I just have to share. A few months ago I made a bunch of bean and cheese burritos and froze them. I was terribly proud of myself because I made the bean dip, the burrito shells and all. But anyway, when you pull them out of the freezer you just unwrap them and nuke them for 2 minutes and they are ready. I had some salsa and sour cream on the side with some tortilla chips and they were just amazingly good. I have 2 left. When those are gone I'm going to make another half dozen and freeze them back for this summer. They are really good and I can just imagine them with fresh salsa!! They are perfect for a quick lunch and are delicious just with a side of salsa. You don't actually need the chips or the sour cream and they are extremely filling.
I've been having a craving for Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken and I've been waiting for the last 2 or 3 days to go by until Saturday came around. My chicken is all thawed out, stuffed, trussed and it's in the oven. You can't imagine what a nice recipe this is. It is so full of flavor. Ina Garten is my hero when it comes to cooking techniques and recipes and this is hers. I will go ahead and put it on my Recipe Page. This chicken recipe is a wonder and so easy. Try the recipe and you'll see for yourself. The gravy does have white wine in it and the wine really does kick it up a notch but it's still really good just using all chicken stock. If you have your own homemade chicken stock it's even better!! Turkey stock will also substitute and you'll never know the difference. I've used both and it's just a great recipe and so simple. The gravy is great served with potatoes or rice if you choose one of these as a side dish. Try laying your plate out this way - roast some vegetables in the oven and lay them around the cut-up pieces of chicken on the platter along with the garlic, crumbled bacon and the lemons and drizzle the gravy over the vegetables. Then sort of stuff in and around the chicken and veggies some thyme. I used lemon thyme. I have this mega love of lemon thyme. This dish is just picture perfect. Oh my, it's just wonderful. Make sure you have some nice crusty bread. The garlic can be spread on the bread if your guests would like. Add a nice green salad and this meal is complete. It's a perfect family-style company recipe.
I spent more time in my herb kitchen today getting things just perfect. I've been spending a lot of time making sure I have all my canned goods in order so I know what is leftover from the year before. I still have green beans from 2011. Not many but I want to get them eaten before I add my 2013 garden produce. Everything else I have is from 2012 so I'm good there. We went through a tremendous amount of tomato sauce this past year and may actually run out before my new tomatoes come on. Oh, I'll hate that!!! I also had forgotten about my Italian Mixed Vegetables, though it's not really a surprise. My husband doesn't like them so naturally they sort of get pushed back and when I cleaned everything out I found 4 quarts of them. I always take yellow squash, zucchini, onions and tomatoes and cut them up in big chunks and stuff a quart jar full and add 1 Tablespoon of Italian Seasoning and 1 Teaspoon of salt. If you do it right the tomatoes will make enough juice to fill the jar but if not you can always add a little water or canned tomato juice. Then I can them. Now, the vegetables are a little soft, so what I do when I get ready to open a quart and fix them, is pour off the juice from the quart in a cup, heat some olive oil in a pan, put my veggies in and add a little more Italian Season and cook them up slow, not stirring too much until just heated through and if you need more liquid pour some back in the pan from the cup. They are great just as is, terrific with a squeeze of lemon juice and outstanding with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. They are also tasty thrown on top of pasta. It's just a way I can use up some of my yellow squash, zucchini and tomatoes. Now all this aside - you should try fixing this fresh. It just tastes like heaven compared to the canned.
Tomorrow is Sunday and I'll miss you!! Talk to you again on Monday.