Gourmet Girl Cooks: Tuesday Night's Grilled Chicken and a Few Yard Pics

Today was a Top 10 day, weather wise. When I came home for lunch, I decided to marinate some boneless chicken breasts so we could grill for dinner tonight. I'm not sure what happened, but as I began my drive home from work this evening, the sky began to look a bit ominous...and dark clouds began replacing blue skies rapidly. We only ended up getting all of about 10 raindrops and it was over. I was glad it didn't rain on my parade and ruin grilling our chicken this evening.

When hubby got home, he fired up the grill and cooked the chicken while I roasted some fresh asparagus and doctored up the leftover pasta from last night's dinner. Since it was so garlicky from using raw garlic, I cooked it a bit and added in a couple handfuls of the beautiful little yellow Zima tomatoes I picked up this weekend as well as another diced fresh Roma tomato...tossed in a bit more fresh basil and topped it with some fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano. I must say...it was delicious! One of my favorite quick marinades to use if I don't feel like making my own is bottled Italian dressing. I added some dried rosemary, cayenne pepper and black pepper and threw it in a large Ziploc bag with the chicken breasts and let it marinate all afternoon. It was so tender and flavorful...it was almost as tender as butter..."no knife needed". Update: If your chicken breasts are not even thickness (most are not), I would recommend pounding them with a meat mallet to even them out so they will cook evenly, otherwise to cook them evenly in the center, they may get overcooked on the outer edges. I pound mine in the Ziploc bag before adding the marinade.

The yard was so pretty when I got home with everything blooming, so I spent some time snapping some pictures. I like taking pictures when it is a bit overcast because all the colors seem to pop out and don't get washed out by the sun. I've included a few yard pics following our dinner pics. Enjoy!