Roasted Chicken Legs with Smoked Paprika, Blood Orange, and Ginger AND Bulgur "Pilaf" with Swiss Chard and Dried Apricots

I was sold on this chicken recipe from Cook This Now.  Orange, cilantro, jalapeno, smoked paprika.  I opted to bake boneless skinless thighs with the marinade and chose a side suggested in the recipe notes, a fragrant bulgur pilaf.  Both came together quickly and with a little advance prep, would be a perfect weeknight meal.  (I would recommend marinating the chicken ahead of time.)

A few little notes... I took the seeds out of the jalapeno and found the spice level to be good that way.  We baked the chicken for about 20 minutes and it was perfectly moist and tender.  The pilaf was an excellent accompaniment, though next time I will chop the chard more (instead of ribbons like I did this time).  I took the suggestion to drizzle pomegranate molasses on at the end and I highly recommend this.  I definitely intend to make both of these dishes again - the chicken especially, since it was super easy and I think would be great cooked on the grill as well as in the oven.

Salsa Verde

I've gotten to try some interesting new things thanks to our CSA membership.  Beets - I hated those.  Kale - now one of my favorites.  And this week, tomatillos.
I have never really heard of doing anything with them other than salsa, so I decided to look for a salsa verde recipe.  I found this recipe on the Food Network website, from famous chef Rick Bayless.  I made an adjustment based on the comments - I added a clove of garlic.  I also broiled the tomatillos for only a minute or two less.  I used one jalapeno, since I'm afraid of heat, and this recipe had none - next time I'll use several.  (After this, I made a tomato salsa - more like a sauce, since it pretty much liquified in the food processor - and used three serrano chiles before I was happy with the level of heat.  Guess I like it after all!)  I also excluded the 1/4 cup of water called for.  I found that simply scraping down the food processor was enough to ensure it mixed properly, and I had read in the comments that it becomes more liquidy as it sits.  This didn't happen, but I do like a thick salsa.  It would be worth experimenting with adding a tablespoon or so of water at a time.

This made an interesting condiment for our tacos and I think will make a nice snack with tortilla chips as well.  I don't know what else to do with the tomatillos, so I'm sure I will be making this again.  One advantage of the recipe is that it calls for only 8 ounces of tomatillos.  I'm sure you could multiply it, but since we only received a small quantity it was perfect.  The recipe includes instructions for both a roasted version and a raw version, so maybe next time I'll try it raw instead!

Cantaloupe Salsa

I have been getting cantaloupe from the market every Friday and when I saw this Cantaloupe Salsa recipe, I was so excited!  It was nice to finally have something to actually DO with cantaloupe besides just eating it by itself or with cottage cheese.

The recipe is simple: cantaloupe, red onion, jalapeno, cilantro and lime juice.  I thought this might be kind of weird, but it was actually better than the tomato salsa with all the same ingredients!  It worked really well.  I thought it looked cool with the blue corn chips, too.  I will be making this again soon!

Impromptu Guacamole

While grocery shopping Heather and I decided to make guacamole. We had no recipe or really any idea what we were doing so we decided to just make it up based on our previous experience with guacamole. Lucky for us, it turned out really good! Heather did a great job mashing it up, as you can see in the picture.

Ingredients:
4 Haas avocados
1 large tomato, chopped
1/4 large white onion, chopped
1 small jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
juice of 1 1/2 limes
salt, to taste


Directions:
1. Slice around the avocados longways (to make two halves). Twist the halves apart and stick a knife in the seed. Twist to pull out the seed and discard.
2. Use a spoon to remove the flesh from the avocado halves, reserving the skins.
3. Crush the avocados with a fork, leaving large chunks. Add the lime juice, tomato, onion, and jalapeno and crush some more, leaving small chunks.
4. Add salt to taste.
5. Spoon into reserved avocado shells and serve with tortilla chips.

Since we totally made this up on the fly, as you can see we have no cilantro. Oh well! It was actually really good, although I would like to try it with cilantro one day. Here is a guacamole tip: if you have some left over, put it in a tupperware. Before you put the lid on, cover it with plastic wrap and press it down directly touching the guacamole. This will prevent the top from turning brown. I don't remember where I read/heard this, but it is a great tip.