Grilled Chicken with Key Lime and Greek Seasoning Marinade

Tonight's dinner was super yummy if I do say so myself. I got a great deal on some chicken leg quarters (.99¢ a pound) and I marinated 2 of them in 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed key lime juice and generously sprinkled them all over with a Greek seasoning blend. My in-laws brought us a bottle of Greek Spices from the Old Towne Grille & Seafood restaurant in Charleston, S.C. You can order your own greek spice blend from them at www.oldtownegrill.com. I had the hubby cook the chicken (and a green bell pepper for tomorrow night's roasted pepper sauce) on our little charcoal grill while I made some beer bread, steamed the fresh corn on the cob, and made some sweet iced tea. I rounded out dinner with baby carrots for the kids and some green salad for me and the husband.

Want to try a new and fabulous iced tea idea? Make 3/4 of a gallon of iced tea (sweet or unsweet), add a bottle of peach nectar and a little lemon juice to taste, mix it up and serve it over lots of ice! Delicious and refreshing.

The kids split another of the individual key lime pies I made yesterday for dessert, but I was too full to have any.

We are planning on grilling some amazing ribs for 4th of July and attending the fireworks show they do out over the water here. Do you have any special plans for Independence Day? I think we might also make some strawberry ice cream this weekend. Stay safe and have fun!

Crab Corn Chowder and Beer Bread

We are having some friends over for dinner and I am so excited! Today's recipe was adapted from a book called "Salsa Cooking" by Marjie Lambert. My husband has had this cookbook since before we met and this is our favorite recipe from it, but this is how we have made it over the years, not as it appears in the book.


1 onion, chopped
butter or olive oil
1 qt. of chicken broth
3 C of salsa (favorite fresh variety)
1-2 C of frozen kernel corn
1/2 red bell pepper
1 C half and half
1/2 tsp salt
white pepper to taste
1 C sour cream (or plain greek yogurt)
1 lb fresh cooked crab meat
cilantro and green onions for garnish


Melt some butter or heat some olive oil in a stock pot, sautee the chopped onion. While onion is sweating put a rimmed baking sheet under the broiler and roast the corn and the half of a red bell pepper. Check vegetables often and when red bell pepper becomes blistered and blackened remove from under broiler, place in a container with a lid and close it up for 5-10 minutes, then remove most of skin, chop and add to onions in the pan. Continue cooking corn until brown spots begin to appear. Add salsa to onions, add corn and stir, add chicken broth and bring all to a boil for 1 minute. Then let soup simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on, slightly ajar. Add half and half, sour cream, crabmeat and stir together to heat, but do not boil as you can curdle the dairy. Serve in bowls garnished with cilantro (or parsley of cilantro is unavailable) and chopped green onions. Serve with beer bread, cornbread, tortillas, or chips.

I use the Farmgirl Fare beer bread recipe and it is a good one! I had to modify it today because I was down to my last 2 1/2 C of whole wheat flour and I had no all purpose to speak of, so I subbed in some bread flour. I also added 1 C of 4 cheese Mexican blend shredded cheese to the mix. It smells WONDERFUL in here.

And last but not least my husband prepared Alton Brown's Frozen Blueberry Pie for our guests today and that is baking up right now. I hope you all have a nice Sunday with your friends and family.

Beef Stew and Beer Bread!

I love my pressure cooker. I think I have mentioned that here before oh, maybe eleventy million times. I did have a big hunk of roast beast to deal with today, a beef round tip roast. It was approximately the size of 2 regulation basketballs put together. We got 2 nice sized roasts out of it and 3 bags (at 1 pound each) of stew meat. We had just under a pound of meat left so that went into tonight's stew.

This is the basic preparation method.

Dredge stew meat pieces in seasoned flour (salt and pepper). Then brown it in 1 TB of oil in your pressure cooker. Let the meat really sit there and sear to get the maximum flavor. Turn and let the other side brown as well. To this add 1 small chopped onion, 2 C of beef broth (or water, or water with a bullion cube in it) 1 TB of Worcestershire sauce, a couple of shakes of liquid smoke (optional), and a tsp of dried marjoram. Put the lid on your pressure cooker and bring it up to high pressure for 15 minutes. Release the pressure and add your choice of stew vegetables. Add any or all of the following, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, celery, garlic, mushrooms, green beans, hunks of zucchini, yellow squash, and 1 can of diced tomatoes (or of course, fresh chopped tomato in season). Put the lid back on and then bring up to high pressure for 5 more minutes. The stew is ready in about 30 minutes total and tastes like it simmered all day!

Easy Peasy Beer Bread:

3 C of flour (can be half and half white and whole wheat)
1 TB of sugar (optional)
1 t salt
1 TB of baking powder
1 12 oz bottle of beer
1 cup of finely grated cheese (I did 4 cheese Mexican blend)
2 tsp of chopped fresh or dried rosemary

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, add the beer, mix together and pour into a greased baking pan and bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. SUPER YUMMY! Bread is done in about an hour counting baking time! Please try it sometime, because it is quick and easy and delicious!