Organic Surfer Girl

Sometimes when anyone tries a new recipe, there are hits and misses. If the miss is from a cookbook, the reasons could be a. you didn't follow the recipe correctly or b. you just don't like the taste. If the miss is from you creating a recipe on your own, it most likely is because the flavors you brought together did not work out or the new technique of cooking did not work out. The more experienced of a chef you are, the more you know how to bring the flavors together or how to subsitute flavors in a recipe successfully. I usually don't like to play around with a recipe until I've tried it at least once with exact ingredients and directions. Lately I've been playing around with recipes without even trying the original recipe. I wasn't a bad chef before but I typically cooked the ingredients I knew and the recipes I knew. Now I've branched out to new ingredients and new recipes. My confidence has grown in the kitchen. A lot of that is due to c...

 I had been trying to figure out what to make one day. We still had a whole chicken left in the freezer. I wasn't really in the mood for the slow cooker chicken that I normally make. I wanted something else, a different taste. I found this recipe in my Deliciously Organic Cookbook. This chicken recipe is by far one of the best ones I've ever made and eaten. It's really easy to make. I substituted some ingredients as I went along and it still came out tasty! It is definitely going into myy rotation of chicken recipes to be cooked. Butterflied chicken with Onions (adapted from Deliciously Organic Cookbook) 1 (4-5 lb) chicken, butterflied (to butterfly a chicken, lay it breast down. Take kitchen shears and remove the backbone by cutting it to the left and side of the spine all the way down. Remove) 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature 1-3 tablespoons tarragon (you can use any fresh herb here) 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt divided 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground b...

For those of you who know what CSA is, we started our first pick up last week!!! A CSA means community supported agriculture. A CSA is where you pay before hand for a part of the farm's produce. The main factor in deciding what you get each week is how much crop was harvested that week. This means you get fresh produce that is in season. I chose fruit, vegetable and egg share from the Garden of Eve farm in Riverhead. The reason we chose this farm is due to the drop offs. The drop off closest to us is in Bayport which is right down the road from my mom. This farm also allowed for variety which I liked. You can go to www.localharvest.org to find the closest farm to you. I also did a little research on my own. Not all farms are found on this website. It just makes it easier for most. After deciding back in March, I paid for CSA pick ups biweekly from June to November. I pick up fresh produce every other Wednesday between 3 and 7pm. You get what's in season, what's...

On Long Island, every Memorial day is an extensive air show at Jones Beach. I've never gone. This year is my first year going! It however requires being at the beach all day. You have to get there early to get a good spot and then stay until about 3 or 4 when the show is over. I enjoyed the show greatly. That being said, its required to bring your own food unless you want to spend money at all the food stands.  I I did not want to buy processed food nor bring processed food. We hit up the supermarket and our cookbooks the night before. We bought tons of fruit, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes and peppers to munch on. We made homemade roasted red pepper hummus, homemade fresh squeezed lemonade and homemade potato salad. Nothing contained chemicals which was what we were looking for. The only thing that contained sugar was the lemonade. To be honest, it was my first time making it, I didn't want to screw around with it by adding honey or m...