Cassie’s Ruminations

Owl Socks

August’s socks have a fun owl print. I like owls, so these leapt off the shelf at me 😀

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My Chicken Spice Blend

We picked up a big pack of skinless boneless chicken thighs at Costco and have been working our way through them. Saturday night, I made some stir fry with shiitake mushrooms, zucchini, and yellow bell pepper, very similar to this one. Monday night I made some chicken noodle soup. Tonight, I mixed up a spice blend and baked some of the thighs over a bed of thinly sliced summer squash for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees F. The mix is one I often use with chicken, and it works well on pork and vegetables as well.

My Chicken Spice Blend
Makes about 2 tbsp, enough to season 1 lb chicken

1 tbsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
a hearty dash of cayenne pepper

Mix all spices in a bowl to combine. Use to season chicken, pork, or veggies as desired.

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A Seafood Feast

To welcome my parents to the Pacific Northwest, we stopped by Central Market and picked up some great looking seafood that we proceeded to grill up along with some of the ubiquitous and delicious CSA summer squash. We got a nice fillet of sockeye salmon wild caught in Alaska, some U15 American farmed shrimp, and some more of the Evening Cove Oysters.

The salmon was lightly seasoned with kosher salt and black pepper, layered with thin slices of lemon, and wrapped in foil. Similar treatment for the squash, thinly sliced, seasoned with salt and pepper, and wrapped in foil. The oysters were placed on a foil lined baking sheet set on the grill, and the shrimp were drizzled with a touch of olive oil and placed in a foil packet as well. Everything was grilled over medium heat for about 30 minutes, which steamed the squash, nicely roasted the oysters and salmon, and beautifully cooked the shrimp. My parents loved everything. 🙂 Welcome back to the Northwest!

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CSA Box, Week #11

This week, my folks are in town for a bit to help us eat our bounty 🙂

This week’s haul:

• Flowers
• Peaches x2
• Free-Range Eggs
• Lettuce-Green Bibb
• Tomatoes-Farmer x2
• Squash-Gold Rush x2
• Summer Squash-Mixed Ball x2
• Squash-Romanesco x2
• Squash-Raven
• Beets-Red Ace x2

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Asian Turkey Meatballs, Redux

This is another take on Asian turkey meatballs. The additions of hoisin, soy sauce, and ginger really made them even more flavorful and delicious. I roasted about a pound of shiitake mushrooms that I’d wiped clean and stemmed right alongside the meatballs and warmed up some roasted summer squash and beets from last night’s dinner to round out the veggies.

Asian Turkey Meatballs
Serves 4

20 oz ground turkey
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powdery
dash cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix all of the ingredients until they just come together. Form into 20 small meatballs (a disher makes this very easy) and place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 165 degrees F.

Serve warm.

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Evening Cove Oysters

After a great week of weight loss, I definitely earned some oysters 🙂 This week there was a new variety at Central Market. These beauties are Evening Cove Oysters. These are a sub-set of the Penn Cove oysters that I’ve tried before and enjoyed. They are particularly mild and smooth, which makes them perfect for someone just getting into oysters or for cooking applications. I’ll have to keep an eye out for them when I want to lure people over to the world of raw oysters 😀

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Ebey Island Dog Park

It’s a gorgeous northwest summer day – 73 degrees, sunny, and just a hint of a breeze. Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone we have such great summers! I got a great lunch of xian long bao at Din Tai Fung, then Emma and I headed out to our former favorite local dog park – Ebey Island. It was surprisingly quiet – we were the only ones there. The summer grass is ridiculously tall, which thrilled Emma, but the park seems to be no longer maintained at all – sad. She got to go dashing through grassy tunnels and bunny hopping through shorter patches. We only stayed about 45 minutes wandering around since there was no one to play with, but I still have one tuckered little dog. 🙂

Below is a little slideshow of Emma at the park. I got some pretty decent shots of her in action and just being a smiley little critter. 😀

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Chicken with Artichokes and Lemon

Tonight’s recipe is strongly inspired by the wonderful blogger Krista of Everyday Mom’s Meals. Go check her out! I won a drawing on her Facebook page the other day and got 5 hand written recipe cards chosen by me from recipes on her blog. They arrived today, and so I had to make one of the recipes to celebrate, 🙂

I changed up the cooking method just a touch to get a thicker sauce like in my chicken piccata. I didn’t have any fresh thyme on hand, so I added a teaspoon of dried thyme with the wine so it would have time to simmer.

I used marinated artichoke hearts from my big Costco jar, but I think a 12 oz jar or a 15 oz can would work great. Next time, I think I’ll try frozen artichoke hearts – no oil at all, so a tad healthier and a more pure artichoke flavor.

I’ve written the recipe as I made it below. This was a great meal, and one that I’ll definitely repeat in the future. Thanks for the recipe, Krista!

Chicken with Artichokes and Lemon
Serves 2 generously, with no sides, or 4 if served with side dishes

1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs (4 medium pieces)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 mini bottle dry white wine (187 ml)
1/2 cup water or chicken broth
1 tsp dried thyme
8 oz well drained marinated artichoke heart quarters (about 3/4 cup)
1 medium lemon, thinly sliced equatorially, seeds removed

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat.

While the oil heats, mix the flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Dredge the chicken pieces to coat well, shaking off any excess.

Place the chicken pieces in the skillet and brown well on both sides – about 2 minutes per side. Remove the chicken to a plate.

Add about 1 tbsp of the leftover dredging flour to the skillet and whisk to make a roux with the olive oil. Add the wine and chicken broth, deglazing the pan, and whisk to completely incorporate the roux. Add the artichoke quarters and thyme and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil to fully thicken the sauce.

Reduce heat to medium. Return the chicken to the pan and cover. Let the chicken cook, covered, until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees F, about another 6-8 minutes. Add the lemon slices, recover the pan, and cook for a final 1 minute to just soften the lemon.

Serve warm.

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CSA Box, Week #10

Another great box this week from Growing Washington. More summer squash bounty, some gorgeous tomatoes and mushrooms, beautiful baby lettuce, yellow potatoes, and juicy peaches 🙂

More itchiness from the flowers, but since the only common element was the lilies that I suspected last time, I just tossed them, leaving the rest of the bouquet, and I’m doing better already. I’ll see if they do requests for flowers with next weeks order and just get any of those eliminated.

This week’s haul:

• Flowers
• Peaches
• Mushrooms-Shiitake x2
• Lettuce-Baby Heads
• Tomatoes-Big Beef x2
• Squash-Gold Rush
• Summer Squash-Mixed Ball x2
• Squash-Romanesco x2
• Summer Squash-Magda x2
• Potatoes-German Butterball

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Shaker Smoked Chicken Thighs

Inspired by this recipe from Eating Well via cooking.com, tonight’s dinner was quick smoked chicken thighs. I was pleasantly surprised that the smoke did indeed flavor the meat, even with such a short cooking time. I only marinated for 20 minutes as my grill heated up, and this turned out quite well. I’ll have to play with the seasonings and wood in the future 🙂

I used a Wood Chip Smoker Box and Alderwood grilling pellets. I placed the smoker box under my grill grates between two of the burners and it heated up just perfectly and made a fair bit of smoke – not quite for the promised 20 minutes, but next time I’ll add a few more to the box. Overall, I was impressed with how well this worked for not even kinda like a real smoker 😛 You can see instructions for creating a foil packet for wood chips at the original recipe above if you don’t want to get a little smoker box.

I served this with fresh tomatoes and roasted eight ball summer squash from my CSA box.

Shaker Smoked Chicken Thighs
Serves 2

1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs
1/2 – 1 cup wood chips (soaked for at least 20 minutes) or barbecue pellets

Mix together the vinegar, olive oil, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder in a large zip top bag. Add the chicken thighs, squeeze out all the air, seal the bag, and let the chicken marinate for 20 minutes at room temperature.

While the chicken is marinating, pour the wood chips or barbecue pellets into a small smoker box and place it directly on the burners of a gas grill off to one side.

Light the grill and preheat on high heat for 15 minutes. Reduce heat on the side without the smoker box to medium, and quickly place the chicken on the rack over the lower heat, letting as little smoke out as possible. Grill for 6-8 minutes on each side, or until cooked through and nicely browned.

Serve warm.

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