Fresh parsley is cheap. Fresh chives are not cheap (time to grow some at home).
Every now and then, take your dinner guests outside of their comfort zones. Make a chicken dish from a French chef who learned how to make the dish from his Mother. Make them drink something other than a massively fruit forward California red.
Memo to Self – For this dish one boneless chicken breast feeds two people. Jacques says this in the video but I didn’t believe him.
Were you expecting an original recipe? Sorry but Beth has already taken the time to post this recipe on her blog and it reminds me of the simple sauce I make but never bothered to write down. Anywhere. If you want a richer sauce, sub some low sodium chicken broth for the water. Trust me on this. Vegan? Ignore my comment on subbing chicken broth. For everyone else who is not vegan or vegetarian try using chicken broth. Trust me on this.
I’ve always preferred baking sweet potatoes over boiling and mashing sweet potatoes because my boiled version always turned out watery.
I just learned you have to boil the peeled sweet potatoes whole. After about 45-50 minutes check to see if the potatoes are cooked through. Then drain and return to the cooking pot. Turn the heat on to low and start smashing, and mashing while constantly stirring to avoid burning (I use a wooden spoon). After about five minutes a good amount of moisture will have evaporated from the potatoes. This is why sweet potatoes made this way aren’t too loose and watery. Add a splash of milk or half and half, a bunch of butter, salt and pepper to taste.
Memo to Self – buy more sweet potatoes, eat more sweet potatoes.
In this new study, published in Nature Microbiology, Professor Anders Rosengren and colleagues have instead looked at prediabetes. This condition is a precursor to type 2 diabetes, with slowly rising blood sugar levels due to impaired insulin production.
The study encompassed 89 people with elevated fasting blood sugar, an indicator of prediabetes. Other criteria included the participants being overweight or obese and 35-75 years old.
The participants were randomly assigned sulforaphane or a placebo for twelve weeks. Neither the participants nor the researchers knew who was assigned which. A total of 74 participants completed all stages of the study.
The results show that participants taking the sulforaphane compound had a higher average reduction in fasting blood sugar than those taking the placebo. The difference between the two groups in the study was considerable.
Beans and peas are the best meat and milk replacement from nutritional, health, environmental, and cost perspectives.
Our findings suggest that suitable alternatives to meat and milk exist and are available and affordable without necessarily requiring new technologies or product development. This contrasts with discussions in high-income countries on the needs to develop novel replacement foods, especially those that would completely mimic meat and dairy (18). Our nutritional, health, environmental, and cost analyses suggest that if one is prepared to consider foods for their properties instead of whether they are completely mimicking meat or dairy—and surveys suggest that consumers are (49)—then unprocessed legumes are, for the most part, superior to processed alternatives. This is also relevant for low and middle-income countries where legumes are readily available, but discussions on processed meat and milk alternatives are at an earlier stage, despite diets rapidly becoming similarly imbalanced as in high-income countries (1, 50). M. Springmann, A multicriteria analysis of meat and milk alternatives from nutritional, health, environmental, and cost perspectives, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 121 (50) e2319010121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2319010121 (2024).
Well, I’ve already doctored up the recipe and made a batch to go along with a grilled burger. You’ll need:
One 10 ounce package of frozen organic corn
1 or 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/ 4 cup red onion, finely minced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded cut into small cubes
1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
about 1 tsp honey
1 handful fresh rinsed and minced parsley,
1 handful fresh rinsed and minced basil
salt and black pepper to taste
Do this:
Put the bag of corn in the microwave and do not follow the instructions on the bag
Cook for four minutes, carefully remove the bag from the microwave, open while not trying to burn yourself, dump into a colander and rinse with cold water. Allow to drain and dry.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the dressing ingredients lime juice, vinegar, honey, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add the garlic and red onion. Mix well. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Add the corn, tomatoes, cucumber, basil, parsley. Toss.
Cover and refrigerate. Serve lightly chilled or at room temperature.
You’ll have enough for four healthy servings. Don’t forget the Feta cheese or forget the Feta cheese if you want to keep the salad vegan.
Took a taste. Nailed it.
(again, this is not an actual picture of the salad but an AI generated picture of the salad which looks awfully close to the real thing)
I wanted something quick and tasty so I made some baked chicken thighs.
Here’s my inspiration. The recipe reminded me of a dish I used to make a long time ago .
For those who are visual learners…
At some point in the future I’ll properly create my own version but for now here are the changes I made:
I left the fat on the chicken thighs. Fat = flavor.
I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs.
Texas 1015 sweet onions instead of white onions.
Not as much herbs and spices as the original calls for. I lightly salted the thighs on one side before placing into the baking dish. Lightly coat each thigh with EVOO. I then dusted the thighs with sweet paprika, garlic powder and oregano.
Skipped the whole tomato and used a bunch of cherry tomatoes.
No white pepper. No lemons (I didn’t have any in the fridge).
Drizzle more EVOO over the top layer of sliced onions.
375 degrees F for 45 minutes.
I made rice and some green peas for sides. We also topped our portions with a nice sprinkle of Feta cheese.
I have never made nor eaten corn salad. Until today. Time to make a short story long.
The Two Tiny Tornadoes and Their Mom came to the house this past weekend. Along with the toys, stuffies and other assorted things Tiny Humans pack on trips our favorite Okie DIL brought a bag full of fresh cucumbers from her parents’ backyard garden. So what do you do with a bunch of fresh cucumbers?
The Boss was reading The Oklahoman and came across a recipe for corn salad by blogger Chula King in an article in the Tallahassee Democrat. I couldn’t find a link to the article in my local digital newspaper so I went to the source.
garyskitchen.net 