Grilled Teriyaki Sesame Chicken

The Occasion: Husband does the grilling around here, although he prefers to grill burgers rather than chicken. But I thought having him make this would be an easy way to get out of making a dinner this week. Ha.

The Recipe: From Betty Crocker's 2009 Annual Recipes cookbook.

How it Went: I was quite pleasantly surprised with how this turned out. I really wasn't sure how it would work, but it was very flavorful! I will make this again for sure. I guess it mostly had to do with how Husby grilled the chicken, but I like to think I contributed.

What You Need:
1 T sesame seeds
2 T teriyaki sauce or marinade
1 tsp ground ginger
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 lb angel hair pasta

Your Turn:
I was lucky for this meal because I had leftover angel hair, already cooked, from a meal earlier in the week. If you're not so lucky, boil about 1/2 a lb of angel hair pasta. Toss it with a bit of soft butter when it's cooked, to keep it from sticking.

For grilling chicken, I find it easiest to slice the breasts lengthwise, like a hamburger bun, to make them thinner. This allows them to cook more quickly and with greater chance of being done all the way through. It's actually very easy to cut chicken breasts in this way if they are partially frozen. I took my package of chicken out of the freezer in the morning, stuck it in the fridge, and then did a quick defrost in the microwave when I got home from work. This softened it enough that it was no longer frozen solid, but it was still firm enough to cut easily.

In a small bowl, pour 2 T teriyaki sauce (I used a 30-minute marinade) and add 1 tsp ground ginger.

Toast 1 T of sesame seeds in small skillet over medium heat. It won't take long at all, and they burn much sooner than you'd expect so don't walk away and leave them unattended. When they just barely start to brown, they're ready. Toss them in with the teriyaki sauce and ginger and mix well.

Put vegetable oil on a paper towel and wipe over grill rack. Then place the chicken breasts (or halves of breasts, really) on the rack. I slathered them with some additional teriyaki sauce first, smeared it around on them in a large ziploc bag. You can do that, or not. Once they're on the grill, brush them with the teriyaki sauce mixture you made.

Grill about 5 minutes, then rotate 45 degrees to create some pretty grill lines. Grill 5 more minutes in this position, then flip. Brush the second side with the sauce. Grill 5 minutes in this position, then rotate 45 degrees and grill another 5 minutes. Check periodically for burning. About 20 minutes total should do the trick, but slice through the thickest piece and make sure it's no longer pink inside if you want to be sure they're done.

Discard remaining sauce mixture.

Serve with hot angel hair pasta and a veggie. Fresh green beans from a friend's garden were perfect with this summery dinner! Husby liked soy sauce on his pasta.

Penne with Basil Rosa Sauce and Bacon

The Occasion: It was Saturday night, a night I don't normally cook an organized meal. I had no plan and we were both hungry; I needed an easy meal with ingredients I already had. 

The Recipe: Pasta is a no-brainer for a night like this. I had some penne and some twirly egg noodles. It's probably frowned upon by real pasta eaters, but I blended the two. (Don't tell.) I didn't have a jar of tomato or alfredo sauce, so homemade sauce was a necessity. I wanted to make rosa sauce, something I'd first tried and loved at our favorite Italian restaurant (Giovanni's in Spring City). I found this recipe for penne with rosa sauce and used it as a springboard to create my own sauce. When I served it at the kitchen table, Husband remembered we had some cooked bacon in the fridge. He got it out and we added it to the pasta. It was this spontaneous ingredient, this last-minute addition that made the most significant difference in this meal.

How it Went: I didn't have extremely high hopes for this. It was pretty much made up and although I knew it would be edible, I doubted that it would be exceptionally tasty. To my surprise, Husby and I both loved this! The bacon, as I've said, was the key ingredient. So Husband gets 100% credit on this one. It was fabulous: a perfect blend of flavors. This might even be the central character on the table at our dinner party next weekend.

What You Need:
3 T butter
3 T flour
1 and 1/2 C milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 can Italian diced tomatoes
1 slice provolone cheese
grated Parmesan cheese (the kind in the shaky bottle)
6-8 leaves fresh basil
1 box (1 lb) penne pasta
6 (or more) slices cooked bacon

Your Turn:
Cook 1 lb of penne. When it's done, toss in some olive oil or butter to keep it from sticking.

Using a sharp knife or kitchen scissors, cut 6-8 fresh basil leaves into small pieces. You'll need these later, so set them aside.

Melt 3 T butter in a large saucepan.

Whisk in 3 T flour when the butter is melted.

When smooth, add 1 and 1/2 C milk, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper.

Simmer over low heat, whisking constantly, until sauce thickens.

Now, tear up your slice of provolone cheese and add the pieces, while whisking to allow them to melt in. Shake a few shakes of Parmesan cheese in.

Dump 1 can of Italian diced tomatoes into your blender and give it a few whizzes. Add the processed tomatoes to the sauce.

Now, carefully stir in your basil leaves.

Serve sauce over penne with crumbled bacon on top. Add additional Parmesan cheese on top.

Yellow Chocolate Chip Cake

The Occasion: Fourth of July gathering at Aunt Pam's house.

The Recipe: From this blog, except I used yellow cake mix instead of chocolate. Icing recipe is from here.

How it Went: This cake was unbelievably easy and delicious, the kind of dessert that gets you compliments you feel guilty receiving because you hardly did anything.

What You Need:
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 C vegetable oil
1/2 C water
8 oz sour cream
3 eggs
6 oz chocolate chips
1 C powdered sugar
1 T milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Your Turn:
In a large mixing bowl, combine

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 1/2 C water
• 8 oz sour cream
• 3 eggs

Add 6 oz chocolate chips. I used a combination of milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt pan.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Check for done-ness with toothpick inserted into center of cake.

Let cool completely, if possible, before turning out of pan onto serving platter.

Whisk together

• 1 C powdered sugar
• 1 T milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Drizzle onto cake with a spoon.

Slice and eat!

Birdsboro Kitchen

The kitchen in our new house in Birdsboro is magnificent. It's large, sunny, and airy. Perfect for making lemon-mint iced tea, trying a new recipe for Taco Casserole, or hanging out for a late morning breakfast.

The closed white door is the powder room. The open white door on the right is the laundry room.

The fridge was beside the stove when we moved in, but we separated the two. It seemed funny to have the fridge, a cold item, beside the stove, a hot item. The fridge must work extra hard to stay cold when next to a stove. I really like this set-up now.

Also, the stove had no workspace next to it. My old kitchen had a ton of workspace alongside the stove, so this free-standing stove seemed inconvenient to me. I was hoping to find some old piece of furniture to go alongside the stove and act as additional counter space. Aunt Ruth, always up for a challenge, got the dimensions from me and scored this awesome, perfect-size set of shelves. We bought a square of tile from Home Depot for a few dollars and it's now a functional counter space.

Wonderful storage for crock pot, measuring cups and spoons, muffin tins, and cookbooks.

I had this stool in my other kitchen and I love it as an accessory, for my onion basket, perhaps.

Or as a spot for Husband to hang out when I cook.

We've got a ceiling fan, which is awesome for air flow. However, when I'm cooking on the stove, I need to turn it off because it blows the flame away and frustrates the cooking process.

The windowsill above my sink looks out to the sunporch. I love this space where I can keep lovely things in view.

Terrible lighting - taken mid-afternoon and edited in Picasa.

Our kitchen is the first thing we walk into when we come in the back door, and the last part of house we see when on our way out. It's the most trekked-through and the most dwelt-in. It's homey and inviting, at least we think so.

Welcome to Birdsboro's Kitchen!

Parker Ford Kitchen

When we first visited the Parker Ford apartment, to decide if we might be interested in renting it, the kitchen was the last room we saw. It was at the back of the house and overlooked the driveway. It was narrow - only about three feet from the edge of the counter to the wall - and had a mini-size stove and short fridge. The counter space was microscopic. My heart sank. I can't cook here. I can't live here. But everything else was right about the place - location, price, a landlord with a connection to Husband's family... It was the apartment for us. I took a deep breath and prepared for years of cramped, hot cooking in an inconveniently arranged, crowded kitchen space.


When we started moving in, I was surprised to find I actually liked the room. It was the sunniest place in an otherwise very dark apartment, and all that white gave it a fresh feel that was invigorating.

When we moved in, the stove looked pretty bad.

It actually looked even worse than this. This was after Mom scrubbed the whole thing, including the grates on top, the knobs, and the surface under the knobs. I got used to cooking on gas, but it wasn't long before we realized the oven had a problem. Sometimes the pilot light inside the oven would go out. This meant that in order to heat up the oven, we had to relight the pilot with a match or lighter, and then turn it on to let the whole heating element catch and throb into a blue glow. It also meant that when the pilot went out - which was unpredictable - a small bit of gas was leaking into the apartment. This seemed a bit unsafe.


Our landlord was awesome about the whole thing and bought us a new stove.

This was the stove in which I baked and on which I cooked many meals for Dinner in Parker Ford. It was little; a cookie sheet was almost too long to fit in it. But it was great.

You can see here that what I thought was small counter space was actually quite spacious in comparison to many other kitchens. I had all my non-counter things (fridge, drain area, sink, and stove) all bunched up at one end. The other half of the room was all counter. This seemed inconvenient when we looked at the apartment, but I ended up loving that counter and all the things I could fit on it at once. No other kitchen counter can compare to that broad plane of prep space.

One thing that wasn't so spacious - at least at first glance - was the storage space. There was one set of cabinets at the end of the room above the fridge. Then there was a short bank of them above the counter. There was some space under the counter too - open shelves with sliding wood doors. On the wall opposite the counter was a sturdy shelf mounted high on the wall. This was lined with hooks where I hung my pots and pans. Somehow the amount of things I was able to cram into these small spaces was incredible. It was the Mary Poppins carpet bag of kitchens.

I miss this little place, this haven where I cooked my morning oatmeal and made mint tea and
broiled tilapia for the first time. I miss the afternoon sun and the view of the cemetery. There will never be another kitchen like my first little kitchen in Parker Ford.

Dinner where?

Dinner is no longer served in Parker Ford. Last month, Husband and I bought a house and moved! We've been unpacking, painting, cleaning, organizing, gardening, decorating, and figuring out new little routines in our new place. It's been wonderful and the place feels so much like home already.

The next few posts will be a retrospective on my Parker Ford kitchen and an introduction to my Birdsboro kitchen. I love my new cooking space and I look forward to the yummy meals I'll serve from it over the next few decades. Dinner parties, birthday cakes, brunches for girlfriends, hot wintertime soups, and big salads for backyard cookouts. Years of food are waiting to be made in this home and I hope you'll enjoy the journey with me.

Welcome to Birdsboro!

Chicken Salad

The Occasion: Various. I love making this. It's easy and perfect to keep in the fridge for lunch all week. It's especially wonderful on homemade bread.

The Recipe: Improvised

How it Went: Don't be afraid to do this your own way. It's not a science. I usually eyeball it and it comes out fine.

What You Need:
3-4 C cooked chicken (about 2 breasts)
1 C pecan halves
2 C grapes
4 stalks celery, ends chopped off
ranch dressing
mayonnaise

Your Turn:
Cook 2 chicken breasts (or more). Again, my favorite way is in the crock pot. Cook it all day with some mixed herbs (basil, pepper, thyme) just enough broth to cover it. When it's done, while it's still warm, put it immediately in a large stand-up mixer and turn it on low for just a few passes of the paddle. The chicken will be perfectly shredded. (I describe this on my recipe for chicken pot pie.)

Wash the 1 C grapes. Quarter each one into tiny wedges.

Wash the 4 stalks celery. Cut each stalk lengthwise into three or four strips, then dice each strip into small pieces.

Even a little smaller than this would be good.

Heat a small skillet over low heat until warm. Toss in 1 C pecan halves. Let them roast a few minutes, then stir with a wooden spoon and roast a few more minutes, just until you hear them sizzle or smell that wonderful roasted nut aroma. When they're done, dump them onto a paper towel to cool for a few minutes, then chop them small.

In a large mixing bowl, combine:

• shredded chicken
• quartered grapes
• diced celery
• chopped pecans

Now add:

• 1/4 C mayonnaise
• 3/4 C ranch dressing

These are approximate, so go light at first, then add more as you need it. If you prefer a more mayo-y chicken salad, you might like to use less ranch dressing. I think the ranch makes it so flavorful!

Serve on homemade white bread, 12-grain bread, soft rolls, or eat plain.

Suggestions for adaptations:

• add diced water chestnuts
• use slivered almonds instead of the pecans
• try another kind of dressing, maybe sweet vidalia onion or caesar?

Be adventurous and let me know what you think!