grilled salmon with pan fried potatoes

Sunday evening's dish:

Grilled Chicken and Romaine

Last night I grilled a couple chicken breasts for me and abs. For the longest time I struggled with grilled chicken, either over cooking it or having to put it back on the heat for a while because it wasn't quite done. However, I believe I have figured it out. I have learned how to grill the perfect breast. First of all, I only grill bone-in, skin-on chicken. The boneless-skinless stuff cooks too fast and loses all its juices to the coals below. I season the chicken with whatever sounds good at the time...usually fresh ground sea salt, ground black pepper, and an herb. Next, I paint the top (meaty part) of the breast with a small amount of olive oil. I get my fire nice and hot and bring the coals up close to the cooking surface to sear the chicken. I place the chicken meaty side down on the grill for about 4 minutes allowing the skin to sear and lock in all the delicious juices. Once the skin has a nice crust on it I flip the chicken, lower the fire box and continue cooking for about 25 more minutes (depending on size of chicken this may vary) at 325 degrees. The key here is not touching the chicken once it has been flipped, the heat is seperated from the meat of the bird by the bone and indirectly cooking it. When done you will have a nice crispy skin with the juiciest chicken meat ever.

Last night I tried something I have never done before. I grilled a salad. I took a head of romaine lettuce and split it length wise. I then painted the cut side of the lettuce with olive oil and placed it cut side down on the grill for about 3-4 minutes until the face of the lettuce had a nice char on it. Lastly, I simply drizzled some Caesar dressing on it and topped it with some fresh grated parm. It was fantastic, the charred lettuce gave the salad a smokey taste that was better than I could have imagined. This is one of the easiest and one of the best salads I have ever made. I recommend every one try it.

Broadway cafe

As some of you know, Abs and I stop into the broadway cafe every friday morning for what we call our friday morning 'coffee date'. We have made some friends at broadway over the past months and now we sit and chat and enjoy starting our fridays a little slower than the typical weekday morning. Its glorious and the coffee never lets me down. This is a photo of our latte's this morning made by Dan, one of my favorite baristas at the cafe.

Enameled Cast Iron

I know...two posts in one day, so out of character for me. But I am too excited to wait, I got a new toy yesterday. Abs and I got a great deal on an enameled cast iron pot. We went the Martha Stewart route. As much as I would love a Le Creuset cast iron pot the $230.00 price tag is a bit steep. We found the $140.00 Martha Stewart version that was on sale for 60% off with a $20 gift card much more affordable. That's right, a $140 cast iron french oven for 40 bones!! Naturally, I had to cook with it the first night. I am a little disappointed that I didn't take any photos of the pot stuffed to the brim with veggies and herbs, I was to excited to eat the slow roasted deliciousness that I completely forgot. Anyway, here are the results.

Margherita pizza on a zucchini crust

We are part of our local CSA (community supported agriculture) and receive fresh meats, fruits and vegetables every week. It is great, we love it. However, it is a little difficult to consume all of the veggies we receive. For instance, two weeks in a row we got 6+ zucchini in our package, we had zucchini coming out our ears. Don't get me wrong I love me some zucchini be it sauteed, grilled, stuffed, etc... and believe me we have done it every way known to man. That said, we recently came across an idea that I had to try, a pizza crust with zucchini as the main ingredient. The dough...actually more of a batter was 4 cups of zucchini that had spent some time in the food processor, 3/4 cup of flour, 3/4 cup of parm cheese, an egg, salt and pepper to taste. It took a bit longer to finally start to crisp up than I thought it would and in hindsight I probably could have left in even a bit longer. I topped the pizza with fresh mozz., tomatoes, garlic, red onion, and basil from the garden. Lastly, to finish the plate I drizzled some good balsamic on the pizza to make it really pop. All that said, it was great! I will definitely be making this next time we are bombarded with zucchini. I hope you enjoy the pics.

Pizza Crust

Tonight...Margherita pizza on a zucchini crust. Tune in tomorrow for photos and a review.