Pacific Rim Chicken

Do you participate in the Tuesday blog party, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday's? If you don't, you should check it out. Not only is it a great way to showcase your blog, you can find all sorts of great recipes to try!

A couple of weeks ago Lisa posted a recipe for Pacific Rim Chicken. The flavors in this recipe are some of my favorites and as a bonus this recipe goes in the crock pot. I've mentioned before the crock pot is my friend. Especially on a Monday or any other day when I know I may not feel like cooking after work.

I prepared this recipe with chicken thighs. Until recently, I never cared much for chicken thighs. Besides their nice flavor, they're so reasonably priced. I just bought a large package at Costco for .99 cents a pound. Seriously, it doesn't get any better than that!!!

I served this with brown rice. One of the challenges with brown rice is the cooking time. I've read recently if you soak brown rice prior to cooking, it cooks much faster. After soaking mine for four hours, it cooked in about 25 minutes in the rice cooker.

Pacific Rim Chicken

1- large onion, finely chopped
1-large green bell pepper, chopped
4-5 large chicken breast halves, skin and fat removed (about 3 1/2 lbs)
1- 8oz can crushed pineapple, including juice
3/4 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup dry sherry (I used Mirin)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
2 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/3 cup long-grain white rice, cooked according to package directions (I used brown rice)

In large crock pot, combine onion and green pepper. Arrange chicken over vegetables. In medium bowl, combine pineapple and juice, broth, sherry, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, ginger, salt, if desired, and black pepper. Stir to mix. Pour over chicken.

Cover and cook on high 1 hour. Reduce heat to low, stir chicken into sauce, and cook an additional 5-6 hours or until chicken is done.

Remove and reserve chicken in medium bowl. Transfer liquid and vegetables to saucepan. Quickly boil down sauce, stirring frequently, to thicken slightly. Meanwhile, slice chicken meat. Arrange rice on serving platter. Arrange chicken slices over rice. Pour sauce over all.

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

Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk "Pie" - SMS

I've mentioned before pie crust and I don't get along very well. I think it knows my fear. I need to overcome it! For this recipe, however, I used a ready made crust. The flavors in this pie are my favorites. I love all things lemon and when you add blueberries, it just doesn't get any better. Blueberries were something like $4.50 a pint at the store. Bummer!! Lucky for me, I had some in the freezer. Blueberries freeze well and are a close substitute for fresh.

I decided to use a deep dish pie pan. I like the the look of the fluted edges. I think this may have been a mistake. My pie took FOREVER to bake. My oven tends to run a little hot, so I always set the oven for about 10 minutes less than the bake time. After setting my timer for the additional 10 minutes, I read the recipe again wondering what I had done wrong. As near as I could tell, NOTHING!! Not sure how long I ended up baking this pie. I am thinking it was somewhere around 60 or 70 minutes.

When I went to cut the first piece, I couldn't cut through the crust. Ok great, now I can't do pie crust with a ready made crust either???? I think it may have had something to do with how long this pie baked. No photograph of a piece of pie because there were no pieces. The dessert worked better in a bowl. The filling is delicious, a beautiful lemon flavor that matches so well with the blueberries. I would like to try this one again.



This week's recipe was chosen by Melissa at LuLu The Baker. Stop by her blog for the recipe and what I am sure is a beautiful SLICE of pie. You can find the links to all of the other SMS gals here.

Happy Pink Saturday!!

Since the pink flowers in my yard are done for the year, I am sharing some beautiful pinks from our vacation last January.

Taken in Fort Lauderdale, does anyone know what flower this is?

Taken in Roatan, Honduras. Our guide told us what flower this is but I can't remember.

I am linking this to Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound!!

Zucchini with Tomatoes and Brown Butter

Zucchini seems to be one of the vegetables of choice on the blogsphere. You'll find Zucchini bread, zucchini pancakes, sauteed zucchini and pasta with zucchini. I found this recipe on the Star Tribune blog Taste. It called for ribbons of zucchini, I decided to go with matchsticks. As with most pasta's it called for parmesean cheese. I used some leftover Parrano from our cheese tasting a couple of weeks ago. It added a nice nutty yet buttery flavor to the pasta.

I like how the liquid from the tomatoes, zucchini and the small amount of browned butter make a nice sauce. Tim said it was a nice change and he would eat it again. That's a compliment considering this dish didn't have any meat.

Zucchini with Tomatoes and Brown Butter
Recipe Adapted from Taste

• 1 lb. bowtie pasta
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 2 medium shallots, chopped
• 1 lb. zucchini (about 3 small), very thinly sliced lengthwise
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg (freshly grated, preferred)
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley

Directions

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Cook pasta according to directions. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until butter is beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add shallots and zucchini and cook, stirring often, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes, salt, nutmeg and pepper and continue cooking, stirring often, until tomatoes are just starting to break down, 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir in Parmesan and parsley. Add pasta and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

I am linking this to Foodie Friday and this is my entry for this week's Presto Pasta Nights hosted by Abby of Eat the Righhttp://www.eattherightstuff.com/t stuff.

From The Good Life

Labor Day weekend Tim and I went to the Minnesota State Fair. "The Great Minnesota Get Together" is one of the largest state fair's in the country. Attendance at this year's state fair was 1,776,211, just shy of last year's record attendance of 1,790,497. Not a record, but a huge crowd, 210,000 people attended the day Tim and I were there.

We experienced all of the traditional fair fun! Livestock, produce, art, machinery and last but certainly not least food. Everything you can think of on a stick. There was a booth that advertised nothing on a stick. The booth promoting their vegetable tray didn't have much of a crowd.

Bacon on a stick! And a really large tree for background!

A corn picture of Minnie and Paul!

The largest pumpkin, just over 1000 pounds!

The CROWD!

The Fair Princesses out of butter!

Aren't they cute?

What else in Minnesota...Hot Dish on Stick with Mushroom Soup dipping sauce!

Cookies & Cream Cupcakes - Martha Stewart Cupcake Club

It's been months since the last time I participated in the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club. I love cupcakes but sometimes there's just too many sweets in the house.

This month's recipe isn't a traditional cupcake. It's a cheesecake in cupcake form. These were easy to put together and delicious. Also, there's so many possibilities for this recipe, different cookies or candy bars. I have a delicious butterfinger cheesecake recipe that could be easily adapted to "cupcake" form.



Thanks to the talented Nina of Nina's Cupcakes for choosing this month's recipe. You can find the links to the other MSC bakers here.

Cheese Tasting 101

Tim gave me a cheese board for my birthday this year. Having grown up eating ColbyJack and Gouda, I want to learn more about cheeses. I decided to check out the cheese selection at Whole Foods. Don't you just love that store? The cheese monger was so helpful. I knew I wanted a soft, hard and goat cheese. A lot of articles say to include a blue cheese but I knew most of my guests didn't like blue cheese. After some discussion and several suggestions, we settled on Appenzeller for the soft, Parrano for the hard and Humbolt Fog as the Goat Cheese.

What should you serve with your cheese? In addition to the baquette, we had grapes, nuts and if you chose a drizzle of honey. What else do you need to know? Be sure to take the cheese out of the refrigerator an hour or two prior to serving to allow it to come to room temperature.

Which cheeses would we would like? Would there be some we didn't like at all? Which one would be the star?

Each of the cheeses had their own unique flavor. My favorite was the Humbolt Fog. I love that it looks like a beautiful piece of layer cake. The flavor is tart, yet mild. The texture is beautifully creamy. I think the rest of the group was partial to the Parrano. The parrano had a buttery texture and a nutty flavor. It reminded us all of gouda. I guess it was our comfort zone cheese. The Appenzeller was our "stinky" cheese. The aroma comes from the washing of the rind.

This was such a fun and interesting experience. I can't wait to do another cheese tasting!

I am linking this to Tuesday's at the Table and Tasty Tuesday's.