Roll Over, Pork Chop

We smoked a pork loin the other day and after having some for sandwiches, we had a ton left over.

I had to do something with it. I called my mother, and she gave me an idea, and it morphed into this, mostly due to lack of ingredients in my house.

You could do this with ANY leftover meat that has been cubed. It would be particularly good with smoked poultry. If you really want it and don't have leftover meat, just buy something precooked or cube and saute the meat beforehand. You could even use tofu!

You need:

About 4 cups of cubed meat, cooked.
1 can diced Italian tomatoes
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup(ish) chicken stock
1 can of canalini beans (white beans)
pinch of salt
1 box (or 1 cup) of wild rice, cooked

Saute the onion (on medium) in a saucepan large enough to fit everything but the rice.
Add in the tomatoes, wine, and salt. Let simmer for about 5 minutes.
Add the chicken stock and beans and simmer until liquid reduces by half (about 20 minutes).
Serve over the rice.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

(There would be a picture, but all that is left is currently being worn by Baby.)

Chicken Pot Pie, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Baking Crust

I often think I was born in the wrong era. I would have rocked the 50's housewife scene. That said, there are a few things I think all people that claim to know how to cook should be able to make. And seeing as I am now a stay-at-home-mom (or SAHM, as we like to use in the business), I feel I have no excuse not to have mastered these things. After all, any 50's housewife would know them like the back of her hand. She likely wouldn't be covered in flour, face all sweaty, and hair a hot mess, either. (Only one of those can I blame on my aprons being in storage.)

The list of things I feel one should be able to cook is made up of basics, and stuff most people who like to cook have in their pantry. (It makes me batty when people don't have simple things, like more than 3 cups of flour or a can of tomatoes in their pantry, but that isn't for right now.) It includes: tomato sauce, basic bread (just got this one down! Yay!), a roast, some sort of dish that involves chicken and wine, a vegetable side dish that involves more than simply steaming (and do not douse your veggies in Italian dressing. You get negative points for that. It is gross, and every time you do, Julia Child rolls over in her grave.), chicken stock, chili or beef stew, and a delicious crust.


See that last one? I'm such a slacker.

Unless it is Italian Christmas cookies, pizza bread, or some dish that is simply baked (like baked ziti or chicken parm), I don't bake. I'm afraid to bake. I like to change things and I don't like to read recipes, and those are two things that you absolutely must do if you don't want your baked goods to fail miserably. I have baked some horrific things. But hey, at least I own it.


Dan makes the pies in our house. It is his "thing", and I simply assist. He makes absolutely delicious apple pies. Of all the things one could learn to cook and/or bake, he chose apple pie, and I'm glad he did. I thought I'd never need to make another pie crust again! Nor would I need to buy the kind you get from the refrigerator section! Dan will just make the crust for any given dish, and I will fill it.

And that worked very well for the first five years of our relationship. But today, charged with the request to make pot pie for dinner, I walked the aisles of the grocery store, throwing all the ingredients into my cart and narrating my every move for Baby, I made it to the refrigerated section. Looking at the over-priced ready dough, I had a moment. I knew that if the crust my husband makes so well was more than 6 ingredients, he wouldn't have ever attempted it. I also knew that his pie crusts were so good because of how he made them, not what he made them with. Do I attempt to make crust? (And furthermore, HIS crust, knowing that it likely won't be half as good, and I could potentially mar his crust's good name?) Do I buy the refrigerated stuff, knowing that I really have no excuse to spend that much money on something comprised of flour, shortening, and water, especially now that I am home with a baby who has a nap coming up? Or do I just tell him that we are having baked chicken for dinner? (No, that wasn't really an option.)

Riding on my baking high from successfully making challah, I chose to make the crust. (They'll eat it and they'll like it!) Besides, when you make pie crust, you get to bake the leftover crust and eat it with jam, and isn't that why we make pie crust in the first place? For the jammy scraps?

I used my husband's crust, which is really Peggy Glass's apple pie crust, found in her fantastic cookbook Home-Cooking Sampler. Risking potential disaster and shame, I halved the sugar and folded in cheddar cheese to make it more of a savory crust. (The scraps, eaten without jam, are delicious. Baby approved cheese crust bits.)

Then I made a tried-and-true filling. This makes a bit more than you can fit into an average pie plate sized pie (sorry I can't give you dimensions. I told you pies were Dan's business.) so freeze the rest for a mini pie later, or just make a little more crust and make a mini pie to freeze, unbaked.

You will need:

about (it is a filling, all are approximate)
2lbs of boneless, skinless chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (I used white meat since people who prefer dark meat will eat white meat, but people who prefer white meat rarely bend, or so it is in our home.)
2 regular sized bags of Birds Eye mixed veggies, defrosted (the ones that have carrots, corn, green beans and peas... or whichever you prefer. )
1 can of Campell's Cream of Celery (10 oz can, condensed. I get the "healthy" one.)
1 "can" of milk (use milk to rinse can from cream of celery)
1/3 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Saute chicken in a large, non-stick pan. You may need a little bit of oil. When it is mostly cooked through, add cream of celery, milk, and thyme. Deglaze the pan with the soup and milk mix. Let simmer for 10 minutes, or until the sauce thickens enough to coat a spoon. You want it to be thicker than gravy - it is going into a crust. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add in the vegetables, stir to coat, and then set aside to cool.

This is a good time to roll out your crusts. Fill the pie with the chicken and veggies and either freeze, refrigerate (for just an hour or two, but don't leave it out unbaked! The crust will go awry.), or bake at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until crust is done. (Less if on convect, and cover the edges of your crust if they brown too quickly. If frozen, this will take longer and almost certainly need covering, as you want to be sure to heat it through.)


I wouldn't add it to my "mastered" list yet, but at least now pie crust isn't this looming monster. (And I've always wanted to make a latticed pie, so keep your eye out for that!)

Good for you, tasty muffins!

I know you think I'm kidding, but I'm not. These muffins are healthy (all things considered... they still are muffins... about 170 calories/muffin) and they taste good.

My ambition was to make a muffin my husband would eat that was still good for you (re: no chocolate chips, some sort of healthy grain...) and something involving oats, as it is good for nursing mommies. And this time, I win. (But you could add chocolate chips if you like.)
I found a recipe that gave me a decent base, and then changed it all around. And for once, my meddling in the baking world did me well. These are edible, which is more than I can say about most of my "tweaked" baking dishes. (This is why I cook.)

Makes 12 regular-sized muffins.

Ingredients:

dry:

1 -1/2 cups oat bran*
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour*
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used light. Use what you have/like.)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

wet:

2 eggs
1-1/2 cups apple sauce (you can use chunky, smooth, seasoned... I used organic, unsweetened, plain, smooth, about as bland as you get applesauce, but next time I want to try chunky flavored.)
2 TBS vegetable oil


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line muffin tin with paper cups.

In a large bowl, blend all the dry ingredients together.

Stir in the wet ingredients until thoroughly combine.
Add any stir-ins at this time.**

Pour batter into muffin tin.
Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or oats. Or both.

Bake for 15 minutes (less if on convect) or until springy and brown.

Enjoy!

* I buy this in the bulk section at Whole Foods. It is surprisingly affordable.

** chocolate chips, chopped apple, chopped nuts, craisins, raisins, pumpkin seeds... add about 1/2 cup. If using dried fruit, add 1 or 2 TBS more of applesauce or water. I want to make some that include ALL the stir ins!

Grapes Overcome

I bought Baby some baby food that involved grapes. She loved it. I decided that grapes were something I could make, so I bought some delicious organic grapes.

Then I realized that I would need to peel all those teeny tiny little grapes.

A few days passed before I remembered the food mill.

You don't need a whole new kitchen of cutesy baby accessories to make baby food. I'm all for using tools you already have or can use later, like a mini Cuisinart food processor, or little freezer containers that can hold snacks and dressing later on. That said, we bought a $10 Kid Co. baby food mill to use during our move and at the beach. It was much easier to carry the food mill (which comes with a travel case and does not need to be plugged in) than it was to bring the food processor along. It is the only thing I haven't thought of an "afterlife" for, but for $10, and assuming we have another kid at some point, it is well worth it.

Then I discovered something about the food mill that made it my new favorite thing. Skins can't get through the food mill. Long gone are the days of crushing blueberries through a sieve! Grapes do not need to be peeled! I can just run them through the mill and presto chango, they are skinless mush!

I ran about 1/2 a cup of red, sweet, organic grapes through the mill. I discovered that if you squeeze the grapes slightly (to crack the skin) before putting them through, they press much faster.

Here's the problem with grapes: they turn into soup. To counteract Grape Soup, I milled up a medium banana (which whirrs into slime) and made a goopy concoction that my baby absolutely loves. I think I'll mix it into some baby oats before serving it to her.

Eye Round Roast, Revisited

Once again, I found myself in the grocery store wondering what was for dinner. I was going to make pasta figoli with cheesy toasts for dipping. However, Dan had a big interview today, and I wanted to make a Dan meal (meat and potatoes) versus a Karla dish (Italian, involving pasta and beans or pasta and sauce).

I picked up some sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets before heading to the meat counter. I know that when you buy beef cuts, they say 1/2 lb per person (when really, a serving is 4 oz.) because the meat will shrink as the water and fat leave it. Still, when I asked the man for enough eye of round roast to serve 4 hungry people and he handed me what, when wrapped, was the size of my 6-month-old, I was a little shocked. (He actually gave me 2.79 lbs of beef. It was a bit much. Good thing it makes for tasty leftovers.)

Now, armed with the goods to make a meal the whole family will enjoy (no onions, no tomato sauce, no seafood...), I headed back to marinade the beef.

Eye of round is great to marinade overnight, but I am not a planner. I have several print-outs and on-line accounts designed to help people plan out a week of meals in advance, all failed. I tend to work better under the "go to the store, stand in the middle and put it all together based on what is fresh, local, organic, and on sale, in that order if possible." method.

I didn't have overnight, but I had 4 hours, so I used them wisely. I made an acidic marinade, let the meat come to room temperature before cooking it, and used convection bake, prolonging the time it could sit in the marinade before needing to go into the oven.

Eye of Round Roast Last Minute Marinade
(this would be good even if you could only sit it in the marinade for the 30 minutes it takes for the beef to come to room temperature)

As with all marinades, measurements are approximate. I just dump and go.

1/2 cup red wine
4 TBS balsamic vinegar
1.5 tsp basil
some thyme, oregano, and savory
1 bay leaf, broken up
2 TBS low sodium soy sauce
salt & pepper

Put into a plastic container, so shaking is easy. Shake the container every time you go by. I tend to put whatever I'm marinating in a container that barely contains the meat, so that I don't need to use a ton of marinade.

Root veggies are under appreciated this time of year. They are in season, but most people associate them with winter because the keep well. I say eat them all year round.

To feed 5 hungry people (because Baby ate enough to count as one), I made 3 sweet potatoes, a bunch of carrots - maybe 6? - and 6 beets. Peel and cut into big chunks, then put into a roasting pan one layer deep. It is better to use two pans than stack them all up.

Dress with the following:

thyme
maple syrup
olive oil
balsamic
pepper


Preheat the oven to 450. Put the beef into the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the oven to 350 degrees and roast for another 30 minutes on convect for a medium to medium rare (pink in the middle, no red) or 35 minutes for non-convection heat. Let the meat sit for at least 10 minutes and up to 20 minutes before carving. Then cut into circles as thin as you possibly can.

I put 1 cup of the veggies into the Cuisinart with 3 TBS of water and blended for two servings of baby food. It comes out BRIGHT pink, so you may want to undress your baby if you like the outfit she is wearing. Beets stain. I also cut her off about two adult bites of beef and whirred that to a pulp, mixed them, and Baby ate it ALL.

Enjoy!

I promised I would write about freezing... then forgot.

Sometimes, Baby eats what we are eating, just blended. Typically, though, it is a mix of what we are having that moment and something pre-made. For example, she may have some pea curry soup (mixed with rice) just like us, along with chicken and vegetable soup and peaches that I froze ahead of time. Babies are tiny humans, and need variety to be properly nourished. That is why feeding your baby a few jars of bananas is not a great option.

When you make baby food, make about 2 adult servings to get about 6 two ounce (or 12 one ounce) servings.

Then you can freeze portions and just thaw out a variety of cubes to make baby a diverse meal!

One ounce cubes are great for "side dishes" like fruits and veggies, mix ins (what I like to add to Baby's morning oatmeal for variety), concentrated juices, and portions for someone starting to eat solids.

Two ounce cubes are better for serving "main dishes" like soups. You can also use them for breast milk, although I liked the bags better, as milk is like gold and I cried when I lost 12 ounces to freezer burn. (That's three bottles! Rookie mistake. This actually happened with the one ounce tray.)

The #1 complaint about any food storage system is that the containers pop open, freezer burning your food. (See Rookie mistake above.) If you don't overfilled them, they won't pop open.

Once frozen, you can pop the food out and put them into a freezer bag and store them that way if you need to reuse the trays.

When you make food, I find it is best to add the minimal amount of liquid before freezing. Once you thaw the cubes, you can add milk, stock, or water to get the desired consistency.

It is that easy.


Good luck!

Family Meal

When I reflect on my years as a nanny, I am most grateful for three things: the families I worked with, the nanny friends I made, and the experience of raising children. Before I had considered having my own children, I had a hand in raising several children. Of course, it is different when it is your baby that is with you all day, every day. Still, most of what I learned is easily applicable with my biological baby. (Because my nanny babies are my babies, too.)

One of the ideas that I've transferred to my family is Family Dinner. Whether you want to save money, give your baby only the best, raise a child with a broad pallet, have specific health needs, or you want to save time, make a meal the entire family, baby included, can eat. This is nothing new or fancy, but in the land of jarred food and short order cook moms, this "old school" thinking is so far removed that it is new-fangled. And just like they did it "back then", all you need is a blender (which you can get for as low as $10 at Target, and it will do the job... As for me, I like my immersion blender) in addition to what you would use to make your own food. No fancy steamers, no odd containers, no $150 tool you will use for 4 months. (I'll discuss freezing later.)

This one-pot simple soup is fast, easy, and delicious. And did I mention one pot? Who doesn't like that? Whether your kids are 6 months or 396 months old, this makes a great meal.

Chicken Soup For All! (4-5 people...)

You will need:

8 small chicken thighs (thighs have more iron, so I like them for Baby, but you could use white meat, too), cut into bite-sized pieces
4 cups of low-sodium or home-made chicken or vegetable stock
2.5 cups of water
1 tablespoon of salt-free poultry seasoning (this is my favorite!)
4 large carrots, peeled and diced
4 stalks of celery, leaves included, diced
1 cup of lentils, rinsed and picked through for stones (they will make your teeth and blender cry)

Throw all the above into a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover partially, simmering until the lentils are cooked, about 20-30 minutes, depending on the type of lentil (I used French green lentils) and your preference of doneness.

Modifications:

Triple lentils and omit chicken for vegetarian version.

Blend until smooth for babies 4-7 months.

Strain from broth and chop (in blender or hand chopper, like the kind for nuts) and add back to broth for babies 7-12 months.

For babies 12-18 months, make sure your ingredients are diced to a size your baby can safely handle before cooking. You know your baby best.


Tia Jessica inspired cantaloupe popsicles (ages 4 months - 400 years old)

If you don't have popsicle molds, get some. For bitty ones, get the Annabel Karmel one-ounce molds.

Put cantaloupe wedges into blender. Puree until smooth. Test the cantaloupe. If you didn't get a particularly sweet melon, add some agave syrup or white grape juice. (You could also sneak in some cucumber and sweeten slightly.). Freeze. Enjoy!

This also makes nice baby puree without the sweetener.

Oh baby, baby

It should come as no surprise that my daughter voraciously devours all we put in front of her. I can only hope this lasts, as she is a healthier eater than I. Up until now, we have been fairly unadventurous. I would smash, puree, and mill one type of food at a time, and test it out to see if she would accept it. She would have two or even three types of food at a meal, but not often mixed, and certainly nothing fancy. Then we went to the beach. On our drive down to the beach, Baby's fruit purees melted and mingled. I decided the best fix to this was to add prune juice and freeze them as Popsicles. Whether it was the popsicle format or the blends, I do not know, but she enjoyed every bite that made it into her mouth. I had been holding myself back ("She's not old enough!"), but as we rapidly approach 6 months (how?!) I've become more adventuresome. Tonight we feast.

Baby's First Foods


Berry Smash (1 cup of berries makes about 8 one ounce servings)

Berries are a labor of love, and my baby loves berries, so I make enough to fill an ice cube tray every time.

You will need: equal amounts of blueberries and raspberries.

Rinse berries well. Put in a microwave safe bowl, adding water in a 4:1 ratio of berries to water. (1 cup of berries would need 1/4 cup of water.)

Cover berries and microwave for 1 minute, keeping an eye on them in case they boil over (choose a high-sided bowl).

Run berries and water through a fine-mesh sieve or cheese cloth and strain by squeezing the skins.

Freeze into cubes or mix with (sugar-free, organic) apple juice for Popsicles. When I use the cubes, I either mix them with banana, oatmeal, or rice. They will be very watery. You can also run one through the food processor with an entire frozen banana for some easy sorbet!



Summer Fruit Puree (12 one ounce servings)

You will need: 2 peaches and 2 apricots

Cut an X into the bottom of each piece of fruit. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add fruit. Boil for 2 minutes. Remove fruit and immediately place into ice water. The skins should slip right off. (This is also how you peel tomatoes.). Remove fruit meat from the pit and put into the food processor. Puree. Freeze.

This can also be frozen as a Popsicle (with the berries! You could even layer them if you want to get fancy!) or served with oatmeal. I also give this to Baby as dessert, and when she gets just a little older, I will put it into her yogurt.


Cici Beans, Tomato, and Carrot Puree

I love cici beans (garbanzos) and was jazzed when I found out that I could give them to my baby.
I used an entire can of beans, which made 12 portions. In the future, I will do as follows:

Peel and slice 2 medium carrots. In a small sauce pan, bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil and add carrots. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 a medium tomato, diced, to the pan. Simmer for another minute before adding about 7 ounces (1/2 can) of cici beans. Simmer until tender.

Strain, reserving liquid.

I love my little Cuisinart food processor, but running this through there would not remove skins, and this puree is entirely toothpick to press through a sieve like the berries. Enter the baby food mill! As it turns out, when you use the food mill with things like beans, corn, and tomatoes, all the innards get milled and the skins stay behind! If your baby is ready for lumpier foods, you can just crush the dish at this point. Add puree back to reserved liquid.

Babies can also have seasonings (except salt, sugar, and anything too spicy) so adding a small pinch of basil, thyme, or your favorite seasoning is fine. You can also add a small pinch of aged, pasteurized parmesan cheese once cooked.

Feeding Baby is my new favorite thing (besides looking at baby and playing with baby).

Accidentally delicious stir-fry sauce

We are back in Boston. This has two impacts on this blog: I no longer have my (work) laptop, and am typing this on my iPad (slightly infuriating) and that my mother-in-law is kind enough to share her (drool-worthy) kitchen (and the rest of her house) with us while we find a home.

Seeing as my wok pan was a horrid piece of metal from Ikea, I hadn't made stir fry in quite some time. I had no trouble picking out the ingredients (as you can put nearly anything into stir fry), but the sauce had me stymied. My mother-in-law has an astounding array of spices, seasonings, and sauces.

This is what we came up with.
(And it was delicious.)

Our stir fry was cooked using toasted sesame seed oil. Once all the components of your stir fry are cooked, add this sauce:

(makes enough for 4 servings of stir fry)

Dissolve 1.5 TBS of white miso in 5 oz of water. Add 1TBS soy sauce (we used mushroom soy sauce), 1 TBS rice wine vinegar, and 1/4 tsp powdered ginger. Add to wok and toss until ingredients are coated.

Enjoy!

PS: we used chicken, green pepper, onion, carrots, snap peas, and broccoli in our stir fry, and served over white rice. We intended to add asparagus and water chestnuts, but forgot both.

Moving Pot Pie

I haven't forgotten that I have a cooking blog, but having a baby, finishing a school year, and moving will force blogs (and cooking) into a back seat.

Dan set out for Boston (only to return tomorrow) and I was left to my own accord for food. The requirements were that it be quick in preparation, use what is left in my slimming cupboards, and taste good.

What I came up with was a pot pie.

It indeed was quick in preparation, used up three bags of frozen veggies, half a rotisserie chicken, a sweet potato, a can of soup, milk, and some pancake mix, and was delicious.


Here is what you need:
(Remember, with most things packed, measuring cups included, the below measurements are eyeballed, and you really don't need to

1/2 (ish) a rotisserie chicken, meat picked from the bone and cubed/torn into bite-sized pieces.
about 3 cups of frozen veggies at least (I used spinach, peas, and corn because that is what I had)

1 can (10.5 oz) cream of chicken/celery/mushroom (I used chicken)

1 and 3/4 cups of pancake mix (divided like that)

a large sweet potato, cooked (I microwave them for about 4.5 minutes)

about 1/3 cup milk

water


You could add all sorts of great spices, like thyme. Mine are in one of these 97 boxes, so I did not.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix 1 cup of mix with cream of ____ and milk. Stir in chicken and vegetables. Pour into a casserole.

*Mix the inside of the sweet potato with the remainder of the mix and water (or milk if you like) until it is about the consistency of pancake batter. Spread across the top of the chicken mix.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is goldenish.



*You can actually leave out the mix in the top and just use two mashed sweet potatoes.

Enjoy!

Celebration Chicken!

This chicken is a great cook-out dish, best for a summer day where you have a few hours to spend smoking some meat while enjoying time with friends and family.


This morning, in the grocery store, Dan had a brilliant idea: let's finally smoke that chicken we've been meaning to smoke since Thanksgiving. My step-father had smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving, and it was so delicious that I would have eaten it all myself, had I not one small Alfred turkey in my belly already. (I did use the "I'm eating for two!" excuse to eat enough smoked turkey to feed a few grown men...)

We took our chicken home and immediately put it into a simple brine. We did this with limited time, so the recipes I'll include below will be for how we would have liked to do it had we better planned.

I rubbed the chicken with William-Sonoma turkey rub (that is composed of applewood-smoked salt, garlic, onion, thyme, and pepper, is available around Thanksgiving, and would have been delicious in the brine as well) and we "smoked" the chicken on the gas grill using a tinderbox full of applewood chips. The next chicken will be smoked in the proper smoker, but this chicken was delicious.

This is how you do it:

Brine:

2 quarts water
1 quart apple juice
3/4 cup salt
1/2 cup sugar

In a pot large enough to fit your chicken, boil the above ingredients until they are all combine, and then cool to room temperature or cooler.

Once the brine is cool, add a 5-6lb chicken. Your chicken should be thawed, but if it is still a little cool and you are brining overnight, that is fine. Make sure the chicken is completely covered by liquid. Add more water and weigh down the chicken if needed. Put it in the refrigerator.

Brine the chicken for as close to 12 hours as possible. A little longer wouldn't hurt it, either. Our brine did not have juice, and only soaked for a few hours, so don't worry if you do it all last minute.


Take the chicken out of the brine and pat dry. While your smoker or tinder box gets going (300-375 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal - poultry needs to be smoked at a hotter temperature than beef or pork) rub your chicken inside and out generously with olive oil and:

smoked sea salt
thyme
garlic powder
onion powder

then put into the smoker!

To smoke on the grill, put the chicken on a cookie rack over an aluminum pan (see the photo above). Your smoker likely has a drip pan for liquids.

For the drip pan, we used a bottle of Sam Adams LongShot 23 Friar Hops. You can use anything you like, including water or apple juice to add moisture to the smoker. A hops-y beer like Sams is ideal, and the Friar Hops is spiced. (I don't like it as a beer, but as an addition to a recipe, it is great!)

Smoke the chicken breast-side down for about 45 minutes per pound (up to an hour per pound - don't dry it out by over-smoking, not that you will be able to hold out a minute longer than necessary, it will smell so ridiculously tasty) or until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees Fahrenheit.
I flipped mine for the last hour, but it was completely unnecessary.

Once the chicken is to temperature, let it set for at least 10 minutes. You can tent it with foil if you like, but it is not necessary. Just give the chicken a chance to suck all its juices back in.

Carve the chicken and serve with seasonal veggies. We had sweet potatoes and a spring mix with zucchini, carrots, and broccoli.

Peanut Chicken

The verdict is still out on this one, as it is simmering itself away in the crock right now, but it has great promise.

My mother-in-law makes a terrific peanut chicken dish (which, if memory serves me, I've referenced before) that is served over pasta and with broccoli that both my husband and I love, and which was the inspiration for this dish. I wanted something crock-friendly, as even the quickest dish can become troublesome when you are trying to get out the door, have a 2-month-old soaking everything in sight, or dinner time needs to be flexible, because our eating time depends on baby eating time.

In fact, said baby helped me prepare this dish.


So easy, even a baby can (help) do it.

Here is what you will need:

• 1.5lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
• about 1/2 cup natural peanut butter (so you don't get all the sugars and additives) - chunky or smooth. I had smooth in the house, so that is what went into the pot.
• 1/4 c. chicken broth
• about 5 Tbs soy sauce (I used a mix of low sodium and regular)
• 1.5 tsp onion powder (or one medium diced onion... I wasn't going to dice with a baby in my arms)
• 1.5 tsp chopped garlic
• .5 tsp ground ginger
  
• 1 TBS cumin
  
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
  
• 4 TBS peanuts, chopped (measured before chopping) - or use chunky peanut butter
  
• broccoli florets, steamed (the steam-in-a-bag or leftover broccoli is fine)
• pasta or rice of your choosing (optional)
  

Mix all but the last 4 ingredients together and set it to cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours. Mix in broccoli and garnish with chopped peanuts and sesame seeds.

We are going to enjoy this over fettuccine or linguine.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Chicken Curry

At one point in time, I attempted a curry dish.

It was terrifying and bland.

I decided curry was best left as one of those dishes you get when you eat out because it isn't something you are going to replicate in your kitchen, and didn't try to cook it again.

Until now.

Our local grocery store had a sale on boneless, skinless chicken breasts; buy one get two free. We had grilled chicken, kabobed chicken, and southwest chicken soup. After so much chicken, I decided we needed to mix it up a bit and keep it healthy (which is why we grill so much... it is quick, easy, and healthy). I got it in my head to make curry.

I won't tell you what my friend, Kachelle, calls yellow chicken curry, but I will tell you that it not only made me wary of making and serving it, but I giggled the entire time I was mixing this up. In the end, after some seasoning tweaking, it came out delicious. In the future, I would add some slightly steamed cauliflower to make it even better.

You will need:

1 can lite coconut milk (you can use the heavy stuff, but that takes out the health piece. It also makes it fantastically creamy)
1 can ceci (garbanzo) beans, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 medium sweet onion, diced
1 T chopped garlic (or 3 crushed fresh cloves, or 1 tsp garlic powder...)
1 T low sodium soy sauce
2 T curry powder (yellow, and do not reduce this! Curry is not hot, it is seasoning.)
1.5 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into large chunks (which can be nicely put into naan)
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 small - medium of each, diced: red, yellow and green pepper

Mix all but the last 3 listed ingredients in the crock until the spices are well-dispersed. Add the chicken and set to cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Add the sweet potato, trying to immerse all the pieces, with 90 minutes left in cooking time. You can also boil the sweet potato pieces until tender (but still al dente) and mix them in during the last 30 minutes. This is how I would treat the cauliflower florets as well.

15-20 minutes before serving, add in peppers. They should cook slightly, and still impart a nice crunch.

You can eat this as is, or serve with naan or over rice.

Enjoy!

Chicken Bones and Kitchen Shears

As Passover draws closer, I start my obsession of squirreling away chicken frames. (Don't worry... I mean this in a good way, not in a Girl, Interrupted way.) I am proud to say that 2.5 chicken frames (bones and necks) are currently resting in my freezer, and another half sits in the refrigerator waiting to be picked of meat and reserved. You see, I like to make my own chicken stock. Most of the time I just throw whatever chicken I have into a pot with some stray veggies and call it a day; not true for Pesach. I like my broth to be just right for High Holidays.

I bought a chicken during the week with the intent to roast it. For some reason this never happened. The chicken needed to be cooked or frozen, and seeing as we have had gorgeous weather, Dan and I decided to combine my powers of cooking with his of grilling. Let's grill a chicken under a brick! This is where the kitchen shears come in.

If there is one thing I would not get very far in the kitchen without, it is our kitchen shears. I use them for everything. It isn't that I don't know how to wield a knife, but shears make it so much easier. In order to get a chicken flat enough to grill quickly and evenly, you need to butterfly it. A slippery raw chicken and a sharp knife are not a great combination. In fact, the last time I resorted to using a knife for this task, I ended up with food poisoning and didn't eat chicken for 3 months. But shears, with their strong blades and sturdy grip? Not a problem! Just a few snips up either side of the backbone and ta-da! a butterflied chicken. (You also have to lay it flat and press on it like you are trying to revive the poor bird. I save the back and wing tips - also snipped off - for stock.) Once you get the chicken butterflied, rinse and pat dry both sides, and revel at how simple that was.

That is it? you think... no! The shears made quick work of trimming extra fat and making my kitties a tasty treat when I snipped the gizzards into kitty-appropriate pieces and fried them up.


Now we move back to the chicken.

I used about 4 parts olive oil and 1 part lemon juice (enough liquid to cover the bottom of my glass baking dish) mixed with 1/2 TBS chopped garlic, 2 tsp salt, 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary (chopped with - you guessed it! - kitchen shears! No longer is my kitchen covered in chopped rosemary!) and 1 tsp thyme to rub the chicken with. Rub both the meat and bone side of the chicken.
I let it marinate in this mixture meat-side down for 2 hours (refrigerated).

We have bricks in our garden. I didn't want to pull them up to grill with, even if I was going to wrap them in foil. Instead, we used the bottom of our cast iron skillet. Regardless if you use one heavy cast iron skillet (ours is a 10 inch pan), grill-safe pizza stone, or 2 bricks, wrap whatever you use with foil and grease with leftover marinade.

Here's what to do about that beautiful bird:

Heat the grill to medium. Grease with leftover marinade (careful, as it will flare up... use tongs and a paper towel...) and put the bird as spread out and center as you can, bone side down. Put any large pieces of rosemary that are in the marinade on the chicken, and make sure it is well-basted. Put the skillet (stone, brick) on top, and press a little, especially over the legs, where the chicken is thickest.

Our bird was about 4 lbs, and I let it cook like this for 25 minutes. If your bird is heavier, increase this time by 5 minutes per half pound, if it is smaller, decrease by 5 minutes per pound.

After this time has passed, get a team assembled. Remove the pan, then the bird, then regrease the grill. Place the bird skin side down, return the weight, and decrease the heat slightly. Let the bird cook like this for 20 minutes, or until the juices run clear. (You've crushed most of the joints, so that is not a good test.)

Being careful not to tear the skin (which we did because we didn't regrease the grill... oops...) lift the bird off the grill and place on a serving platter. Try not to eat all the delicious crispy skin yourself, as you may regret this later.

Enjoy!

(I can't get the photos working right now, so you will need to imagine the deliciousness.)

Unintentional Jambalaya

Happy Fat Tuesday!

I honestly didn't start this as jambalaya, but that is how it ended.

It also ended up extremely spicy, since I underestimated the power of my Cajun seasoning and the linguica I used. (The recipe has been adjusted to compensate for this.)

I wanted a red beans and rice dish that would use up the chicken I had waiting patiently in the refrigerator. About half way through typing this I realized I had made (and consumed) jambalaya. I blame the Baby Brain for this major oversight.

You will need:

3 pearl onions, peeled and diced
1/2 large red pepper, diced
1/2 large green pepper, diced
2 links of linguica (or a milder smoked sausage if you don't want it spicy) cut into bite-sized rounds
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 bag of 10 minute rice (You can use regular rice, but add 1/4 c. broth and extend cooking time.)
2 TBS my blend of Cajun seasoning (recipe below) for medium heat
(1 TBS for mild and 2.5 TBS for spicy... 3 was borderline "too spicy", and I like spice.)


In a large frying pan, saute onion and peppers over medium heat for 3 minutes, or until onions are transparent. Remove from pan.
Brown chicken so that no pink remains on the outside, about 7 minutes.
Add seasoning, tomatoes and broth to the pan.
Make a well in the center of the pan and add rice. Stir, making sure rice stays submerged.
Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer.
Return the peppers and onion to the pan and add beans and linguica. Do not stir!
Simmer for 15 minutes (or longer if it is needed for the rice).

Enjoy!

Cajun Seasoning:

1.5 TBS salt
1 TBS smoked paprika
1 TBS cayanne pepper
1 TBS oregano
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder

Makes a little over 6 TBS, so make this in something resealable unless you are tripling the above recipe.