Gracie’s Ravioli

Food, Garden, Wine, IPAs, Meditation

Food – Bone In Chicken Thighs – I’ve done a lot more cooking for the family the last five and a half months and the one thing that always seems to be a hit are Chicken Thighs. Be sure to get bone in and just cut away the excess skin, leaving a fair amount on. The favor is amazing and I promise you’ll never go back to cutlets. Here is a link to one great recipe.

Easy Grilled Chicken Thighs – Juicy grilled chicken thighs marinated in lemon juice, garlic and herbs. A great, easy gluten free recipe that delivers succulent chicken every time. (Click the heading above).

Want a great side dish, check out this video for the best roasted potatoes. I like making thin slices as opposed to halving them like they do in the video, but either way is great.

**********

Garden – I spent a lot of time in the garden during these crazy times. I find it the perfect place to relax, meditate, work on the beds and just forget about life for a while. This year the garlic was tremendous. So good in fact that I went out of my way to find recipes that included lots of garlic. I planted a few varieties of Hard Neck garlic which is preferred in the Northeast over soft neck

Garlic should be planted in the fall around the first of October, but you should order now as suppliers run out quickly. My favorites varieties are Music and Spanish Roja. Visit  https://keeneorganics.com/ for a huge selection of garlic bulbs ready to buy. They have an incredible selection and their site is very informative.

**********

Wine – Anyone that has read a single post here knows how much I enjoy a good glass of red wine. In recent post I talked about California wines, especially Pinot Noir from Napa and Sonoma Valley. Recently I branched out and gave into the hype on Pinots from the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

There are some great Pinots from this region and in a blind taste test it would be real hard to separate them from Napa and Sonoma wines. One thing to remember is that the hype has caused them to shoot up in price so there really isn’t bargains here. Just good wines at a good wine price.

Wine.com devotes a whole section to Pinots from Willamette Valley. Click here to see they’re listing. Siduri below is one of my favorites.

**********

New Favorite IPA – I decided that I wasn’t going to gain weight during the lockdown and stepped up my workout routine in hopes of maybe shedding a few pounds. Problem is I started drinking a bit more and the weight never came off. That is until I discovered Dog Fish’s Slightly Mighty.

Slightly Mighty is a full tasting IPA with only 95 calories and 3.5 grams of Carbs. Their label reads, “This Lo-Cal IPA is brewed with mighty aromatic hop varieties that deliver tropical notes with a slightly sweet balance provided by the monk fruit extract,” Not a fan of fruit taste in your IPA. Trust me you’ll not notice, and it’s surprisingly easy to find in a beer shop near you.

**********

Meditation – Meditation has many benefits and in as little as 15 minutes a day can have a lasting benefit to your outlook, health and sleeping pattern. Do yourself a favor and check out this post – 20 Benefits of Meditation During the Pandemic.

Well that’s all I got for now. I truly hope that everyone is safe, healthy and continues to stay that way. 

******************************