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Citrus Week Day 1: Lemon scones!
Welcome to Citrus Week! Or maybe I should say week-let because the lemons are already dwindling! Can you believe it? I thought I had so many! We may have gotten a little over-enthusiastic with the juicer. I let Bug try a few and she had so much fun she wouldn’t stop. I know I could have stopped handing her lemon halves but I was having fun too.
Whiiiirrrr! Whirrrrr! Go little juicer go!
The first thing we decided to make were lemon scones. We used this recipe. They were fun to make and delicious!
We zested. Actually, I made a lot of zest.
Just call me Zesty!
And then we made some scone dough. It was very easy! We popped them in the oven and then magically the house began to smell like yummy lemony goodness!
They cooked up perfectly! (Why have I been wasting so much money on coffee shop scones?!! These homemade ones are soooo much better!) Bug made her own mini version which actually turned out pretty good. Hers was just a little crisper, almost like a cookie.
If I had known scones were so easy to make I would have been making them for years! I could whip these things up in half an hour and they are so fresh and tasty! Someday when I have a guest room with a real bed and fresh flowers on the night stand, I will serve these to my guests in the morning.
“Good morning? Can I interest you in a freshly baked scone and a cup of coffee?”
“Why, thank you! Don’t mind if I do!”
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Meal Planning Day Five!
I’m back. I’m sorry to leave you in the middle of the meal planning but life got in the way—that pesky life. So where was I? Meal Planning Day Four was leftovers. Technically, I was in Pasadena having fancy pizza with Bethany and friends but Toby was at home having leftovers for me.
Meal Planning Day Five was Roman-Style Chicken (ala Giada) with oven-baked potatoes and onions. I love Everyday Italian with Giada. I watched her show once and thought, I could do that. So I did. It’s never happened again. But then, I don’t get much time to watch television anymore.
Below is my trailer-park version of her fabulous recipes.
I make the potatoes first because they take longer to cook. This time I decided to make sweet potatoes with my potatoes. Are they yams or sweet potatoes? I always get them mixed up. They call them one thing in the store, another on the internet. I think we should just call them “swams.” You know which ones I mean. They are reddish purple on the outside and orange on the inside. They cook up to be nice and sweet and not dry or mealy like the white ones.
Ingredients:
- 2-3 big swams and/or potatoes (whatever is equivalent to 2 lbs. red potatoes)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 package of cippolini onions blanched and peeled
Directions:
- Blanch your little cippolini onions in boiling water for one minute. Let them cool under cold running water, then peel and cut the ends off.
- Peel and chop up the swams and potatoes into bite size pieces. Sometimes I cut them up to look like french fries, sometimes I don’t. You just want them thin enough to cook evenly. I probably loaded up my pan too much in the photo above.
- Toss swams and potatoes and onions in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper so that all pieces are coated with oil.
- Spread evenly on a tinfoil-lined cookie sheet. I spray the tinfoil with cooking spray because even though these puppies are dripping with olive oil, they still stick sometimes! What is up with that?!!
- Bake at 400 F for 45 minutes or until cooked through.
- Empty into a serving dish and you’re done!
I like cooking cippolini onions because it gives me an excuse to use this neato strainer when I blanch them. I got it cheap from the Chinese market. Sometimes I can’t find little cippolini onions. I’ve tried regular boiled onions and they were a pain. It’s really not that big of a deal if you leave them out.
Onward with the Roman-Style Chicken!
Ingredients:
- 1 package of chicken (I use boneless skinless thighs)
- 1/2 package (or 1/2 lb) bacon (this is supposed to be prosciutto)
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- 1 orange bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped into bite-size pieces
- 1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup white wine (doh! I only had red)
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 tsp minced garlic (paste for the lazy)
- a dash of oregano
- a few snips of fresh thyme leaves (if you happen to have it)
- (I skipped the capers because Toby doesn’t like them)
Directions:
- Season chicken with pepper and salt.
- Brown chicken lightly on both sides in olive oil in a pan. Remove and set aside.
- In the same pan add peppers and bacon. Cook until bacon is crispy (ish) and peppers are browned.
- Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Add tomatoes (with juice), wine and herbs.
- Return chicken to pan. Add stock and bring mixture to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is done. About 20-30 minutes.
Her recipe says to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan but I’ve never had that… I may be missing something in this part of the recipe but it still tastes good.
Serve with potatoes and a green salad and enjoy!
Upcoming: Day six is leftovers again and day seven is lasagna but I’m taking a rain check on the lasagna because I made a quick trip out to the sticks instead. Next week perhaps!
