We have attended both the Poteet and Pasadena strawberry festivals—the only two of their kind in Texas. Poteet (outside of San Antonio) holds theirs in April while Pasadena’s (in the Houston area) event is this month. We enjoy experiencing the energy in the carnival-like atmosphere, seeing cute strawberry mascots and royalty (scholarship winners) wearing red walking around the festival grounds and tasting everything made with strawberries (shortcakes, ice cream, jams and jellies, drink mixes and more)!
It is also getting warmer (hot!) in Texas so we like to cool down with something light featuring this month’s fruit: strawberry salad with balsamic-yogurt dressing. Strawberries are abundant now at our local grocery stores and we buy them in bulk there, if not at the festivals. For National Strawberry Month, mix some fruit with vegetables and make a strawberry salad with balsamic-yogurt dressing.
Recipe
For the balsamic-yogurt dressing
½ cup olive oil, extra virgin
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
salt and pepper to taste
¼ tablespoons plain yogurt
Directions
In a bowl, combine the olive oil with the balsamic vinegar. Stir in the minced garlic. Add the maple syrup or honey.
Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the yogurt. Mix until the salad dressing is creamy.
For the strawberry salad
2 cups mixed greens (spinach, kale, chard, etc.)
2 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon cooked bacon, crumbled
3-4 strawberries, sliced
toasted almonds (to sprinkle)
Directions
In a salad bowl, place the mixed greens. Sprinkle feta cheese and bacon. Arrange the sliced strawberries on top. Pour about 3+ tablespoons the salad dressing. Sprinkle the toasted almonds. Serve immediately.
Notes
This is a colorful and complementary salad. The greens are balanced by the red strawberries (like on the color wheel) and the bitterness of the vegetables is tempered by the sweetness of the fruit.
Turning 8 is really great!!! That means HI Cookery is even closer to “cooking our way through the calendar” and filling in the missing food holiday dates with recipes. If we can post at least one recipe each month for the next two years, we would be able to complete the calendar in a decade! Although way much slower than other food bloggers with similar sites, we are almost there! Sometimes life just gets in the way—and that is okay.
Since our last blog-o-versary post, Highlander’s job moved its location further so he is now using public transportation (car, bus and train) to the new downtown corporate office and commutes over an hour one way (previously it was only a 15 minute drive). Breakfasts for him are much earlier and our dinners together are later now but we are adjusting our food preparation and cooking schedule. It sure beats having to move again (we did it at least five times already in our 21-year marriage).
As for Islander, she knows her roots (and heart) will always be in Hawaii. But she blooms where she is planted—wherever Highlander’s job moves us. After three years of living in our current location in the Gulf Coast of Texas, she is now president of the small, local cake club. Her friend, Karen B., also from the library culinary book club, is the vice president, and together they have decorated cakes and cookies for family and friends. They are not at all professional bakers or expert sugar artists. But they are learning a lot, teaching each other and having fun with their shared hobby.
And that’s what we wanted this blog to be, too—fun! Not a chore, not a monetizer, not for popularity rankings. HI Cookery is a simple food blog that we wanted to try together eight years ago so we could share recipes and celebrate something every day. We are blessed to have made it this far and thank everyone for taking the time to read our posts since 2010.
Highlander and Islander are truly GR8FUL on HI Cookery’s 8th blog-o-versary!
Is the way to a prince’s heart through his stomach? Many have speculated that American actress Meghan Markle’s roast chicken dinner impressed Prince Harry of Wales so much that he proposed to her!
Other women have claimed that when they cooked a heartwarming lemony-herbed roast chicken for their boyfriends, they finally proposed, too. The “magical” recipe, which originated from Glamour magazine in the early 2000s, earned a reputation for its power it has over guys to “pop the question” and thus has been dubbed “engagement chicken”!
This is the version we adapted by Chef Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, which Meghan Markle alluded to in her BBC interview, stating that she and Prince Harry cooked it together for dinner the night he proposed to her.
Ingredients
1 (5-6 pound) whole roasting chicken
salt and pepper
bunch of fresh thyme
2 lemons (one cut in half, another cut in wedges)
1 head of garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, sliced thick
1 cup chicken stock
2-3 tablespoons flour
Directions
Remove the giblets from the chicken and rinse inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels. Generously salt and pepper inside of the chicken. Stuff it with half a bunch of thyme. Place two halves of a lemon and garlic inside of the chicken.
Put on a roasting pan. Rub the skin of the chicken with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Tie the chicken legs with cooking twine. Secure the wing tips to the chicken with toothpicks. Place in a large roasting pan. Put onion and lemon wedges around it.
Bake in a preheated oven at 425 degrees F for 1½ hours until juices run clear. Baste occasionally. Remove from the oven and cover with foil while making the gravy.
Remove twine and toothpicks. Discard the garlic, thyme stems, fat and lemon halves and wedges (and seeds) from the roasting pan, reserving the onions and two tablespoons of juices. Place the onions and juices into a saucepan with the chicken stock. Boil on high heat for about five minutes until reduced. Then stir in the flour and boil for a few more minutes until slightly thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste. Strain the gravy into a boat. Serve hot with carved chicken pieces.
Recipe II
This is the version we adapted that originated from Glamour magazine and became an urban legend.
Ingredients
1 (4-5pound) whole roasting chicken
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 large lemons)
2-3 additional lemons
1 tablespoon sea salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
sprigs of fresh herbs to garnish (rosemary, thyme, sage and parsley)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove the giblets from the chicken and rinse inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels. Rub the lemon juice inside and outside. Season the inside with half the salt and pepper. Prick the lemons with the tines of a fork and insert inside the cavity of the chicken. Tie the legs with cooking twine.
Secure the wing tips to the chicken with toothpicks. Season the outside with the remaining salt and pepper. Place in a roasting pan lined with foil breast side down. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake the chicken for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn the chicken over breast side up and insert a meat thermometer in the thigh. Bake for another 1½ hours or more in 15-minute increments and until the thermometer reaches 180 degrees F.
Remove from the oven and baste with the pan juices. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes and transfer to a platter. Garnish with herbs. Serve hot with sides of roast vegetables.
Notes
The pan drippings from the engagement chicken used to baste and flavor this tender and tasty dish is called the “marry me juice”, according toGlamourmagazine.
We garnish the engagement chicken with sprigs of herbs, roast vegetables (like carrots and potatoes) and/or extra lemon wedges. It makes for a pretty presentation especially for special occasions.
We like to serve engagement chicken to the couples we are sponsoring at our church through a marriage preparation ministry program. The dish is well liked by many, even by those who are picky eaters. Our couples enjoy hearing about the recipe’s reputation as well, and is a fun icebreaker and conversation starter for our meetings.
Dia duit and aloha. Failte and
e komo mai. Greetings and welcome to HI Cookery! Highlander and Islander (HI) are gradually building this blog by attempting to "cook the calendar" with ethnic and eclectic recipes.
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Thou shalt not steal! All text and images in HI Cookery are the property of Highlander and Islander.
