Busy In Kitchen This Week

We have a new—well, it opened a year ago—local meat market in our tiny town. You can see the beautiful pinwheel steaks stuffed with spinach and provolone that I bought. (They were delicious!) But I also bought a tray of pre-sliced yellow squash and zucchini. I had seen a picture of squash and zucchini cooked like this a few days before. This was a good time to try it.

STAND UP VEGGIES

Arrange thin slices of yellow squash, zucchini and onion in a baking dish. (You can also add slices of tomato and/or eggplant.)

Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with Italian seaoning and House Seasoning, or the seasoning of your choice.

Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. (I left this off since I'm currently counting WW points, but it could only be better!)

Bake at 375º for 30 minutes, or until you reach desired doneness.

Because I was cooking the pinwheel steaks at 350º for 30 minutes, I just put my veggies in with the steak. I did put the steaks under the broiler in the other oven for a few minutes to brown them a little and let the veggies keep baking a little longer.

The biggest squash hater in the world (Daddy-O) actually said—yes, said it out loud—that this was pretty good. He even ate some the next night. I think what he has not liked about squash for all these years was the squishy texture of cooked squash. This dish was not cooked long enough to reach the squishy stage. Big plus is that it looks pretty standing up in the dish.

My other purchase from the market was the chicken kabobs. I know this isn't a big deal to most of you, but I am delighted to have some pre-prepped foods available locally. I didn't have to make the kabobs. I only mixed the marinade.

I searched for a chicken marinade recipe and found several, all named "best chicken marinade ever." There were slight differences in all of them. I picked the one that contained flavors we all liked...and then made some slight adjustments to suit me. I'll bet one of those "best" recipes was the original one and the others were all riffs on the first one.

Here is what I mixed up. I'll be using this one again, for chicken pieces, chicken strips, etc. It was very good. You can decide about the "best" thing.

CHICKEN MARINADE. (makes about 1 cup)

1/3 cup olive oil

3 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (I got that from 1 large lemon)

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar, not packed down

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or 3 cloves garlic, minced)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Pour over chicken. Let marinade at least 30 minutes. 4-5 hours is better. 

Last night I cooked the kabobs in the oven, in the dish I had used to marinate them in. The plan had been to grill them, but you know how plans go. If you are removing chicken from the marinade to cook, be sure to discard the remaining marinade. It's a big safety thing.

We celebrate Independence Day next week. Whatever your plans are, remember why we celebrate, stay safe and have fun. We are having our annual family week. I'll see you back here the following week.

Hydrangea at our back door planted by my mother-in-law so many years ago,