Lime and Chili Rubbed Chicken Breasts

Molly has been recommending this recipe to me for quite awhile and I finally had all the ingredients plus good grilling weather all at the same time.

It's delicious and could not be easier!

2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated lime peel
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lb)
2 teaspoons olive or canola oil

• Heat gas or charcoal grill. In small bowl, mix chili powder, brown sugar, lime peel, salt, garlic powder and ground red pepper. Rub both sides of chicken with oil, then with spice mixture.
• Place chicken on grill over medium heat. Cover grill; cook 10 to 15 minutes, turning once or twice, until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut (170°F).

Refrigerating the "rubbed" chicken 20 to 30 minutes before grilling really enhances the flavor.

You can bake the chicken. Place the rubbed chicken in a foil-lined shallow baking pan and bake in a 375°F oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

NOTES:

• I dipped the first piece into the spices and it picked up way too much.  Lesson: rub, not dip.
• Make extra pieces and serve it cold on salad.  You'll be glad you did!
• Source

Corned beef and cabbage

SERVES 6 TO 8

Use flat-cut corned beef brisket, not point-cut; it’s more uniform in shape and thus will cook more evenly. When slicing the cabbage, leave the core intact or the cabbage will fall apart during cooking.

INGREDIENTS

1 (4- to 5-pound) corned beef brisket roast, rinsed, fat trimmed to 1/4 inch thick
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 cups water
12 carrots, peeled (3 chopped, 9 halved crosswise)
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 onion, peeled and quartered
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon whole allspice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes
1 head green cabbage (2 pounds), cut into 8 (2-inch) wedges
Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine beef, broth, water, chopped carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme, and allspice in Dutch oven. Cover and bake until fork slips easily in and out of meat, 4½ to 5 hours.

2. Transfer meat to 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Strain cooking liquid through fine-mesh strainer into large bowl, discard solids, and skim fat from liquid. Pour 1 cup cooking liquid over meat. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and let rest for 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, return remaining cooking liquid to Dutch oven, add butter, and bring to simmer over medium-high heat. Add potatoes and simmer until they begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Add carrot halves and cabbage, cover, and cook until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer vegetables to serving platter and season with pepper to taste. (Reserve cooking liquid for making Creamed Chipped Beef using leftover corned beef; recipe at right.)

4. Transfer beef to carving board and slice against grain into ¼-inch-thick slices. Serve with vegetables.

NOTES:

• This was really outstanding!  I started with a better than average piece of meat from Costco, so there was less fat to begin with, but even so, letting it rest while the veggies were cooking made it easy to slice nicely without the falling apart tendency I get when I cook it in the crock pot.
• I did not add carrots to the beginning step (to be discarded later)
• I also did not add the extra spices called for, since the spice packet with the meat seemed comparable. 
• In particular, cooking the vegetables later made for really great texture and a not over salty flavor.  
• I'd definitely do it this way again.
• Source: Cook's Country

A Water Upgrade

In a moment of weakness and dire thirst, I recently decided it was worth the buck and a half to get one of these delicious MetroMint products.  They really are very good, but when I got home and still had a partial bottle left over, I tried a little (very little) experiment and made my own version.  In a side-by-side taste test, I couldn't tell the difference.  Since then, I've been making this "recipe" pretty regularly, even to the point of washing out the bottle and reusing it for the rotation (one batch there and another in my beloved water bottle - one always cooling in the fridge and the other travelling with me).

Note: the only remotely "hard" thing about this process is measuring one drop.  I do have a bottle of doTERRA's Wild Orange with a convenient dropper lid, and I've tried a variety of things with the mint including covering the bottle opening with my finger, tipping it and then just sticking my finger in the water.  "Home Economist Sue" does not recommend this.  "Practical, I'm only making it for my own consumption Sue", does.

Paczki

While you kids possibly never had any traditional Polish food at Grandma Rose's house,* I do remember once or twice having some version of Paczki.  When she said it, it sounded a little different (like there was an "n" in the word), but that was probably just an ethnic accent sounding on my MN ears.

Anyway, I was just reading Brown Eyed Baker's recipe and the light came on that this is what Grandma was doing!  Hers were not filled and were rolled in granulated sugar.  She rolled the dough into little balls by hand before letting them rise and I'm positive no actual recipe was involved, but if any of you kids are looking for "a traditional Polish dish that Grandma used to make," this is probably as close as you're going to come (unless we can get Barb to actually write something down someday**).

*I have theories about why, but that's another conversation.
   I'm guessing fried cheese doesn't count.

**Not gonna happen.

White Bread

Pretty much perfect white bread!

*Makes 2 loaves

INGREDIENTS
3 cups luke-warm water
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoon yeast
1/3 cup oil
1 Tablespoon salt
6 - 7 cups unbleached ground white wheat flour (you can use regular all-purpose bleached flour with success as well. It will make a softer, less-coarse bread. You will need more all-purpose flour... closer to 8 cups.)
*opt. 1 Tbsp. vital wheat gluten (if using whole white wheat flour, to aid the dough in rising, and not falling when baked.)

DIRECTIONS
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and sugar. Let sit 10 minutes. Add the oil. Add the salt and flour starting with 6 cups of flour. Mix all together. Knead the dough thoroughly until all ingredients are incorporated, and dough is smooth, elastic, very slightly sticky, and pulls away from the bowl (6-10 minutes). As you knead the dough, you may add more flour as needed, and repeat the process until dough reaches the desired consistency.

Cover the bowl of dough with a dish towel or plastic wrap and let rise until doubled (an hour or more depending on how warm your kitchen is.) You may speed up this process by placing the covered bowl inside the oven with the oven light on, and another bowl of warm water sitting on the lower rack.

Punch the dough down, divide and and form into 2 loaves. Place the dough in 2 greased bread pans. (I use 9" pans.) Cover and let rise until the top of the dough is an inch or two higher than the bread pans.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove the baked loaves from their pans immediately, and place on a cooling rack. Slice, and serve warm with butter and honey.

Store in an air-tight bag. Baked loaves AND bread dough freeze well.

NOTES:

• Source  (Thanks to Donna S. for her very high recommendation!)
• I tried the all white flour version and it was pretty excellent.  Soft enough for sandwiches even!
• It rose way quicker than expected (especially on the 2nd rising) so my loaves were amazonian.  No picture this time, but even with that the texture was excellent.

Powdered Laundry Detergent

1 c. Borax

1 c. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 bar of laundry soap, grated (I used Fels Neptha)

• Grate the laundry bar.  
• Add the Borax and washing soda, mix it together and put into an airtight container. 

Use 1-2 T. per load.  I use 2T. on really dirty loads and 1T. for the lighter stuff.  Translation?  2T. on the kids’ clothes and 1T. on mine.

Source
Notes:

• I used a bar of Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap the first time (thanks, Trader Joe's!).  It grated nicely and had a pleasant, kind of minty smell.  Looks like they make other scents as well.  This time I used Fels Naptha just to try it out and because I can get it any any Walmart or grocery store around here for under a buck.  Either works.
• I used my food processor to grate the soap - fine shredder blade, going slowly to grate it as fine as possible.
• Then I switched to the chopping blade in the bowl and added the other 2 ingredients.  This made everything an even finer consistency and mixed it.
• I'm storing it in a mason jar with a dedicated tablespoon measure.
• I'm kind of liking this version better than the other liquid recipe I've made for the past year or so.  It's much less trouble to make and store.  The ingredients are identical, so it seems to work just as well for me.

Grandma Rose's Veggie Dip

1 c sour cream
1 c salad dressing (Miracle Whip)
2 tsp. seasoned salt
2 tbls. parsley
2 tsp. chopped onion
2 tsp. dill weed

Mix.  Enjoy.

I forgot how delicious this is! Tangy and dilly!