Food! or The Law of the Harvest

I hate planting gardens. Well, let me re-phrase that. I hate having to plant a garden with someone. I just get so frustrated. My family learned long ago that it is their job to till the soil, dump the peat moss & steer manure, till again, then disappear. Just leave me with all those little plants and let them plant them where and how I want. I really have to watch Terrell when we go to buy the bedding plants in the spring, because he tends to get carried away. One year I think I had like 60 something pepper plants that he had bought that I was supposed to find a home in the ground for. I was not a happy camper out there digging the holes for those pepper plants that spring.

Fast forward to August. I do so love this time of year as we begin to reap the rewards of what we planted in May. There 'ain't nothin' better than a home grown tomato! This is also the first year I have had real success with my herbs. I moved the whiskey barrels that I plant herbs in, up closer to the house, and it has been a lot easier for me to remember that they are even there this year. Thus, I have a wonderful herb garden this year just past my back yard gate.


One of my herb pots. About all you can see is the basil from this view.

Tomato + basil = Bruschetta. I could eat this every day. The tomato/garlic/basil/balsamic vinegar flavors literally explode in your mouth!

I signed up on this cool web site: http://www.tasteofhome.com/
Several times a week you get an e-mail from them with tasty recipe ideas. Lots of times I think: "Well that looks good, I should save that recipe and make it some day." A nice feature of this web site is that you can create an account and when you run across a yummy recipe, you just click and send it to your recipe box. Then you can come back at a later time and find all the recipes that you have saved. I did just that the other nite, I made this wonderful recipe called: "Bruschetta Chicken". Best of all, I had all the ingredients and didn't have to go to the store for anything. (oops, I did have to send Terrell for a clove of garlic). Anyway, this recipe is "A KEEPER"!! The chicken was moist & tender, with that great bruschetta taste on top. It was an instant hit at the Hill house.


Bruschetta Chicken
Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup egg substitute - (I just used a couple eggs instead)
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 pound)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped
3 tablespoons minced fresh basil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions:
Place flour and eggs in separate shallow bowls. Dip chicken in flour, then in eggs; place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Combine the Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and butter; sprinkle over chicken. Loosely cover baking dish with foil. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until top is browned.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Spoon over the chicken. Return to the oven for 3-5 minutes or until tomato mixture is heated through. Yield: 4 servings.

p.s. If you have tried to post a comment in the past & not been able to do it because it said you needed to set up an account, you can post a comment now and you will not get that little annoying message. :-)