Harvest Monday: July 23, 2012

Strawberries, hot peppers and peas again this week.  It's a good problem to have.

But more surprisingly, we had the first results of our lettuce experiment!

And it was wonderfully tender and very tasty.  I wonder if that was the result of the hydroponics, or if it was sweet because we had to wait so long.  :-)

I'd say the experiment was a success - what do you think?  



Total Harvest for the Week: 11.8 ounces
Total Harvest for the Year: 30 pounds, 2.4 ounces

The strawberries are still going strong, as are the hot peppers and the peas.  We'll even get some tomatoes this week!!  And maybe, just maybe, some more delicious tender salad greens!

 Linked up with Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday... hop on over and see what else is being picked this week.

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Sweet and Spicy Vidalia Onions

Sweet and Spicy Pickled Vidalia Onions

 Ingredients:

• 1 large Vidalia onion
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, or other vinegar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Directions:

Thinly slice the onion and  place the slices in a bowl.

Mix the vinegar, salt, cayenne, and sugar together.

Pour the vinegar mixture over the onion slices and stir.

Let the mixture stand for at least 30 minutes before serving.

A tip - if you don't want to eat them in 30 minutes, mix them in a gallon-sized plastic ziploc bag, and store in the refrigerator overnight.

This is great served with steak hot off the grill.  Or chicken.  Really as a side to just about anything.  And try experimenting with the flavors.  If you are having an Asian inspired meal, use balsamic vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar.  Greek?  Try red wine vinegar.  Mexican?  Add some cumin with the cayenne.  The possibilities are mouthwatering!

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Easy Italian Cream Sodas

San Diego was hot last night.  The high yesterday was 96.  Which, admittedly, isn't as hot as some places, but hot for us.

We were looking for something refreshing to drink.  And, tired of Diet Coke for once, I thought about Italian Sodas... and dreamed up this:

Italian Cream Sodas

Ingredients

• 16 ounces of sparkling water
• 1 single serving packet of water flavoring such as Crystal Light
• 4 tablespoons fat free half-and-half
• Whipped cream to top

Directions:

Add half of the flavor powder to each of two glasses. 

(Traditionally, Italian Sodas are made with syrup and carbonated water, and served over ice.  I didn't have any flavored syrup, but I did have Crystal Light!)

Divide the sparkling water between the two glasses.

Stir gently until the powder is dissolved.  Ad two tablespoons of the half-and-half to each glass and stir.  Top with whipped cream.  Enjoy!

This was a surprisingly quick, refreshing and delicious drink!  And I made it with ingredients we already had in the house.

Have you ever tried Italian Sodas?

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Back to the Basics: Chicken Breasts

Several years ago, The Mr and I lost a lot of weight.  He lost 65 pounds, and I lost 85 pounds.  And, more or less, we've kept it off.

We eat a lot of chicken.

And yes, those two things are related.  Chicken is low in fat, allowing you to eat more for your calorie budget.  More for less is better.

Chicken is also reasonably economical.  You can almost always find some kind of chicken on sale.

The problem with chicken breasts is that we often cook them improperly and they end up tasteless or dry or rubbery.  No one wants another tasteless, dry or rubbery chicken breast.  Even if it has fewer calories.

But it really isn't that difficult to cook well.  In fact, it is pretty easy to cook a really tasty chicken breast.  And here's how:

The first thing I usually do is spend a bit of time marinating the chicken.  Salad dressing works, also lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, even salsa.  Something that imparts some flavor.

I marinate my chicken in a glass casserole pan if I plan to eat it the same day, or in two separate gallon-sized freezer ziplock bags if I don't.  Marinate for at least two hours.  You can marinate your chicken overnight - unless you are using a lot of citrus juice or vinegar.  If you are, cook it the same day - too long in something highly acidic actually begins to cook the chicken.  But not in a good way.

I like to add dried herbs while marinating, but that's not necessary.



Then I heat a nonstick pan over medium-high heat, and spray with cooking spray.

When the pan is hot, add the chicken, smooth side down.

They fit in the pan nicely, don't they?  Then, let them cook.

This is the hard part, because you really don't want to mess with them until they are browned on the bottom. But it's tough to know if they are browned.  You can check under one every so often, but truly - leave them alone as much as possible.  This should take about 4 - 5 minutes.

Once they are browned, turn them over and let them brown on the other side.  By not messing with them.  Do you sense a theme here?

The second side should take another 4 - 5 minutes.  You will want to cook your chicken until the internal temperature is 160 degrees.  Note -  chicken should be cooked to a temperature of 165 degrees F. Remember that the meat will continue to cook after it's removed from the heat; the internal temperature will rise about 5-10 degrees in the first few minutes it's off the heat.  I would use a thermometer until you have a sense of how firm a properly cooked chicken breast is.   


About 1 - 2 minutes before you take your chicken out of the pan, add a couple of tablespoons of white wine, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, or even water.  This will impart additional flavor to the meat and allow you to use all the browned bits that have stuck to the pan.  Move the chicken around a bit in the pan to coat them with the sauce made from the liquid.

And you end up with this!  Beautiful, perfectly cooked, moist, tender and tasty.

This method allows for lots of opportunities for different flavors.  Or if lemon chicken is really your favorite - stick to that.  Check back next week to see how we use the crock pot with chicken - you won't want to miss it!

What is your favorite way to cook chicken?

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S'mores Bars

The Mr's department is having their annual picnic tomorrow, and we all bring something to share.

I had this idea.  Can you figure it out from this?

OK, obvious, but what if I add this?

I started thinking that s'mores can be difficult to handle at a large work bbq, so perhaps I could have the flavor of s'mores in a more manageable format.  And I made:


S'mores Bars

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 18 whole graham crackers, crushed, about 3 cups
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 milk chocolate bars, approximately 1 1/2 ounces each
• 3 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.  It should look something like this:

Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in crushed graham crackers, flour, and salt.

Reserve 1 cup of the graham cracker mixture and press remaining mixture over the bottom of a greased 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

(A tip here - I spray my hands with cooking spray before pressing the mixture into the pan and my hands don't stick to the dough)

Arrange chocolate bars, in a single layer, over graham cracker crust mixture in the pan. Sprinkle with marshmallows.

Crumbled reserved graham cracker mixture over the marshmallows.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Cut into bars and cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen bars.



And Oh My!  These smell divine!  (Don't tell anyone, but I did have a taste from the knife I used to cut them... and, well let's put it this way, if I weren't watching my waistline, The Mr's colleagues would be having a bag of chips and store-bought salsa instead of these incredible bars!)

Do s'mores in bar form sound good to you?

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Make This at Home: Lemon Curd

I think lemon curd, though it has a kind of unpleasant name, is one of life's best tastes.

You can buy a jar, like this one, at the grocery store...

Or you can make it yourself, at home, easily!  Here's how:



Low Fat Lemon Curd

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup strained, fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp fresh lemon zest
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
In a small sauce pan, over medium heat, combine sugar and lemon juice.

Add zest and stir until sugar is dissolved completely.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat egg. Whisking constantly (or with an electric mixer on low), very slowly stream the hot lemon-sugar syrup into the egg.

Beat for 2 minutes (only 1 if you’re using a mixer).

Transfer back into the saucepan by pouring the mixture through a sieve.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the curd just comes to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Transfer to a small airtight container and store in the fridge. Makes about 2/3 cup. Recipe can be doubled.

Simple and delicious - and healthier than what you would get in the store!

Have you ever made lemon curd?

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