Tools I'm using

$40 compost pile-all our food scraps and yard waste goes here

Green Beans, cucumbers, lavender, sage, cilantro, basil, thyme, dill

raspberries
peach tree

grapes and blackberries

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Chicken Piccata

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I haven't blogged in a while so I came up with this meal so  that I could pull out the camera and let you guys peer into my culinary adventures. I looked through some cook books and came across a Tyler Florence recipe for veal piccata.  The Dutchess doesn't do veal, so I changed it to chicken. First I split, then pounded the chicken breasts. I dredged it in seasoned flour... Then a quick egg bath. Next they went, one at a time, into the cast iron till they were golden brown. I put them in the microwave, not turned on, to help keep them warm while the other 2 cooked. I cooked some pasta, and started to make the sauce. The photo isn't too appealing, but make no mistake, this was delicious.  I deglazed the cast iron with  white wine, lemon juice and capers and reduced it to concentrate the flavor. I plated, on our new white plates, simply by mounding the pasta then placing the chicken on it...
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Chicken Wings 3 ways

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I carefully choose flavors to create a marinade for my baked wings (first way), set up this photo, combined them perfectly in a bowl.  I went to add the last ingredient, and right at the very last instant, I thought...you know, I've had this for a LONG time.  I wonder when it expires?  4 months ago!!! Hence the red X.  My wife is VERY particular when it comes to food expiration dates.   By the way...How can they possibly know the EXACT date that it will spoil and no longer be edible?????? These wings got baked in the oven with this orient inspired marinade. Corn starch and French's fried onion battered wings (2nd way) were up next.  The corn starch puts such a nice crisp on anything fried, so I mixed some in with some flour.  flour/egg&milk/fried onion was the dredge order.  Into the FryDaddy until..... they looked like THIS! Chicken wings 3rd way was a simple flour and corn starch dusting, fry, and put into a paper bag with some lemon ze...
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Library Cookbook: Jamie Oliver at Home: Pizza from scratch (dough and sauce)

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Zachary has been a great help in the kitchen lately.  I thought I'd start including him in a bit more of the cooking.  Here he is proudly posing by his first pizza creation! So the other day while trying to escape the oppressive heat here in Texas, Zachary and I were at storytime at the local library.  A friend of his was there too, so off they went to learn about dinosaurs.  This left me a bit of browsing time.  After looking at the cds, dvds, and kids books that I thought he might like, I stumbled upon the food section.  They had TONS of cookbooks.  Some old, some new. I checked of Jamie Oliver's At Home. I love his whole overall rustic, disheveled look, and the recipes in this book are quite rustic, hearty, earthy, and quite frankly a big hit. Among many other things, he had a section on pizzas.   Great time to get Zachary involved with making his own pizza. Dough recipe was time consuming, letting the yeast rise and all, but the crust turn...
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