Summertime...and the Livin' is Easy

Its not that I haven't been cooking this summer.

In fact, I have week's worth of back posts to add here between now and September!

Being on the lam of this blog was both good and bad. I am having an amazing summer and the days have been filled all the goodness that is summer. However, I am disappointed in myself for not sharing all the good summer eats with everyone.

I sense that fall is in the air as the sun goes down a little sooner and the vegetables in the garden have all peaked for the most part. The air was cooler here in New York this weekend, so I took advantage of that and decided to throw together a summertime roast of chicken and vegetables on this lazy Sunday.

This is definitely one of those Mark Bittman recipes where you can interchange the vegetables and herbs depending on what you have in your summer garden. I have so much oregano that I am definitely going to be drying a good deal of it once summer ends. Rosemary would also work nice with this dish, as would dill.

Greek Style Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil

juice of one lemon

1 pound of chicken thighs

1 onion, cut into thick slices

1 green pepper, cut into strips

handful of baby carrots

6 baby red bliss potatoes, scrubbed

1 clove of garlic, whole pieces peeled

1 lemon, sliced

fresh springs of oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 300 degrees

- Salt and pepper the chicken and vegetables

- Combine all ingredients in a bowl except the lemon wedges and mix

- Place ingredients on a shallow roasting pan and cover with lemon wedges

- Cook for 3o minutes - take pan out and discard any watery juices

- Cook for another 30 minutes or until vegetables are fork tender and the onions have started to caramelize

- You can take the whole roasted garlic cloves and spread it on bread to have with the dish

Oh Goodness, My Guinness!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

To celebrate the festivities, what could be better than eating Beef and Guinness Stew? I love Guinness and although it is a meal in and of itself, it is also a great ingredient for a meal! For those of you who are Irish, and those of you like me who are honorary Irish folk for the day, enjoy your celebration. I hope it includes lots of soda bread, Guinness, merriment, and luck!

Beef and Guinness Stew (Courtesy of The Gourmet Slow Cooker Cookbook by Lynn Alley)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of flour

2 1/2 pounds very lean stewing beef, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 large potatoes, peeled and quartered

3 carrots, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces

2 large yellow onions, quartered

2 sprigs of thyme

2 cups of Guinness stout or other very dark, hearty beer

1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Place flour in a re-sealable plastic bag and add the beef, shaking to coat completely.

Heat a large saute pan on high heat and add the oil. In batches if necessary, add the beef and cook until brown on all sides. Using tongs, transfer to paper towel to drain.

Place the beef, carrots, potatoes, onions, and thyme in the slow cooker and pour the beer on top. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours (until the meat is very tender). Season with salt.

Enjoy stew with a pint of Guinness!

Tailgating At Home!

I am a huge football fan and a die hard New York Giant's fan.

Although the Giants did not make it to the playoffs, I still love football enough to watch the playoffs and Superbowl, each game start to finish. I truly enjoy cooking on Sundays during football season and like to stick to some traditional tailgating foods. I love Buffalo wings, but rarely eat them since they are so fattening!

However, I was determined to figure out an alternative, and that came in the form of meatballs! After reading various recipes for Buffalo chicken meatballs, I came up with a recipe that combined details of a few delicious sounding ones and came up with this one. Instead of dipping them in blue cheese sauce, which you can do as a great appetizer, I decided to make blue cheese mashed potatoes and make it into a meal with carrots on the side. As far as beer, I was sipping Michelob Ultra and miserable. I don't know why I bother with that beer. The lack of flavor is just not worth the lack of calories.

The meatballs were rich tasting and nice and hot with the sauce on it. The mashed potatoes had a great sour tang to them that complimented the meatballs well. I love fresh parsley and decided to keep it coarsely chopped since I enjoy biting into pieces that have tender leaves cooked into them.

My cheers go to the New Orleans Saints! I hope they win the Superbowl! What team are you cheering for? Hopefully fellow food bloggers will have some great tailgating recipes in the next few weeks leading to the Superbowl!

• Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
• Ingredients:
• 1 pound ground chicken
• 1 medium onion, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, grated
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
• 1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup hot sauce (I used Frank’s)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2) Combine chicken, onion, garlic, parsley, bread crumbs, egg, and salt and pepper to taste

3) Mix with your hands and cut into 4 equal portions - this should yield 16 meatballs

4) Arrange meatballs on a nonstick baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil

4) Bake meatballs until golden brown (about 12 minutes)

5) Heat butter and hot sauce in a saucepan and spoon over meatballs in a serving platter.

Blue Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

5 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

1/3 cup light blue cheese dressing

1/2 cup milk (or more depending on what consistency you like)

1 tablespoon butter

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Boil potatoes in salted water until fork tender, mash

2) Add milk, blue cheese dressing, butter, and salt and pepper to taste.

Meat and Potatoes

Tonight was meat and potatoes night!

Its been a long week and the week is not even over, so meat and potatoes for dinner is good comfort food. Many of you may not know this, but I have been without Food Network for almost a month due to New York's Cablevision being in a battle with Scripps network. Tonight it is back, and I am glad I can watch Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives once more!

I am on a Penzey's kick this week it seems. This was actually the first time I used their poultry seasoning after purchasing it around Thanksgiving. A good investment for quick chicken dishes on a weeknight, let me tell you! I found a basic recipe from Martha Stewart for buttermilk baked chicken and made it my own. I had a baked potato sprinkled with parsley and some honey glazed carrots. The wine was a lovely Chilean Sauvignon Blanc.

Buttermilk Baked Chicken

1 1/2 pounds skinless chicken thighs

1 1/2 cups of plain breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon poultry seasoning (I used Penzey's)

1 tablespoon grated Romano cheese

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh black pepper

1 1/2 cups buttermilk (I used lowfat)

1 teaspoon hot sauce

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a baking sheet

2) Combine bread crumbs, poultry seasoning, and cheese in a bowl.

3) Combine buttermilk, salt, pepper, and hot sauce in another bowl and whisk well.

4) Pat chicken pieces dry and dip into buttermilk, shaking excess coating off. Dip into bread crumb mixture and fully coat.

5) Bake for 25 minutes until chicken is a nice golden brown.

To order Penzey's Poultry Spice: http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyspoultryseas.html