Cucumber Tomato & Fresh Corn Salad

This salad has more punch to it than a typical tomato or cucumber salad. This salad has more texture with the addition of the fresh corn and more flavors are going on with the fresh herbs. This is a cool light salad that’s forking easy to prepare for a hot day! Most people might add a little oil to a recipe like this but I don’t think it’s necessary here. I cut back when I can and forking indulge in other areas, mostly on the weekends.

Ingredients makes about 8 servings

2 cups of fresh roasted corn kernels (must be fresh or you won’t have the texture or right taste)

2 large cucumbers pealed and sliced in slightly thick slices.

6 campari tomatoes sliced as thin as the cucumbers (or any tomato you like but campari tomatoes are like bigger cherry tomatoes and are usually very sweet)

1/2 large sweet onion sliced thin

1 garlic clove minced

1 cup sugar

2 cups red wine vinegar

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

2 sprigs oregano chopped fine (make sure you chop very fine because oregano can be very over-powering)

1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary chopped fine

Cucumber Tomato and Fresh Corn Salad

Just combine chill, adjust seasonings if necessary and serve!

It’s good and that’s The Forking Truth

Malted Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pancake

These pancakes are quick easy to prepare. This great recipe is foolproof. The pancakes come out very light, moist and fluffy with a different flavor than your regular pancake. You can bling them up with a little bananas, dates and whipped cream if you care too but they are just right this way too.

Ingredients This recipe makes around 15 smaller pancakes and is about 3 servings

1 cup wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup malted milk powder

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 Extra large eggs beaten

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 oz. melted butter (room temperature)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Canola cooking spray for your fry pan

Directions in a large bowl combine your dry ingredients and in a smaller bowl combine your wet ingredients and mix well..

now add the wet bowl to the dry bowl and mix well. The batter is on the thick side.

Get your fry pan on medium heat. (I use regular fry pans because I FORKING HATE nonstick pans)  Spray with canola oil and wait till it looks hot and melted and then use a tablespoon and make 3 or four pancakes depending on the size of your pan.

When they bubble like this flip them over.

See how fluffy they come out!

Malted Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pancakes

They are Good Stuff and that’s The Forking Truth

What inspired me to come up with this dish was rutabagas that were unusually strong in flavor with an extra fiber texture. I tried to use them anyway and I decided I needed to infuse sweetness cut with some vinegar with beet essence.

I roasted up a few beets with rutabagas in a covered pan with a little water, sugar, and rice wine vinegar till they were fork tender. Around an hour.

Then I fried the rutabagas, beets and scallions in a combination of butter and canola oil till they were slightly crisp. I sprinkled the hot vegetables with fresh ground sea salt and pepper.

To serve I slice the rutabagas and beets in slices. I topped them with the fried scallions, blue cheese, heated walnuts and some shredded pepper.

Adding sweetness with beets to the rutabagas and the strong blue cheese mellowed the rutabagas in a way where they became edible and more beet like. This was the perfect flavor combination for this dish.  The scallions got slightly candied from the sugar coming out in the fry pan from the root vegetables.

The Forking Truth!

Refreshing Rosemary Cucumber Salad

Rosemary is very aromatic and the key to this recipe being successful is a careful hand adding the rosemary. This recipe is simple but is light and refreshing.

Ingredients makes about 8 servings

2 large cucumbers pealed and sliced I sliced mine slightly thick so they won’t get too soggy

1 red onion pealed and sliced thin

1 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

2 cups red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary chopped fine

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions

Just combine, chill adjust seasonings if necessary and serve

It Forking Good and that’s The Forking Truth!

This bread came out forking delicious! It’s crispy on the outside , chewy and moist on the inside with that just right charred onion taste and you get a little sweet from the apples and a real rye taste.

Ingredients Makes about 10 servings

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 pack dry yeast

1 cup warm water (mine needed to be 100-110 degrees for the yeast)

1 1/2 cup rye flour

1 cup bread flour

2 Tablespoons canola oil

1 Tablespoon caraway seeds

1 small apple pealed, cored, sliced thin and a rough chop

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

2 Tablespoons garlic dill pickle brine  ( I used from my pickle recipe on this site)

7 oz. shredded Swiss cheese (Swiss with the bigger holes)

1/2 red onion sliced thin

cooking spray for baking pan

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions Set oven to 450 degrees

Combine yeast, sugar and water and set in a warm place for about a half hour until you see the yeast has bloomed. Then add canola, both flours and caraway seeds and combine well, roll in a ball, cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for about an hour. Punch down and add, apple, salt, brine, about 3/4 of the cheese (your saving a handful for the top), onion. Mix well and pat into a sprayed sheet pan and let sit about 1/2 hour. Now you make the dents in the surface with your fingers. Top with remaining cheese and drizzle with olive oil. Place in the oven and it will be done in around 20 minutes.

Onion Swiss Cheese Apple Rye Focaccia Style Bread

Pickle recipe- Boil and pour over pickles and fresh dill and onions

It Forking Good and that’s The Forking Truth!

You can have forking juicy crispy chicken easily if you just brine it over night and then just forking rinse off, blot dry and toss in a 450 degree oven.

Brining is forking easy to do these days because your local grocery store might sell a 12 ingredient brine mixture so you don’t have to spend a forking fortune just finding all those spices. However you do need to add salt and sugar to use to use the brining spice. You can also add an ingredient or two to make it more your own. You just forking cook the brine spices to make the flavors come out and then add your water, salt and sugar and cook till dissolved. You let the brine cool and then pour on to your chicken and let sit overnight and simply roast it the next day. That’s forking easy isn’t it?

Ingredients for around 8 servings

Chicken (I used 4 leg quarters that weighed a total of 4 lbs. 9 0z.)

1 cup pickling spice (12 ingredients, coriander, cinnamon, mustard, ginger, fenugreek, bay, dill, red pepper, cloves, fennel, black pepper, allspice)

1 star anise

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup kosher salt

1 orange (I just used the juice I squeezed from it)

12 garlic cloves smashed

3 cups water

nonstick spray two light sprays for the baking sheets

Directions (set oven to 450 degree roast)

Cook all the dry spices (except for salt and sugar) in a sauce pot a minute or two till you can smell them.

Then add your water, orange juice salt and sugar till it boils. Let the liquid cool. Put your chicken in a zip lock bag and when the brine mixture is cool then pour it into the bag with the chicken while trying to squeeze out all the air in the bag you can and seal. Then let the chicken sit over night in your refrigerator.

Rinse off the chicken and blot dry.

Line your baking sheets with foil logs so your chicken can have drainage and doesn’t steam as much. Apply and very light coating of nonstick spray to the pan.

If you have a similar oven with similar size chicken to what was done here your chicken will be done in 30-35 minutes.

Here’s the 14 year old right by the oven waiting for chicken.

30 and 35 minutes later here is the chicken.

The chicken comes out delicious and perfect with a tasty crispy skin too.

It’s very juicy too with lots of flavors.

Part of the fan club is waiting for chicken.

And That was Forking EZ Brined Chicken roasted a High Heat.

It’s Forking Good and that’s The Forking Truth!