A third batch of Watermelon BBQ Sauce....

We were in the car, traveling across the country to visit our oldest daughter and her husband, when I broke the news to my husband.  I was bringing them our last pint of our spicy Watermelon BBQ Sauce.  I could see the surprise and then, the pain in his face.  Our last jar?  Of his current favorite "put on everything in sight" sauce?  Yes.  Had it been anyone else, he would have sneaked the little bag of sauce out of the suitcase and hid it in the trunk of his car, but since it was our daughter he relented.  But, only after I promised I would indeed be making another batch as soon as we returned home.

And I did.  Yesterday I bought a seedless watermelon and sliced up the dark pink fruit to eat in a fruit salad while the lighter pink and white rind was made into another batch of sauce.  As it simmered and thickened on the stove the aroma filled the kitchen.  I had a happy husband.

Use this on grilled beef, pork, burgers, as a sauce for wontons...  my husband uses it on his turkey sandwiches and we love it more than ever on chicken!  Baked, grilled, roasted... dipped as a sauce for nuggets.  You can also use this as a spread on crackers with a 'schmear of cream cheese or on a bagel.  It's that good, on that many things!

Cleaning the watermelon

Scraped and chopped. You can use these rinds for watermelon pickles or discard.

Pureed watermelon and the pink/white part of the rind

 

Bringing to a boil and then simmer an hour til thick

Easy and Delicious - Three (3) Ingredient Baked Crispy Chicken

Ready to go into the oven!

Last night's dinner was marinated and ready to go...  grilled steak and vegetables.  And then?  The storms rolled in.  At 5:30 pm I realized I needed a backup plan.  And lately, this is one of our top three back up plans.  An easy but so delicious chicken dish I can whip up in less than 5 minutes and then do a side dish and salad while it bakes.  

You can do the breading 3 different ways.  In the top photo you see each chicken breast laying by itself on a pan.  However, sometimes I simply lay them all next to each other in a pan (bottom photo) and if you love the breading (I do!) you can cover or coat the whole chicken breast by rolling in the crumbs.  I'm usually going for 'very quick' so I typically make them as you see in the top photo.  Spread the seasoned mayo, sprinkle on the crumb topping and get it in the oven as soon as possible.

Crispy Baked Chicken

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Mayonnaise (Hellman's or Kraft)

Panko Crumbs (or bread crumbs if you don't have Panko)

Seasoning (An all purpose chicken seasoning or use salt, pepper, paprika, Italian seasoning blends, a rosemary and thyme mix, or even garlic pepper or lemon pepper.  Use what you like to taste).

Preheat your oven to 350 - 375 degrees.  On a greased baking sheet or foil or parchment lined pan, lay thawed, rinsed and patted dry chicken breasts.  Spread each with a layer of mayonnaise and sprinkle with your favorite seasonings OR you can mix mayonnaise with seasonings of your choice in a small bowl before spreading over the chicken breasts.  Sprinkle liberally with Panko or fine bread crumbs.  Bake for approximately 25-40 minutes depending on the size and thickness of your chicken breasts, until golden brown and done in the center. 

Quick & Easy - Chewy M&M Bars (Blondies)

This is an old recipe.  One that's been made for as long as chocolate chip cookies have been baked.  Because it's basically a cookie in bar form.  I've made these off and on since Junior High School, but never really wrote down a recipe.  I just use whatever cookie recipe I was making at the time and pressed it into a pan.  Now, I need to write it down.


M & M Bars
(Blondies)

1/2 c butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 t salt
2 t baking powder
2 c flour
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and M&M's or mixture of whatever you want

Beat the butter, eggs and vanilla.  Add the salt, baking powder and flour.  Stir in the chocolate chips or M&M's.  Press into a greased 9X13" pan and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes until the edges are golden brown but not dark.  If you over bake them they will be crunchy instead of nice and chewy.  Let cool completely before cutting.

Homemade Watermelon BBQ or WonTon Sauce

When I bought a large watermelon, I thought it would be finished off right away but the melon was larger than our appetites.  This week I cleaned the last half of it, putting cleaned and cut cubes into jars in the refrigerator but still had a nice portion of viable fruit as well as the rinds left.  Although many make watermelon rind pickles, I'm not very lucky with pickles so I opted for something else.  A sauce. 

If you have sliced the dark pink watermelon to serve, don't throw out the rinds before cutting down about 1/2" into them and use the white and light pink portion for this sauce. Don't use the green portion though!  That part is bitter. 

This sauce is much like a spicy plum sauce you could serve with your Chinese Cream Cheese Won Tons.   It's also similar to the ingredients in a watermelon chutney except pureed and cooked down to thicken.  I put a healthy bit of spice to it and used it on grilled chicken but you could also use it for bbq ribs;  beef or pork.  So many things you can use this on.  

If you don't like things too spicy, cut back on the crushed red pepper.  If you don't have crushed red pepper flakes, substitute with a bit of minced jalapeno or if you don't like spice, try some canned green chilies.   

I opted to my a syrup from scratch because I wanted to make it with a sugar substitute for less sugar and I don't buy corn syrup.  But if you regularly have dark corn syrup on hand, you can use that instead of the sugar/water/cream of tartar syrup.  Lots of ways to play with this and make it your own!


Sweet and Spicy Watermelon Sauce

Watermelon flesh and pink/white rind but don't use any of the bright white or bitter green
1 1/4 c brown sugar (or white sugar and 1 heaping T molasses)
3-4 T water
1/4 t cream of tartar
dash of salt
1/4 c ketchup (reduced sugar is fine too)
1/4 c white vinegar
3/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 t liquid smoke flavor (hickory or mesquite)
1/8 t ground black pepper

Chop watermelon and pink/white rind into chunks.  About 3 cups full of chunks.  Place in a food processor and pulse briefly to puree.  You want about a cup full more or less and you want it to stay thick.

To a saucepan on the stove place the brown sugar (or white sugar with molasses added) into a pan.  Add the cream of tartar, dash of salt and about 3-4 T water.  I used a mixture of white and brown sugar but found I was out of molasses. No worries, you are just making a general syrup.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 3 or 4 minutes until it's thickened. Add the watermelon puree, ketchup, vinegar, red pepper flakes, flavoring and pepper.  If you want to use less crushed red pepper flakes you can, or substitute similar measurements of minced jalapeno, canned green chilies, or for a completely sweet sauce, leave out the spice.  Bring to a boil again, reduce to s simmer and let simmer for 1-2 hours until it reduces down, becomes dark and thickens.  The longer you simmer, the thicker and darker it becomes.

I canned mine in sterilized jars with lids and used a water bath process for 30 minutes.  But then we ended up using it that night anyway because it was SO good I couldn't wait!  We used it on grilled chicken (basted, grilled, basted more, grilled more and finally, final basted and served extra with dinner).   We are saving the rest to use with Cream Cheese Won Tons like a spicy, sweet plum sauce.

Making a simple syrup

Cleaning the watermelon

Scraped and chopped. You can use these rinds for watermelon pickles or discard.

Pureed watermelon and the pink/white part of the rind

 

Bringing to a boil

/Simmer until it's as thick as you need or want it to be

Homemade Salsa from fresh tomatoes (Quick and easy - in the blender)

Homemade Salsa
about 1 quart

2 lbs or so of tomatoes. Chopped, it should be about half a blender full
1/2 onion, cut into chunks
1 - 2 t fresh, minced garlic
1/2 - 2 small jalapeno peppers (I often use jarred, sliced jalapeno's since we have them on hand all the time)
1 - 2 t honey (I use sugar free as well and it works great)
1/2 - 3/4 t salt
1/2 t cumin
1 T lime juice (approximate - how limey do you like it?  I use the juice of 1 lime)
Cilantro or Parsley -  about a tablespoon or two dried or a small handful fresh


Place everything in a blender or food processor and process by pulsing just until blended.  Longer for smooth and shorter for more coarse texture.  Taste... adjust accordingly with pepper, salt, lime, etc.  Serve with tortilla chips.  I store in a quart jar in the refrigerator.

Mixing everything in a blender

A double batch of salsa - stirring both batches together

Salsa