Frozen Fruit Pops

The recipe I am showing you is with strawberries and blueberries, but you can do this with any fresh organic fruit.  These ingredients are suggestions, it's really up to your imagination and your tastes.

Ingredients:                                               Difficulty Rating: Easy

Make sure to clean all the fruit first. Even the outside of the limes, or if you are using cantaloupe, clean the outside well before you cut into them.

1 quart fresh organic strawberries with the calyx removed (that's what the green leaves on top of the strawberries are called, who knew?)
1 pint organic blueberries (if you can get Jersey blueberries, they're the best)
Juice from 1/2 lime
Roughly chopped mint
3/4 cup coconut water
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
Note: My friend Jennifer Agugliaro uses pure maple syrup instead of sugar - sounds great, give it a try!


Preparation:

Add the sugar and coconut water to a jar with a lid and shake it very well to combine.
Pour half into the blender
Add half the remainder of ingredients and cover the blender.
Turn on high, or to the Smoothie setting until well blended
Turn off the blender and add the remainder of ingredients and turn on the blender again

Pour into the molds, 1 at a time, cover and freeze.
For the extra mixture, pour into paper cups - make it about 2" deep - and freeze
After about 1/2 hour, place pop sticks into the center of the cups

To remove the pops from the molds, run under hot water and pull them out.

To remove from the paper cups, peel the cup away.



Turn it under hot water, turning from side to side for about 10 seconds



Take a bite and cool down!

Chicken a la Gabel

Preheat to 200 degrees

Ingredients:                                                          Difficulty Rating: Medium to Easy

1 cup flour


2 teaspoon sweet Hungarian Paprika

2 +teaspoons  1 teaspoon ground French thyme

2 teaspoons +1 teaspoon ground sage

Either 1 whole organic, free range chicken cut into pieces or chicken legs and thighs – about 6 of each, or as much as you want

2 - 3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil

4 medium cloves garlic, well chopped
1 medium onion, chopped

5 anchovies
2 Tablespoons aged Balsamic Vinegar

3 to 4 cups organic low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup dry white wine
4 carrots - chopped
2 Yukon Gold potatoes - cut into 2"pieces

Kosher salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a paper or plastic bag add half the flour, sage, paprika and thyme and the chicken.  Then add the rest of the flour, 2 teaspoons of sage, paprika and 2 teaspoons of thyme.  Add the chicken to the bag and shake it to cover all the chicken.  Take the pieces out and shake off the excess flour.

In a 3 quart heavy Dutch Oven, heat the coconut oil over a medium flame. Add the garlic , onions, remaining sage and thyme and the anchovies.  When the garlic is translucent and the anchovies have dissolved, add chicken – don’t overcrowd it. Brown for about 5 to 7 minutes, and turn to brown the other side for about 5 minutes.

Remove the chicken and put in the next group – and do the same thing.

After all the chicken is browned, deglaze by keeping the Dutch oven on the heat and add the Balsamic Vinegar and about ½ cup of the chicken broth. Scrape the pieces of chicken off the bottom.

Add the wine, and bring it to a low boil. Add all the chicken and add enough of the reminder of the broth to cover ¾ of the chicken.  Don’t cover the chicken completely. Add salt and pepper.

Bring the liquid to a boil, cover and put in the oven.

While this is cooking, boil the potatoes and carrots together until you can put a fork in easily.  Then add them to the chicken. 

Check it several times to be sure the liquid level stays at about ¾, add more chicken broth if necessary and move the chicken around to be sure each piece gets its turn in the liquid.

Note: when you check the chicken, take it out of the oven and close the oven door right away so the temperature doesn’t decrease.

After 2 hours, lower the temperature to 180 degrees and cook for another 2 hours. Use a fork to be sure the chicken falls off the bone.  Check occasionally to ensure the liquid level stays been half and ¾  of the way covering the chicken.



Chicken a la Gable
In honor of Addie and Harold Gabel

This can be cooked a day ahead of time and refrigerated.  When you take it out of the refrigerator, you can scrape off any fat that has hardend and let it sit for about ½ hour.  Then put it on the stove over a medium heat, covered and bring it to a low boil and take off the heat and let it sit for a short while.

Serve with potatoes or rice or noodles to soak up the juices, and a green vegetable and salad.  I served this with a pea  and ricotta puree, creamy mashed potatoes and an Israeli salad with lemon and extra virgin olive oil.