A Few Spring/Early Summer Recipes; A Menu for Summer Entertaining

Warm Kale, Coconut, and Tomato Salad: requires heating up the oven, but I suspect could also be done well in a grill basket. And it's sooo worth it.

Jamie Oliver's "Eggplant Parmesan": better not to think of it as Eggplant Parm, because it's not really very like it, but it's delicious.

Tender and Easy Buttermilk Waffles: true to their name, and they freeze and reheat (in a toaster oven) very very well.

ALSO: we had folks over for a grown-up dinner party and had this as the menu:

• Chicken Shawarma
• oven-roasted cubed eggplant (I didn't pre-treat with salt/drain and it was totally fine)
• pitas
• hummus
• feta
• chopped tomatoes and cucumbers (I used a "burpless" variety)
• olives

Just served all of the above separately and let people assemble their own. We had drinks and for dessert ice cream. I didn't come up with a good appetizer-type thing, but it worked out anyway.

Broiled Yogurt-Marinated Chicken (and Broccoli)

We started with this recipe, adding more garlic and probably a tad more honey. Marinated for three hours, and then broiled in the Breville (using an oiled broiler pan): broiler set to 500F, middle rack, about 6 minutes/side. (Two packs of chicken thighs fit in the Breville's broiler pan; V would like me to note that the broiler pan cleanup was 'not bad.')

We steamed the broccoli for a while, and then mashed it up with some butter, salt, and pepper.

shredding chicken

I've had this pulled chicken recipe bookmarked for ages, but hadn't made it because I loathe shredding chicken (or any other meat). Is there a more tedious, thankless kitchen task? I even hate it more than I hate trimming brussels sprouts.  

However. A comment on the recipe mentioned using a Kitchen Aid to shred the breasts. That comment led me to this life-changing blog post. I haven't tried it on other meats yet, but I think pulled pork will be my next experiment - it works astonishingly well on warm chicken breasts, and I suspect freshly-cooked pork will be even easier.

Also the pulled chicken recipe is fantastic (I use this delicious local BBQ sauce instead of making my own).

Garlicky Chicken

Not sure how I missed posting this before, but Melissa Clark's Garlicky Chicken is a new favorite in our house. Delicious and easy, I like to serve it with baked potatoes or oven fries.