Oh my gosh my blog is so messed up. Part blogger maintenance and spontaneous deletions, and part procrastination... but it is taking way longer than I would like to catch up.
So, instead of racking my brain for details about dishes I made two weeks ago, I figure I should jump to what I made last night (5/16/2011) for dinner while it is still fresh!
Grilled Chicken
After a successful marinade for my pork chops this weekend (blog entry will probably appear in a month), I have been on a marinade kick. When I was flipping through a grilling magazine grocery store, I saw the headline "black tea soaked chicken" and thought, "whaaaaat?" Anyway, I was so intrigued, I had to do it.
- 3 boneless, skinless, organic free range chicken breasts (b/c I'm paranoid about chicken)
- 2 scoops of loose English Breakfast tea and two cups boiling water
- whole cloves
- whole peppercorns
- 1 TBSP agave nectar (honey would also work-- but put this in while water is hot)
- worstestecan'tspellit
- olive oil
- salt
First, I made the tea (just left the leaves in) and allowed it to cool to room temperature. I then added the other ingredients minus olive oil and salt. The oil I rubbed directly on the chicken, and then sprinkled it with sea salt. Then, I poured the marinade over the chicken and put it in the fridge for two hours. With chicken marinades, it's usually the longer the better, so if I could do this again, I would probably try to put it on in the morning. Also, I might try pounding out the chicken to thinner, even pieces.
When it was time to grill, I just scraped off most of the tea and cloves and threw the breasts on a pre-heated grill for 12 minutes (turning once).
Lemon-scented Asparagus
Over sharing-- I have never in my life had my pee smell funny after eating Asparagus. I hear people talking about it a lot (which I realize is also weird), but have never experienced it myself. But this weekend I got fresh asparagus (or ass-per-gas as my dad used to call it) from the farmer's market and WHOA. Now I know what everyone else is talking about... and I do NOT like it! I'm going to go back to store-bought asparagus to avoid this horrible plague.
- Asparagus
- Olive oil
- Salt, Pepper to taste
- Lemon juice (could have used zest too but forgot and juiced it first)
- leftover cheese from Panzanella
Toss asparagus in oil (you hardly need any, just keep tossing), S&P, and a bit of juice. Grill for 6-8 minutes. Drizzle more juice and put cheese on to get melty. Eat and enjoy!
Panzanella
Leave it up to the Italians to come up with a salad made out of bread. I haven't had a good panzanella since I was in Rome last, but I for some reason was inspired to make it. Actually I know the reason. I looked at my counter and saw nearly-stale dinner rolls, ripe tomatoes, a red onion, a lemon, and olive oil. And then I looked in my cupboard and saw a bowl to put all of those things in and it was done. Anyway, panzanella is one of those things that allows you to get use out of ingredients you otherwise might throw away. It's different every time based on what you have available, so you should be creative!
- day-old (or more) bread (preferably crusty) cut or torn into bite sized pieces
- tomatoes, diced (I used two yellow and one red)
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- lemon
- olive oil
- S&P
- red pepper
- basil
- capers
- cheese-- I used a combination of parm, romano, and mozarella
Put the bread in a large bowl-- this is where the whole salad will end up. Put the tomatoes in a smaller bowl with a dash of olive oil and a generous amount of salt. Then, wait five minutes and be amazed at how much juice the tomaters produced. Use a slotted spoon to scoop out the tomatoes and add to the bread, and keep all of the juice. Put the onion in yet another bowl and cover with juice of half a lemon. Let this sit 5-10 minutes to "pickle" the onions. Then, put the onions (but NOT the juice from the bottom of the bowl-- throw that out b/c it is nasty onion flavored) with the bread. Add basil, capers, black and red pepper, and whatever other flavor you like to bread bowl. To the tomato juice, add more olive oil and the rest of the lemon juice and lighty whisk. Then, pour it over everything in the large bowl and toss. Finally, toss with cheese.
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