Chicken and Zucchini Kebabs

Got zucchini?  If you live in Idaho/Utah, chances are you do.  Even if you don't have a garden, you can get zucchini anywhere . . . people are giving zucchini away like they're unwanted kittens.

When I typed "best chicken kebabs" into a google search, Jamie Oliver's recipe was the first that came up.  Winner winner, chicken kebab dinner!  If I were ever to have a real-life celebrity "crush", it would be on J-Me!

Plus, he reminds me in so many ways of my own cute husband . . .

My fabulous foody friend Erin first introduced Allen and I to Jamie Oliver back in 2003 (or 2002?) when Jamie was young and skinny and known as "The Naked Chef" in Great Britain (because he uses "naked" foods). We have followed him ever since.  If Jamie has one "shtick", it's that he uses fresh fresh FRESH ingredients for everything.  In fact, I credit Jamie with getting both my husband and I really into food.  Healthy food.  Delicious healthy food.  We have all seasons of "The Naked Chef" and "Oliver's Twist,"  we love to watch all of his new shows, we own about five or six of his cookbooks, and he is 100% the reason I own and regularly use a mortar and pestle.  Plus, listening to someone who is energetic and hilarious and passionate about food in a Mockney British accent?  Lovely-jovely, me ol' mate!

Anyway, I was excited to try what google deems the number one result for "best chicken kebabs," and Jamie delivered again!  I was confused about "courgettes," until I looked up the word and learned it meant "zucchini."  Those wacky Brits and their aubergines-instead-of-eggplants! :)

I have an endless supply of mint in my backyard--it was great
to put it to such a delicious use!  

I also love that Jamie uses words like "blitz" when talking about
a food processor.

The chicken marinated all day--it was so tender and flavorful

I didn't use rosemary skewers like Jamie does, because, though
 I do have two potted rosemary plants that I use weekly for
cooking (check out these yummy dinner muffins) I am not rich
celebrity chef who can buy bushels of rosemary skewers.  Plain
old bamboo skewers worked just fine (don't forget to soak them
in water so they don't burn in half like several of mine did!)  Since
the chicken would be missing that great rosemary flavor, I added
rosemary to the marinade recipe.

Yum.

Seriously.

This recipe is summer-entertaining-food gold.  I made them when I hosted book club at my house and they were a hit.  Allen only got two of them, so I made them again a week later, and they were just as good.  The chicken was tender and amazing, and the roasted zucchini was so delicious, too!  It's a great way to cook and serve those bushels of courgettes that your neighbors are all-too eager to share . . .

Bacon-Wrapped Venison Roast

My hubby completely authored this recipe. When he gets in the mood to cook, he spends at least an hour "researching." He'll either sit down with a stack of our cookbooks, or peruse cooking sites on the Internet until he finds what he wants. In this case, he read dozens of venison roast recipes, then cobbled together his favorite ingredients and methods from each to create this: total Sunday dinner success. It was well worth the four-hour (not kidding) wait.

I have since made this roast countless times for Sunday dinner.  It is Summer as I write this, so I am cooking it in the crockpot instead of the roasting pan--then I don't have to heat up my whole house with the oven.

Rub the roast down with your flour, spices, and herbs, then brown
every side in garlic and butter (I used olive oil in this instance).
Cast iron skillet: accept no substitutions.
{Bobby Flay 12-In. Cast-Iron Skillet }

I used to put apple wedges around the roast, but now I blend up
an entire apple in my Vitamix blender (yes, I am bragging).

In the crockpot, I drizzle olive oil, then chopped up potatoes and
onions, then the bottom layer of bacon, then the browned roast, and
then I coat the browned roast with the minced apples.  Like so . . .

Finally, wrap the top of the roast in bacon, then pour in a cup of
beef broth and slowly roast on low for three hours.

So tender and flavorful when it's done!

Delicious with fresh salad and homemade bread.  If you happen to
have pie for dessert, you are officially eating the most celestial
meal possible . . . which is why we have roast on Sundays after church.

{If you don't have a tender venison roast in your freezer, you could probably make it almost as good with beef}.

Rhubarb-Strawberry Pie

I have come a realization about my love affair with pie . . . no one is going to make it for me.  If I want pie, I have to make it myself.

Now that I have come to terms with this fact, I am not making pie mistakes in local restaurants and (shudder) grocery store bakeries--they just can't duplicate the taste I am after.  Since I have accepted the responsibility fully, I actually enjoy making it more.  2013 has been, for me at least, The Year of the Pie.  And the year isn't even halfway over!  To what pie-in-the-sky heights will I soar before the year's end?  (And to which buckle-hole will my belt be expanded?)

I have had a rhubarb plant for three years now, a transplant gift from my next-door neighbors, and have never done anything with it except enjoy it's exotic, rain forest-esque foliage every spring.  This year, I determined I would not let it go to waste, and so I scoured the Internet for a good rhubarb pie recipe.

Allrecipes has never given me a bum steer.  If a recipe has been reviewed by hundreds of people and it still has a 4.5-star rating, then it's a pretty safe bet.

Completely delicious.  I am adding this recipe to my favorites.

You can also substitute RASPBERRIES for the strawberries and
prepare the pie the same way.  I made this in November, my
favorite month to eat pie.  Oh, yummy.

The most important thing with any berry-based pie is to keep it from being runny.  The first thing you can do is allow the berry to macerate--that is, break down the fibers of the fruit you're using.  This brings out the sweet juices before you bake them, instead of during the baking time.  In addition to releasing flavor, it will help the fruit sort of "gel" as it bakes.  Macerating is simply stirring your fruit with sugar and allowing it to rest.

The second important step is to allow lots of steam to leave the pie.  Lattice crusts are pretty, but they're also almost essential to any berry pie, because the large holes all over the top crust help moisture to steam out during bake time.  I used my flakiest pie crust recipe for this one.

The third step is the hardest: you've got to let the pie cool.  You don't have wait till it's cold . . . you just can't dig right in when it comes out of the oven.  Pie Impatience often leads to burning the roof of your mouth, anyway.  I speak from experience.

Oops!  I forgot to scatter the butter over the top before I did the
lattice.  Better late than never, where butter is concerned.

I got this pie crust shield on Amazon, and I love it!  It's so much easier than using foil, and they're really reasonably priced.  Now I just need a 10-inch one . . . or you can buy these kind {Adjustable Silicone Pie Shield} that expand to fit any size pie pan.

Take the shield off for the last ten minutes of baking.  I think
that heaven must smell like a rhubarb-strawberry pie. 

My dad happened to call and say he was working in the area on the day I made this pie.  I couldn't hope for someone more deserving to share it with!  Dad has always told me  that rhubarb-raisin is one of his favorite pies.  That combination is nowhere near the top of my "must try" pies . . . but I know he was overjoyed when I told him what was in the oven.

I had also invited some friends over for late-night dessert (coincidentally, these friends were wondering that very day when I would be baking and sharing a pie next . . . faith precedes the miracle!), so I let the pie "cool" in the freezer for fifteen minutes to shorten the wait-time before everyone arrived.   I think that impatience might actually be the mother of all invention, rather than necessity.

Ahhhh . . . at last . . .

Pecan Pie

I made this pecan pie for my favorite police officer, after he helped
me with an EPIC April Fool's Day joke {STORY BELOW}.
His talented wife, Amanda, in addition to being a good friend
 of mine, is a professional photographer and took this beautiful
picture for me!!!
~PHOTO by AMANDA C. PHOTOGRAPHY~

This is my husband's second favorite pie at Thanksgiving (after chocolate cream pie), and I got the recipe from his mom, who is both an excellent cook and a wonderful friend!  I've never been a huge fan of pecan pie myself, but I like doing nice things for my sweet hubby (especially when the nice things are this easy!).

Making your pie crust will take longer than making this simple, delicious filling.  The recipe calls for a single crust, and I often have one already wrapped up and frozen in the freezer, since my flakiest pie crust recipe makes a double crust.

These metallic or silicone pie shields are meant to keep your crust from getting too dark, but they also hold it up on the edge where it's supposed to stay, which I recommend for every single-crust (and some double-crust) pies, too.

  

Bake for 45 minutes, check the color (it should be a nice, caramelly brown), then bake for 5-15 more minutes, as needed.     

Serve on a caramel-covered plate like Amanda if you're feeling fancy.

Coffeecake Muffins

Holy cow, these are divine.  I think they may have just kicked Cinnamon Ripple muffins out of the number one muffin spot.  And they should be good, because they are pretty labor intensive.  If I ever make these muffins for you, it means I love you from the depths of my soul.

First of all: pecans.  They are, like, ten dollars a POUND.  You can eat filet mignon, or you can eat pecans.  And I promise you, people, this recipe makes it worth it to shell out (heh, heh . . . like a shell?  Like a nutshell?  Never mind).  Since it only calls for a half-cup of pecans per dozen--you'll probably have some left over for other yummy recipes.  (I added some to the streusel in my peach pie on National Pi Day and it was delectable).

***Downright Heart-Warming Personal Anecdote:
We had two very mature walnut trees when we lived in Arkansas, and when my dad came to visit us, he could not believe our good fortune.  He promptly bought us a walnut/pecan roller, like this one:

We used it to roll along the ground and pick up the walnuts--like one of those Fisher-Price Scoop And Whirl Poppers.  Both walnuts and pecans are inside a leathery green husk that you have to rip off to get to the nut--a walnut husk stays on, but the husk around a pecan will dry out and fall off on its own when it's ripe.  We visited a farmer who had an old-fashioned walnut huller and he hulled our walnuts for the price of half that we had picked.  It was so cool to watch!

We drove by our old house on our last Arkansas visit to show the kids where we used to live, and discovered to our HORROR that the new owners CHOPPED DOWN the walnut trees. The 75-year-old walnut trees that were still giving fruit!  What?!

At least I kept our walnut-roller. I gave it back to my dad, who now uses it on his own walnut tree that he planted twenty-eight years ago.   It's finally been bearing nuts for the past five years now, and seeing firsthand all the work it takes: planting, waiting twenty-plus years, picking, hulling, drying, then finally cracking and eating, has made me realize that nuts are expensive for a reason. ***

You don't have to drizzle glaze on the top, but why wouldn't you?

Mmmmm . . . glaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaze.

National Pi Day = Exponential Happiness

3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169

And it just keeps going . . .

No circle ever looked so tasty . . .

March 14th is a perfect day to have a holiday--it's a month after Valentine's Day and a month before taxes are due.  Which is a mathematical equation for STRESS.  Enter pie as a variable.  Problem solved.

This year for Pi Day, I made Brigham City Peach Pie, with my Flakiest Pie Crust recipe, because the first time I made it, I gave it to Troy as a birthday gift, and never got to taste a single slice myself.  I had a bunch of pecans left over from making Coffeecake Muffins, so I added about 3/4 cup to the streusel that gets mixed in with the peaches.  Another welcome variable to this equation.

Other pies you might enjoy:

Cookie Pie

Banana Cream Pie

Classic Apple Pie

Chocolate Cream Pie

Pecan Pie

It's very difficult to make this without a food processor,
so you better get one.  I love my Bosch processor.
BOSCH Compact Food Pro

Just because this pie crust recipe is for beginners not not mean it
is not DELICIOUS.  Because it is.

Chicken Scratch Noodle Soup

Because "Chicken Scratch" is fun to say, and noodles-from-scratch are fun to MAKE and EAT.

Last night was my very first time making noodles from scratch, even though I grew up eating amazing homemade noodles that my mom made.  I remember the counter-tops of our kitchen being covered with mismatched and floury tea towels, covering the homemade noodles while they dried.  It is still one of my mom's signature meals, along with clam chowder and homemade rolls.  You know . . . comforting Mom-food at its best.

I never could have guessed how easy noodles are to make!  They took me about ten minutes, from start to finish . . . the only hard part is waiting for them to dry.

The actual "soup" recipe is pretty straightforward: saute vegetables in butter, add your broth, seasoning, and meat.  But at the end you turn it into something to write home about, when you drop in noodles that you made and cut exactly the way you like (in my case, I like 'em cut into flat and wide strips).

This is also one of the first times I have sifted my flour first, because I didn't want to leave anything to chance (not knowing how forgiving and hard-to-mess-up this recipe is).  It's not a big deal to sift one cup of flour--I just did it in a fine-mesh strainer.

The entire noodle recipe makes only a single cup of dough, but it goes a long way.  

The finished product, before you cut it in half and roll each half out.

See that little ball of dough at the top of the picture?  That is half
of the recipe--the other half rolled out into all those noodles you see.

Remove noodles to cookie sheet, cover with a towel, and let
air dry for 2 hours.  (I did it for an hour and half and they were fine)

The finished deliciousness . . . ready to take to a friend in need of comfort

I used four cups of frozen turkey stock that I made a month ago,
then added 8 more cups of chicken broth to that.  My friend Cori
taught me about dried chicken soup base--it is so much cheaper
and just as flavorful as canned broth.  I get mine at Winco.

I didn't have celery, and I used dried herbs instead of fresh, and
it was still completely delectable.  My kids asked for seconds, and
my soup-hating five-year-old said:
"Chicken noodle soup is the only kind I like"