Blackened Chicken and Avocado Salad

I don't really like salads as a meal except for this one. I used to get something similar from the Guards for lunch when I worked in Georgetown, and I started making it at home. It's really easy and tasty. I get chicken breasts or cutlets and pound them till they're pretty thin, then coat them with olive oil, salt, pepper, old bay, paprika, and cayenne pepper. I have no idea what is included in a real blackening seasoning mix, but I think this tastes good. Then I cook the chicken in a skillet. Meanwhile, I cut up some cucumbers and tomatoes and dress them with lettuce in balsamic vinegar. Then when the chicken is done, I slice it and put it on the salad, along with slices of avocado. I've been getting some prepared corn and bean salad from whole foods and adding that as well. We usually eat it with a french baguette. Mmm.

The Most Delicioius of All Foods - Ribs

During July, I cooked ribs twice. The first time was at a lake house, where a group of us cooked a smorgasbord of great food. We cooked ribs and a pork butt. The ribs we coated in a rub and let marinate overnight. We then wrapped in heavy duty foil and added about a quarter cup each of margarita mix and OJ. We popped the package in the oven for a couple of hours at about 260. After two or three hours or so, we pulled it out, drained the juices, added some bbq sauce and then slapped it on the grill to get some nice delicious caramelization.



Along with the ribs we served chopped pork bbq (which will get its own post sometime) and grilled asparagus. For the asparagus, I just speared them all on a couple of skewers to make it easier to turn. I then marinated them in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.



A couple weeks later I made ribs a second time around. This time, I had no grill so had to do everything in the oven. The beginning stages were the same but instead of taking it to the grill, I used the broiler. I brushed bbq sauce on it and left it under the broiler for a few minutes. Once caramelized, I brushed more sauce on and put it back under the broiler. I did this a few times until the ribs had several layers of delicious sauce.



The first picture is the ribs with just the rub. The second is just out of the oven with the first coating of bbq sauce. The third picture is after the sauce has been cooked on several times. The last is the finished plate. I served the ribs with baked beans, a potato salad and steamed broccoli.

Summer Grilling

So after a month-long hiatus, I'm back with several updates. This post I have two burger dishes. This first one is cooked on the new grill KJC got when she moved into a new apartment. It works quite well, even giving the burgers and veggies some nice grill marks. A charcoal or gas grill is preferable but for apartment living this is not too bad. Well this meal was just simple beef burgers plus the sides of squash and zucchini. I coated the veggies in olive oil and salt and pepper. Very simple yet delicious.




This next meal also involved burgers but probably the best part is the side dish of potatoes. I cooked the potatoes two ways. The first is hash browns with parmesan cheese and parsley. I simply diced then boiled the potatoes and then browned them in a pan with a bit of oil. When they were close to being done, I added the cheese, parsley, pepper and salt. For the second preparation, I thinly sliced the potatoes, coated in olive oil and then grilled. They had great texture and tasted like a cross between potato chips and french fries. I served the potatoes with a burger and green beans. Not a great picture of the potatoes but you get the idea.