Skillet Rosemary Chicken

Usually, the recipes I take the time to individually post about here are for new-to-us dishes. That's largely been a function of the CSA; since we're getting lots of new and interesting produce (new in the sense that we haven't cooked much with it before), the experience is lending itself to trying a lot of new recipes. But the dish I'm sharing about today is one that's been in our arsenal for quite some time, and it just so happens that the CSA stars aligned this week such that we got to return to an old favorite. Chicken: check; red potatoes: check; rosemary: check. We were already three-fifths of the way to having all the major ingredients covered!

But the funny thing about this dish is that we've altered it in a number of small ways over time, so that it doesn't much resemble the original dish any more. Most of the changes are due to our personal taste preferences, and one is because we don't have a cast-iron skillet. (Our lack of cast iron skillet is becoming an emerging theme on this blog. I think we must be approaching the critical point of taking the plunge to invest in one.) I'll outline our main changes below. But the main thing you need to know is that the flavors in this dish are truly wonderful. Lemon + rosemary = love.

Skillet Rosemary Chicken on Minimally Invasive 

Used From Our CSA
red potatoes
rosemary 
chicken breast

Right before going into the oven.

Thoughts on the Recipe
- We use chicken breast (usually 2) instead of the boneless, skinless thighs.
- We substitute green beans (frozen in this case) for the mushrooms. I usually just dump in half the bag. I love the way they taste when they get all lemony! Which brings me to the next change...
- I like to one-and-a-half the part of the recipe for the lemon marinade. That means 3 lemons instead of 2 and a bit more of the garlic, rosemary, and salt all get mashed up together on the cutting board. I love having that extra amount of tangy juice in the pan when serving this up. Especially because the potatoes will soak up most of it.
- To make this without the oven-safe skillet, we still get the chicken started in a regular skillet as instructed, and toss the cooked potatoes and frozen beans in the bottom of baking dish while that's in process. Then the chicken, remaining marinade, rosemary, lemon halves, and the rest of the lemon juice all go over the top. Having a cast iron skillet would definitely make that part easier and create fewer dirty dishes, which is always a good thing. Someday...

So there you have it: one of our favorite dinners, and all the wild things we do to it to make it even yummier. I really need to sit down and re-write the recipe with all of our modifications, so I don't forget the altered steps when we make it. Do you have any super-adapted or ever-evolving recipes that you love? 

Summer Carrot Soup

This was our first experience making a soup that's served chilled. In this case, it turns out the process is not that different from making hot soup, but you stick in the in fridge when it's done - ha! We used the purple carrots from our Week 10 box, and the color of the final product was just too fun (side-note: less fun when you spill said purple soup on your white jeans ... thankfully it washed out). And BONUS: we were able to put the rest of our dill from Week 8 to use! Surprisingly, it was still hanging on after two weeks and I'm so glad we found a way to use it. 

This recipe was really easy, but we decided to make it a day ahead of time so we could give it the 2+ recommended hours to chill without eating a late dinner. Although you could always serve it hot as well. Both Steve and I enjoyed this a lot, but I liked it best somewhere between fridge temperature and room temperature; so slightly less cold.

Summer Carrot Soup on Nancy Baggett's Kitchen Lane

Used From Our CSA
purple carrots
red potato (just one)
dill

Thoughts on the Recipe
- We didn't have any chives on hand, and couldn't find them at the store, so just left them out.
- This recipe made way more of the yogurt garnish than we used. I would probably make less of that next time, because now it's just sitting in our fridge and I really don't know what to do with it! Maybe we didn't use enough of it in our bowls.

Has anybody else ever made a cold soup for summertime? Or done something else yummy with purple carrots?