Another Tasty Dinner At The Hawthorne Household.

Hello everyone.
Here are last night's clouds.
I know you wanted to see them.

I just wanted to push that little cloud out.
So, I did.

Dixie is getting very tolerant of Bo-Bo.

Check it out.
Bo-Bo stretches in his sleep and Dixie keeps a watchful eye on him.
She even allowed him on her blankie.
Small steps. Small steps.

Now, on to tonight's dinner.
Here, we have sliced rutabaga and carrots.
I had a lone rutabaga left over from the other week when I did R is For Rutabaga.

First, I sauteed the sliced rutabagas and carrots in butter and olive oil.
Salted and peppered.

Then added some water and simmered, covered, until the veggies were soft.

Into a colander.

Add a pat of buttuh.

Add a little bit of cream and smash.
With a smasher.
No beaters.

Next up, my rice dish.
OK, I use boxed rice dishes.
In this case, Jambalaya.
Who doesn't?

I chopped some peeled celery stalks and some onion.

Sauteed the onions and celery in olive oil and butter.

Add water to boil.
Then poured in the rice mixture.

Cooked about 25 minutes-
until rice absorbed the water, then set aside, covered.

Now, for my Jerk Chicken.

I had chicken thighs in my freezer which I'm trying to clean out.
I went to Food Netwok and searched for chicken thighs.

I came up with Booby Flay's recipe and decided to give it a whirl.

Now, just let me vent for a moment or two.
I'm doing Jerk-rubbed chicken thighs.
A Caribbean recipe, methinks.
I must say, I have a problem with respecting any cuisine
whose the most famous dish is dubbed "JERK."
Enough island shit, Mon.
Yet, I'm doing a Jerk Chicken.
Why, I don't know.


But I chose Bobby's recipe instead of
Sandra Lee's Tandoori Chicken arrrrusssupppiieee,
which was tempting, but I don't have a tandoor.
Neither does Sandy, but that didn't stop her.
I imagine she could substitute her slo-kukker for a tandoor.

Let me just say:

Tandoori is NOT a recipe.
It is a cooking method.
Marinated (marinaded to Sandy) meat is cooked over intense fire in a TANDOOR, which is a clay oven where the fire is built. Heat can only escape through the top and the ceramic sides reflect the heat, intensifying it, so the oven can easily reach temperatures of 500 degrees.

So Sandy aside, I did take her method for slathering my chicken in yogurt since
I had some leftover yogurt from B is for Borscht.

Here are the chicken thighs.
Awaiting rub.

And here, Mon, are the rub ingredients:

2 TB ground coriander
2 TB ground ginger
2 TB light brown sugar
1 TB onion powder
1 TB garlic powder
1 TB Kosher salt
1 TB cayenne powder
(Sorry, that item - the cayenne- wasn't in my picture.
I forgot it. Beat me. Not that anybody really is ticking off each ingredient.
Unless you're really really anal.)
2 tsp. coarse black pepper
2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ground cloves

I combined all spices in a small bowl.

Aren't these spices beautiful?
I can smell all the colors.
It is truly grand.

I glopped some yogurt on the underside of each chickie thigh,

then sprinkled with the spice mixture.

Turned over, spanked the bare chickie butts, then slatherd with more yogurt

and the rest of the nicey spicey.
I let the chicken set for at least 30 minutes.

Mr. Hawthorne got home from work and immediately fired up the grill.

Aren't these pretty?

I believe this plate belonged to YoungestHawthorne.
Top, is my chicken thigh.
Bottom right is my rutabaga and carrot smash.
Bottom left is my rice, with onion and celery.

The chicken was quite good.
I was expecting it to be spicier than it was, but it was still very flavorful.
Very moist.

Youngest Hawthorne ate everything on the first plate,
then complained because I wasn't using the BIG plates, so he got a BIG plate and piled more food on it and ate everything.


They like my food.
They really really like my food!