Bruschetta, Again? The Spicy Garden Variety

Those of you who know me, expect that most of my meals will be inspired by my travels.  On my return from my first trip to Italy my repertoire expanded with many Italian influenced recipes and my own creations.  I love the simplicity of Italian food and look forward to this time of year when fresh ingredients start to show up in the markets.  And before long, most veggies will be coming from my backyard garden!

Bruschetta are usually appetizers, but in this case they were hardy enough to be a complete meal.

Ingredients:

12 slices of a baguette or 6 slices of French (oops) bread cut in half will do

2 cups eggplant, peeled and cubed

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp onion, chopped

1/2 cup portabello mushrooms, cubed

olive oil (for the bottom of pan and to brush the bread before toasting)

fresh basil, a handful chopped

fresh spinach, a handful chopped

fresh parsley, a smaller handful, chopped

2 Italian sausages, precooked and chopped (I had some from the previous night.  Optional)

Set oven to broil.  On a cookie sheet, arrange the bread, brush with oil and broil until light brown.  Remove and you can rub with additional garlic clove, if you wish.  In a large skillet, cover the bottom with the olive oil.  On medium high heat add the eggplant, cook and stir until softened.  Add the mushrooms, garlic, onion, basil,  spinach, and parsley and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes on a lower heat (medium).  Add the sausage at the end, mix and pile onto the bread slices.  I added a sprinkle of goat cheese before serving. Perfect for first course or an entire meal with a nice glass of Chianti!

More Garden Adventures

Who will win the war of the rabbits this year?  As I sat in the family room yesterday enjoying my first cup of coffee, I watched my backyard come alive with nature at its best (or worst?)  It seems one of the many rabbits that hop around and  forage my yard has been teaching itself to jump onto a patio chair.  I find this amusing because it's my cat chair where she lounges in the early morning sun.  Maybe the rabbit's been watching  from afar as the cat jumps on and off her perch!   After several attempts it finally succeeded, only to jump down and do it again, over and over until he was secure in his new found ability.

Moving on to the mother lode

This morning, he was back again, bright and early ready to practice.  After repeated jumps he moved onto a more challenging course.  Rabbit Olympics!   Using the chair he jumped onto the table where I have some lettuce, arugula and flowers.  Looks like he found the mother lode! 

He calls in the troops!

So, today as I plant more tomatoes, jalapenos, acorn squash, etc, I can hardly wait to see who else this cute little rabbit invites over for brunch!  It's time to buy more fencing, or perhaps a dog to scare him off!

With all the snow and cold weather this Spring, I was curious as to how the growing season is shaping up.  The following pictures were taken on the same day in 2009 and this year (June 7th).  What a huge difference.

June 7, 2011

June 7, 2009

Enjoy the day!  It may reach 80 degrees!  So much for Spring, on to Summer!

Roasted Mandarin Rosemary Chicken

When in doubt, cook chicken!  Chicken has to be the most versatile key ingredient on the planet.  You can roast it, bake it, disguise it 150 ways, put it in soups, stews, tortillas, and pasta, to mention a few ways.

I look for "deals" on whole organic chickens when I frequent the store.  I prefer organic because I really don't want the chemicals and syringe full of sodium solution injected into my meat.  If I need salt (and I don't), I want the opportunity to add it myself!

I'm a big fan of roasting whether it's a whole chicken or vegetables.  Somehow the flavor is always better.  Even though roasting a chicken is pretty straightforward, you can get creative with rubs and spices.  I had a few mandarins on the sink so I incorporated them into my basting sauce.

Ingredients:

1 mandarin, zested, peeled, sectioned and crushed

1 Tbsp oil

1 Tbsp butter

In a small saucepan place the mandarin pieces that were crushed.  (I also zested it first and saved it for the rub.)  Add the oil and butter.  Simmer for a bit and remove from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  In a roasting pan place the chicken.  In a small bowl add 1 Tbsp oil, 1 Tbsp dried rosemary, mandarin zest, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Rub this onto the chicken and massage it in. 

Roast the chicken until done.  For a 5 lb. bird,  I roasted for 2 1/2 hours, approximately,  while using the mandarin basting sauce (and liquid in the pan from chicken) every 30 minutes.

Another roasted chicken with lemon slices under the breast skin and rubbed with garlic and herbs de provence, also delicious!

If you have time, depending on your schedule, roasted chicken is great because you usually have leftovers to use other ways during the week!

Weekend Hideaways

One reason why I started this blog was to capture some of "my favorite places and things", and archive my recipes and travel, etc.   Somehow, it morphed into a food blog.  While I have no qualms about this, my true passion lies in traveling, even if it's just traveling down the road a bit.

Living in the Sierra Nevadas exposes me to many beautiful vistas, plenty of camping, pristine lakes for boating,  hiking trails practically outside my door and winding rivers and streams from which to reel that prized catch.  If I were to look on a map and draw a 200 mile radius circle from my home, the only thing lacking would be the ocean.  This can be daunting at times for a born and raised beach person!  But, we go on mini vacations to the ocean for a cure.

Two years ago we planned a 7 day motorcycle journey up into the Trinity-Shasta forest, continuing up into Oregon, over to the coast at Gold's Beach and back down the California coast, through the Redwoods and over the hill along the Feather river canyon road.  Whew!    The first "leg" of the trip took us up hwy 395N to Susanville, where we caught highway 44 to the 89hwy.  In mid June, you never know what kind of weather to expect but we were prepared.  Of course, we had our share of sunshine, puffy white clouds quickly turning to a shade of dark gray with a side helping of hail and rain mix!



Lunch stop in Susanville, CA



Amost there...will the weather hold?

Not perfect cycling weather

Our first night was spent at a place called the Green Gables Inn.  It was a circa 1950's u-shaped  motel complex with all the amenities.  The rooms were very clean which is a huge plus since we've stayed in our share of "dives" over the years.  After checking in we had some daylight left so we took a quick trip over to Burney Falls.  We stumbled upon this oasis years ago as we travelled up to Portland, Oregon.  We vowed we'd stop by again if we ever had the time.

At Burney Falls there are campsites and RV hookups.  In the nearby town of Burney, the motels and restaurants (cafe type) are sufficient.  It's a hop, skip and a jump to other Sierra playgrounds such as Lake Almanor and Lassen National Park.  If you're into hiking, the trail that winds around the Falls area is is a must do (Just don't do it in hot leather motorcycle boots and chaps that weigh 10 pounds!  Not recommended!)




Oh, what a hike!




My hero!




Stretching before the hike




View from the top of trail

 In the future I'll continue on the 2nd "leg" of the journey.   I just wanted to expose the beauty that surrounds me .  It's so close, a little slice of paradise!

A "favorite" place

Enjoy the weekend!

A Simple "Slimming Sandwich"

It seems I'm beginning to sharpen my sandwich skills in anticipation for a kitchen remodeling project.  Yes., We're finally updating our kitchen.  New granite surfaces, new gas cook top, (I'll need to learn to cook  all over again.)  So many ideas are flooding my mind.  I already have a great "work triangle" but there's always room for improvement!

At any rate, it's a process I'm looking forward to.  Even the chaos which will surely arise with a kitchen remodel will not bother me because I'm focused on the end results.  A beautiful, functional cook's kitchen.  Maybe I'll even hold cooking classes..anyone interested?   I'll keep you posted.  The demolishing has not yet begun, but this sandwich may very likely be on the "remodel menu"!

2 bagel thins (Love those!)

2 slices provolone cheese

1/2 cucumber sliced thin

1/2 avocado, sliced

basil leaves

Mayo, brown spicy mustard or your favorite spread (try hummus)

1/2 roasted red pepper, sliced

lettuce or spinach topping (optional)

salt and pepper (if you wish)

I lightly toasted the bagel thin and slathered mayo on hubby's and combination mayo/mustard on mine. Sometimes, I'll use roasted garlic hummus as a sandwich spread!  Good stuff!   Arrange the rest of the ingredients and dinner is ready.  A no-stove, no-oven allowed recipe.   Here's hoping the remodel goes as simple as this sandwich preparation!  Enjoy!