Cheapskate Rural Dweller

This week's menu: Barbecued Chicken with an Asparagus/Mushroom/Caulliflower Medley

Back out on the grill for this week's menu with a strong barbecued chicken entree served with a nice medley side dish. All prepared on the grill, no pots or pans to wash!

Recipes at the links below.

DINNER: Barbecued Chicken

SUPER SIDE: Garlic Asparagus/Mushroom/Cauliflower Medley

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Garlic Herb Barbecued Chicken

Every now and again, I try to hit the sweet spot with chicken on the barbecue. Sometimes I'm successful (like my chicken 'wings' style thighs that I need to post someday) and others not so much.

This week, I'm at the upper end of the successful range. Not quite perfect but, still, a solid entree.

When cooking chicken, I like to use thighs. They're juicier and have more flavor than breasts and have more meat than drumsticks.

I have a butcher at the Original Hollywood Farmer's Market who will even debone them for me without removing the skin...these are best of all (it's easy to find boneless/skinless thighs but most meat counters don't leave the skin on). Ask your local butcher if they'll do this for you.

INGREDIENTS

6 chicken thigs, skin on
1 Cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon garlic infused olive oil
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 hot red chiles (like Thai chiles)
2 tablespoons poultry rub

Put the buttermilk and chiles into a blender. In a sealable bowl, marinated the chicken in the buttermilk/chile mixture overnight.

Before cooking, drain off the marinade. Sprinkle the thighs on both sides with the salt and pepper. Apply the rub.

On a charcoal gril, cook on each side for 3 minutes each, covered. Move to indirect heat, cook for 6-8 minutes on each side, making sure all the juices running out are clear.

Move back, skin side down, to the direct heat. Cook for 5 minutes, watching carefully for flareups and moving to another part of the grill when they happen. This last step will make the skin extra crispy.

Cover with foil and rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

SUPER SIDES: Garlic Asparagus Mushroom Cauliflower Medley

Super easy...

Cut up five spears of asparagus, half a head of cauliflower, and four button mushrooms plus a teaspoon of minced garlic.

Now cook using our basic barbecued vegetables recipe.

Darryl

The Battle Aftermath...Mopping up Pockets of Resistance

After the carpet bombing of the dandelion invasion a couple of weeks ago, I think I can go back to a more organic, manual battle of the weeds.

See those pretty yellow flowers at the top? They're evil. Evil, I tell you.

Left alone, by the afternoon they will be a cloud of weed seed on a stalk. A slightest breeze will set hundreds of seeds loose across your lawn and it seems like they have a germination rate of 99.9%

So, now that I've hit 'em hard with poison, here's the two-prong approach to dandelion control...

Every time I cross the lawn, if I see those flowers, they're plucked and thrown away immediately.

Secondly, each time I head out to garden, I've set a goal of uprooting a minimum of 12 plants.

I stick the blade of the hoe in at the edge of the plant...

...push it in with my foot, lever it up and pull it out by the roots.

Since I'm about to mow the lawn, I just toss it on the ground to suck it up with the mower.

Today, I got 17 uprooted. We'll see how this new strategy goes.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Repelling a Chinese Invasion

I don't grow them but my neighbors on each side of me do. That would be the Chinese elm.

They're pretty trees but their seeds go everywhere and make stubborn seedlings.

Those weeds can be tough to pull out with their deep roots. I've got this one next to the driveway, so I need to get it out right away.

The hoe just isn't getting it done. There's something hard underground that bends the blade.

I dig in deeper and find it's not a seedling but a sprout coming up from a thick root. I get the loppers and cut each end.

After fighting for several minutes, I get it out. Just look at the size of that root.

Darryl
Copyright 216 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

...and Away We Go!

Time to plant the seeds for this year's vegetable garden. My son helped me pick out this year's crop and we're going start them in this biodegradable seed tray.

We'll make a thumb print and a hole in each one and put in two seeds.

Two types of corn, bell peppers, broccoli, tomatoes, squash, and Tuscan melon...just because I've never been successful with sweet melons before.

Water them in...

Passages

I've been avoiding cutting back the cara cara orange tree while it was producing fruit but it's been blocking access to our back yard.

Now that we've harvested the fruit, it's no problem. Just use the walkway as a guide.

Just in the nick of time as the next crop is starting...the flowers will soon be open and looking for bees.