"Finger Licking Good" Orange Glazed Chicken

Welcome to Summer! This menu began with the “Everyday Foods” Great American Summer, June 2012 edition. We both drooled ourselves through this magazine and decided to combine several of the published recipes into one, (what turned out to be an absolutely fantastic), meal.

Sue strongly suggested starting the afternoon with an Italian obsession she first sampled in a small trattoria a couple of blocks from the Spanish steps in Rome. The color is what first attracted her to the drink, and the taste won her over completely. Meg is now a convert. Get yourself a bottle of Aperol and a bottle of Prosecco and be a convert, too!  Even if you have never been to Italy, having this cocktail with the slightly bitter orange of the Aperol and the bubbly Prosecco will transport you to a side walk café. We enjoyed it on Sue’s front porch in the shade with a nice breeze cooling off the warm afternoon. If we closed our eyes and pretended really hard, we were transported to Italy.

Italian Spritz

Aperol Spritz: 3 parts Prosecco, 2 parts Aperol, 1 splash club soda, slice of orange
 
So, do Italians do barbeque? This requires further investigation, which we are willing to do. In the meantime, this was an excellent way to start the first of our summer meals.

As a side note, we are happy to report that unlike some of our previous blogs, nothing was an emergency purchase (i.e., Friday night); no stress, no worries about untoward jubilation in the produce aisles.

Sticky Orange Glazed Chicken Thighs

Sticky Orange-Glazed Chicken Thighs

Recipe source: Everyday Food, June 2012

Cook Time:  50 min
Level:  Easy
Serves:  4 servings

Ingredients

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Coarse salt and pepper
1 cup thawed orange juice concentrate
1 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp. light-brown sugar
4 tsp. white-wine vinegar
4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. hot sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 450, with rack in upper third. Season chicken with salt and pepper and arrange, skin side down, on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until deep golden brown and cooked through, 45 to 50 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine 1 tsp. salt, juice concentrate, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook until mixture has thickened, 18 to 20 minutes.

Heat broiler. Transfer chicken to a large bowl, add glaze, and toss to coat. Drain off fat from sheet. Return chicken to sheet and broil until sauce is bubbling and chicken is dark brown in spots, 1 to 2 minutes.

Weight Watchers: 12 points for 4 servings, 6 points for 8 servings

Snow Pea Salad

Snow Pea Salad with Shallot and Tarragon

Recipe source: Everyday Food, June 2012

Prep Time:  20 min
Level:  Easy
Serves:  4 servings

To speedily slice snow peas into ribbons, stack several pods and cut them all together. The strips don’t have to be perfect.

Ingredients

2 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. champagne or white-wine vinegar
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp. minced shallot
1 pound snow peas, thinly sliced lengthwise
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh tarragon

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk together mustard, vinegar, and oil; season with salt and pepper. Add shallot, snow peas, and tarragon and combine. (To store, refrigerate, covered up to 6 hours.)

Weight Watchers: 5 points

Herbed Potao Salad

Herbed Potato Salad

Recipe source: Everyday Food, June 2012

Prep Time:  30 min
Level:  Easy
Serves:  8 servings

Ingredients

2 ½ pounds small Yukon Gold potatoes
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
6 scallions, thinly sliced
¼ cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup low fat plain yogurt
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

In a medium pot, bring potatoes to a boil in salted water over high. Reduce to a simmer and cook until tender when pierced with a fork, about 15 minutes. Drain and let cool briefly.

Halve the potatoes (quarter if large) and add to a large bowl along with parsley, scallions, mayonnaise, yogurt, and lemon juice. Toss and season with salt and pepper. To store, cover and refrigerate up to 8 hours.

Weight Watchers: 4 points

The One Man Band Zinfandel

The One Man Band, The County Fair, Sonoma County Zinfandel 2010, Trader Joe's, $8.99

Thanks to Tim, at our local Trader Joe's, for the excellent wine suggestion. It was perfect with the meal!

Raspberries with Chambord

Recipe developed by Sue

For  Saturday Night Specials 6/16/2012

Prep Time:  10 min
Level:  Easy
Serves:  2-3 servings

Ingredients

1 – 6 ounce packages of fresh raspberries
1 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp. orange juice
2 ½  Tbsp. powdered sugar
6 tsp. Chambord (raspberry liqueur)

Directions

In a bowl large enough to hold the raspberries, whisk the Chambord, orange juice and powdered sugar until well incorporated. Take one raspberry and dip into mixture. Taste for sweetness. Add more powdered sugar or  Chambord  if necessary. Whisk again.

Add orange zest and whisk to blend. Add raspberries and gently turn in sugar-Chambord mixture. Refrigerate covered until ready to serve.

Weight Watchers: 5 points without the frozen yogurt

Raspberries with Chambord and Orange

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

After tasting the barbeque sauce, we decided to add the zest of one small orange. We highly recommend this change. The zest enhanced the orange flavor of the sauce.  We opted to cook the chicken at 375, on a wire rack inside of a foil lined cookie sheet, skin side up, for about 30 minutes before the first basting with the sauce. We basted again after 5 minutes, then raised the rack and turned on the broiler. We were really happy with the results. We used Sriracha for the hot sauce component in the recipe. This is our preferred hot sauce. If you prefer less spice, use Tabasco, or leave out the hot sauce altogether.

We loved the contrast of the mustard vinaigrette with the sweetness and crisp texture of the snow peas. Nothing to change here. We gave the flavors a chance to marry for about an hour in the refrigerator, without losing any of the freshness of the peas.

For the potato salad, we substituted 1 tablespoon of fresh minced dill, one half minced shallot and about 2 tablespoons minced chives for the scallions and parsley.  Use your choice of fresh herbs. The yogurt and mayonnaise combination is rich and tangy. This may become our potato salad dressing of choice.

Sue surprised Meg with what we are now calling the “Lick-the-bowl Raspberry Delight” desert. The combination of the Chambord, orange zest, raspberries, and the Haagen Dazs Vanilla Frozen Yogurt with Raspberry Swirl was so over the top!! What a perfect ending to a great meal.