Roasted Pattypan Squash and Baby Boomer Potatoes

Roasted Pattypan Squash and Baby Boomer Potatoes

This post is a bit dated since it is now mid-October and most people’s gardens are pretty much spent by now, but I’m only just now getting around to it. But, if you are still lucky enough to have some fresh squash in your area…

Our kind neighbor gave us some home-grown pattypan squash, and the only thing I could think to do with it besides soup was to roast it. I went to the store to buy some fingerling potatoes to go with them, but the bin was flat out. Then I spied this bag of Baby Boomer Potatoes. Not sure what that has to do with my generation (yah, I’m old) but they were the perfect size, and the bag said “great for roasting.” I’m in!

This was a perfectly simple side dish paired with some marinated grilled pork chops. I mixed in some fresh dill, then just roasted the heck out of them until they looked beautifully crisp on the outside (and were wonderfully creamy on the inside.)

Not your everyday side dish, but it’s a great way to use up your or your neighbor’s harvest! I hope you enjoy.

Pattypan Squash from Neighbor

Roasted Pattypan Squash and Baby Boomer Potatoes

1 pound pattypan (or other) squash
1 pound small potatoes (Baby Boomers or otherwise)
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil to coat
Fresh chopped dill
Salt, pepper, and any other seasonings, to taste

Dill-Seasoned Vegetables

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the pattypan squash into chunks to match your potato size, to ensure even roasting. Place the squash and potatoes into a bowl, and pour over some olive oil and mix around to distribute evenly. Add the chopped fresh dill, then season with salt, pepper, and any other seasonings, to taste.

Pour bowl of veggies onto a lightly oil-sprayed baking sheet, then evenly distribute them in one layer.

Vegetables in Oven for Roasting

Roast in oven for about 40 minutes, turning over halfway through. Just keep an eye on them in the last half hour and remove if getting too dark.

We served this with grilled marinated pork, but it would go pretty much with any protein of choice.

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

 

 

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Greek Rotisserie Chicken Wraps

Greek Rotisserie Chicken Wraps

When it’s hot outside, you’re tired of grilling, but want something quick and easy, these Greek Rotisserie Chicken Wraps are just the ticket! My family eats only half a rotisserie chicken for dinner, and when I was faced with the leftover half the next day I wracked my brain what to do with it. Then I remembered I had a Greek grilled chicken pocket bread recipe that would work, and I wouldn’t even have to grill the chicken! We always have flour tortillas on hand, so chicken wraps it would be! This was a wonderful light dinner to eat on our back deck on a warm week-day night. I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

Chicken Wrap Ingredients

Greek Rotisserie Chicken Wraps

 Tzatziki with Dill
1 cup Greek yogurt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh dill
1/2 English cucumber, peeled and finely diced (about 1/2 cup)
Small amount of ground sea salt
Ground black pepper, to taste

 For the Wraps
Flour tortillas
Thinly sliced peeled English cucumber
Sliced rotisserie chicken
Diced tomato
Thinly sliced red onion
Tzatziki with Dill

Greek Chicken Wrap Ready to Roll Up

Prepare the tzatziki by blending all the ingredients in a bowl. Set aside or refrigerate if not using right away.

Slice and dice the vegetables for the wraps and place in separate bowls/containers. Dry-heat the tortillas in a skillet for about 30-seconds each side to make them more pliable. Place tortilla on a plate, add the wrap ingredients to taste, then tightly roll up. Easy Peasy!

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

Grilled Beer-Butt Chicken and Tortilla Pizzas

Grilled Pesto Chicken Margherita Pizza

I just love grilling season! Today I present to you several scrumptious selections for summertime suppers. (How’s that for alliteration?) Two of my main attractions are not really recipes, but methodology, as the ingredients and seasonings are entirely up to you.

We’ve been grilling beer-butt chicken for many years, and every time we do we are always, ALWAYS, so pleased with how tender the meat is and how yummy-crispy the skin turns out. Seasonings of choice this time included fresh tarragon and sliced lemons. My tarragon plant has gone gangbusters once again, towering at about 18-inches tall and a foot wide. I told hubby to mince the leaves from a couple of sprigs (stalks?) for the outside seasoning and then also stuff the chicken with a couple more whole stalks with the lemons.

We rounded out the meal with some homemade dill potato salad and fresh corn on the cob, also cooked outside on the grill’s propane stove ring. And, of course, we ate outside on the deck under gloriously sunny skies. (At least for the first night of grilling. The next evening was another story.)

Dilled Potato Salad

Grilled Beer-Butt Chicken

1 whole chicken
1 12-0unce can of beer, any kind
Vegetable oil
Seasonings, herbs, fruit of choice

Wash the chicken thoroughly inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the chicken all over with vegetable oil, then season generously with seasonings and herbs of choice. Stuff the inside of the chicken lightly with more herbs and some slices of fruit. You can use lemon, lime, orange, or even apple! But don’t stuff too much in there because remember you have a can of beer that goes up in there too.

Drink half the beer (or poor down the drain if you don’t drink alcohol) then place it on the counter. Take the chicken and grab it by the legs, and shove it right over the beer can until it’s about halfway inserted into the cavity and the legs can touch the counter. Ta-Dah!

Tarragon and Lemon Beer-Butt Chicken

Preheat the grill on high for about 15 minutes, and then turn the inside burners off so that you will be cooking with indirect heat. For charcoal grills, move the coals to the outside perimeter of the grill after they are burning red. Lay a pan or a sheet of foil in the middle under the grate to catch drips. Now carefully pick the chicken and the beer can up, making sure the can doesn’t slip out.

Place the beer-butt chicken on the center of the grill, arranging the legs to make a tripod so that it balances upright. Cover the grill and cook indirectly for about and hour, maybe a little more, depending on your grill’s heat.

Removing the Chicken from Grill

Remove from the grill, take out the can, and place the chicken on a platter and let rest for 10 minutes before carving. Serve with sides of choice.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

If you have a small family like me, we always have leftover chicken when we cook a whole one and I’m always faced with the dilemma of how to use the leftover chicken. I had been wanting to try my hand at grilling a pizza but for some reason it intimidated me. What on earth was I thinking??? Grilled pizza is easy-peasy, especially when you use flour tortillas for the crust. I’m a huge fan of thin-crust pizza and flour tortillas make the best thin crust I think I’ve ever had.

Pesto Chicken Margherita Pizza

My husband thought the idea of grilled tortilla pizza was a little strange, so he opted to eat the same meal from the night before from the leftovers. My daughter jumped right in and made herself a traditional pepperoni pizza, while I on the other hand went for a chicken Margherita-type pizza. Let me tell you it was divine! I gave my husband a bite and he was so surprised how good it was. In fact, we are going to use up the last of the chicken tonight and grill pizzas again! This time I’m also going to make a taco-style pizza in addition to the chicken. Just think of the endless possibilities!

Grilled Tortilla Pizzas

Traditional Pepperoni
10-inch flour tortilla
Marinara sauce (from a jar or homemade)
Pizza-blend shredded cheese
Pepperoni slices

Grilling the Pepperoni Pizza

Pesto Chicken Margherita Pizza
10-inch flour tortilla
Pesto sauce (I used store-bought)
Fresh mozzarella cheese
Shredded cooked chicken
1 tomato, sliced
Fresh basil, ribboned

Preheat grill to medium heat. Spray or lightly brush one side of the tortilla with oil, then grill oil-side down for about 3 minutes. Remove from grill and lightly oil the other side of the tortilla. Spread sauce of choice on the cooked side of the tortilla, then top with cheese and other toppings. Place back on grill, cover, and cook until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Remove, slice, and serve immediately. Molto deliziosa!

Pesto Chicken Margherita Pizza Ready to Grill

Last night when we were grilling, the sun was still out but we were overshadowed by thick plumes of smoke from two wildfires that burst out about 6 miles east of us in the forest. My thoughts and prayers go out to the firefighters for their safety and to all the evacuees who must be so frightened about the possibility of losing their homes.

View of Two Bulls Fire from our Back Deck

 

 

 

French Challenge #3 ~ Salads

French Classics Cookbook

This is not only a post about my French Challenge going on, but to also say it’s been a challenging week at home with some personal family issues, hence no cooking blog this week. No new recipes or much cooking going on in this household besides microwaving and such, but we are slowly getting back on track. I hope to get you some new recipes after we get over this bump in the road of life.

Now, I present to you three dishes from the third chapter of my French cookbook. I had challenged myself to make at least one dish from each chapter, and this chapter is Vegetables and Sides. I found all the vegetable recipes to be quite simple, and one of them only had two ingredients so I wasn’t much challenged by that! So I picked three of the salads that at least expanded my horizons. Which is a nice change of pace from the Cassoulet dish I made a few weeks ago, which stretched me for sure!

Please comment which dish you’d like me to make for my next challenge by the end of Sunday, May 18. I found the longer voting times really didn’t increase the votes, so let’s just get it over with, huh? Here are the choices:

Dill and Caper Potato Salad

Dill and Caper Potato Salad

Salade Nicoise

Salade Nicoise

Warm Lentil and Chorizo Salad

Warm Lentil and Chorizo Salad

You can comment on both Facebook or down below in the comments. Thank you so much for your help!

 

Greek Chicken Pocket Sandwiches with Tzatziki and Cole Slaw

Greek Chicken Pocket Sandwiches with Tzatziki and Cole Slaw

Oh my goodness, it’s been a week since my last post but this time you get a FOUR-FER! Yep, four recipes in this post. And, I think I may have found my new favorite sandwich! We had lunch two weekends ago at our annual downtown Summer Fest, where you get to peruse local artist’s crafts and maybe stop for a bite to at at local vendor’s food trucks. It was a really hot day so decided on a Mediterranean Chicken Wrap. It was quite delicious and figured I could make them myself.

And I did! Except I didn’t use regular flatbread, I used flatbread pocket bread, which is like a Pita Pocket except now it’s been renamed to the fancier Flatbread Pocket Bread and made with whole grain wheat, but really, who cares, right? Because it all holds the fillings the same and it’s all good! So light, so refreshing. And the fam gave it two thumbs up. In fact, we liked it so much I made it again last night. Now that’s telling you how good this is. My hubby made a fabulous cole slaw to go with it last night too with the other half of the English cucumber, which rounded this meal out perfectly. The list of ingredients below looks long with four recipes and such, but it’s not, since you use most of the same ingredients in them.

Greek Chicken

3 tablespoons Greek yogurt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon garlic
1/2 teaspoon of crushed dried oregano
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound chicken breast, sliced in half length-wise or pounded thin

Tzatziki, Flatbread, and Condiments.

Tzatziki with Dill

1 cup Greek yogurt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh dill
1/2 English cucumber, peeled and finely diced (about 1/2 cup)
Small amount of ground sea salt
Ground black pepper, to taste

Homemade Cole Slaw (Sort of)

1/2 small cabbage, sliced thin and chopped in half
1/2 English cucumber, peeled and sliced thin
1/2 cup small chopped or shredded carrots
1/4 cup store-bought cole slaw dressing
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 good squeeze of a half of lemon
Lots of black pepper, to taste

Greek Chicken Pocket Sandwich

Greek Chicken Pocket Sandwiches with Tzatziki

1 pound grilled Greek Chicken, diced
Diced tomato
Diced red onion
Flatbread pocket bread
Tzatziki
Chopped romaine lettuce

Mix together the marinade, then marinate the chicken in it for at least an hour or more. Meanwhile prepare the Tzatziki by mixing all those ingredients in a bowl and chill in the refrigerator. Now make the cole slaw by combining all those ingredients in a big bowl and also refrigerate. When ready to cook, grill the chicken over medium-high heat until done through, about 5 to 8  minutes per side.  Chop up the chicken into bite size pieces, and lay out the sandwich condiments in bowls. Assemble the pocket sandwiches with the chicken and yummies, serve with the cole slaw and enjoy!

New Potato Salad with Lemon, Dill, and Chives (No Mayo)

New Potato Salad with Lemon, Dill, and Chives

I finally get to show off my new Ninja food processor I got for Mother’s Day! For whatever reason, we hadn’t cooked anything that needed something chopped small until now. Well not exactly true. We made a chef’s salad the other day and I had fun chopping up the carrots and such for it, but it was not a blog-worthy meal. Just a typical throw-in-anything-you-have-in-your-fridge salad on a busy weeknight. However, the other night I set out to make a “lighter” version of potato salad that didn’t use mayonnaise. From all my research it appeared Greek yogurt was the best substitute, along with some oil and citrus and herbs.  This would make a great potluck salad since it doesn’t have mayo or eggs in it!

Ninja with Chopped Celery and Radishes

New Potato Salad with Lemon, Dill, and Chives

1 1/2 pounds small red new potatoes, quartered
1 celery stalk
2 radishes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon fresh minced chives
1 tablespoon fresh minced baby dill
Ground pepper, to taste

Boil quartered potatoes for about 10 minutes. Remove the potatoes from heat, drain, and rinse in cold water. Add to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until ready to make the salad. Meanwhile, finely dice the celery and radishes. I really enjoyed using my the Ninja for the chopping. It only took about 4 pulses on the button to make me smile. It’s small and only handles two cups max of anything, but it does the job quickly and was a snap to clean up. I love it! (No I was not paid by Ninja for this endorsement.)

In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, yogurt, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, minced chives, minced dill, and ground black pepper, to taste. Take a taste to see if it needs more of any one flavor.  Stir into the bowl of potatoes, then cover and refrigerate to let flavors meld until ready to serve.

Potato Salad Ready to Mix

I thought this was a fabulous light side dish to go with the babyback ribs my husband cooked for dinner. The only complaint I had from the family was that I made my potato chunks too big. Some of the new potatoes were not exactly small, so use your judgment on what size to chop them. I have learned my family likes smaller. Oh, and the hubs inquired why it had no bacon, either. 🙂

P.S. I will not have a weekend post, as we are off to our river property for five days over the Memorial Day Weekend. God Bless all our troops and the family members who have lost their loved ones for our country.

Potato Salad and Ribs