Rosie's Lunch. And A Delicious One At That.

Whoot and Yay!
My long-awaited rain finally gets here.
It poured the most part of the day.

Beautiful rain.
And guess what.
Yesterday, I just cut my newly sodded lawn.
Talk about perfect timing.

I love the rain.
Doncha just love the rain?
You're at the ocean or at the lake.
You're in your swimsuit or a sundress.
You're relaxed,
I just CAN'T WAIT for that WATERMELON FIZZ!

Whew, I just had to get that out of my system.
Thanks, Sandy.

Here's my new orchid.
It's a moth orchid, but orchidgirl can tell you more about that.

Here's the first orchid.
I bought it for me for my birthday back in January and now it's blooming again.

OK, enough of orchids.
Let's get on to my lunch today.

I decided to start with oven-roasted potatoes.
Here are 3 russet potatoes.

I sliced them into wedges and let them soak in hot water for 10 minutes.

Drain on paper towels.

Toss the dried wedges in a tablespoon or two of oil.
I used Canola.

I poured about 4 tablespoons of oil on a heavy baking pan.
Then added salt, pepper, granulated garlic, onion powder, and hot paprika.
Arranged the taters in single file.
I covered with foil, and baked on the bottom rack in a 475 degree oven for 5 minutes.

Then, I removed the foil and baked about 20-25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet after maybe 10 minutes.

I turned the wedgies over and baked for 10 or so more minutes until nicely browned.

Drain on paper towels.

I offered one to Mr. Hawthorne.
He tried it, proclaimed it "OK," and suggested adding some grated parmesan.

"Excellent idea, Mr. H."
"Well, you just be sure you tell everybody in your blog that was my idea."
He's such a credit whore.

Here's what I have to work around whenever I cook.

Besides Dixie, I also have to work around Mr. Hawthorne.
I'm preparing a lovely lunch which apparently will not be good enough for him.
He must prepare hamburgers for himself.
"I got a hankering for a hamburger and Imonna fix me a damn hamburger."
So, he starts pattying up burgers and cooking them up.

After he finished his burgers, with grease splattered everywhere, I deglazed the pan.

And poured the resulting au jus into Dixie's bowl.

Bon appetit, Dixie.

Now, on to the rest of my meal.

I had 2 chicken bosoms which I brined in
2 quarts of cold water and 1 cup of Kosher salt for 30 minutes.
Rinsed, patted dry, and seasoned with pepper.

I heated oil in my pan and browned skin-side down first for about 10 minutes.
Turned over and cooked the underside for about 5-7 minutes.

Next, I inserted my thermometer probe and set the pan on the bottom level of a preheated 450-degree oven for about 12-15 minutes.

Or until my Weber thermometer registered 160 degrees,
even though Weber recommends 180 for chicken.
180 is overkill.

When the temp gets to 160, remove from oven
and let set while you make the rest of the meal.

I'm making a citrus herb sauce for my chicken.
I've squeezed the juice of one orange and one lemon, sliced 2 shallots,
and minced some fresh sage.

I added in about 2 tablespoons of butter and some capers.

Next, I decided to make a queso sauce for my steamed vegetables.

My mise en place:
Velveeta
milk
Monteray Jack cheese
cream cheese
chili powder
cumin
cayenne
Texas Pete Hot Sauce

I'm just winging it here on the amounts.
The big chunk at top left is the Velveeta.
At the forefront is maybe half as much cream cheese.
Then, you can see about a 1 inch of a chunk of Monterey Jack cheese cut up.
Milk is added to come half way up.

I added the chili powder, cumin, and cayenne
and decided it needed some minced jalapeno.

I nuked this combination for about 2 minutes, deemed it too liquidy, so I sprinkled in some shredded Mexican cheese mix.
(Yes, I Sandra-Lee'd it.)
(Although Sandy would call it PRE-shredded cheese, which to me means something entirely different than it does to her, apparently. PRE-shredded cheese to me would be a block of cheese, but I digress.)
Anyway, I heated it back up and this was just what the queso called for.

Here are my veggies:
broccoli, squash, and carrots.

Chop into equal sized pieces.

And steam until just barely done.

And here's my lunch.
Chicken breast with citrus/sage/caper/butter sauce, steamed vegetables with queso sauce, and parmesan potato wedgies.

This was the best chicken breast I've ever had.
Really.
The chicken was cooked perfectly.
It was juicy and extremely moist which I attribute to the brining.
The potatoes were crunchy on the outside and nicely potatoey on the inside, plus I could taste all the spices and the parmesan was a very good idea. Delicious.
The broccoli, carrots, and squash were perfectly steamed - still crisp.
The queso was an inspired accompaniment to the veggies.
It was spicy, but just right. The jalapenoes added just the right flavor and not too much heat, even though, Lord knows, I like the spice and heat.

I loved my lunch.

Youngest Hawthorne came in after I had put everything away and cleaned up the entire kitchen and wanted something to eat.

I gave him the other leftover breast which was about twice the size of mine.
He ate all of that, along with the leftover risotto from last night, and the rest of the vegetables.
Then wanted some Tostitos Scoops so he could scoop up a goodly amount of the queso dip.
He gave it a hearty thumbs up.