And, I’m back. Seems as though I only come around here anymore to apologize for not being around. Things have been super busy in my life the last month or so – between work and work, I have little to no time to cook let alone blog about it. Dinners lately have been pretty normal {hot dogs, mac and cheese, packaged frozen meals, etc} Except for this last week … I don’t know what got into me, but I made some pretty decent meals. There has been grilled quail with asparagus and red potatoes {small recipe to follow}, rosemary and garlic lamb chops with couscous and peas, and then a whole chicken which soaked in a citrus-rosemary brine {recipe to follow} served with mashed potatoes and corn. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
So… let’s talk about red potatoes. I saw this recipe online where the person took the potatoes and grilled them on the grill while cooking their meat. I wanted to try this, but put my own take on it. They turned out great {cooked a little too long, but still wonderful} but I love potatoes no matter how they are served. I took some petite red potatoes and halved them then boiled them for just a few minutes. I wanted to make sure they weren’t going to be too hard when they came off the grill. After letting them boil for just a few minutes, I drained them and added a little butter and salt. I then made an envelope out of tin-foil and put all the potatoes in there with a branch of rosemary and some sliced garlic pieces. They went on the grill with the quail for about 15-20 minutes and where GREAT.
As for the chicken. Check out my earlier post about the “Thrifty Chicken in a Bath” … that was my first experience with a brine. I basically followed the recipe but replaced tarragon with rosemary. I also threw in the rind from one whole orange and then added the juice I squeezed out of the orange as well. Everything else – the same. I’m not sure if it is really the reason, but the chicken had a great crust this time and I’m wondering if the citrus had anything to do with it. Anyhow – it was great too. Really juicy.
This weekend is a little slow. Perhaps a cooking experiment is in order. Night ya’ll.
