Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

Sometimes things work out beautifully. Take for example this quick, easy and supremely delicious recipe for chicken thighs. Beautiful. Spicy. Quick. Perfect.

Sometimes things do not work out perfectly. Like, say sitting behind a woman at the opera who's hair was eerily reminiscent of the Weight Watcher muppet for Hungry.

(image curtesy of http://www.shrinkingsisters.com/)

Things didn't work out so well for Carmen and Don Jose either.

Or say, that I just got clearance to work out because the whole Wilma situation was a year old last month. That worked out beautifully. That I then managed to break my fibular sesamoid bone in my foot is not so beautiful. And it's a nice hearty break. Hello crutches. We'll be spending a lot of time together for the next 3 weeks. grrrr.

Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

from Cooking Light

2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Cooking spray
6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side.
Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well. Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over. Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done.

Flattened Chicken Breasts with Piquant Basil Sauce

Oh my. Yet again I have disappeared from the bloggosphere. But I can for sure say that I am now back for good. How can I say this? Well, my semester ended and I earned another 4.0 GPA. And I no longer have to stress about last minute deadlines and PowerPoint presentations and reading philosophies. I actually even cooked tonight. And I'm not talking spaghetti. But I'll get to that in a minute.

First, let me point you in the direction of the lovely Susan over at Not Quite June Cleaver. I won her April Spring giveaway and she sent me the cutest apron ever!! My wonderful friend A is modeling it for me because unfortunately my physique trends more towards Julia Child's than Giada De Laurentis. But it's a beautiful apron and my friend A loves it tremendously and I have a wee bit of apron envy. I also received a neat vintage pie tin, a recipe booklet, and some very cool heirloom seeds. Thanks Susan!

The other neat thing Susan did was to post this delicious pie recipe. See the Brain's friend Mac just opened a pizza joint and bakery called The Pie Factory (which if you're ever in Sandusky you should check out because it's seriously delicious and won second place in the Sandusky Pizza Bake Off!) Anywho, Mac has a delicious raspberry cream pie. And I keep wanting to go buy it, even though I don't like pie typically. So I was telling Susan about it and she gave out a recipe that's similar. The crust on Mac's pie is a shortbread crust, but I like Susan's too. Her recipe is here.

Ok, so today has been all about 7th grade. Remember 7th grade? Awkward. Uncomfortable. Hormones running amok. Still a kid, but not really. Well, today one of the 7th graders I taught took his rifle (hunting is very big here and all the kids seem to have rifles) and stole the neighbor's truck and last it was on the news he's driven to Kentucky. This kid is a good kid. He had a little trouble focusing in class, but the other kids seemed to like him and he seemed to enjoy them too. Unfortunately they searched his locker and found his diary and there are 31 students and faculty that he "threatened" in this diary. Now the media is calling this a "hit list". I challenge you to look at any 13 year old kid's diary and not find scribbles about how they don't like people. I'm fairly certain that my entire diary in 7th grade was filled with ramblings about how much I loved Chris S. and Brian B. and multiple pages on how John M. was a big fat jerk. And Mrs. Juntenan was a horrible teacher. (I lost touch with Brian, Chris and John by 9th grade and I'll still tell you that Mrs. Juntenan was the very worst teacher I've ever had.) And besides the boy asked a family member to watch after his pet turtle. He's not the twitchy could-be-killer the media is making him out to be. So I'm worried about the kid and I'm starting to get annoyed at stupid hillbilly people making ignorant comments on the local newspaper website.

Then, my best friend T. is going through a divorce. Her hopefully soon to be ex husband is a real jerk and she's having a hard time. So by the time I got off the phone with her and had heard about the 7th grade boy, I needed to pound something. I chose chicken breasts. I was spending some serious time searching through my plethora of cookbooks and I wasn't finding anything good until I remembered this recipe my friend Scott made for me when we both worked at Victoria's Secret in Chicago. We had both picked up Celebrating the Midwestern Table by Abby Mandel on clearance at Borders and he invited me to his apartment for dinner. It was common back then for him and I to invite each other over for dinner. It was always good company and good food, and the best cheap wine we could afford. We were poor college kids after all.

So flattening these chicken breasts had dual purpose. I got my worry and frustration out and it took me back to the happy days of college in Chicago. And the chicken was exactly as good as I remembered it. Tomorrow will be a better day, it has to be, I still have one breast left over for lunch!

Flattened Chicken Breasts with Piquant Basil Sauce

adapted from Celebrating the Midwestern Table

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

2 tsp honey

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

6 Tbsp chicken broth

cooking spray

salt and pepper to taste

2 Tbsp julienned basil leaves

One at a time, place a chicken breast half between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound it to about 1/8 inch thinness. Repeat with the remaining breasts. Place on a plate and set aside.

Combine the honey, mustard, vinegar, and chicken broth in a small dish and set aside.

Spray a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Place the breasts seasoned side down in the hot skillet two at a time. Cook for 2 1/2 minutes. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the top (uncooked) side and gently flip over. Cook for 2 1/2 more minutes until done. Transfer the cooked breasts to a platter and tent with foil. Repeat with the remaining two breasts.

Once all the breasts are cooked and on the platter, add the honey mixture to the hot skillet. Cook for about 20 seconds until slightly thickened. Return the breasts to the skillet, spooning the sauce over them. As soon as they are warmed through, transfer them to a warm serving platter and garnish with the julienned basil. Serve hot.

Buffalo Wings

Now this is getting embarrassing. I have completely fallen off the blogging ball. Really I've completely stopped cooking. I don't have a good excuse even. My long term sub job ended on Tuesday (you can read more about it on my other blog). I've been a little bit blue, but really...

I did try Taco Bell for the first time since the early '90s though. It was pretty tasty, but I think I'm good for the next decade.

Fortunately, my loving husband has a poker game tonight. Which means that I actually cooked something. See we've been eating leftovers all week of this bean and ground beef and brown rice and tomato kind of slow cooker mushiness that wasn't anywhere near good enough to blog about. And there was so much of it (and it wasn't really all THAT bad) that I felt I shouldn't, with today's economy, just toss it. So when the Brain told me he was going to play cards tonight I ran to the next county to pick up some frozen chicken wings (that were on sale). And while he took a nap (because he was working late into last night on important legal documents) I steamed and baked and tossed these wonderfully delicious wings.

I love Good Eats. And I think Alton Brown is so appealing to my OCD and dorky ways. So last week I caught an episode where he made buffalo wings and printed out the recipe hoping I'd have an opportunity to make them. Alton's recipes rarely let me down. So even though they seem a little complicated to make, I hated to part with them and send them off to some hungry men who probably are going to inhale them in 3 minutes flat. Either that or they will be upstaged by some complicated and fancy wild bear tacos or something like that. I think it's better that I don't know exactly what goes on at these poker night events. Although the little bit that I hear sure is interesting!

Buffalo Wings

from Alton Brown

1 (4 pound) package frozen chicken wings, thawed

3 ounces unsalted butter

1 small clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup Frank's hot sauce

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Place a soup pot with a steamer basket and 1 inch of water in the bottom over high heat. Cover and bring to a boil. Clean wings of any hanging pieces of skin or fat and place into the steamer basket. Steam for 10 minutes.

Line a sheet pan with paper towels and a cooling rack. Lay the wings on the rack and carefully pat dry. Refrigerate for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Replace the paper towels with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and cook for another 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter with the garlic. Add the hot sauce and salt and pour into a bowl big enough for all the wings. When the wings are done cooking, immediately toss in the hot sauce. Serve warm.

One Chicken, Many Meals

The price of food is on a lot of people's minds. It's high. And now it's time to do some creative budgeting. SO to give you an easy way to stretch that grocery dollar, let's talk about chicken. Yes, chicken. Roasting a chicken for dinner is a really easy and comforting thing to do. There are seriously tons of interesting and tasty ways to roast a chicken and it really doesn't matter which way you do it.

I roasted mine with a handful of fresh parsley and a cut up lemon inside of it, after I sprinkled the cavity and under the skin with a combination of cracked black pepper and kosher salt. I then tucked the wings under the body, stuck it in a pan and placed it in a preheated 425 degree F. oven for an hour while I went off and wrote a paper. (I should indeed be writing 2 papers right now, but that's another story.) And here's my finished bird.

When I got home from school, the Brain had eaten his half the chicken and I sliced some off to eat that night. We will count this as meal 1. I then pulled any remaining meat off this carcass and made a light and delicious chicken salad. Again, any chicken salad will do, but I wanted to try a Curried Chicken Salad with Grapes that sounded interesting and that's the one I went for. It was pretty good and provided meals 2 through 6. The Brain didn't have any of the salad, and the amount of leftovers and meals you can make with leftovers will depend greatly on how many people are eating them.

Then I took the chicken carcass that had been picked clean of edible meat and threw it in a pot with some water, half an onion, a couple stalks of celery cut in 3 pieces each, a cut in quarters carrot and a handful of parsley. I let that boil for about 2 hours. Then I strained it and stuck it in a bowl in the fridge. When I got back from school, the grease from the chicken had coagulated on top. It was pretty gross. That grease gets thrown out. But now I had some golden chicken broth. Which I packaged up in my favorite ice cream container and stuck in the freezer for later.
I took some more of the yummy golden broth and heated it to boiling with a carrot, nicely chopped, a stalk of celery, nicely chopped, and about a cup of fine egg noodles. And voila! I have chicken soup. Perfect for a rainy afternoon like today! And that's meal 7 and probably 8 and 9 out of that one little chicken. I'm telling you chicken is a real money saver.

For more ideas on stretching a dollar, try checking out Mrs. W's Kitchen and The Cheap Chick.

Jerked Chicken Drumsticks

I have a small confession to make. I've never had real Jamaican Jerk. My wonderful sister Super G has. She's even had curried goat. Or at least she knows where to get it. If I wanted to try curried goat I'd be out of luck. Well unless I felt like hopping a fence and butchering one of Dad L's goats. But I think they're pretty old (the goats, not my in-laws) and the urge has really never struck.

So why did I make Jerked Chicken Drumsticks? Well for 2 reasons. One is very exciting and is getting here tomorrow night and requires a large amount of freezer space. (The first person who leaves a comment correctly guessing what is coming will receives a prize! And no you can't win if you are family.) The other is that I have had this bag of drumsticks sitting in the freezer for a while now and they needed to be eaten. So because I'm pretty lazy lately, I pulled out my frozen drumsticks and my Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two and threw this dish together. And I let it cook. For a long long time while I went to physical therapy (and I've finally graduated from physical therapy yay!) and then I went to the doctor's office (we can all exhale- it's definitely just a sprain!) and then I came home and took a nap.

Apparently when you throw frozen drumsticks into the slow cooker it takes a bit longer than the 6 or 7 hours the recipe says it will take. So I rummaged around in the freezer and found an already cooked pork tenderloin and we ate that instead. Then I went grocery shopping and watched some Olympics. Then the Brain went to bed because he had had a long day. Then I remembered that the slow cooker was still on. Ooops. The drumsticks then became lunch for today. Over cooking them on low in the slow cooker made them super tender. They were falling off the bone. The peppers were super sweet and tasty. And overall it had such a delicious sweet taste that finished with some heat. I think I will have to figure out how to get some real Jerk food. That may require some travel. For now the goats remain safe.

Jerked Chicken Drumsticks

from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two

1 Jalapeno chile stemmed and cut in half

6 green onions ends trimmed and cut in pieces

2 Tbsp cider vinegar

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp rum

Juice of 1 lime

1 Tbsp Caribbean Jerk Seasoning

3/4 tsp salt

4 chicken drumsticks

1 medium sized orange pepper sliced thin

Place the chile, green onions, vinegar, brown sugar, oil, soy sauce, rum, lime juice, jerk seasoning, and salt in a food processor; puree until smooth.

Spray the inside of the crock with nonstick cooking spray. Place the drumsticks in the slow cooker. Pour the jalapeno mixture over chicken and try to make sure all the drumsticks are covered. Lay the bell pepper strips on top. Cover and cook on low until the chicken reaches a temperature of 180 degrees. This could be 6 to 7 hours or many more. Serve hot.

Greek Week Day 5: Chicken Souvlakia

OK, it's HOT. hot hot hot. This is the kind of day I don't want to cook indoors. So what's a gal exploring Greek food to do? Take it to the grill. Other than the 3 hour marinating time, this has to be one of the quickest, easiest recipes yet! I just had to throw together a marinade, chop up some chicken breasts, wait the 3 hours, and then thread the chicken onto skewers with some yummy vegetables and grill. Fantastic!

I did alter this recipe just a bit. Instead of 12 small mushroom caps, I used 18. Instead of 12 cherry tomatoes, I used 18. I didn't chop the green peppers into 12 pieces. I chopped it into bite size pieces. Maybe my peppers were just big, but 12 pieces would have been very big pieces. And then, I only used 4 skewers instead of 6. Mostly that's because I finally broke down and bought skewers. And there were only 4 in a pack. Despite my alterations, these were very very tasty skewers. I served them with some rice and I think I'll be cherishing the leftovers in leftover pita pockets. Yummy!

Chicken Souvlakia (Souvlakia me Kota)

adapted from The Complete Book of Greek Cooking by the Recipe Club of Saint Paul's Greek Orthodox Cathedral

marinade:

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup red wine

1/2 Tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp dried oregano

2 chicken breasts (boned and skinned) cut into bite sized pieces

2 green peppers cut into bite size pieces

18 button mushrooms

18 cherry tomatoes

Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl. Add chicken and marinate in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Using 4 long skewers, arrange alternating pieces of chicken, green pepper, mushroom, and tomatoes. Brush with some of the marinade. Barbecue on the grill for 15 to 20 minutes, brushing with marinade and turning frequently.

Grilled Chicken, Red Onion and Mint Kebabs with Greek Salad

Every night this week, I've had to go to bed around 7 or 8pm so that I can get up ultra early and make the donuts. Yes, I fry donuts. For a living. Well, for minimum wage, but I get PAID to make donuts. And yes, it's hard work. Yesterday morning the donut girl who's training me and I made 45 dozen just for delivery and then many more dozen for the bakery case. We have to proof a whole bunch of previously frozen dough, mix up batter for cake donuts, and then fry and fry and fry and fry donuts.

The cake dough donuts are my favorite, I wish we could start from scratch, but, reality check here, it's the IGA. We use a mix. Frying them are the most fun too because I have a funnel like contraption that is attached to a mechanical arm so that it will swing over the vat of hot grease. It also has a handle and a crank on it. What I get to do is to hold the handle and guide it over the hot grease while cranking the crank so that little round blobs of raw donuts plop out and start to cook. So fun!

So for 8 hours every morning this week, I have immersed myself in donut making. It's pretty funny because I'm just so happy to be frying up donuts and working the machine that injects the donuts with fillings, and glazing, frosting and decorating the freshly made donuts. It's hard, physical work, and Wilma the Knee is really pissed off that I'm doing it, but she'll get over it. Because it's a minimum wage job and it's not really like the people in the bakery are skilled pastry chefs, the other girls in the bakery tend to grumble a little about a lot of things. But really, how can you be grumbly when at the end of your work day you have a whole tray of frosted donuts with sprinkles staring you down? It's the best of all worlds because I can make the wide variety of donuts and the glazed donuts are shining, the cream cheese frosting is melting on the cinnamon rolls, the tiger tails have puffed up so beautifully, and the cream is oozing out of the long johns, and it all looks so beautiful and tasty and I'm challenged and I don't have to eat any of them. Of course I might snack on a cinnamon sugar cake donut at about 3am.

My latest career move means that dinner time has been moved up significantly. We used to eat dinner at 7 or 8, now it's more like at 5. And if I'm asleep by 5, which has happened, the Brain is on his own to figure out dinner. So a quick, easy, and yet supremely tasty dish is really good to find. And we found it in the Bon Appetit Cookbook with these Grilled Chicken, Red Onion and Mint Kababs with Greek Salad. I was able to put these together while chatting on the phone with my best friend T. And the kebabs took very little time to cook. And they were delicious. The Brain even offered to let me do the grilling from now on.

Grilled Chicken, Red Onion and Mint Kebabs with Greek Salad
from The Bon Appetit Cookbook

kebabs:
1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp dried mint
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 bunch fresh mint
1 onion cut into 1 inch pieces
8 skewers

Mix chicken, 2 Tbsp oil. garlic, mint, oregano, salt, and pepper in medium bowl. Let marinate 30 minuets. Whisk remaining 2 Tbsp oil and lemon juice in small bowl to blend.Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Pull off large fresh mint leaves from stems. Alternate chicken, onion, and mint leaves on skeweres; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill until chicken is just cooked through, turning and basting occasionally with oil-lemon mixture, about 9 minutes. Transfer skewers to platter.

salad:
2 cups cherry tomatoes, chopped
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1/4 pitted Kalamata olives chopped
1/4 cup diced onion
3 Tbsp chopped Italian parsley
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 Tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Mix first 9 ingredients in a medium bowl to combine. Gently mix in cheese. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)

Buffalo Chicken Salad

It is hot. Any piece of exposed skin sticks to anything it touches. Any skin not exposed is getting kinda sweaty. Lately the whole motive when planning dinner is minimizing the amount of time adding to the already sweltering temperatures inside the house. Partly this is my fault. I've been so far successful in keeping the air conditioning unit out of the window. You know keeping our energy usage down and being green and all that crap. Besides, this third day of weather over 90 degrees is just a heat wave. It's supposed to end tonight. Or tomorrow morning. Call me an optimist.

So today's effort to make dinner without resorting to raw food, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, is a delicious Buffalo Chicken Salad. Total cooking time is about 6 minutes of broiling. It also involved opening and closing the fridge a bunch of times. So I think it evens right out. And it was very healthy and delicious to boot!
Now if we could just get these thunderstorms that are looming on the horizon to cut the humidity. Then things would be just fine.

Buffalo Chicken Salad
adapted from Ellie Krieger and the Food Network

2 (8ounce) boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves
3 Tbsp Frank's Hot Sauce
2 tsp olive oil
2 hearts Romaine, cut into 1-inch strips (about 8 cups)
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
2 carrots, coarsely grated
2 scallions, green part only, sliced
1/2 cup Blue Cheese Dressing (recipe follows)

Preheat the broiler. Thinly slice the chicken and toss in a large bowl with the hot sauce and oil until the chicken is well coated. Arrange the chicken on a baking sheet and broil until it is cooked through, about 6 minutes.In a large bowl, combine the Romaine, celery, shredded carrots and scallions. Divide the greens between 4 plates. Top with chicken and serve with Blue Cheese Dressing and more hot sauce

Blue Cheese Dressing

2 Tbsp Hellman's Canola mayonnaise
1/4 cup low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup plain fat free yogurt
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
salt and ground pepper

Fold a full sheet of paper towel into quarters and put it into a small bowl. Spoon the yogurt onto the paper towel and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to drain and thicken. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk and thickened yogurt into the mayonnaise until smooth. Add the vinegar and sugar and continue to whisk until all the ingredients are well combined. Stir in the blue cheese and season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce on the Grill

Today, while sitting and sweating and studying Trigonometry (I've moved on from the Geometry) I was wishing a lot of things. I was wishing they could make a knee brace that wasn't hot and itchy. I was wishing I was 10 and could run through the sprinkler. I was wishing that maybe it was less than a million percent humidity and maybe a little cooler. But mostly I was wishing for an idea of what to cook for dinner without turning on the oven or the stove. The grill of course leaps to mind, but we just had grilled chicken thighs the other day and I didn't want to do anything elaborate.

It is very rare that my wishes come true, but today they did. See Courtney posted the other day about Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce. Which really put me in the mood for some tasty barbecue. So I left a nice comment. One thing led to another and a package containing 2 bottles of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce and some recipes arrived at my doorstop today. Yes that's TWO bottles. I am a very lucky wish granted girl. Apparently Country Bob's also makes a spicy version of the sauce, a barbecue sauce, and seasoning salt. But let me tell you this All Purpose Sauce is amazing.

It has a real tangy and zesty smell. I tasted a little of it and it had a nice zingy taste. It's not thick like a barbecue sauce, but it seems a little thicker and smoother than A1 Steak Sauce. So I opened up the little recipe package and there weren't any recipes in it for pork chops (which I quickly pulled out of the freezer and was already thawing in the microwave). There was a recipe for a grilled pork tenderloin, so I used that as my inspiration. I whipped it together in a Ziploc bag and let those pork chops marinate for 2 hours.

You know it's hot when the Brain didn't want to grill. So I became the grill mistress. I decided while I was at it that I would grill those 2 leftover chicken thighs. (Costco thighs come in packages of 5 and that other grill recipe this week called for 8). So although our meal was heavy on the meat side, a chicken thigh and a pork chop each, we had a nice tossed salad and our house stayed nice and cool.

On the side of the bottle it says "Christ is our CEO". Does that mean that I can say GOD wanted me to grill today?

Grilled Pork Chops and Chicken Thighs

original Shazam recipe

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp ground ginger

2 scallions chopped

1 cup Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce

2 boneless pork chops

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Mix the garlic, soy sauce, oil, ginger, and scallions in a large zip top bag. Add the pork chops and marinade, turning occasionally, for 2 hours. Add the chicken thighs to the bag and marinate for another 20 minutes.

Prepare the grill. Turn the flame down very low and place the pork chops on the grill, leaving the chicken still in the bag. 5 minutes later add the chicken thighs to the grill. Basting halfway through, continue to grill until the pork chops are 170 degrees and the thighs 180 degrees.

Grilled Chicken Thighs and Grape Tomatoes

I'm sorry about the long delay since the last time I blogged. I have a sort of big project I'm working on that I'll tell you more about in a couple months and it entails long hours of studying Geometry. I'm trying to remember things I learned in school over (gulp) 20 years ago. I also got to tour the NASA Plum Brook facility twice this past weekend. First when my mom came down and then when the Queen Geek came down. It was a blast. (hee hee hee get it?)

So I think I've eaten out more this past weekend than in the entire past month. And last night as I was frantically re-learning math and feeling sorry for 16 year old kids everywhere, I wanted something quick and easy for dinner. The humidity yesterday was brutal too. The thermostat inside the house read 76 degrees at 5:30pm. So really I didn't want to even think about turning on the oven.

Cooking Light to the rescue! I was leafing through the June issue and saw Grilled Chicken Thighs with Roasted Grape Tomatoes. The recipe is beyond easy. All it involves is marinating the chicken in a lemony marinade and grilling it. I altered it a little too because there was no way I was cranking the oven up to 425 degrees F. My little house would have retained the heat and I just can't sleep when it's 80 in the house. The Brain hasn't pulled out the window air conditioning unit yet, and I'm trying to delay that. So I wrapped those little tomatoes up in tinfoil and had the Brain grill them with the thighs. Probably we could have grilled them longer, but I really liked how they turned out. They were hot, but still were fairly firm. Be careful though. They're slippery. I had several of them go sailing across the room. The Brain says he's never seen anyone have a meltdown over flying tomatoes before. (It was kind of a long day. I don't normally go into histrionics that easily.)

Grilled Chicken Thighs and Grape Tomatoes

adapted from Cooking Light

Chicken:

1 Tbsp grated lemon rind

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves crushed

8 skinless boneless chicken thighs

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Tomatoes:

2 cups grape tomatoes

2 tsp olive oil

2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 tsp grated lemon rind

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp capers

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Prepare grill.

To prepare the marinade, combine lemon rind, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic in a large zip top bag. Add the chicken, seal the bag and move the chicken around (squish the bag) so that the marinade coats all of the chicken. Marinate for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

Place 2 large pieces of aluminum foil on a workspace. Place the tomatoes in the center of the foil. Drizzle them with the olive oil and toss to coat evenly. Wrap the foil up so it make a sealed pouch.

Remove chicken from bag and throw away remaining marinade. Salt and pepper the chicken and grill until done. While the chicken is grilling grill the foil pack of tomatoes. They should get very tender.

Combine tomatoes, parsley, capers, salt and pepper stirring gently. Serve with chicken.

Braised Chicken Drumsticks

I don't believe I've mentioned recently how much I love this cookbook. Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for 2 has a tremendous amount of really good slow cooker recipes just the right size for me and the Brain. That and we haven't had anything turn out bad yet. That's kind of an understatement. Everything we've made has been really really good. And there's not a can of cream of mushroom soup in sight. Actually the cookbook is very lactose intollerant friendly. A definite plus on our noses.

Today's recipe of Braised Chicken Drumsticks with Garbanzo Beans and Dried Fruit is yet another example of the excellent food in this cookbook. I followed Courtney's lead and went over to Spark Recipes and figured out the nutritional value. This super delicious and easy crock pot dish is very high in both Vitamin C and fiber. The sodium and fat content were a little high so I cut out 1 tablspoon of oil and used low sodium chicken broth. I was also surprised to find out that there were only 4g sugar. I think that makes it a good dish for diabetics, however Atkins type people might want to be aware of the 44g carbohydrates. I need those carbs though to power myself around the block again. I'm getting speedier and now I don't hurt until the last 3 houses. Whoo look at me go now.

Ooops. I got sidetracked there. Anyway, check out Sparks Recipes. It's a pretty interesting site and you can totally find out the nutrition content easily for your recipes.

Braised Chicken Drumstics with Garbanzo Beans and Dried Fruit

from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Slow Cooker Recipes for 2

1 medium yellow onion, sliced

1/2 medium yellow bell pepper, chopped

3/4 cup canned garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

3 Tbsp chopped cilantro

4 dried apricot halves, each cut into quarters

2 Tbsp golden raisins

1 cup chicken broth, low sodium

1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cumin

pinch of mace

pinch of ground ginger

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 chicken drumsticks

a few strips of orange zest

1 Tbsp cornstarch

Spray the inside of the crock with nonstick cooking spray. Place the onion, pepper, cilantro, apricots, and raisins in the slow cooker. Add 3/4 cup of the broth, the vinegar, paprika, cinnamon, cumin, mace, ginger, cayenne pepper, and salt.

Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium heat and add the chicken legs. Cook until the chicken is browned , about 5 minutes; add to the crock, laying the pieces side by side.Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours (or on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours), until the chicken is cooked through.

Remove the chicken legs from the crock with a slotted spoon to a plate; cover with foil and keep warm.Increase the heat to HIGH. Whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup chicken broth, the orange zest, and the cornstarch in a small bowl; stir into the vegetables and broth in the crock. Return the chicken to the crock, cover, and continue to cook for 15 minutes, until sauce is thickened. Serve hot. Serves 2.

Per Serving: 358.1 Calories, 10.7g Fat, (1.7g Saturated Fat), 57.0mg Cholesterol, 956.0mg Sodium, 680.1mg Potassium, 44.5 total Carbohydrate, 6.6g Fiber, 4.0g Sugar, 22.5g Protein.

Cooking to Combat Cancer 2

Oh cancer. As I mentioned in my cornbread muffin post for A Taste of Yellow, I worry about cancer. It's a little unnerving to realize that I've hit the mid-thirty somethings and I've already predisposed myself to some cancers. Besides the smoking and the damage I worry that I've done to my lungs, I come from the pasty white people of the north. My mom says I'm allergic to the sun. I can burn through baby sunscreen. And I've already had one suspicious spot removed. Fortunately, it was nothing. But skin cancer does run in my family. On both sides. I like to think that maybe when my ancestors came over in 1640 and just kept marrying other Germanic type people that if they had known the risk factors they were setting me up for they might have tried to get to know an Italian, or a Greek or somebody with a little tiny bit of melanin. But they didn't.

SO dutifully, every time I go out in the sun I slather on some Neutrogena SPF 70 (with Helioplex) sunscreen. I wear a hat. I wear big sunglasses. At the beach I wear a swim shirt. And I wear a beach cover up. I look like one of those crazy old ladies that is completely covered up. But I haven't had a tan, or a massive burn in 3 years. 4 years ago is when I discovered that I burn through baby sunscreen on my first annual family vacation to Hilton Head Island. Bad burns happen, but I do try to prevent them.

But as careful as I am now, most skin damage is done before you're 18. Crap. I think I had one or two or three bad burns a year before I turned 18. My grandma had a cottage on Lake Huron and just for me she kept a massive jar of Noxema. Out of 19 grandchildren, I'm the one that burns bad. My cousins used to peel the flaking burnt skin off my back. My sister doesn't burn. She tans. It's highly annoying.

So what am I bringing this all up for? Because Chris at Mele Cotte is hosting a Cooking to Combat Cancer 2 event to raise awareness of cancer fighting foods. This Spicy Chicken and Greens is packed full of cancer fighting foods. There's the Mac Daddy of all leafy greens Kale. Kale has been shown to slow growths of cancers in laboratory animals. It helps reduce the risk of lung, stomach, colorectal, prostate and bladder cancers. Kale is also high in folate which helps combat breast cancer. Then there are scallions, which are from the garlic group. Scallions contain diallyl disulfide which protects against skin, colon and lung cancer. There's even some soy sauce. I don't know if soy sauce counts as a soy because it doesn't have the soy protein that my body just can't digest, but I purposely kept it in for soy's cancer fighting properties. Soy's isoflavins protect against cancers of the bladder, cervix, lung and stomach. And then if you serve this lovely (and unfortunately not terribly spicy) dish over brown rice as I did, you've just added the cancer fighting properties of whole grains, which when eaten as part of a balanced diet works to combat most types of cancer.

So there you go. Have some of this not very spicy Spicy Stir Fried Chicken and Greens with Peanuts and battle away your potential cancer risks! Also make sure to check back at Mele Cotte for the roundup!

Spicy Stir Fried Chicken and Greens with Peanuts
from Bon Appetit

2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce, divided
2 Tbsp dry Sherry, divided
3 tsp sesame oil, divided
2 tsp brown sugar, divided
1 1/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch wide strips
2 Tbsp peanut oil, divided
4 green onions, white parts and green parts chopped separately
1 chopped serrano pepper, seeded
1 large bunch kale, thick stems removed, cut into 1 inch strips
1/4 cup chopped roasted salted peanuts

Whisk 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Sherry, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon sugar in medium bowl. Add chicken and marinade 20 to 30 minutes.

Whisk remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Sherry, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon sugar in small bowl and reserve.

Heat 1 tablespoon peanut oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add white parts of onions and chiles; stir 30 seconds. Add chicken; stir-fry just until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Transfer chicken mixture to bowl. Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to same skillet; heat over high heat. Add greens by large handfulls; stir just until beginning to wilt before adding more. Saute just until tender, 1 to 6 minutes. Return chicken to skillet. Add reserved soy sauce mixture. Stir until heated through, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

Transfer to serving bowl; sprinkle with green parts of onions and peanuts.