Dinner on the Farm - Lemon Chicken Piccata

This dish is simple but there are several steps to take to make it. Maybe I do things the hard way, but the end result is amazing.

Chicken Piccata


1 box whole grain pasta
2 Chicken breasts pounded thin and cut in half
2 c. low sodium chicken stock
1/2 c whole wheat flour
2 tlb minced garlic
1/2 c chopped celery
1 tlb capers
3 tbl lemon juice


Boil the pasta as directed, rinse and set aside.

Season the breasts with garlic powder and black pepper. Coat the chicken breasts in whole wheat flour. Saute in 2 tlb olive oil until they are no longer pink inside. Remove and set aside.

In the same saute pan add in garlic and celery. Saute until the celery is just getting tender. Add in the capers and 5 tlb. whole wheat flour. Let this mixture bubble over low for 1-2 minutes. Slowly add the lemon juice and chicken stock and cook until thick.Turn off and remove from heat.

To serve, place pasta on the plate, a chicken breast on top of the pasta and top with Piccata sauce.

Sometimes I add fresh mushrooms. It is also good with chopped zucchini or chopped eggplant.Add these in when you add the celery.

Experiment and let me know what you create!

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Farm Sunday - It's always something!

We were blessed earlier in the week with good news and more rain. The good news is that the El Nino effect has dissipated and we should be on our way to recovering from the worse drought I have every experienced.

The rain is very welcomed for the garden and to replenish our water table. It also makes the pasture grow very fast and it is difficult to keep up with. We keep the grass low around the house and keep it mowed around the garden. The rest of it can wait. It makes for an amazing wild area for the many birds and deer we hear and see.

Today our goal was to cut the grasses closest to the garden area. John was on the lawn tractor and I had the weed eater. It looks great but the work didn't come without a price.


On a hobby farm there is always a price to pay when you are working. Tools misplaced, projects that don't go as planned and, like today, things in the pasture that magically appear.

We were making great progress until John hit a cable that looks similar to a guy wire on a tower. It wrapped around the axles and of course the shredder blades on the lawn tractor. We've wrapped barbed wire before and that was a chore to remove. Remarkably, or perhaps because at this point he has had so much experience removing things from the shredder blades, it didn't take long at all to remove it.

It's warming up in South Texas and is quite humid. We are facing Hurricane Season starting in just a few weeks and the Rural Living farm isn't immune to those. While we are 30 miles off the coast that isn't enough to stop the winds. We may be immune to a storm surge but little else so it's time for us to inventory our survival supplies.

Adding that task to this week's list.

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