In My Garden

Chicken With Beer

Is there a help group for cookbook addiction? If so, I think I need to join. I haven’t done a cookbook count lately but I know I have over 100. I started blogging so I would use recipes from my library of cookbooks. So what do I do? I just keep buying more cookbooks. I really like my recent cookbook purchase, Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker. I’ve made three recipes from this book and they’ve all been a hit. Beef Stew, which I liked and Tim thought was okay. A wonderful Chicken with Beans which I forgot to photograph. Sometimes we’re so focused on eating, we forget the camera until it’s too late. We forgot to photograph this recipe as well but snapped a quick shot of the one leftover thigh. Not the best picture but you get the idea.

I made a few changes to this recipe. Because it was cooking all day, I wanted to have plenty of liquid. I added a little more beer and some chicken stock. I also added potatoes and would have added carrots but I didn’t have time to peel before work. I found this recipe interesting because it used Herbs de Provence. I wasn’t sure exactly what that was so I did some reading. I found several recipes, some with lavender and some without. I like to cook with lavender but I wasn’t convinced the floral flavor was what I wanted for this chicken. My spice drawer contained everything except the savory, so I made my own version of the herbs. This chicken was delicious. It has a nice hint of beer and a beautiful herb flavor.





Chicken with Beer
Recipe adapted from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook

About 1/2 cup flour
4 boneless chicken breast halves, with skin on
(I used 2 breasts and 4 thighs)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup beer
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 teaspooon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence
2 bay leaves, broken in half

Put the flour on shallow plate or a pie plate. One piece at a time, dredge the chicken in the flour, coating both sides and shaking off any excess.

Drizzle the olive oil into a large skillet over medium high heat. When it begins to sizzle, add the chicken, skin side down and cook until deep golden brown on both sides, 5 to 7 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to the slow cooker. Add the beer and chicken broth to the skillet and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the pan. Pout over the chicken. Sprinkle with the salt, pepper and herbes de Provence. Tuck the bay leaves among the chicken pieces. Cover and cook on HIGH 8 to 9 hours.

Herbes de Provence
3 tablespoons oregano leaves
3 tablespoons thyme leaves
1 teaspoon basil leaves
1 teaspoon sage leaf
3 tablespoons savory
2 tablespoons lavender flowers
1 teaspoon rosemary
Combine and mix well. Store in a cool, dry place.

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

Chestnut Honey Madeleines - SMS

One of the few baking pans that isn't in my cupboards is a madeleine pan. In fact, I am not sure I've ever had a madeleine. Curious about the history of madeleines, I looked them up. They're a small sponge cake pastry which originated in the Northeast region of France. Seems there's a couple of stories as to how they began. If you want to read more, you can find the stories here.

Funny, I think I've passed up a madeleine pan several times at Goodwill. At the time, I think I wondered what the pan was used for. Of course, the past few weeks when I wanted to find one, there were none to be found. I decided to use a mini muffin tin and it worked great!!

These are delicious, beautiful bites. They'd be a perfect compliment to afternoon tea. I'm hooked, I will make these again. I'd like to experiment with other flavors of madeleines. Who know's maybe I will even find that pan.

Thanks to Debbie of Cafe Chibita for choosing this wonderful recipe. If you check out the other SMS bakers, I am sure you'll find at least one or two of them owns a madeleine pan.

Pink Saturday - Buttermilk Pomegranate Sorbet

I am excited to be one of the Pink Saturday bloggers being featured today! Thanks for stopping by my blog! I have a great summer recipe to share with you.

I received an email from POM Wonderful offering to send me some pomegranate juice. Who could pass up an offer for free juice? Thanks, POM Wonderful. Until a few months ago, I'd never had a pomegranate or pomegranate juice. If you enjoy flavored vodka, you'll like this Pomegranate Infused Vodka. When squash is plentiful in the Fall, give this Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato and Pomegranate Soup a try.

Having tried a cocktail and a main dish with pomegranates, I decided to try a dessert. I love the smooth and creamy texture of this sorbet. Using this recipe as a guide, I made Buttermilk Pomegranate Sorbet. The pomegrantes give it a nice tart flavor with just a hint of sweetness.

Pomegranate Sorbet
Makes approximately 7 cups

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup pomegranate juice
1 tablespoons lemon zest
2 cups buttermilk

Stir sugar, pomegranate juice and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Add buttermilk, stir until sugar is dissolved. Chill until cold, at least 4 hours. Process mixture in ice cream freezer, approximately 20 minutes. Transfer to contained with lid; freeze. (Can be made 3 days ahead.)

My notes on this recipe: I added about 1/4 cup of vodka to this recipe. I drizzled it into the mixture while it was freezing. You know how homemade ice cream can be hard to scoop? The alcohol keeps it from freezing too hard.

Mom's Beef Stew - Foodie Friday

Have you ever purchased any "used" books on Amazon? If you haven't, you should check it out. That's how I've purchased several of my most recent cookbooks. Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook was a real bargain, $2.68, plus $3.99 shipping. You can't even tell these books are used.

I love my crock pot/slow cooker. It's funny how slow cookers seem to come and go. I've always been a slow cooker fan. Anytime I can come home after a long day at work and dinner is waiting is a good day for me.

I thought the flavors in this stew sounded interesting and delicious. I decided to omit the potatoes and serve over noodles. I totally forgot the peas, until after we'd started eating. I guess I am not used to adding anything to the slow cooker at the end of the cooking time. This was a delicious, thick stew, tasting much better than this picture looks. When I asked Tim what he thought he said, "It was okay but I like your other stew better!" Me, I liked this stew as well, if not better than the other stew. The Refrigerator Stew has a much thinner broth, almost like a chunky soup. This stew was thicker and almost had no broth. It's a comforting and easy weeknight meal.

Mom's Beef Stew
Recipe courtesy of Not Your Mom's Slow Cooker

8 to 12 small, flavorful potatoes, such as Yukon Gold
4 large carrots, cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch lengths
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 to 2 1/2 pounds boneless beef chuck, trimmed of any excess fat, cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, as needed
1 large onion, cut into a total of 6 or 8 wedges
1 large rib of celery, sliced 1/2 inch thick
6 to 8 medium sized mushrooms, cut in half
2 cups beef broth
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of ground cloves
Salt and pepper to taste
1 small bay leaf
2 sprigs flat parsley
One 10 ounce package frozen peas, thawed

Place the potatoes in the slow cooker. Top with the carrots.

In a zippered top plastic bag or a bowl, combine the flour, paprika, salt and pepper.
Toss the beef in the mixtures, shaking off any excess, and transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining meat.

In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium high heat. Add the meat, being careful not to crowd the skillet. Turn to brown on all sides. Once the meat is brown, using a slotted spoon, transfer to slow cooker.

When all of the meat has been browned and placed in the slow cooker, add the onion, celery and mushrooms. Stir gently to distribute, trying not to disturb the potatoes and carrots on the bottom.

In a bowl or 4 cup glass meausre, stir together the broth, tomato paste, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and cloves. Pour into the cooker. If the broth is unseasoned, add salt and pepper to taste. Tuck the bay leaf and parsley sprigs into the stew. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 9 hours or HIGH for 4 to 5 hours.

Discard the bayleaf and parsley. Stir in the peas, cover and cook on HIGH until peas are hot, 10 to minutes.

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

In My Garden

The first of my zinnia's, isn't the color beautiful?

Not everything "In My Garden" is always pretty. We've had so much rain. Whenever we have a lot of rain, we find stink mushrooms in the garden. I thought this one was pretty fun looking. Tim says they really smell...I didn't get close enough to tell.

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.