Beer Can Chicken

For Father's Day was was just trying to come up with some simple yet tasty foods that Mark would like for dinner. He really loves chicken that is not dry and I had planned on trying beer can chicken for the first time. The day before I made it it dawned on me that KAJ had made this recipe for our double duty challenge. BONUS! All I had to do is remember to take pictures and it counts!

This ended up being a very easy thing to make. I rubbed Penzey's Northwood Seasoning over the bird, used miller lite and a contraption that my mom got me a few years ago, grilled it for an hour and a half and tada...dinner is done. I did add extra charcoal about halfway through and probably left the chicken in a little too long. Everything turned out fine though. Here is the before picture:



and the after:



Ok, I think I am all caught up now!

Watermelon and feta salad

I don't normally like to count something like this. I actually made this recipe and posted it last year, but this challenge should really be about trying something new. However, again I bought a really big watermelon and needed a way to use it up. Just wanted to revisit this because again, it turned out really good. I left out the mint and even Mark ate it up.

Cranberry and Tuna Salad...except not really

Robin posted this recipe our first year and I had never heard of cranberry beans. I was able to buy some borlotti beans from Rancho Gordo, but was shocked to see some actual cranberry beans in the local grocery store recently. I bought a bag.

When re-reading this recipe, I had a decision to make. Did I really want to use the tuna? I think I might try that one day, but for my purposes, I left it out. And the lettuce leaves. Ok, so now it is just a regular bean salad...but it was still pretty good. The flavor of these beans was a little meaty, and although I was hesitant to add the salt early, the beans still got soft and the beans were well seasoned. I made all the beans, but halved the recipe for the salad. I will probably use the remainder for a pasta e fageoli in a few months.

Served it with Italian Beef Sandwiches and corn.

Chicken and Rice Casserole

One from the good old days growing up! I am sure everyone has had this, and maybe you have even made it, even if you don't want to admit it! A nice staple even if it is a littls salty. I had some chicken in the freezer and needed dinner. Thank goodness I had one can of cream of mushroom and one onion soup packet in the back of my pantry. I used 1 cup regular rice instead of minute rice. Served it with carrots. The kids LOVED this. I don't know why they won't eat my "completely from sratch meals" but cleaned this out. KAJ made it last year.

Lao Yellow Rice with Duck

This past week I was at Whole Foods to pick up two things. While in search of my spanish chorizo, I saw some frozen duck breasts when suddenly this challenge and this recipe Robin made in 2007 popped in my head. I grabbed the package and we finished our shopping. Boy was I happy when I got home that this was a pretty easy recipe with ingredients I had on hand!

My picture isn't as good as Robin's, but this was a great meal. To be honest, this is only the second time I have ever ate duck, and it is ok...a little gamey. But this rice was really incrediable. I halved most of the recipe and it was plenty. Even Mark kept raving about the rice.

Oh, one more thing....I served this with an avacado. That totally doesn't go. I pulled out some green beans to steam, but they were BAD. I found an avacado that was ripe and ya know, you got to eat them!

3 year blogaversary

Is that how you spell blogaversary? I am not sure. At any rate...

June is the month in which we celebrate the beginnings of this blog. For June, we cook from this blog. As always, I am open to interpretation. You can also post anything that would fall into one of our challenges or even from another blog. I'll accept it!

Also for a heads up, July will be our farmers market challenge.