Tex Mex Chicken & Rice

 There is just something about the flavors of Mexico. I don't think I can recall one single person that I've ever met, over the course of my lifetime (suffice it to say that is over half a decade), who didn't/doesn't like Mexican food.
Tonight, I had leftover rotisserie chicken to use up. We buy whole chickens when they are cheap and stick them in the freezer and, when the urge strikes, we stick one on our rotisserie on our BBQ grill. We rotisserie'd one up for dinner last night. So this recipe utilizes leftovers and on-hand pantry stock items for me. I love it when I can do this!

I used a Walla Walla sweet onion in this dish. You, of course, don't have to use this type. You can use whatever you have on hand. I live in Washington state, I have Walla Walla sweets.
As with any delicious recipe, it starts out with onion and garlic. 

The onion gets sauteed in olive oil. The great thing is that this is a one-pot dish!

I removed the skin, chucked the bones (no room in the fridge today to be able to make broth) and cubed up the meat. 

You'll also need rice. I used what I have on hand and that's basmati. Plain ol' white rice would work perfectly. I wouldn't use Minute Rice. I don't think you'll be impressed with the results. The seasonings are simple: ground cumin, salt and pepper. This recipe also uses canned diced tomatoes, canned diced green chiles and a can of red enchilada sauce. 

After you've sauteed the onion for a few minutes, add in the rice and garlic and cook for a couple more minutes. 

Add in the canned ingredients and the water, bring to a boil, pop a lid on the pan, turn heat to as low as your stove will go and set a timer for 20 minutes. 

I topped with some chopped heirloom tomato and...

chopped avocado. This is a perfect pantry 30-minute meal!

Enjoy!

 

Tex Mex Chicken & Rice

 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 of medium Walla Walla sweet onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon French grey salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup basmati rice

1 (10-ounce) can red enchilada sauce

1 (15-ounce) can no-salt added diced tomatoes

1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles

1 cup water

1-1/2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces

Garnishes (optional): diced avocado, chopped tomato, sour cream, cilantro

In a large pot, with a lid, saute onion in olive oil, over medium heat,  until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add rice and garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add spices, cook 30 seconds.
Add all the canned ingredients, along with the water. Then add chicken. Stir to combine. Bring up to a boil, turn heat on stove to as low as it can go. Cover. Cook for exactly 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Let set for 10 minutes. Top with garnishes.

Harvest Refrigerator Pickles

Yesterday, I decided to do a bit of harvesting out of the garden. I wanted to make some room to grow some more beets for a fall crop. Now, I grow beets exclusively in a black tote. It's 2x4 feet, but it's deep. I do not put any sort of filler in the bottom. I use it for root vegetables. Upon looking at my beets, I saw that I had taken them about as far as I could and it was time to pull most of them. I grew three different types this year: Golden and Chioggia, both of which, I bought the seeds from Baker Creek. I also grew a new variety, which I obtained in a seed trade called Yellow Mangel. They are the longer yellow ones. I also thinned out some of the Longue Rouge Sang carrots (Baker Creek) and some of the bigger onions.

Golden beets from Baker Creek. These are always a favorite and a huge hit with us.

 

Chioggia beets from Baker Creek. This was a new variety for me this year as I tend to stick with the Golden variety exclusively. I am sure glad that I branched out! These have a really cool white bullseye pattern inside. They are pretty stunning to look at.

I opted to boil the beets to loosen the skins. The thing when cooking beets is that, yes, you want to rinse the majority of the dirt off of them, but you want to leave an inch or two of the greens and the long roots on them, otherwise they will bleed the color onto everything.

I managed to fit them all into one pot, thankfully!

I knew I wasn't going to have quite enough veggies to fill my half-gallon Mason pickle jar, so I peeled up 3 carrots that I had in the fridge.

The carrots and onions are packed raw into the jar. I do not cook them first. If I did that, the texture would be gross. I did not peel the Longue Rouge Sang carrots, either. I just scrubbed them well.

When the beets were fork tender, I drained them and then let them soak in cold water in the sink to cool enough to be able to comfortably handle them.

Then I started slicing the beets up and layering everything into the jar.

It's quite pretty to look at. Behind the jar are 2 dozen farm eggs that were a bonus for Bob helping out one of the old volunteers from Fences For Fido. That is a great organization that puts up fences for dogs for people who qualify.

You bring the brine up to a boil.

Those are pink peppercorns. Pink peppercorns are interesting. They are not a member of the pepper family. They are actually a member of the cashew family. They impart a delicate taste and it's hard to describe it. You'll have to try them...try them on a bit of vanilla ice cream. I'm not even kidding!

All set! I use a wooden chopstick and poke it down in several spots to make sure there are no air bubbles and to work the peppercorns and mustard seed down to the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Harvest Refrigerator Pickles

Enough veggies to fill a half-gallon container (I used beets, carrots and onions. If you use beets, make sure to peel them first before slicing)
1-1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1-1/2 cups water
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
4-5 whole cloves
1-1/2 teaspoons pink peppercorns

Pack veggies into the jar.
Meanwhile, bring all the ingredients, except for the pink peppercorns, to a boil and stir until sugar and salt have dissolved.
Add pink peppercorns to the top of the jar on the veggies.
Pour hot brine over the veggies and use a wooden chopstick to make sure there are there are no air bubbles and to disperse the peppercorns and mustard seeds to the bottom of the jar.
Let cool.
Seal and refrigerate.
This will last up to 4 weeks in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Beginning of July Garden Update

<Cranberry beans
Arapaho Fish Hill beans>

Arapaho Fish Hill beans

The peas are about at the end of the road.

Blooming Prairie beans on the top tier, Dragon Tongue beans on the middle tier.

Purple Podded Pole beans

Jerusalem artichokes

French lavender

Flood Pole beans

Tall Trailing nasturtium

Golden Nugget cherry tomatoes

Jimmy Nardello sweet pepper

Black Beauty eggplant

I always heard the saying "knee high by the 4th of July". I wonder if waist high is even better?

Golden Delicious apple tree...and a mess that desperately needs to be cleaned up.

Fuji apple tree

Top row is Snow Princess calendula, middle row is Bright Lights cosmos and on the bottom are Love in a Mist.

The grapes should be back with a vengeance by next summer.

Purple Emporer nasturtium

Oregon Spring tomato

The closest is a Blue Beauty and the one further away is a Paul Robeson.

A pathetic yellow summer squash.

Holy spaghetti squash!

These potatoes leaves are dying back so we'll harvest these in the next few days.

Yard Long beans in both red and green.

We're letting that bag of potatoes dry out until tomorrow and we'll see what we got in there.

Peppermint stick zinnia in the front and gorgeous looking collard greens in the back.

Maxibel and Tanya's Pink Pod bush beans. These are going to be absolutely loaded!

The backside of the spaghetti squash bed. That lettuce has seen better days, for sure!

The onions are getting big.

More baby spaghetti squash on the backside of the bed.

Pink Plume celery and Longue Rouge Sang carrots

Sword lettuce and cilantro that is going to seed. I planted garlic where the bok choy was.

Mixed Bachelor Button flowers. I read somewhere that these are edible. I don't eat them. I just like them.

Golden beets

Chioggia beets

This is either white or pink Japanese dandelions. I'll have to wait until they bloom to find out which pot is which.

Jibai Shimoshirazu cucumber plant

The walkway to the back garden.

The side garden...this is where I put a lot of the things that I want to climb the fence.

Blooming Prairie "bush" beans. I love the coloring on these.

Egyptian Walking Onions

Garden sage. This got a bit of a sunburn.

Cucamelon plant. I'm not sure if I'll get anything off of these or not.

Strawberry spinach. I grew this last year and we enjoyed it.

In the bed: Lacinato kale, Drunk Woman Frizzy Head lettuce, Parisienne carrots and fenugreek. In the pots below are basil (Thai, if I remember correctly) and lemongrass.

The rhubarb was traumatized when the bottom fell out of the bed. It's starting to come back.

Chioggia beets. In one pot, I planted echinacea and in the other I planted dill. I'm seeing how both companion plant with the beets.

I'm very proud of this spaghetti squash!

Nasturtiums!

Giant Italian parsley

Casper eggplant. This little guy has been through a lot and I'm quite surprised that it's still growing.

Sunburn tomatoes.

Gold Nugget cherry tomatoes

The Spring Blush peas that I'm saving for seed. I can't find anywhere to buy them, so I grew them out to save seed.