This tropical place. KP and I discovered the New Orleans Orchid Society this afternoon by accident. It was like walking into a garden of wildly colorful birds. There must be time in the life I have ahead to become a master gardener of orchids. What gorgeous plants. They are the Mardi Gras of nature.
There was some kind of macaron holiday last week and I pulled out the old trusty recipe and made some Sounders’ fan macarons. The wild colors, I learned, were a foreshadowing of the flowers we’d find. And a huge thanks to Pereg for providing me with and endless supply of gluten-free flours, in this case, almond flour!
We have a lot of veggies from our CSA and our backyard and the summer is calling us to grill a couple times a week. These two cookbooks feature recipes for “real ingredients” cooking.
Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs
Adapted from Real Life Dinners
1 ½ pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast/thighs
1 red bell pepper
1 cucumber or yellow squash
3 cups of pineapple chunks
Terikyaki Sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp ginger, fresh, minced
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup brown sugar
2 TB rice vinegar
2 TB mirin
Make the teriyaki sauce by combined all the ingredients into a sauce pan and simmer until reduced and thickened, probably 20 minutes.
While the sauce is simmer, prepare the chicken, veggies and pineapple onto skewers. Preheat your grill and before cooking, brush about ½ cup of the sauce over the surface of the kabobs. Cook for about 8-10 minutes per side until they are browned and carmelized. Yum.
Peanut-Miso Kale Chips
Adapted from 100% Real Food by Sam Talbot.
This recipe requires several delicious spices that I recently received from Spice Island—delicious!
Also to make these chips you need peanut butter and I decided to experiment with PBFit, a powder peanut butter that is a little less fatty than the real thing and tastes great. Goes well in smoothies in particular, I think.
