Lemonade Chicken

We are back up and running! All three of us were pregnant, and I had twins in october and my sister in law Brooke had her sweet baby boy in November and my sister Lori will have her little boy in March. So needless to say we all have been pretty busy, but now that I got (somewhat) the hang of things, its time to start posting again! Here is a delicious lemonade chicken recipe. I love chicken, but one of my favorite parts of a chicken are chicken legs. They are just so delicious to me! So any recipe that calls for them , I am all for it. This particular recipe has such a good flavor, its one that is constantly requested by my hubby, and it goes great with these potatoes I will post about later :)

Lemonade Chicken

2 1/2 to 3 lbs of chicken pieces

1/4 c flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 T. oil

1 (16 oz) frozen lemonade concentrate

3 T. Brown Sugar

3 T. Catsup

1 T. Vinegar

1/2 c cooking sherry

dust chicken with flour and salt. Brown chicken in hot oil. Place in 9 x 13 pan. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. bake at 325 for 1 hour. Baste occasionally. Can also cook in a crock-pot for 2 1/2 hours on high.

Beef Brisket with Mop Sauce

I went to the farmers market last week and ran into a guy who sales grass feed beef. I totally want to buy half of a grass-fed cow from him and split it with some families and have all that good beef on hand. We will see if it happens. I was going to buy some fillets, but the guy talked me into brisket. I have never cooked brisket before, so I figured why not? I checked the family cook book and lo and behold... there was a brisket recipe! This turned out delicious. I did it in the crock pot, so I had to guess how long to cook it. I put it in on high for about 2 hours and then turned it down to low for the next 4 hours. It was perfectly cooked. I bought some really yummy honey wheat rolls at the farmers market and we made these sandwiches.

Beef Brisket with Mop Sauce

1/2 c water

1/4 c cider vinegar

1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce

1/4 c. ketchup

1/4 c. dark corn syrup ( I didn't have this so I used agave nectar)

2 TB vegetable oil ( I didn't even use this)

2 TB mustard

1 (3lb) beef brisket

Combine first 7 ingredients into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 min, stir constantly. Remove from heat. Place brisket in shallow roasting pan (or you can use a crock pot like me if you wish). Cover brisket with sauce. Cover and bake at 350 for 2-2.5 hours or until meat is tender. Let stand for 5 min. Thinly slice meat against the grain.

Zucchini Bread

We made this yummy bread last night and it is a miracle that it turned out!  Half way through the baking the power went out for an hour.  The second the power came back on we had to leave the house, so I turned the oven on 220 and let it stay in there for the hour and a half we were gone.  We got home and the bread wasn't quite ready, but another 15 minutes at 325 did the trick.  It turned out delicious and I was so excited it survived the power outage and my ingredients and effort weren't for nothing!

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

1 c. oil

3 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. peeled and grated zucchini
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. chopped nuts
1 c. raisins

Beat eggs, then gradually beat in the sugars and oil.  Combine dry ingredients.  Add half the dry ingredients, half the zucchini, then repeat.  Stir in the vanilla, nuts and raisins.  Pour into 2 greased and lightly floured (or non stick sprayed) loaf pans.  Bake for one hour at 325.  Let stand 10 minutes then turn onto wire rack to cool.  Glaze with lemon frosting to make it extra special!

 We didn't have raisins or nuts so we just threw in some chocolate chips because the kids love anything with chocolate chips in it.  But it would have been delicious just plain.