Gloomy, rainy days and the ugly news reports have a tendency to stifle my creativity; so today I've got a nice story to tell about a lemon tree in our yard.
23 years ago we moved into this house, and planted a lemon, lime, orange, and an avocado tree along the side of the house. We have a postage stamp for a yard, but we wanted to have an orchard on the side. The lime, orange, and avocado all died within about 3 months; leaves shriveling, then dropping, the trees looked like sticks. The lemon tree looked like it was still with us retaining about 10 leaves, but another month went by, and Dr. C came to the back door with a stick in his hand, and said, "this is the lemon tree, what should I do with it." I told him to toss it, since the other trees had died.
He decide to plant it over the wall in our back yard, to see if that wouldn't be a better place for it to grow.
Today the lemon tree is taller than I am (it's a dwarf) and it yields more Meyer lemons than we can count-one time we tried counting, and came up with over 350, then lost interest!
Looking at the lemon tree today, I see a story of someone not giving up, hoping that maybe there was still life left even though the outward signs weren't good. Kind of like being a San Diego Padres fan.
On days when I'm tired, the day is dreary, the news reports are depressing, the lemon tree reminds me to keep on keeping on; and to bloom where ever I'm planted.
Dr. C. and I are off to Santa Barbara on the train tomorrow; I'll try and post a few times during the journey, until then enjoy the day.
I'm not a big fan of chicken; serve me turkey,duck,or goose,and I'm a happy girl, but I find chicken tasteless and dry to the point of being jerky: that is, until I met the Smart Chicken. Now this is the place where you start saying, "well, where did it go to school, Harvard or Yale?" Actually, these air chilled chickens don't have salt water pumped into them, it's just a chicken, air chilled, and sent to your supermarket. So, what do you do with a smart chicken? No, it won't do Junior's homework for him, but tonight I made a lemon oregano chicken in the oven, and it was succulent, juicy and nibble at the bone delicious. I'm sold! You will pay more for this chicken, but it's worth it to get something that tastes this good.
I needed some lemon, so I walked out to the lemon tree (yes, this monster is a DWARF MEYER LEMON) and picked a few. I'll tell you the story of the lemon tree another time, it's a great story of resurrection.
Good extra virgin olive oil, lemons, garlic, salt, and oregano.
Here's the chicken: there was none of that gooey mess in the bottom of the container, it was almost dry. I cut up the chicken into pieces, and then poured a mixture of 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 6 cloves garlic, minced, and 2 teaspoons dried oregano over the chicken in an ovenproof pan. Broil the chicken until it is golden brown on all sides, then heat the oven to 350 degrees, and cook another 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through (165 degrees on an instant read meat thermometer) Remove from the oven, and squeeze a bit more lemon juice over the chicken, and garnish with finely chopped oregano. Voila, Smart Chicken!
I couldn't resist some Chino farm corn to serve alongside!
Happy Weekend everyone; enjoy these last days of summer. I'll be back on Monday with more.
