Yummy Lemon Chicken

I wondered what would be for supper last night. I looked in the refrigerator and saw two thawed chicken breasts, and off to the side, a can of chick peas. I went to food.com, which used to be recipezaar, and entered these two ingredients in the search box. I looked at some of the recipes to get some inspiration.

I tried the special search methods at food.com, but they are not half as good as they search methods that were on recipezaar. But, I have digressed.

DH suggested slicing the chicken a certain way, and I wasn't sure what he meant until he did it. He cut them lengthwise so that there were now four pieces, each about half as thick as the original pieces. I placed them in a large skillet with some olive oil, pushed the pieces around to spread the oil, and proceeded to cook them very slowly. I got the bag of cilantro from the freezer and put some in with the chicken. I added the pulpy juice of two lemons, plus a couple dashes each of turmeric, cumin, and sea salt, and put a lid on it.

About this time, DH made up a rice blend and started it off in the rice cooker. It tastes good with any kind of rice - plain or a rice blend.

The chickpea can was half full, and I rinsed and drained them several times. I also poured about 3 ounces of pimento stuffed olives into a small colander, and rinsed them a few times. These I added to the skillet and covered it to simmer a while, turning the chicken pieces over occasionally.

The house smelled so good!

Here's the finished meal:

Just a heads-up: The juice of two lemons doesn't sound like much, but the lemon flavor is very strong and tart. I like bold flavors, and DH likes spicy flavors. A little diversity in the kitchen is good!

Evidence of Activity in the Sewing Room

From s 9958

That's all I can say for my sewing mojo right now -- that there is evidence of activity in the sewing room ...

I came in just in time!

I got my ration of sunlight yesterday and today. Not five minutes after coming back in today, it started to rain. That's a good thing, since it was over 90 degrees (F) outside, so maybe it will cool down a little bit.

I very rarely use sunscreen, but please do not worry that I might get a sunburn. I have built up my resistance to the sun by getting my tan slowly. I'm not very dark at all, but my skin shows great contrast to a white wall, for example. I like to get my share of vitamin D while preparing my skin for kayak outings (which we haven't done for a couple months due to the extreme heat).

I start each year as the cool weather turns to warm (OK, this IS Florida, so I must really mean Hot). As weather permits, I lay out in the back yard on Saturdays and Sundays in the middle of the day. At first, I limit my time to five minutes on my front and five minutes on my back. I work up to 20 minutes each. I use a small kitchen timer for the five-minute increments, or a cell phone's timer function for the 10-minute increments.

For an extra vitamin D punch, I slather my body with pure coconut oil, either before or after my "tanning" session. I also take vitamin D pills year-round.

I'm glad the weather is starting to cool off. We are looking forward to more kayaking. With my built-in sunscreen (aka, tan), I come back from kayaking with no burn. Yes, I also wear a big-brimmed hat to cut down glare!

Road Trip

We went on a road trip today. It wasn't just any road trip -- it was a trip to visit our daughter. It was also a motorcycle ride on our new bike. It's a Yamaha 1700 Roadstar Silverado, which has an engine more than twice the size of the old bike. The main thing about it is that it actually likes to go fast on the highway. The old bike preferred to go slow (think 15 mph through the mobile home park - THAT kind of slow - argh).

We left Daytona at 6:25 and arrived in Tampa at 9:25, after a breakfast stop and a gas stop. We went to our daughter's apartment, then she drove us to Wat Tampa, which is a Buddhist temple. Specifically, we went for the "Sunday Market" which happens every week, and consists of temple members selling food to raise funds for the temple. The link to tell about is it here.

We had green curry chicken and chicken salad, which were both spicy, and we also had pumpkin curry and fried rice, which were not spicy. Our beverages were bottled water, Thai iced tea, and mountain dew (for DD). For dessert we got egg custard with pumpkin pieces in it and fried bananas which were coated with a sesame-seed enhanced dough. Everything was really yummy.

We went back to our daughter's apartment and visited for a short while, then we rode the bike to Clearwater to visit with some old friends (take That for a double meaning!). After visiting with them for a while, we headed on back home.

We went through some light rain a couple times, and stopped at Little Saigon in Orlando for supper. We also got some "good rice" at the oriental market next door. These are the two "must stop" locations for us in Orlando.

We got back home just before 7 pm, and our dog Marco was really ready for his supper and evening walk. After a long day, I'm surprised that neither DH nor I have "crashed" yet.