donna's daily dish

this 'n that

7/28/2020

With the recent heatwave, I wanted something easy to prepare for supper. Whole Foods had on special for Prime Members whole Bell & Evans chickens for $1.79/lb. (regularly $2.99-$3.99/lb.). In order for the chicken to cook quicker, I spatchcocked it. I found a wonderful recipe on the Martha Stewart website, Grilled Spatchcocked Chicken. You’ll need a medium onion, garlic, fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley and sage leaves), extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest and salt and pepper.

All the rub ingredients were placed in a food processor until they became a purée. Loosening the skin a bit, some of the rub was placed over the breast meat with the balance over the bird. The chicken needs to marinate at least 6 hours.

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practical help

7/27/2020

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The New York Times has a column titled “Here to Help” in the first section of the paper and once a week it has a recipe. In the Tuesday, July 14th edition, they published a recipe by David Tanis for Lobster Pasta with Yellow Tomatoes and Basil. The recipe sounded delicious and intriguing. Besides the pasta you’ll need 1 pound of lobster meat, olive oil, shallots, garlic, yellow tomatoes and basil leaves.

This summer, lobsters in New Jersey have been selling for less than $10/lb. Last week a fishery had them as low as $6/lb. As I needed four 1-1/2-pound lobsters to yield one pound of lobster meat, I faced a conundrum, do I cook four lobsters (cost about a $24) or bit the bullet and purchase the meat already cooked and picked for $35.99/lb.?

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what to eat this summer?

7/20/2020

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Paninis
When the heat wave started last week, my husband suggested chicken paninis. I thought this was a good idea and I found a delightfully easy recipe on the Williams-Sonoma website for Chicken Panini with Pesto and Mozzarella.

A quick trip to the food store was needed to procure boneless chicken breasts, sliced Italian bread, a red pepper for making homemade roasted peppers, arugula and a small ball of fresh mozzarella cheese. I already had pesto in the refrigerator.

If you don’t own a panini press, you can still forge ahead and make these sandwiches. You’ll need two pans. A grill or fry pan and, preferable, one a cast iron. To help compress the sandwiches, one 28-ounce can of tomatoes or two smaller size cans will do. The sandwiches will go in one pan, while the cast iron is placed on top with the cans in the fry pan. The weight of the cast iron and cans will compress the sandwiches similar to the panini press.

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healthier eating

7/12/2020

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While our daughter was staying with us, she prepared a very hearty and healthy supper, “The Easiest Healthy Burrito Bake (gluten free)”. This recipe is from the food blogger Rachel Mansfield with a blog of the same name. Ms. Mansfield says her recipes contain “just the good stuff,” meaning few ingredients, little prep work and you don’t need to be an experienced chef to prepare. You’ll find on her website many gluten-free, dairy-free and recipes with no refined sugars. This recipe that my daughter prepared is quite forgiving.

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summer in a bowl

7/9/2020

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As you can tell from reading my blog, I can usually find delicious and easy recipes at The New York Times and their app @nytcooking. Last weekend I found a recipe for Summer Shrimp Scampi with Tomatoes and Corn. The recipe serves four and takes 15 minutes to prepare in ONE skillet. As luck would have it, my local ShopRite has fresh jumbo (21/25 count) domestic, wild caught shrimp on sale for $11.99/lb. or with your Price Plus card, $9.99/lb.

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lazy summer days

7/7/2020

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It has been a few weeks since I posted last. My daughter and her family have returned home to an almost completed kitchen renovation. There is still quite a bit of work to be completed, however, everyone was anxious to get home as baby number two is due to arrive at the beginning of August.

My daughter ordered twice from a mail order company that sells “less than pretty” produce. I was a little hesitant for her to try this, however, since the pandemic, she has taken to ordering groceries online. One of the items in her last produce box was a rather large red beet. The beet was stored in a cool, dark place, but need to be cooked. I found on www.epicurious.com a recipe by Melissa Clark (December 2017) for Beets with Dill, Lime and Yogurt. Eureka! I had all the ingredients for the recipe and now had something with which to use the dill that was growing in my garden.

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