Summer Weekend Three: Father's Day Weekend & some recipes

As I mentioned before, we celebrated Father's Day with my Dad earlier in the week.  He and my mom left for New York City to take 200 kids there for a mission trip.  (There were also 30 other adults, but still...  That's a lot of kids!)  This weekend, I made two recipes from a cook book my Aunt Laura put together for me as a graduation gift.  It has lots of recipes from family and friends all in one place.  I love it!  I thought I'd share the recipes, so they're mixed in with this post.

Friday night, I made Lemon Roasted Chicken for dinner for me & AMP.  This is the third time I've made it, and I finally figured out the secret: use a small cooking dish, not a 9 x 13 pan!  It's not hard, but it does require a bit of chopping and you just need to be near the oven since you keep adding things.  (It's not one of those things you can just pop in and walk away!)

Lemon Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. new potatoes, cut in cubes

3 T butter, cut into small pieces

Salt & Pepper 

2 lbs.  chicken tenderloins

1 lb. asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 in. pieces

1 lemon (you can cut into wedges, or you can do thin round slices like I did, above)

6 sprigs of Thyme (I always forget to buy this at the store, and it tastes fine without it!)

• Preheat oven to 475 degrees.  Place potatoes and half of butter in a casserole dish & season w/ salt and pepper.  Do not cover.  Roast in oven, tossing once, until potatoes are golden, 20-25 minutes.
• Place chicken on top of potatoes and season with salt & pepper.  Roast until chicken begins to brown, about 15 mins.
• Scatter asparagus, lemon, remaining butter and Thyme around chicken. 
• Continue roasting until asparagus is tender & chicken is opaque throughout, 5-15 mins.
• Serve chicken, veggies and lemon drizzled with pan juices.  
• Serves 4-6

Saturday, we hung out at my parents' pool with Mark, Laura and Anna a bit.  Their pool has gotten more use this summer than in the 10 years we've lived in that house, combined.  It's a popular place to be!  It was a fun day to relax and hang out.  We are appreciating the Flagg Family's donation of pool floats to the house, most definitely.  :-)

We went on a date to Carrabba's that night, too.  Yum!  I felt all gross from being outside, so I took my time getting ready.  Adam came and knocked on my door and asked what I was doing.  He said, "Um, are you ok in there?  What'cha doin...it's been 50 minutes?!"  I laughed and informed him that really that wasn't very long for a girl going on a date to get ready!  :-)  I needed to feel girly, ok??

Sunday I sang at church.  This is one of my absolute favorite things to do.  Mark, Laura, Anna, Papa and Jonita came, and it was a treat to get to have them there.

Then Laura hosted Father's Day lunch for us, grilling steak and chicken kabobs.  Anna made fruit salad and I made Nanny's peach cobbler (recipe below).  

{Mark and Papa get new clothes for Father's Day}

I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with them while they watched the PGA Tournament.  I just did some wedding-idea browsing on the computer.  It was so nice to be around family and just hang out.  Have I mentioned that we love having the Flaggs back in D-town?  We do.

Here's the peach cobbler recipe.  Nanny won first place with this recipe in the "Mrs. Lubbock" contest.  We are so proud.  :-)

Shirley's Peach Cobbler

1/4 lb. margarine

1 c flour

3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup sugar 

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 c milk

2 cans sliced peaches (29 oz size)

Cinnamon

• Melt margarine in 9 x 13 pan.  
• In a large bowl, mix 3/4 c sugar, flower, baking powder & milk.  Pour mixture over butter.  
• Spoon both cans of peaches over the mixture.  Save the peach juice.
• POur half to one can of juice over everything in the pan until mixture is covered.
• Sprinkle additional 1/2 cup sugar over mixture
• Sprinkle cinnamon over the top.
• Cook at 375 degrees uncovered for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Best served with Blue Bell Vanilla!