Rosemary Chicken

I love rosemary. I love the smell and the taste. I’ve even got an extremely healthy rosemary bush taking over most of my front yard that I can run my hands over every time I pass. It started as a little table top potted plant, trimmed into the shape of a Christmas tree.  And now it looks like this:

As I came home tonight, I trimmed off some branches and brought them inside and mixed the leaves with some bread crumbs (1/2 cup of finely chopped rosemary to 2 cups bread crumbs).

I pounded four boneless, skinless chicken breasts to an even thickness before dredging them in flour and a little egg stirred with olive oil then covered them with the breadcrumb mix. I put the coated chicken into the refrigerator while I roasted some fingerling potatoes I had tossed with olive oil and rosemary salt (two tablespoons of coarse sea salt crushed together with one teaspoon of finely chopped rosemary).

After the potatoes had been roasting for about 20 minutes, I pulled the chicken from the fridge and began heating up a 1/4 cup of olive oil in a cast iron skillet. After the oil heated, I dropped in a few rosemary stalks to infuse the oil. After fishing them out, I added the chicken and cooked each side 5 minutes or until golden brown.

Let rest for a few minutes so you don’t burn your mouth and then plate with some of the fried rosemary and the potatoes.

Pork Ribs

We needed more room in my Dad’s freezer, so we pulled out a 5 lb cryovac pack of pork ribs for dinner.

For preparation, remove the membrane alongside the bones with a dull knife and your fingers (you don’t want to cut into the meat, if you can help it). Liberally coat the meat with dry rub and prepare the grill for indirect cooking.  Had we had multiple racks, we would have broken out the stand cooker but with just one, all it took was a chimney full of coals laid down on the sides, a couple of soaked hickory chips and a drip pan in the center for us to be ready to cook.

The fire was running hot, about 375 degrees, so we closed the bottom vents a bit about 45 minutes into the cook time. You don’t want the fire to drop below 250 degrees but over 350 is a little too hot. After about another hour, we had perfectly cooked ribs. You can tell they’re done when you can twist one of the exposed bones and it releases easily.

Ours were so perfectly cooked, that we ate them right off the pan, standing around the island in the kitchen.

Grilling is not just for weekends!

Wolf Bay Lodge – Foley, AL

After a day of running errands with my folks, we headed over to Wolf Bay Lodge on Highway 20 in Foley, Alabama.

The light pine walls and animals on the walls, let you know they are serious about hearty, casual dining. We started with the deep fried onion – a little spicier than Outback’s Blooming Onion but just as good.

We love their fried shrimp. While Dad got the shrimp sandwich, Mom and I went for the platter (she with 8 and me with 14). The fry is flavorful but the shrimp are fresh, never frozen, so they stand up well to the frying. Very delicious.

Their tarter sauce is a little disappointing but their cocktail sauce has enough horseradish to clear out your sinuses.

The server was quite fast on my tea refills and to bring us more sauces and napkins with a smile and laugh.

We walked out of there stuff full and very happy. I highly recommend them, especially for lunch. They do tend to get a little busy during the summer and at dinner, so keep that in mind when going there.