Sweet Balsamic Grilled Chicken

I think marinades are about the best and easiest way to ensure moist and flavorful grilled chicken.  This one is so delicious.  It is slightly sweet and and has just enough heat to balance the sweetness.  It is also great for pork, beef, or lamb.

Sweet Balsamic Grilled Chicken

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 olive oil

2 tbs chopped fresh rosemary

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 tsp honey

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

In a bowl combine the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, garlic, red pepper flakes, and honey. Pour it into a gallon storage bag.  Add the chicken and allow it to marinate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.  Rotate the bag occasionally to ensure the chicken gets marinated evenly.   Remove the chicken from the bag.  Discard the marinade and pat the chicken dry with paper towels.  Then season both sides of the chicken well with salt and pepper.  Grill the chicken over a medium hot fire for about 10 minutes on each side or until it is cooked through.

To complete our meal we had a salad and three cheese baked ziti.  We also drank a fantastic wine Carlos from the Morgan Creek Vineyard.  It is a sweet muscadine wine that is perfect for summer.  It is a great wine for people who usually don't like the taste of wine.  The flavor actually reminds me of eating fresh muscadines.

You might also be interested in Grilled Chicken with Chopped Greek Salad and Baked Angel Hair Pasta with Italian Sausage and Rosemary Alfredo.

Giveaway Time Again!

Yes...You heard correctly!  I know I just had a giveaway, but CSN Stores has kindly offered to sponsor this giveaway.  One lucky reader will win a $40 gift certificate good at any of their stores.  They have 200+ online stores that sell just about anything you could want or need.  They have everything from dining room furniture to the plates to go on it.  They sell a ton of cool stuff for under $40 too.  I would have a hard time picking what I would want if I won, because all of these items are under $40.

Visit http://csnstores.com to see all the ways you could spend that $40 gift certificate.

Rules:  This giveaway is ONLY open to US and Canadian readers and you must follow me publicly with google friend connect.

Just like before I will put all the names in the soup pot.  Stir it up and pull out the name of the winner.

To enter you must be or become a follower and leave a comment on this post.

For an additional entry...that means your name will go into the pot twice...blog about this giveaway!  You must leave a second comment with the link to the post you made about the giveaway.

Entries will be accepted until midnight (CST) on July 9, 2010.  The winner will be announced on July 10th.

Good luck! 

Three Cheese Baked Ziti

Lately my schedule has left me with little time to cook. If it wasn't for dishes like this one that can be prepared the night before and just popped in the oven, dinner would probably be a frozen pizza or something from a drive-thru. Of course this is much better than a frozen pizza. This dish really is a fake out , no one will ever know it is made from a jar of Alfredo pasta sauce. It makes a great vegetarian entree, but I'm a big meat eater so I served it as a side dish with grilled chicken.

Three Cheese Baked Ziti

1 lb package ziti pasta
15 oz jar Alfredo sauce
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 & 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
2 tbs fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

In  a bowl combine the ricotta, egg, parmesan, parsley, and black pepper.  Mix well.  Meanwhile cook the pasta about one minute less than than the package recommends.  Then drain and toss the pasta in the Alfredo sauce.

In a buttered baking dish place half the pasta.  Then spread an even layer of the ricotta mixture over the pasta.  Top with the remaining pasta.  Then scatter the mozzarella cheese over the top and bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 minutes.

Giveaway Winners!

Winners?  Yes, I decided to give away both copies of the book.  I already have too many cookbooks and the ones I have are so disorganized...the bookshelves are over flowing!  So instead of adding to my clutter, I'd rather give it to one of you.

And the winners are...

The first name I pulled from the pot was Girlichef.  Heather's blog is fairly new to me I only discovered it a couple of weeks ago.  She has lots of great recipes and her photos are top notch.  Check out her blog, girlichef.blogspot.com .

The second name I pulled from the pot was 3 hungry tummies.  Suresh's blog has always been one of my favorite blogs.  He cooks recipes from all over the world, lots of Asian food.  I have even cooked one of his recipes and he has so many more I want to try.  Visit my friend Suresh at 3hungrytummies.blogspot.com.

Heather and Suresh please email me your mailing address to bosbowl@gmail.com.

I'd like to thank all of you for entering.  I'm planning to have another giveaway soon!

Morgan Creek Vineyard Wine Tasting

This past week has been pretty rough for me.  I've been waking up at 4:30 in the morning and some days not getting off work until 7 o'clock in the evening.  So I'm pretty exhausted.  It felt like the weekend would never get here.  This weekend I needed some real relaxation.  So today we drove down to the Morgan Creek Vineyard in Harpersville.  It's only about a thirty minute drive from Birmingham.  The Morgan Creek Vineyard actually makes some of my favorite wines, so I was pretty excited to see where it all happens.

The vineyard is very pretty and very hot.  The temperature was in the nineties today, so the best place to be was inside tasting the wines.  They make twelve varieties.  Of course I tasted all of them.  Cheers!

Pineapple Sherberita

My favorite drink is a margarita.  I love the classic lime, but I am also a huge fan of other fruit flavored margaritas.  In the summertime frozen margaritas are a must.  This one is so refreshing.  It's made with fresh pineapple and pineapple sherbet.  This recipe can be made with any kind of fruit or sherbet. 

Pineapple Sherberita

3 oz silver tequila

3 oz orange liqueur

4 scoops pineapple sherbet

1 cup fresh pineapple chunks

2 tbs lime juice

2 cups ice cubes

pineapple, cut into wedges for garnish

In a blender combine all the ingredients and blend until smooth.  Then pour into glasses and garnish with a wedge of fresh cut pineapple.  This recipe makes two drinks.

A couple other good summertime cocktails are my Raspberry Sorbet-tini or a Mango Sherberita.

Fried Green Tomatoes with Guthrie's Sauce

During the summer in the South most people have more tomatoes than they know what to do with.  Either you have a garden or know someone who has a garden, so there is usually an endless supply of tomatoes.  Growing up my dad's garden produced so many tomatoes that it was not uncommon for us to have both sliced red tomatoes and fried green tomatoes in the same meal. 

I can remember watching my mom fry green tomatoes.  She would put just a couple spoonfuls of flour and corn meal in plastic bag.  Then add the tomatoes and shake the bag.  This method makes some pretty tasty tomatoes, but I prefer to make a wet batter.  The wet batter just makes a much crispier crust.  I also like to serve mine with a dipping sauce.  This one is like the one served at the Alabama born fast food chain Guthrie's.  The dipping sauce is not traditional, but it just so good.  I could eat it on anything.

Fried Green Tomatoes

about 4 unripe green tomatoes

1 & 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

2 cups buttermilk

1 tsp seasoned salt

just a little black pepper

peanut oil, for frying

Slice the tomatoes into about 1/4 inch slices.  Then in a bowl mix together the remaining ingredients to form the batter.  In a heavy skillet heat about two inches of peanut oil to about 375 degrees.  Dip the tomatoes into the batter.  Then fry until golden brown  on both sides.  Drain on a paper towel lined plate.  Then serve with Guthrie's sauce.

Guthrie's Sauce

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup ketchup

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp seasoned salt

Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours for the flavors to meld together.  This sauce is not just great with fried green tomatoes, but also chicken fingers, seafood, and even as a salad dressing.

You might also be interested in Home-style Grillades and Cheese Grits, Sweet Balsamic Grilled Chicken, and Hoppin John.

The Gift of Southern Cooking....GIVEAWAY!!!

I read cooking magazines and cookbooks and that is about it.  So I guess you could say I'm an expert on cookbooks.  Yesterday I was in the bookstore and found a wonderful cookbook, The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Chef Scott Peacock.  This really is the most complete cookbook of Southern Food I have ever found.  It has recipes from every area of the South.  I liked the book so much that I bought two copies.  One for myself and one to giveaway to one of you.  This is just my way of saying thanks to all of you who read my blog regularly. 

This is my first giveaway....so I'm learning as I go!

To enter you must be following my blog publicly or become a follower and you must leave a comment for this post.  You must do both.  Then I will put all the names in my soup pot and draw one winner.  You must be entered by Midnight(CST) on June 14.  The winner will be announced on June 15.  The winner is required to contact me no later than June 21.  

This contest is open to all my readers worldwide.  If you win I will do my best to get it to you wherever you live.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me at bosbowl@gmail.com