Vegetables | Chad Chandler

Posts Tagged: Vegetables

27
Oct 11

Spicy Chicken Pasta

When I was right out of college and teaching myself to cook, I tried to reverse-engineer Ruby Tuesday’s Sonora Chicken Pasta. I hate to date myself, but this was back in the days of Web 1.0 before seemingly everything was posted online. I didn’t want to literally recreate the dish, as I found the sauce too rich. I just wanted to perfect that creamy taste and texture that coated the noodles and tickled the back of your throat with a slight hint of spiciness. I never wrote down the recipe I eventually worked out, and it’s been at least five years since I last made it. The wife has been requesting it for months, so I thought I’d finally perfect the dish and record the recipe for posterity.

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12
Nov 10

The Best Farmers’ Markets In Greenville, SC

As I mentioned before, I’ve completely changed my meal planning practices. I used to buy meat in bulk at the grocery store and then plan my meals accordingly. Ever since we moved to Greenville, I’ve gone in the opposite direction. First, I hit one or both of my farmers’ markets and buy whatever looks good, then I go to my butcher, and finally I hit the grocery store to fill in the gaps. It might sound overly complicated, but everything is pretty close to home. It’s much cheaper than shopping at the grocery store and it means that I rely on produce to drive my meal planning. As a result, the wife and I only eat meat about half the days of the week.

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24
Sep 10

Parchment Baked Grouper

I’ve been craving fish for a while, so I decided to pick up some grouper. We had some zucchini and roma tomatoes that were getting a little ripe, so I wanted to incorporate them into the dish as well. As part of our attempt to eat healthier, I decided to bake everything. I ran across a recipe from Steamy Kitchen that included a helpful YouTube tutorial on how to steam fish and vegetables in parchment paper, so I thought I’d give it a try. It was a huge success.

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17
Jun 10

Garden Update

Last time I blogged about our garden, everything had just gone into the ground. Now that spring is slowly turning into summer, everything is starting to grow. We’ve lost a plant or two, but everything else is doing great — especially compared to last year’s blight.

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3
May 10

Backyard Garden, 2010

I somehow talked my wife into going to the farmers market with me on Saturday morning. We got there five minutes after they opened and it was already packed. I forgot it was the annual spring plant sale, which is probably better described as the Battle of the Blue-Hairs. We ended up buying way too many plants for our garden again. They’re only a dollar apiece for most of the seedlings and you can mix and match to your heart’s content. That’s great because you don’t get stuck buying an 8-pack of cayenne plants. More importantly, many of these plants are from heirloom seeds, so we’re supposed to be protected from the blight that hit all the big box store plants last year.

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5
Apr 10

Grilled Shark Steaks Over Pasta With Spring Vegetables

We’re trying to eat a little more simply (and healthy) in the Chandler household. Instead of meat accounting for 70% of every meal, we’re reducing the fat and introducing more vegetables and grains to our diets. So instead of having the traditional lamb or pork dish this Easter Sunday, we decided to have some seafood.

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26
Mar 09

Backyard Garden

The weather is finally nice, so we decided to get the garden in before the rain this week. So last weekend, while I cut and seeded the grass, my wife tilled and planted most of the garden. We had some survivors from last year’s crop. Our chives are thriving, as well as our parsley, sage and oregano.

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The right side of the garden will have herbs (rosemary, thyme, Greek oregano, parsley, chives, basil, mint and lavender), red and yellow onions, strawberries and cantaloupe. The left side will have heirloom, roma and green tomatoes, red and green bell peppers, cayenne and banana peppers, squash and zucchini. There’s more room, so maybe we’ll plant some radicchio and eggplant later this month.

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4
Apr 08

Building a Garden

We have a conspicuous concrete slab in the back corner of our lot that was part of some sort of carport at one time. We wanted to put in a raised-bed garden in front of the makeshift patio, but the land isn’t level. We decided we could mimic raised beds by digging channels for the lumber and mixing compost in the planting area. Here are the boards for the beds:

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