[make] BBQ Chicken and Citrus Angel Food Cake

Confession. We do not own a grill.

I know. And we call ourselves Texans...

We are actually holding out to buy a nice, substantial grill: we used to have one of those rinky dink charcoal grills until we left it outside for three years and it became rusted. Seeing as Memorial Day, a traditional day for grilling, was yesterday, Nate was not a very happy camper... to be without a grill on a grilling day left him feeling down in the cooking dumps.

Not until he found a recipe for BBQ Chicken. Baked.

We are huge fans of BBQ chicken and always wonder why we don't make it more often. It's so easy and relatively cheap. I'm not sure where he found the exact recipe, but this is what we did:

Four chicken quarters (legs and breasts are what we had, I believe)
1 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce
Cilantro

Pan sear your chicken quarters. Wrap a sheet pan in foil, place your chicken quarters on the foil and generously coat with the BBQ sauce. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, taking the chicken out every 15 minutes to re-coat with BBQ sauce. Once they look nice and flavorful, and your meat thermometer says 165 degrees (the desired temperature of poultry), you're done! Finely chop cilantro and sprinkle on top.

We served with sauteed squash and pickles (both picked fresh earlier in the day by our neighbors).

Oh my, YUM, was it good!

For dessert, I whipped up a box of Angel Food cake (Duncan Hines box). However, there was a recipe on the side for Citrus Angel Food Cake with Fresh Citrus Sauce. Um, yes please. I followed the directions on the box, adding orange and lemon zest to the cake batter. The only other ingredient for boxed Angel Food cake mix is water: why have I never made it before?! It is so easy and delicious.

The sauce called for sugar, corn starch, orange juice, lemon rind (I used zest), and salt. Mix together until it gently boils. Put on top of your sliced cake... wow!!!

So, even though we didn't have a grill, our Memorial Day dinner did not disappoint. What were your Memorial Day plans? Swimming? Grilling? Do tell.

Happy Tuesday! My first "official" day of summer and I am at home with a stuffy nose. Ready to be able to breathe again, but at least my cough is gone, for the most part! It was suggested to me to not go to the doctor since I am not running a fever. Just let it run its course... but I am so impatient! So prayers for a quick recovery so I can breathe (and taste/hear) again would be greatly appreciated!

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28