Suzanne's Chicken

Last year, we had the opportunity to have an exchange student. She was from Cameroon and we learned so many things from her. It was an awesome experience that I would highly recommend! She taught me how to make one of her favorite chicken dishes. This has become a staple at our home, not only is it very yummy but it is easy to prepare and uses all fresh ingredients. (She said once while watching me use canned tomato sauce that no one from Africa trusts food that they can't see.) :) Here is what you'll need:

*2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips
*Olive Oil (enough to coat your pan)
*About 10 large tomatoes, quartered
*2 cloves of garlic, minced
*1 onion, chopped
*1/2 cup chopped parsley
*2 carrots cut into thin strips
*Seasoning of choice for the chicken (she used garlic salt and season all, but we prefer to use other things)
*Hot sauce
*Salt

(Unfortunately, she was a very good cook and just added "dashes" and seemed to cook by smell. It was fun to watch, but difficult to duplicate. Here is what I do, my husband claims he can't tell the difference.)

Begin by quartering your tomatoes and chopping your onion and throwing them both right into a medium sized pot. Turn the heat to medium and just cook them down, stirring occasionally. Season your chicken strips with your seasoning of choice. Fry them in the olive oil in a large pan and set aside. Cook the garlic in the remaining olive oil until fragrant. Add carrots and parsley and cook for a couple of minutes. By this time your tomatoes and onion should be cooked all the way down to a "sauce" texture. Pour the sauce into the pan and mix well. Add the chicken back in also. Season with salt and hot sauce to your liking and simmer on low until the carrots are cooked through. Serve with pasta or rice. I really like this dish with coconut rice and a green salad. Enjoy!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop

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For the Love of Gardening

There it is, the first blossom on my Fuji apple tree.

I am not an accomplished gardener...yet.  But I aspire to be... to be able to feed my sweet family nourishing, organic produce out of our very own garden.  I've learned that it is not enough to just have aspirations... I am going to actually have to know what I'm doing.  Soil testing, composting, thinning seedlings, rotating crops... there is a lot to know. 

This is our third year planting a vegetable garden.  The last two years have been an even balance of successes and failures.  I've had great success with all of our herbs (rosemary, sage, parsley, chives, basil, thyme and oregano) and with crookneck squash.  Mild successes have come with carrots, cherry tomatoes, zucchini and sugar pumpkins; and I've had nothing but complete failure with sweet corn, watermelon, bell pepper, leeks, scallions and butternut squash. 

My goal this year is to have my tomatoes flourish.  Saturday, at our local farmers market, we came across some gorgeous beefsteaks.  After talking with the grower I learned the reason for the splitting of my tomatoes last year was due to inconsistent watering.  It's not enough to just have them on a drip-line and water them every-other day~ they must be watered daily.  Because of the high heat during the summer here (upwards of 105° on the bad days) my tomatoes would plump up on watering day and shrivel under the sun the next.  Apparently after so many times of this the splitting occurs.   I am planning to learn to "can" my veggies this fall and tomatoes were what fueled this desire so I will need them in quantity, and quality.  I am also going to plant my tomatoes in separate planters this year to more easily customize my care for them. 

I am also excited about my strawberry patch this year.  I planted 16 ever-bearing transplants last spring but we only harvested about 50 strawberries.  The owner of the local nursery where I purchased them told me not to expect a large crop the first year and to make sure I cut away any of the "daughter" plants that tried to take root.  At the end of last season I let the vines go and several more plants have secured themselves in the soil. I truly have a strawberry patch now, with seemingly hundreds of buds flowering.  And when I caught a glance of my first few berries starting to ripen I couldn't help but think of my favorite spinach and strawberry salad with homemade vinegarette dressing (recipe to be posted soon).  I love gardening!

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