Summer Chicken and Basil Soup

“Soup?!?! But it’s 75 degrees outside!” M says. I said trust me, this will be a nice light brothy soup with a lilt of herbal delight. We had grilled up several split chicken breasts the other night and had plenty of tender white meat leftover. Chilling out in the crisper were 3 little zucchinis that would also star in the show.

Half a thinly sliced onion went into the pan to sautee with some olive oil for a few minutes. I quartered the zucchini, chopped up about 10 baby carrots and then threw them all in for a quick sautee with the onion. After that went in 2 cloves of minced garlic, and shortly thereafter 5-6 cups of chicken stock. After that came up to a slow boil, I added in my chopped up chicken from the other day along with some black pepper.

After letting that get happy for 20 minutes, I took out about ¾ cup of the zucchini with some stock and pureed that in my blender. CAUTION! When putting hot stuff in a blender, take care to hold down the lid as it expands and splatters! Pour blend back into the pot. I really wish I would have pureed twice that amount to give the soup more of a potage feel, but that will be for next time!

After another 5 minutes, I added about 15 basil leaves that I had chopped up, let that simmer for another 5 minutes, et voila, a light chicken soup avec zucchini et basil!

Grilled Pork Chops and Roasted Asparagus

This plate of meat dedicated to Martin!

We made a marinade (not a brine) for these bone-in shoulder blade pork chops consisting of: olive oil, white wine, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme, dried oregano, smoked paprika, kosher salt, and cracked black pepper. Into the freezer bag and squished around to evenly distribute that delicious sauce, then the pork chops spent a relaxing day in the fridge getting to know their new flavor.

When we were ready to go, we preheated the grill to medium-high AND the oven to 425. We chopped a bunch of asparagus (asparagi?) into 2-inch long pieces, added them to a baking dish, and combined them with the juice of an orange, soy sauce, chopped scallions, garlic powder, salt, and some crushed red pepper. Those asparagi would take a total of 15 minutes roasting time...



These pork chops were maybe 3/4" thick, so we pre-set a time of 6 minutes on the first side, 5 on the other. Chops on, 1/4 spin after 3 minutes, flipped after another 3, and back off after 5. Sit and rest, done and done.

And they came out wonderfully... a very flavorful marinade that - for once - didn't impart "too much!" of anything (salt, pepper, hot sauce are the usual culprits). Very tender - perfectly cooked. And that meat right on the bone??? Yum!

Tangy, still-slightly-crunchy asparagus and some whole wheat mac-and-cheese made for great accompaniment. Plus.... leftovers!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Swiss Chard with Raisins

When my Mom told me that her vegetable garden started sprouting, it reminded me of my childhood when that garden seemed like a vast forest to me. I could get lost in the corn and tomato plants, dig for worms, and eat peas right out of the pod. While recently visiting my parents, I remarked to my father that the garden used to seem so much bigger to me when I was 5 than it does now, as do most things (snowbanks, adults, bumblebees). And then he said, “Don’t tell your mother, but I have been making it smaller and smaller over the years by letting the grass grow in a bit closer each season. It’s easier to take care of, and we always have too much as it is.” So it really was smaller now, but my memories haven’t faded one bit. Especially when it comes to greens. Swiss chard was one of my favorites even when it was boiled beyond belief as many Acadians of that time prepared the chard. I prefer wilting it as I do with spinach, and I think even my Mom would like my version!

Separate the stems from the leaves and slice the stems up. I prefer using my big paella pan so I have lots of room to work in…I added about 2 tbs olive oil to the pan and then the sliced stems. After sautéing for a couple minutes, I added about ¼ cup of raisins and half a cup of chicken broth and a few red pepper flakes with the cover on. After 5 more minutes, I removed the cover, added about 6 quartered mushrooms, a dash of nutmeg, some salt and some Penzey’s garlic powder. After a few more minutes, I added the chopped chard leaves along with 6 chopped basil leaves and then covered the pan and let wilt for 5 more minutes.

I just love how the raisins plump up and cancel out any bitterness in the greens! For next time, I may add some olives for some briny flavor as well!

Twin Grilled Whole Chickens

Exactly like the title says - twin whole chickens, roasted on the grill. Why not? We try to avoid running the oven for long periods of time during the summer, so we're grilling everything. This time, we wanted to make something that would stretch a few nights (and would be inexpensive, as well) so we spotted these twin-packs of ~4.5lb chickens on sale for $.99/pound! SOLD!

We determined right away that we'd try roasting them whole on the grill at the same time, using the outer burners to maintain the 350-degree temp and leaving the middle burner - over which the chickens would sit - turned off. Like most grills, ours has a thermometer that we'd be monitoring closely and adjusting those burners accordingly. Other than that, we'd treat it just like any other roasted chicken.

So.... we brined them overnight in a solution of water, salt, sugar, bay leaves, spices, hot sauce, and soy sauce. About an hour before they were to meet the grill, we took them out and rinsed them down and threw them back in the fridge. Shortly after, we went out to preheat the grill and grabbed a bunch of fresh herbs from the back deck - basil, tarragon, rosemary, lavender, and oregano are all growing happily out there.



Finally ready to go, we melted some butter and pulled the chickens out. Salt and pepper the inside and stuffed a big handful of herbs in each, then tied the legs together. Brushed on some melted butter on the outside and added the final spices - salt and pepper and smoked paprika - to the outer skin.

Grill at about 400, we popped the two chickens on (can't believe we didn't take pics of them on the grill! next time..) and shut that grill up. We could hear the skin popping and crackling as soon as they hit the hot grates! The temperature immediatly dropped to about 360, so we let that go. At about 4.5 lbs each, we'd be looking at 1.5 hours but we'd start checking the temp at 1 hour.

An hour later we opened the cover for the first time and they were happily cooking away! Took the temp and it seemed that we'd be on schedule for that 1.5 hours... sure enough, a half-hour later, all temp readings came back "ready" and the twins came off to sit under some foil for a resting period.

The chicken came out wonderfully... perfectly cooked, not uneven at all, some grilled flavor but not overly smokey, just juicy and flavorful! To accompany our twin birds (we only ate part of one, and have lots leftover!) we made a ratatouille with eggplant, tomatoes, onions, green pepper, tossed with some olive oil, dried thyme and basil, salt and pepper - and roasted that in a 400-degree oven for ~45 minutes. Delicious!