Red Wine Balsamic Grilled Chicken

I am always looking for new ways to grill chicken. A few weeks ago, I spotted this recipe over at Good Things Catered and bookmarked it for future grilling. Katie's recipe called for chicken breasts. I used skin on chicken thighs. This is a quick and easy recipe to put together. The balsamic vinegar and honey give the chicken a wonderful flavor.



Red Wine Balsamic Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:
4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, about 3 lbs
(I used chicken thighs)
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp honey
Juice of 1/2 a sweet lemon (or orange)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp dried mined onion
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

Directions:
-Pound chicken breasts down to uniform thickness throughout (about 1-inch thickness throughout)
-Place in large, deep dish and top with remaining ingredients.
-With tongs, flip chicken and move around to coat evenly.
-Cover and place in fridge for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
-When ready to cook, remove chicken from fridge and place on sideboard to remove chill while starting grill.
-Preheat gas grill on high for 10 full minutes.
-Clear grates, turn heat to medium-low and place chicken on grates n a diagonal.
-Cover and cook untouched until nice grill marks form, about 5 minutes.
-Flip and continue cooking until cooked through, about 10 minutes.
-Flip one more time, on opposite diagonal, 2 minutes before cooking is complete to obtain grill cross-marks, if desired.
-Remove from heat and let meat rest, covered, on cutting board for 3-5 mins before cutting and serving.

I am linking this to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday's, Tasty Tuesday's and Tuesday's at the Table.

Chocolate Orange Macaroons - SMS

I've never made Macaroons. Aren't they one of those cookies you either like or you don't, maybe because of the coconut? I don't love coconut so I am sure that's why I haven't made them before. This worked out well because I needed something to bring to a baby shower at work.

What a fun and easy recipe to make! Anytime you can mix with you hands, it's just so theraputic! The instructions called for a fine chop on the chocolate. That's hard to do. I ended up with a few pieces that were bigger than others but in the end it was fine. I loved the way the orange and coconut looked together. When I first mixed the egg whites into the mixture, it seemed dry. As I continued to mix, the mixture became more moist.

Seems I always cut SMS recipes in half. This week I made the whole recipe and ended up with 21 cookies. Does anyone ever get the exact number the recipe says? I made one sheet on parchment and one sheet on a silpat. They turned out much better when baked on the parchment. They didn't seem to crisp up as much on the silpat. The bottoms still seemed a little wet.

Of course, I had to taste one. I liked them but wish they had less orange and more chocolate flavor. I loved the texture and richness of the cookies. Next time I would like to try the recipe with lemon zest.



This week's recipe was chosen by Ellen of Blue Tree Green Heart. You can find the recipe on her site. Check out the rest of the SMS bakers macaroons here!

Pink Saturday

Happy Pink Saturday! We're at Tim's family reuinion this weekend in New Ulm, Minnesota. I will visit everyone's blogs when we return!

Rhubarb Pie - Foodie Friday

What do you think of when you think of Rhubarb? Everything I’ve been reading recently describes rhubarb as the pie plant. When I think of pies, I think of custard and chocolate. I can’t make a good pie crust, so I don’t bake many pies. Pie crust is on my list of cooking challenges to conquer.

Our good friend, Lynn gave me a large bag of rhubarb from his garden. The night he gave it to me, we discussed what we thought of when thinking of rhubarb. Lynn’s answer was pie. When I think of rhubarb pie, I think of strawberry/rhubarb pie. I asked Lynn and he said nope just plain rhubarb. I chopped it all up and began contemplating what to make. I made a Rhubarb Betty and had enough to make Lynn his plain rhubarb pie.

I started searching for rhubarb pie recipes and was amazed at how simple they all are. I settled on Martha Stewart’s recipe. I liked that it had a crumble topping instead of a second crust. I wish I could say, I worked on conquering that fear of pie crust with this pie but not so much! When you give someone a pie, you want it to be good, right? To be sure the crust was good; I purchased the ready made kind in the box.

I had leftover rhubarb mixture and crumble, so I made a couple of crumbles. Not being a big rhubarb fan, I wasn’t sure if I would like the crumble. I enjoyed this dessert. It was tart but not too tart and had a nice flavor. Lynn said the pie was awesome and wondered what I was bringing him for dessert next week next week.



I am linking this to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum.

In My Garden

Snickerdoodle Bars

Snickerdoodles are one of my favorite cookies! When I saw this recipe on Crazy Daisy, I couldn't wait to make them. I decided to make them for my step son Michael's soccer banquet. Of course, as I cut them, I had to taste. These bars are so good. The flavor of a snickerdoodle cookie and the texture of a brownie. Thank goodness I made them to take somewhere or I would have eaten way too many. Next time you're searching for a cookie to make, try these you won't be sorry!!!

Snickerdoodle Bars
2 1/3 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cinnamon Filling
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 350. Spray or grease the bottom only of a 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

Beat butter on high speed until creamy. Beat in sugars. Gradually beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Add dry ingredients and beat on low speed until combined.

Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle with Cinnamon Filling evenly over batter. Dollop teaspoons of remaining batter evenly over Cinnamon Filling. Gaps are okay, they let the filling peek through leaving a fun marbled look.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

In a small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over bars.

I am linking this to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday's, Tuesday's at the Table and Tasty Tuesdays.

One Year Ago Roasted Dill Potatoes.

Pistachio Linzer Thumprints - SMS

This week's SMS takes me back to my childhood. If you follow my blog, you know my mother died when I was sixteen. One of the cookies I remember my mother making at the holidays were thumbprints. These remind me so much of those cookies.

From making the thumbprint with your thumb or whatever finger you choose, to filling the centers with the preserves, these cookies are fun to make. I cut the recipe in half and ended up with 15 cookies. The recipe called for unsalted pistachios. I had salted on the shelf and used them instead. The contrast of the sweet preserves and the salted pistachios is delicious. I didn't have quite enough apicot preserves, so I filled a few of them with plum preserves. Actually, I like the contrast you get with the dark preserves. These cookies were a thumbs up at my house!



The talented and creative Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Creations is our host this week. You'll find the recipe on her blog. The links to all of the other SMS gals can be found here!