 1/2 cup marcona almonds
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Dinner was yummy - and now I have all sorts of turkey to play with!

Tonight... salads...