Smokin' Chicken Rub

Who is ready for BBQ season!?  We sure are!  In true PNW fashion, we still grill when it’s raining outside, and even in a windstorm, but it’s a heck of a lot more pleasant to grill in the sunshine.  One very windy morning this last winter, we lost power in the middle of cooking breakfast.  I was NOT going to let good bacon go to waste!  So, I fired up the BBQ and finished cooking breakfast on the grill.  I managed to keep the leaves from flying into the skillet and I didn't blow away.  Winning! 

Here’s a simple, smoky flavored rub that we love to have on hand.  Use on your favorite cut of chicken (we prefer skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs!) the next time you grill.

Keep any extra you have in a glass jar to save for later.

Smokin’ Chicken Rub

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp onion

2 tsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp smoked paprika

½ tsp chili powder

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.  Ta-Da!  Done.

Smokin' Chicken Thighs

Directions:

1. Drizzle your oil of choice over your chicken.
2. Sprinkle the rub over the chicken and rub into the meat.
3. Place the chicken on the BBQ and grill for approximately 20 minutes, or until the meat has reached an internal temperature of 165 F.  Turn chicken halfway through grilling.

Have you started grilling this season?

Ham & Root Veggie Cakes

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!  We hosted brunch at our house with family and friends.  At the center of the menu was a GIANT ham.  All 18.8 pounds.  Do you think we had enough for the 8 of us?  We were expecting more people, but hey.  Who doesn't love leftovers?  We love our local, small-town butcher, and just like the turkey we purchased from them at Thanksgiving, they did not disappoint.  I finished off the ham with a spiced maple dijon glaze that was lick-the-bowl good.

To accompany our monster ham, we served my Simple Breakfast Skillet, green beans with toasted almonds, Cinnamon Orange Scones, roasted red potatoes, asparagus salad, and Lemon-Blueberry Squares to round it all out.  It was a great day spent with wonderful people!  Now, you might be expecting a photo of the spread, but do you think I remembered to take one?  Of course not.  Sigh…  Just know that everything was delicious, and beautifully served with my Grandparent’s apple blossom china, silver and Fostoria crystal.  

In the end, we were left with over 10 pounds of ham.  Some went straight to the freezer (along with that massive ham bone!), some went home with our guests, and for the rest, I will just need to get creative!

First up are these Ham and Root Veggie Cakes! 

Ham & Root Veggie Cakes

Prep: 10 min, Cook: 30 min

Ingredients:

1 cup leftover ham, diced small

2 cups shredded sweet potatoes

1 cup shredded parsnips

3 eggs, whisked

3 Tbsp coconut flour

2 Tbsp chives, chopped

1 tsp salt (if your ham was rather salty, cut back on the salt here)

2 Tbsp coconut oil, and more as needed

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the coconut oil.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and melt 2 Tbsp of coconut oil.
3. When the pan is hot, scoop about 1/3 cup of the mixture and flatten in your hand to about the size of your palm. 
4. Place the cakes in the pan, careful to not overcrowd the pan, and cook for 3-5 minutes on each side until golden brown.
5. Add more coconut oil as necessary to keep the pan from getting dry.

Makes 12 cakes

So what did you serve this Easter?  Do you have a go-to recipe for using your leftovers?

Suzie

Cinnamon Orange Scones

A few weeks ago, I made Diane Sanfilippo’s lemon blueberry scones from her website, Balanced Bites.  They were SO GOOD, and the dough had a lovely moist texture.  Not that day-old, dried out texture you find with a lot of scones.  

Do yourself a favor and make them!  My non-paleo friends and my picky Dad enjoyed them just as much as I did. 

So, with dough that has proven to work, I had to play around with the flavors.  I loved the citrus flavor that came through in the scones that Diane created.  I thought I'd give orange a try and spice it up with some cinnamon and maple syrup.  

I think we have another winner!

Cinnamon Orange Scones
Prep:15 min  Bake: 30 min

Ingredients:

3 eggs

Zest from 1 orange

¼ cup fresh orange juice

¼ cup coconut milk

½ tsp vanilla

¼ cup maple syrup

½ cup coconut flour

½ cup arrowroot flour

¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp cream of tartar

¼ tsp sea salt

¾ tsp cinnamon

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a food processor, add the wet ingredients and orange zest, and mix until well combined.
3. Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl of the food processor.   Mix until well combined.  The dough will be very wet, so let sit for about 5 minutes before proceeding.
4. Use a ¼ measuring cup to scoop up the batter.  Roll the dough into a loose ball in your hands and place on the parchment lined baking sheet.  Press down lightly on the top of the dough to flatten.
5. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.  Your kitchen will smell amazing!

Makes 8 scones

Lemon-Blueberry Squares

Hey all!  Hope you’re off to a good start this week!  I baked my heart out this weekend.  All for you beautiful people, I might add.  I guess we enjoyed the fruits of my labor, too.  I’ll be sharing all those recipes with you soon, so stay tuned!  Today's recipe was a "3rd time's a charm" situation.  

A few weekends ago, we got together with some friends for the stuff-your-face-event known as Pie Fest.  If you couldn't guess, we eat a lot of pie.  Not just sweet pies, but some great savory pies as well.  This year, I was on a quest to make a gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free pie.  So, in typical fashion, I did not experiment ahead of time with my pie, but was winging it on the day of the event.  It’s a safe environment for experimentation, thankfully.  Plus, I knew there would still be enough pie to go around if it was an utter failure.

About 20 minutes before we were set to leave, my pie filling hadn't quite set up yet.  Hmmm… guess I should have made it the day before.  Down to the wire, and not wanting to show up empty handed, I rushed down to the local pie shop and picked up a backup pie.  There may have been bad words used on the drive to the pie shop, and there may have been a couple of u-turns thrown in due to a mix up on what time the shop closed. 

When I got back home, miraculously, the pie filling had set!  I rushed to put on the finishing touches, and we were out the door with two pies.  My experiment pie was OK, but I wasn't going to settle with that. 

Take 2: No more pie, let’s try squares!  Back in the kitchen I went to hopefully get it right with my new tweaks to the recipe.  So close, but so messy!  Sigh...

Take 3: Seriously, if this didn't work, I was going to be done with baking for awhile…  I tried one more tweak.  Fingers crossed!

Well, lucky for us all, it worked!  Yay! 

Behold:  My labor of love.  The lemon-blueberry squares!

Lemon-Blueberry Squares

Prep: 40 minutes  Bake/Chill: 18 minutes/6 Hours

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 cup whole pecans

1 cup almond flour

1 egg

1 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

1 pinch salt

Lemon Filling:

2 ½ tsp gelatin (red label)

½ cup + 3 Tbsp water, divided

1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

½ cup honey

Zest from 1 lemon

6 egg yolks, whisked

Blueberry Top:

2 tsp gelatin (red label)

½ cup + 3 Tbsp water, divided

2 cups fresh blueberries

3 Tbsp maple syrup

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Prepare a 9x9 baking dish by greasing lightly with coconut oil and cutting parchment paper to fit.  You’ll need extra up the sides to be able to pull the finished squares out when they’re done.
3. Add all the crust ingredients to a food processor and pulse until well combined.  Scrape down the sides halfway through.  It’s ok if there are some small pieces of pecans left.
4. Press the crust mixture evenly into the bottom of the baking dish.  Using a fork, poke several holes in the crust to keep it from bubbling up while baking.
5. Bake the crust in the oven for 15-18 minutes.  The crust should be golden brown when done.  Set aside to cool.
6. For the lemon filling, start by adding 3 Tbsp water to a small bowl.  Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and set aside.
7. In a medium saucepan, combine the lemon juice, remaining water, honey, and lemon zest over medium low heat.  Whisk constantly for 5-7 minutes, making sure to not let it boil.
8. Temper the egg yolks by adding half the warm lemon mixture to the yolks and whisk constantly. 
9. Add the tempered egg yolks to the saucepan and continue to heat for 7 minutes, whisking constantly.  The sauce will begin to thicken.
10. Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the gelatin until it is thoroughly combined.
11. Strain the lemon mixture into a bowl and place in the fridge to cool for 20 minutes.
12. Once the mixture has cooled, pour it into the crust and place in the fridge for 3 hours, or until the lemon filling has set.
13. One more layer to go! Again, start with 3 Tbsp water in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over the water and set aside.
14. Combine blueberries, remaining water and maple syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Allow the berries to open and release their juice.  Let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. 
15. Using a potato masher, mash the blueberries until most of them are no longer whole.
16. Add the gelatin to the blueberries and stir to thoroughly combine.
17. Place blueberry sauce in a bowl and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. 
18. Once the blueberry sauce is chilled, pour over the lemon filling, and continue to chill for 3 hours, or until the blueberry top has set.
19. Remove from the baking dish and cut into squares.  

Time to enjoy these yummy squares!

Bacon Burger Bites with Savory Tomato Dipping Sauce

Have you seen those new fast food commercials for that bacon cheese burger from a place we’ll refer to as “Jake in the Basket”?  

I’m so clever.

That little “bork” creature is pretty adorable and I bet it would be tasty, too.

I do love a good bacon burger, but since I’m not always so keen on genetic engineering, I think I’ll stick to creating that combination in the kitchen.  ;)

Sorry.  Not really...

With my abundance of ground beef, my love of bacon, and the inability to rid my brain of that “bork” jingle, it was time to pull something together. 

When I’m heading to a party, I like to bring something with me that I know I can freely enjoy while facing a potential sea of food I have chosen to no longer eat.

Consider giving these a try for your next gathering!

Bacon Burger Bites with 

Savory Tomato Dipping Sauce

Prep: 15 minutes  Cook: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Bites:

1 lb ground beef

½ yellow onion

1 clove garlic

½ tsp paprika

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

10-12 strips of bacon

Sauce:

¾ cup tomato paste

1 Tbsp reserved seasoning mixture (from above)

1 ½ tsp balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp water

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 350F.
2. In a food processor, pulse the onion and garlic together until it reaches a paste-like consistency.  You may need to scrape down the sides part way through.
3. Add the paprika, salt and pepper to the food processor, and pulse to combine.
4. Take out 1 Tbsp of the mixture and set aside.
5. In a large bowl, add the mixture to the ground beef and combine with your hands.  Hmmm meat fingers!
6. Once the meat and seasoning mixture has been thoroughly combined, roll out 1 inch meatballs and place on a wire rack over a baking sheet.  You should get 20-24 meatballs.
7. Cut the strips of bacon in half.  The number of strips of bacon you will need will depend on how many meatballs you made.  Hint: 1 strip of bacon for every 2 meatballs.  You’re welcome!
8. Wrap each meatball with a strip of bacon, secure with a toothpick, and place back on the wire rack.
9. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until cooked through.
10. While the bacon burger bites are baking, add the sauce ingredients to a small saucepan over medium-low heat and stir to combine.  About 10 minutes.
11. Before serving the bacon burger bites, place them on paper towel to remove excess grease.

Enjoy!