If your Neighbor Gives You Lemons...

You get to develop lemon recipes! My neighbor lady was sent a box of fresh lemons strait off the tree from a friend of hers in California and she gave some to us. They smell so amazing and are HUGE! So I thought I would take the opportunity to develop a few recipes using these lemons. Kind of an Iron Chef type of moment but with 3 little ones a time limit of an hour just ain't gonna work!

Ok so I am having a blast with this one. I am doing Grilled Lemon Chicken and Lemon Orzo Pilaf. Sounds good huh?

Grilled Lemon Chicken with Orzo Pilaf

4 Chicken Breasts

Marinade-

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup olive oil

the zest of 1 lemon

the juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tablespoon sugar

 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

1/4 tsp. dried oregano

1/4 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp soy sauce
2 garlic cloves crushed
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Combine ingredients and Marinate Chicken for 30 to 40 minutes flipping chicken over halfway. Cook chicken on grill or pan fry or broil, 20 minutes, or until it reaches an internal temp of 165 degrees.  Meanwhile, take used marinade and boil it in a small sauce pan for 5 minutes (this will ensure that all the chicken "stuff" is cooked all the way, also it will reduce down and thicken a bit. pour the sauce over the chicken when it's done.







Lemon Orzo Pilaf

1 cup orzo pasta

1/2 onion diced fine

1 stalk celery diced fine
2 cloves garlic crushed

2 carrots diced fine

1/2 cup diced bell peppers (any color you like)

1/4 tsp cracked black pepper

2 tsp olive oil

1/4 tsp. oregano

1/8 tsp turmeric

3 cups chicken stock or 3 cups water and 2 bouillon cubes

1 Tbs. Fresh parsley chopped for garnish

In a large skillet saute the garlic, onions, peppers and celery in the olive oil until almost done. Add the Orzo pasta and saute until the pasta is a light golden brown color. Add spices and chicken broth. Cover and let simmer on low for 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and pasta is tender stirring every few minutes so it won't stick to the pan. If you run out of liquid before the pasta is done, add more chicken broth, 1/4 cup at a time. Garnish with Parsley.

We had this for dinner and it was super yummy! Not tart at all. I hope you enjoy these lemon recipes.

And the Winner is...

Ok so like a good blogger I went to random.org to do the number generator thing to pick the winner of the giveaway. For some reason I am not as smart as the website. I can not for the life of me figure out a way to post the results on the blog. I am sure it is something super easy and I am just being retarded but I have been trying to figure it out for 30 minutes now and I just don't have the time to keep messing with it. So I hope you all trust me when I tell you the results. I numbered all the entries and there were 33!! I was so excited! So the Number generator spit out the number...

 29. Pam Kirkwood

Congrats Pam!! I am so excited for you. Please e-mail me your address so I can mail you your new cookbook. Thanks so much to everyone who entered!

So, this week is the last week of my dinner challenge and I have been so excited to post the menus that I have neglected to post any recipes! And for that I am truly sorry. So I thought I would give you two that were pretty big hits!

Chicken Pot Pie

Filling-

2 cups shredded roasted chicken

1 cup frozen mixed veggies

1 can evaporated milk

1 can cream of whatever soup, I use chicken but have also used cream of celery or mushroom

1 cup milk

1 chicken bouillon cube (I use the Mexican ones)

1 tsp garlic powder

1tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper (the ONLY pepper I use. I don't even have the pre ground stuff in my house!)

Crust-

There are a few options for crusts. You could use a pie crust recipe, a biscuit recipe or a pastry crust recipe. I have used all three but by far our favorite is the pastry recipe. It's a little tricky but I think it is sooooo worth the effort! I love the Cuisinart recipe. I found it at this website.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

16 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in ½-inch pieces, well chilled

2 tablespoons shortening (Crisco), cut in ½-inch pieces, well chilled

5 to 8 tablespoons ice water





Instructions

Insert the metal blade. Process the flour, salt and baking powder to sift, 10 seconds. Add the well chilled butter and shortening. Use short rapid pulses until the mixture resembles coarse corn meal and no pieces of butter larger than a “pea” remain visible, 15 to 20 pulses. Sprinkle half the maximum ice water on the flour and butter mixture, then pulse 5 or 6 times. The dough will be crumbly, but should begin to hold together when a small amount is picked up and pressed together. Sprinkle on more water, a teaspoon (two for the two-crust recipe) at a time, with 2 to 3 quick pulses after each addition, adding just enough water for the dough to hold together easily when pressed into a ball. Add the liquid sparingly so that the dough is not sticky. Do not over process or the pastry will be tough, not tender and flaky.



Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Press together into a ball, then flatten into a disk about 6 –inches in diameter (two disks for the two-crust recipe). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour before continuing to allow the glutens in the flour to rest. The dough will keep refrigerated for up to 3 days, or may be frozen (double wrapped) for up to a month, thaw at room temperature for an hour before using.



To bake the pastry blind for a single crust filled pie or tart, roll out pastry 1/8-inch thick to fit pan, crimp and seal edges. Prick bottom all over with a fork. Chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400º F. Line with a sheet of aluminum foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights, dry rice or beans. Bake for 15 minutes.

 

I have a half a pound of dry beans that I use over and over to weigh down crusts. I keep the beans in a quart jar above my pantry so I don't accidentally cook them.

For this recipe you do not pre-cook the crust.I also roll in into a rectangle that is 10x14 inches.  I combine all of the filling ingredients in a bowl and mix well. I then pour the chicken mixture into a well greased 9x13 pan and top with the pastry. Bake for 35 mins or until the chicken is bubbly and the crust is nicely brown.


Spanish Rice

This is a super simple recipe that gets rave reviews whenever I make it. So simple that it's almost not even a recipe at all.

2 cups uncooked brown rice
3 cups water
2 tomato/chicken bouillon (found in the Mexican foods aisle at the grocery store)
3/4 cup mild salsa
1/4 cup butter

in a rice cooker combine rice, water and bouillon cubes. When rice cooker finishes add butter and salsa. stir to combine and serve hot. It is amazing!!


Again, CONGRATS PAM!!! Thanks so much for everyone who is following the blog. I have a lot of fun stuff planned and I hope you all stick around!

P.S. I had a blast doing this giveaway so I think I am going to do one a month for a while!! YAY! So even if you didn't win this time you will still have a chance next month.

Until next time... Get cookin!

What to do with leftover BBQ fixin's

On Friday we had a family BBQ. Well, it was going to be a BBQ but the baby decided to take a 3 hour nap and by the time she woke up the sun had gone down and it cooled off too much to cook outside. But we still enjoined ourselves with an indoor BBQ.

Saturday I was going to fix dinner and I had a fun idea. I am sure a lot of people have done this before but I thought I would share it anyway. We had a lot of leftover baked beans, two hot dogs 3 hot dog buns and some peas. I cut up the hot dogs into little circles and mixed them in the baked beans with a little BBQ sauce. I heated the up in the microwave. I also heated up the peas. I took the hot dog buns and turned them into garlic toast by mixing butter, garlic powder, and parsley and spreading it on the buns. I stuck them in the toaster oven and everything was done in about 5 minutes. I took some of the peas and mashed them up for the baby and after setting the table it took a total of 10 minutes to get diner done. I love leftovers!

What are some of your leftover BBQ masterpieces?