Lemon Chicken

Yesterday Geo and I went to a community dinner. The lady sitting across from us, with her husband, was eating a tuna fish sandwich. “You’re not eating the chicken stew?” I asked her.

“No,” she said with a little smile. “I brought this from home. It seems like all we’ve been eating lately is chicken. When I heard what they were serving today, I decided I just couldn’t eat any more chicken, so I brought this sandwich.”

At times I think I've felt the same way. At various dinners it's chicken that is served so very often. However, there are countless ways to prepare it. I recently came across a recipe that was different, yet so easy that I needed to try it. I had the main ingredients on hand – a package of organic chicken thighs, lemons, and onion.

While the chicken was still partly frozen, I trimmed the excess fat. (It’s easier that way.) I rinsed the chicken, patted it dry, then placed the pieces in the baking dish. 

I seasoned the chicken with thyme, Forward (one of my Penzey spice blends), a little salt and pepper. I added sliced onions, then poured fresh lemon juice with melted butter over all. 

We like a lot of onion!

After letting it marinate for a while in the fridge, I baked it, covered, at 325 degrees for about an hour.

It was good with mashed potatoes, but I think next time I will serve this with rice prepared with chopped green peppers, or even a little pineapple.

Here are the original recipe ingredients:

2 lbs chicken pieces                             1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1/4 C. lemon juice                                1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons melted butter                 1/2 teaspoon rosemary

1 small chopped onion                         1/4 teaspoon thyme                 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

This dish could even be prepared a day ahead to marinate overnight.

Now if it had been Lemon Chicken instead of chicken stew at the community dinner, I wonder whether that lady would still prefer a tuna fish sandwich. I do think the Lemon Chicken would win her over for chicken at least one more time!

Mom's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

When our kids were young, my Mom would send us cookies that she had baked. Their favorite was chocolate chip, and they were in almost every box she mailed to us. During the holiday season, Mom would send pecan dreams and rum balls. And sometimes Mom would also pack her homemade oatmeal raisin cookies.

Today I made the oatmeal raisin cookies, using her original handwritten recipe. The card is stained and creased, showing that it was probably a stand-by and used quite often.

And the backside:

I thought of her as I followed the recipe as closely as I could. However, I know she mixed the batter by hand, while I used my Kitchen Aid mixer to do the work. When the recipe said “drop by teaspoon onto the cookie sheet," I could almost see her using a spoon to form the cookies; I used a scoop and leveled each portion against the bowl.

The recipe yield was almost 60 cookies. When my three Airbake pans were ready for the oven, I still had leftover dough. So I used one of my old sheet pans with parchment paper. Exact same cookie dough and same scoop, different results. See the difference using two different kinds of baking pans.

The Airbake pans made for a flatter, more even product. With the older pan, the cookies were thicker and smaller in diameter.

The oatmeal raisin cookies came out very well. The recipe is a keeper, and one to hand down to my daughters. Hopefully someday when they make these cookies, they too will think of Grandmother and all those boxes of cookies that came from Wisconsin, packed with love. 

Chicken Pho Soup

There's a new Vietnamese Restaurant not far from where we live. When we go there, I like to order one of the Pho soups - so good!

Since there's some leftover chicken in the freezer, I decided to use it for a Vietnamese-style soup, something like what is served in our neighborhood restaurant. I already had some of the ingredients. A quick trip to the grocery store, and I picked up fresh ginger root, cilantro, sprouts, and rice noodles.

To prepare the soup, I brought 5 cups of chicken broth to a boil, together with 1 clove of minced garlic, about 4 teaspoons of minced ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil. I added 1/2 Cup of bite-sized pieces of cooked chicken and 1/2 Cup of julienne carrots. Then I added a teaspoon of sriracha sauce. 

I had never cooked rice noodles before. They looked really good - right out of the package.

About 4 oz. of the dry noodles were added to the soup. I let it simmer for 5 minutes, or until the noodles were done.

Here's the soup on the stove.

Ready to serve! I added sprouts and some chopped cilantro. Garnish was a wedge of lime. 

The combination of these ingredients tastes absolutely addicting. The ginger is a huge flavor booster.

My Chicken Pho Soup may not be like an authentic one served at the Vietnamese restaurant, but it did get a "thumbs up" from the family. Addie suggested doing a vegetable broth pho with tofu. I will definitely consider it.

Rice noodles will be the new staple in my pantry!

Cornmeal Blueberry Scones

It's a cold, lazy Saturday morning and I am making Cornmeal Blueberry Scones. This is the first of fifty new recipes I am attempting during 2015. 

This one has been in my binder for years, passed over many, many times. Today this recipe is getting my full attention. My inspiration - the package of organic blueberries in our freezer.

First step is whisking together the dry ingredients.

To cut in the butter, I'm using my Kitchen Aid mixer to do the work.

  

Then I'm adding the egg, buttermilk, and lime zest.

The blueberries need to be coated with cornstarch before adding to the dough.

Ready for the oven!

While the scones are baking, I'm making a lime glaze.

The glaze is drizzled over the warm scones after they are taken out of the oven.

The finished product!

The challenge: getting the blueberries incorporated into the dough. They just didn't want to mix in. I ended up with some whole blueberries at the bottom of the bowl after I scooped out all of the portions.

My discovery: That lime glaze is really good! It could be used on any bakery product. (I'm thinking of making sugar cookies with a little lime zest, then drizzling them with lime glaze.)

We enjoyed the scones. What we didn't eat went into the freezer.
Scones for breakfast? Just take them out to thaw the night before and they'll be ready to go with that morning coffee.

Here's the recipe: