Mamma Mia this was good!  Oh Hi, I got a little side tracked as I was looking at the pictures from last night’s supper.  Before I left for work, I took out some chicken breasts ( bone-in and skinless) for supper.  These big morsels of flesh turned into something…. well AMAZING.

As you know from reading the blog (or not), I am not one to toot my own horn about something really being ridiculously good but I h ave to say the combination of apricots and lemon jazzed up with some fresh ginger made a bland chicken breast SING.  To go along with the chicken, Mrs. Zesty made a trip to the market and snagged some yummy sweet corn and a few sweet potatoes.  A little heavy on the starch but oh my I was happy.

Here is the way this went down.  About 5 minutes to prepare all this stuff and about 20-25 to grill everything off.  I first prepared the glaze for the chicken and lubed up the corn with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

Ingredients

• Chicken Breasts ( Bone-In skinless )
• 2 Tbsp. Hoisin sauce
• 3 Tbsp. Apricot preserves
• 1/2 Tsp. Grated ginger
• 1/2 Tsp. Black pepper
• Juice of 1 lemon ( grate zest in as well )
• 4 Cobs of corn
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive oil

Method

1. Preheat grill to medium heat
2. In a bowl, combine hoisin sauce, apricot preserves, pepper, ginger and lemon and mix together
3. Place chicken on top of grill and let sear on first side.  Once the grilling has started, I start basting the chicken with the sauce because it is up off the direct heat and will not burn.





4. Turning the chicken once, after about 10-12 minutes, continue to baste the other side, slathering it on.  You can do no harm.



5. For the corn, husk the corn and prepare them for the grill
6. Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and place directly on grill.  Stay close as they will brown up quickly.  Once they begin to brown, give them a quarter turn and continue all the way around.  Once they are all golden brown to your liking, place them up top to ensure they cook through.
7. Once chicken and corn are complete – you are ready to roll.
8. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: When cooking chicken on the grill, the best word of advice is cook it up top on the grill or using in direct heat.  Especially if you want to use a glaze with sugar like I did.  Otherwise the outside will burn burn burn and the inside will be undercooked and squawking at you.

On a different front…. check out the new grass. It is coming in excellent after just 4-5 weeks. I already cut it once and it needs to be mowed again. I just had to show you.

I hope you have a great Wednesday. After work I am going to cook with a very “popular” chef for a piece at the annual potato festival. I will fill you in with all the details on Friday.

Take care

zesty

OK, before I begin let me apologize and explain for my whereabouts last Friday and my lack of post. Let’s just say that last week was a long week with a lot of traveling and a few wrinkles a long the way. On Thursday afternoon I left West Virginia and had a pit stop in Chicago before boarding to Toronto and doing an overnight before flying home on Friday morning.

The first flight from West Virginia started off about an hour late which started to have me worry a little bit because my time in O’Hare was tightening up and I am not familiar with that airport. After studying the map of the airport I knew my time was going to be tight. I started on foot and pretty much ran for the gate through the maze of people and boarded the plane as pretty much the last person but with time to spare. I am sweating by this time, so I get settled into my seat and crank on the cool air. Little did I know that I would be sitting in this seat on the runway for about 2 hrs and 15 minutes waiting to take off.  Grrrr but you know I have so much patience I just let it roll off my back and think positive.

All of a sudden, the captain comes over the air “Flight attendants, prepare for take off”. We are ready to go! A few minutes elapse, and we are not moving and all of a sudden I feel the plane doing a u turn and leaving the runway. I am slightly perplexed but assume everyone has everything under control. A minute later the captain comes over the air “Ladies and gentleman, at United air we are committed to offering superior service and safety to all our flights and at this point I cannot continue flying this plane. I just found out my Dad has passed away and I cannot fly. I will take you back to the gate and we will look at getting another captain”.  I say to myself… Holy shit – I cannot be mad – this is awful.  Meanwhile we are waiting for another captain but are soon to find out the flight is canceled. At this point there are about 300 people looking for a new flight and a hotel as there are no more flights to Toronto this late in the day.

Now the fun begins…. I am starving and cannot wait in the line, it is damn well huge. I wander around and get a snack and come back- all the while I call my travel agent and she works her magic as always (Thanks Christine) and I am booked on a flight in the am. But now I need a hotel. I am hot, sweaty, hungry and soon to be cranky but not there yet. Finally I get a hotel and take the shuttle back to the room and order a pizza. All is well but I am pretty tired at this time – since it is midnight and the flight was supposed to depart at 6:31pm.  Oh dear.

Zesty Meets Elvis

Well not literally, but I was in Tupelo, MS last week and was within 3 miles of Elvis’ birthplace so I thought I would take a visit before driving to Alabama.  There was a park, museum, his old homestead and a souvenir shop.  I snapped a few pictures on my smart phone ( apologize for the quality ) and picked up a couple of gifts for the family.

I am not a huge Elvis fan but being so close  – I just had to pop in for a visit.

Teriyaki Salmon

Saturday night, I was shopping at the grocery store and I was super hungry….. bad idea I know but look at what I found.  At the sushi section, I was poking my nose around when this little gourmet bowl looked up at me.

Teritaki salmon with a top some julienne carrots and sticky rice.  The salmon had a lite coating of teriyaki flavor as well as a variety of toasted sesame seeds and a sporadic green onion.  I was all over this in a heartbeat.  At $6.00 for a ready made meal, it was fair for sure considering all of the other fast food I could have picked.  As soon I got home, I ripped off the lid and popped this in the microwave for 2 minutes and I was a happy boy.

The salmon was flavorful, juicy and the carrots were crunchy.  The sticky rice was just that.  I loved it.  It was such a hit that I went back to pick up a couple more.  One for Mrs. zesty and one for today’s lunch.

Well that was a long winded post but I felt I had to enlighten you with my “luck” while traveling and I just had to share both Elvis and the salmon.  Have a super Monday and I will share some more words with you on hump day.

Take care

zesty