mmm…strawberry/kiwi shortcake

And, yes, those are biscuits.  Had the rest of them the next day:

mmm…tasty sunflower seeds

chicken with chilies and red beans

I had the long lens on the camera today, hoping to catch some more cool birdie pics,  I did take it off long enough to snap this one of the meal on a dish.  This is a whole lot like the chili everyone does so there won’t be any surprises in the recipe.

I took some leg quarters and browned them in a little oil in a sauce pot, then removed them for a while while I sauteed some onions and some cut up and seeded dried chilies.  When the onions were ready I added 4 cups of chicken stock and a generous heap of chili powder, some oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, and several grinds of black pepper.  Stir this about then add the chicken parts back, red beans that have soaked overnight, and a can of diced tomatoes. Digging through the cupboard for the tomatoes I found a can of black beans so I rinsed those and dumped them in as well.  Cover and simmer for a few hours.  I wondered how to present this dish all day, decided to make some rice to go with it.  It’s a good way to eat it.  You could serve it in a bowl as you would chili.

Enjoy!

eye candy

and a little breakfast while we wait on the chicken chili

Here’s your morning hawk

Be back later with a recipe, I’ll be doing something with chicken and red beans.  Not sure yet just what that’ll be.

some more critters

They often come before dark, the little box strapped to the tree to the right of the nearest deer is a trail camera.  I have a bunch of pics it has snapped both in daylight and after dark.  It catches other sorts of critters sometimes.  I’ll post some of those in future.

Soy Sauce Barbecue Chicken

This is  my mom’s recipe and is a family favorite.  Tasty, tangy and easy to make, though cooking time is a bit long.

Soy Sauce Barbecue Chicken

• 10-12 chicken legs, thighs

Marinade:

• 1 to 1- 1/2 cups soy sauce (you can mix 1/2 lite and regular)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp or more of crushed garlic
• 1 tsp or more of ground ginger

Mix marinade ingredients well so sugar dissolves. Put chicken and marinade in zip lock bag and marinate overnight. Remove chicken from marinade and place on a foil lined cookie sheet or 9×12 pan. Cook at 325, turning chicken over every 15 minutes. You can brush on a little of the marinade the first couple of times. It takes about 1-1/2 hours to get good & sticky.  Serve with rice and peas for a complete dinner.

Pizza!

I’m a huge pizza! fan, and these days that means one with cheese rolled into the crust on the edges. I’ll get to that later.  Here’s the recipe for the dough:  3 cups flour, 1 cup water, a tablespoon of olive oil, a dash of salt, and a packet of yeast.  I also added a couple of tablespoons of dried herbs to this batch, oregano and basil.  I let my bread machine to all the work of kneading just to cut down on the mess.  When the machine beeped 2 hours later I dumped it all onto a lightly oiled 14″ pizza! pan and smooshed it into shape.  Tried rolling the dough once, didn’t work.  Push the dough right up the rim of the pan.  I used pepper jack cheese this time, just about any cheese that melts well will work fine.  Layer the cheese around the rim, squishing it into the bottom edge so that the dough pushes out some.

Now roll the crust over the top, gently pulling and stretching the dough from the flat part that lies on the bottom of the pan. Yay! Now we are ready for the sauce.  I make it a little different every time.  This time I started with a bit of olive oil in a small sauce pan to which I added 3 thinly sliced cloves of garlic.  Warm them up some to bring out the aroma, then dump in a 15 oz can of tomato puree.  To this add some onion powder and several tablespoons of dried herbs: oregano and basil.  Simmer on low until it reduces to more of a tomato paste than puree.  Time to spread it on.  I used to layer the toppings, then spread the cheese atop everything, but these days I tend to add a little as I go along. My toppings today are three meats: Genoa salami, a Hungarian salami and pepperoni.  Also going on are black olives, mushrooms, pickled banana pepper rings, and red onions.Brush some olive oil on the edge and drizzle some more over the top and pop it into a  425 oven, check in 15 minutes.  This one I ended up giving 20 minutes.It’s so thick I used a cleaver to slice it.  Sprinkle on some Parmesan and some red pepper flakes and you are good to go!Enjoy!

pizza post later, here’re some critter pics to tide you over

Had three hawks this morning, they spent as much time chasing each other as they did songbirds.This is from yesterday evening, I often see groups of like birds at the feeder, don’t know why they segregate themselves that way.