Sunday, July 31, 2011

Lemonade and More . . .

Our thunder/rain storm is past leaving us with muggy warmth once more. The best solution for cooling off is sitting in front of a fan with a icy glass of lemonade. These days, you don't have to wait on your lemon tree to produce as you can buy frozen lemonade mix at the store. No, it isn't quite as nice as fresh but for serving a group, it is very convenient. And, if you keep extra cans of the frozen lemonade mix in your freezer, there are a couple of other uses for the tart/sweet stuff.

Lemonade Chicken

4-6 chicken breast halves (you can go boneless or with bone and skin still on)
6 ounces of defrosted lemonade mix
1/3 cup of soy sauce
Dash of chili flakes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

If you are going with boneless, place your chicken breasts in a vegetable oil sprayed baking dish.  If you are using bone-in chicken with the skin, brown each piece in a bit of oil in a frying pan and then proceed as with the boneless. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and then pour over the chicken. Cover and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and spoon the juices over the chicken, uncover, and bake another 10 minutes or so.

It has a sweet/tart Asian flavor and goes very well with hot rice. I like Jasmine rice for this dish. You can also use other chicken pieces or even a cut up, whole chicken.

Tart Lemon Cookies

1 cup softened (not melted!) butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Approximately 3 cups all-purpose flour (depends on what you need to get a thickish batter)
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces of defrosted frozen lemonade
Cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling over baked cake (1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon to taste)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and beat in well. Along with 1/2 cup lemonade, stir in the flour and baking soda. Drop by tablespoons full onto a greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 8-10 minutes. Brush hot cookies with the remaining lemonade mix. Immediately sprinkle with the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Remove to a cooling rack.

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