Sunday Cat

Here are all three of the smitten for their Friskies commerical.

Chicken Artichokes and Pasta

This was really tasty and easy and quick to fix it also made a lot.
16 oz of pasta
1 pound of chicken breast
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper
(we added some red pepper flakes.. as much as you want)
3 tablespoons olive oil divided
4 to 6 oz sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 tablespoons lemon juice
3 cloves garlic sliced
1/4  cup onion
2 cans artichoke hearts drained and chopped
1/2 cup roasted red pepper(we used a little green as we did not have the red pepper)
3 medium plum tomatoes (we used a few home grown)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaf
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Cook pasta according directions rinse and drain
cut chicken in narrow strips and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper
In saucepan heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil over medium heat add chicken  and saute stiring until cooked about 5 minutes.
Remove chicken and set aside add remaning olive oil and mushrooms,onions and bell opepper stiring until tender. Add broth. lemmon.salt and pepper to taste, garlic and artichoke hearts. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Stir in tomato wedges, basil, chicken and pasta and heat through.
Toss with parmesan cheese before serving.

Sauteed Spinach

Along with the dish yesterday we had sauteed spinach. This really cooked down to nothing compared to how it started
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves garlic chopped
2 lb spinach
salt and pepper
Heat oil in skillet over med heat.
Place garlic in skillet and cook till golden brown add spinach in handfulls and season with salt and pepper cover and cook till spinach releases its liquid stirring till wilted and water has evaporated.

Lemon Chicken

This was very tasty and a winner in our book. We did make it in half as its just us two but recipe is for 4.
2 lemons
4 chicken cutlets pounded thinly into scallopin
salt and pepper
flour for dredging
6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic
16 capers
10 green olives(we left this out)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth
2 Tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
Squeeze juice from one and half of the lemons and reserve. Cut remaining half in very thin slices removing seed and set aside.
Season chhicken with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour and place in heated 3 tablespoons oil and 2 tablespoons butter on medium heat. Place as many pieces of chicken with out touching and cook until golden brown. Approximately 3 minutes flip and cook on other side, remove and drain on paper towel
Wipe fat up with paper towels and add remaning olive oil and butter. Scrape bits from bottom of pan add sliced garlic and lemon juice to skillet. Cook till garlic is golden brown. Add capers and olives stiring for about 4 minutes. Pour in wine and bring to a boil. Cook until wine is reduced by half. Add chicken stock and boil until slightly syrupy. Return chicken and coat with sauce add parsley and swirle into sauce.
Add to plate with sauce spooned over chicken and slice of lemon on top

Sunday Cat

This is Trouble waiting for dinner. Don't you think it would make a good Friskies commercial?

Cranberry Almond wild rice

Along with the dish yesterday we had this and we thought it was better than the salmon and will fix this again.
1/2 cup wild rice cook according to directions.
1/4 cup dried cranberries or craisins
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup diced celery.
salt and pepper to taste.
When rice is almost done add celery and almonds. When cooked add craisins.

Sweet Potato Crusted Salmon

We had one lone sweet potato in the pantry and two salmon fillets left. So wife went searching for a recipe to use. She found this at Tuckers restaurant on the web. (she misses her Zaar where you could put what ingredients that were on hand and a bunch of recipes would pop up.) It was ok but we have had better recipes with our salmon.
salmon fillets
1 medium sweet potato
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon marshmellow cream
salt and pepper to taste
Peel sweet potato and cut in pieces and boil until tender, strain and whip potato with marshmellow fluff, butter and salt and pepper.
Bake salmon or pan sear it and place on top of salmon the sweet potato

What is it

Well I have been out in the heat building a fire to clean off my new purchases. I really feel for the guys who do welding in this weather it has to be a tough job.

I wish I had taken a before picture as the 2 quart pot had so much grunge on it you could not read what size it was. It looks pretty good after I cleaned it up. The other piece I have no idea what it is. Wife did find something that looked like it and they called it a salmon cooker. Any one know what it is. It is about 20 inches long.

Southern plate

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This is a good old southern dish of fried chicken rice and gravy and fried corn and sweet potato cooked in the pan like a french fry.
The chicken was dipped in egg and dusted with flour and pan seared. With that pan we made a gravy with the drippings.

This is what we have been eating. Nothing new right now. Blog is acting crazy

Sunday Cat Frosty again

Here is a shot I left out last Sunday of Frosty. Frosty is the cat that is so happy to see us when we have been gone. He has this little hop he does with his tail curled almost flat on his back. He also grabs my stuff out the bag.

New Toy

I have been wanting one of these for some time now and since we have been putting up some food in the freezer we decided to go ahead and get one.

We are crazy

Yes we are crazy with the heat as hot has it has been to be in the kitchen. But the food has to be put up and it does not wait for cooler weather. Well maybe the figs will, we have them in the freezer and will make preserves later. There is only so many hours in the day that I am home.

We have but up some, butter beans, corn, asparagus, okra, yellow squash. (all from the farmers market) we only have a small chest freezer so it is only a half of bushel of stuff for right now and see what room we have to put up later. We want to put up some tomatoes as we have not done that in the past but while they have fresh tomatoes they have to taste better than the ones in the can now. Any one ever freeze tomatoes?

Also we seem to having extra spaces coming up on the blog and I can not get rid of them any suggestions?

How hot is it

It appears the whole country is in the oven now. The raccoons that hang around the house usually come out at night but this weekend they were out early in the day and looking for something cool. The cats water bowl became a little pool for her. We know it a she because wife saw her one night late with the three babies. We usually sit with the cats to keep her away but she came really early this time. And the bugger is not scared of us. See she is watching us watch her from the window.

What has happened to my blog?????

I  do not know why everything has gone south. I need help trying to figure this out . has anyone else had this problem?
Well it seems to be working now.

Preserved Lemons

We got this from Closet Cooking site. Now I do not know why I did this but wife wanted some and said they would be used in a dish in the future. We also bought a big bag of lemons and need to use them up.

Please see his site if you want the recipe. I have a link to his site on the side.

Sunday Cats

I'm still here. Have been working out of town a lot lately and there is so much to do when home plus the heat is so bad. I will post some of the things I have been doing on my weekends. Not a lot of cooking going on right now.

This is Frosty helping me get packed. He looks likes he hates to see me go.