Recipe of the Week: Garlic Lime Seasoning for Chicken & Pork

I picked up on this wonderful dish through a post at Dave's Garden, when a Texas member shared her recipe for Garlic Lime Chicken. It is absolutely fabulous as-is, and I've found it also translates to boneless pork cutlets (tenderloin medallions cook quickly and work great.)


I ventured out one step further with the seasonings, and used them as a rub for a pork loin, which I roasted in my beloved Lodge dutch oven, and then used the drippings to create a reduction sauce similar to the original recipe. In a word: Yummy. You could probably use it as a rub on a roasted chicken as well - it's a terrific and easy blend of spices to whip up.

Marylyn's Garlic Lime Chicken 

Ingredients
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder (I use a generous dollop of fresh minced garlic instead)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon thyme

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 tablespoons lime juice

Directions:
In a bowl, mix together the first seven ingredients.  Sprinkle mixture on both sides of chicken breasts (you may want to pound them to a 1/2-inch thickness first.)

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat; add butter and olive oil, when butter has melted and begins to froth, add chicken breasts, leaving room to move them around the pan (you may have to cook them in batches, depending on the size of the pan and the breasts.)  Saute until golden brown (about five minutes), turn and saute another 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in the thickest part.

Remove chicken to a plate and keep warm.  Add chicken broth and lime juice to pan, scraping up the brown bits off the bottom into the sauce.  Keep stirring/whisking until sauce has reduced slightly.  Add chicken back to pan to thoroughly coat, then serve.  It's excellent with a rice pilaf or saffron rice, as well as with mashed potatoes.


For the loin roast, I used sea salt (cut the salt in half if you do!) and rubbed the dry ingredients over the washed-and-patted-dry roast in the pan.  Cover and bake at 350 until it reaches an internal temperature of 150; then remove the roast and allow it to stand for a few minutes before slicing. In the meantime, add a tablespoon of butter plus the chicken broth and lime juice to deglaze the pot, simmer until reduced.  Pour the reduced sauce over the loin slices just before serving.

Happy eating!

Dog + Dyson = Da Big Stinky

I adore my sweet dog.  She is 80 pounds of gentle playfulness - she sings, she sneezes on command and her Samoyed smile melts your heart.  She's also 80 pounds of beautiful white fur.  We keep her coat trimmed because she is an indoor dog, venturing outdoors only for a little R&R or to hang out with us when we're working around the yard.  But even trimmed, she sheds like nobody's business, as does the resident longhaired Mainecoon cat named - appropriately - Luci (short for Lucifer.)  Notice I'm not singing Luci's virtues...in fact, you can probably hear the crickets chirping in the deafening silence.

Little dog is not so little any more...

Anyhoo, I am the proud owner of a Dyson DC24, which slurps up everything it finds on our hard floors and area rugs.  (With the two resident beasts and the visits from "little dog" Sadie-the-grandpuppy, carpeting would be completely inbearable.)

Before the Dyson, I went through a series of cheap little stick vacs - not as powerful, but lightweight, easy to use and did an admirable job on the hard flooring.  When the most recent one died, and I finally broke over and got the vacuum of my dreams...or so I thought.

Let me preface this by saying I'm no stranger to the concept of cleaning the vacuum; in fact, I think the producers of Friends could have shot this vacuum-the-vacuum scene at my house.

The one major drawback to the Dyson is the difficulty in getting rid of the pet hair smell in between vacuumings - and it goes stale faster than an open bag of Lay's chips at the beach.  I thought it was just me, but after some Googling, I know I'm not alone in having problems with odor in my Dyson.  And when I say odor, I don't mean a little aroma - it's a hold-your-breath-or-you'll-gag kind of stench.  Vacuuming necessitates a second pass through the house with Febreeze or Oust spray, and even then I'm doing the "sniff sniff" test for hours afterward, certain I can still smell the telltale odor of pet hair.

After scouring the web for commiseration, tips and tricks, my next attempt to curb this problem involves a can of pressurized air to clean the cyclone chamber, and then a scented dryer sheet tucked into the dirt canister, after I take it apart and meticulously clean and wash all the filters and the plastic canister of course.    I love my dog, I love my Dyson, I love my dog, I love my Dyson...

Happy vacuuming,

Clean Desk Mission Week 9: Whaddaya mean, this isn't organized?

So here I was, merrily cruising along, patting myself on the back for maintaining an organized desk (for two months and counting!) Okay, so the last couple of days have been a little less-than-organized, but the chaos was quickly brought back under control before I took this shot today:

And then I read this post from Lifehacker.com and suddenly I'm second-guessing myself.  Is the desk merely "clean" or is it organized?  Talk about bursting my bubble.  But in my defense, I did clear out all the extra pens, post-it-notes and other detritus back when I first got serious about this project back in late July.

Actually, the Lifehacker post on singletasking  (which included the link to REALLY organizing your workspace) was what first hit home with this dyed-in-the-wool adherent to multitasking.  There are some salient points made in the article, and if I'm honest, my own experience bears witness to how much more effective I am when I don't try to check Facebook, my blog, reply to email and work messages while simultaneously uploading pictures and editing or writing - and scarfing down lunch.  It all gets done, but usually with a certain amount of heartburn, both figurative and literal.

Just don't quibble with my ability to make coffee, bake biscuits, feed the dog, unload the dishwasher, and start dinner in the slow cooker all at once.  Fully caffeinated, I am a force to be reckoned with in the mornings, if only for a few spectacular moments.

Happy tasking (in whatever modality you choose)!