Tuesday Night Dinner

I am so excited about this recipe. It was fast enough for a week night but yummy enough for company. This recipe comes from who else but the wonderful Jamie Oliver. Really the man can do no wrong. I don't think Chris and I have been unhappy with a single one of his recipes. They are always just so good!



Dry grilled chicken and noodles with herb broth, cilantro and red chili*

2 chicken breasts
dry rice noodles
boiling water
5-6 cups of homemade chicken broth
1 inch of fresh ginger, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bunch fresh cilantro
2 fresh red chili, seeds removed.
2 fresh limes
soy sauce
bok choi, remove course stems and roughly chop

Heat cast iron grill pan over med-high. Pound chicken breast 1/4 inch thick and season with salt and pepper. Once grill pan is hot add chicken. Bring water kettle to boil. Place broth into sauce pan along with garlic and ginger, bring to boil, reduce to a simmer. Cook chicken 4-5 minutes on one side before turning over. Cook 2-3 minutes on second side or until chicken is cooked through. Set aside. Place rice noodles into large bowl. Once kettle is boiling pour boiling water over the noodles. Stir around with chop stick to make sure they are submerged in water. Check periodically (should take 5-10 minutes) until they are soft but not mushy. When done, drain and divide into 4 bowls. Finely chop your cilantro and chili, set aside. Place bok choi into simmering broth. Cook just until wilted, divide into bowls over noodles. Slice chicken and divide it among four bowls. Ladle broth into each bowl. Squeeze fresh lime juice onto each bowl, along with some soy sauce and garnish with cilantro and red chili.

*Adapted from Jamie Oliver, The Naked Chef. Ingredients and flavors are the same. I altered the recipe to simplify it a bit and speed it up. For even more simplification you could simply poach the chicken in the broth.

Stay home Date nights

More and more Chris and I find we need to schedule time to spend together. Between evening meetings and early morning meetings for my job, his job, his growing practice, continuing legal education classes in Portland, the gym, church, family and social obligations we can go a long time without spending quality time together. When that happens we both get grumpy, we feel frazzled, and we start to get into little fights about stupid things. So we try to purposefully schedule time together. Often this is simply a night in together cooking something delicious, watching the Office or Frasier and hanging out.

This Friday we decided to make a Jamie Oliver recipe and hang out in our new kitchen. We did the dishes together. Chris sat on the bar stool and chatted with me while I prepared our dinner, we had some wine, we started unpacking our china and basically just hung out in our kitchen for the hour and a half dinner was in the oven. It was delightful and yummy.

We made Roasted Pork Loin with Peaches from The Return of the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver.

It was so good and just as beautiful cooked as it was before it went in the oven. But we were so hungry by the time that it came out of the oven that I failed to take a picture.

Roasted Pork Loin with Peaches

pork loin (I made two so that the pork would stretch to 3 dinners)

2 TB butter

2 cans peaches with natural juice

fresh thyme

salt and pepper

olive oil

Yukon gold potatoes

Preheat oven to 425. Butterfly loins and season well with salt and pepper. Dot with butter and add thyme. I think I used 4-5 sprigs. Then lay peach slices in middle tie up with cooking twine. Line roasting pan with chopped potatoes, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Lay pork loin on top of potatoes and add remaining peach slices. Reserve juice to baste as cooks. Brush some oil on top of pork and season again with salt and pepper. Place in oven and cook 1 hour-1 and a half hours for medium. Check once or twice and baste with reserved peach juice. Remove from oven when meat registers 150 degrees on meat thermometer. Let meat rest at least ten minutes before slicing.

Recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver's see notes below

*Notes: the original recipe calls for using a pork loin roast with bones and fat still attached. I think this may be more common in the UK because it isn't something I see in our grocery stores. I probably could have gotten it that way at a local meat market but that would have made this a very expensive dinner, so I opted to alter the recipe instead and used a regular pork loin. I was also dealing with a new oven which I am learning runs low. I need to test the oven temps with a thermometer, but my sense was that 425 was not actually reaching 425. The recipe says to cook the roast for one hour (this is with skin and bones and fat) for medium and we ended up cooking it one hour and twenty minutes before it hit 150 degrees. The leftovers were great the next night and we still have pork left which I will be making into shredded pork tacos tonight with queso fresco, green salsa and cabbage slaw.

Spring?

After weeks of rain yesterday's high of 70 degrees, blue skies, and sunshine felt like an early spring day emerging from a long winter. I feel like it's March or April rather than June. Apparently the local produce agrees with me. Strawberries have yet to appear and my grandmothers rhubarb is just now ready to harvest. Last night my kitchen felt like Spring as well as I soaked, rinsed and chopped long ruby stalks of rhubarb for Rhubarb pie. Because I had too much rhubarb for one pie I also made some rhubarb compote on impulse. A truly delicious last minute decision on my part which made for both the perfect desert and a lovely breakfast this morning.

Rhubarb Compote

2 cups chopped rhubarb
1/4 cup + more to taste agave syrup or honey
2 TB arrow root or cornstarch
2 TB water

Place chopped rhubarb in sauce pan on med heat. Cook stirring occasionally until rhubarb starts to break down and look stewed, about 20-30 minutes. Add honey or agave. Taste and add more sweetener if desired. I like my rhubarb still tart others may like it sweater. Mix water and arrowroot and add. Bring to boil and reduce. Cook a few more minutes until thickened. Let cool and place in glass jar. Store in refrigerator.

This is so yummy on toast. We had a lot of ricotta cheese in our fridge so I mixed some ricotta and honey and slathered that on toast then topped it with the rhubarb compote for Mr. P's breakfast and he said it was delicious. I think it's also good to just eat with a spoon!

Cheap Eats Part 3-Greens

Another wonderfully delicious, yet cheap, food is greens. Greens remain one of the cheapest fresh vegetables throughout the year. This is because they have three growing seasons, early spring, mid summer and winter. I was at our local farmers market this past weekend and the greens were by far the cheapest fresh vegetables. Greens are also yummy and super healthy. They are what my Mom calls a super food. Here are some of my favorite ways to eat them:

Southern Style Collard Greens

1 ham hock
2 bunches collard greens
4 dried cayenne or other red chilies
salt and pepper
hot sauce to taste

Bring ham hock, chilies and lots of water to boil. Cook 30 minutes. Add chopped greens, some salt and cook 2 hours. Season to taste with hot sauce.


Garlicky Spinach

3 cloves garlic thinly sliced
2 bunches fresh spinach (or other quick cooking greens)
olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in pan. Add garlic and cook till just beginning to brown. Add spinach and some salt and pepper. Cook just until wilted.


Spicy Mustard Greens

2 bunches mustard greens
2 cloves garlic sliced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat oil and saute garlic and pepper flakes. When garlic starts to brown add greens and cook until just wilted. Season with salt and pepper.


Cumin Spiced Kale (adapted from Moosewood low-fat favorites)

1/2 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
4 tomatoes chopped, or one can of tomatoes diced
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 large bunch of kale
olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat oil in skillet. Saute onion 5 minutes. Add garlic saute another minute. Meanwhile wash and chop kale. Add cumin and cayenne to skillet. Cook one minute. Add kale and tomatoes. Cover and cook 15 minutes until Kale is tender.

Greens are also great additions to soups, lentils, curries and stir Fry's. They are very rich in nutrients, especially iron. Perhaps best of all, most cook in a matter of minutes, making them the perfect side dish for any weeknight meal!

Cheap Eats Part 2- The Whole Chicken

Today we are continuing on with cheap yet delicious food ideas for all of us who are fabulous yet broke. Last time we discussed eggs in all their glory. You might also check out this post on beans and this yummy beef soup recipe which are all budget friendly as well.

Like most American families we eat a lot of chicken. However unlike many we do not buy boneless skinless chicken breast. Here is my money saving tip for the day: DO NOT BUY BONELESS SKINLESS CHICKEN BREAST. I know, I know, it is so much easier and more convenient. But hear me out. Each week when I go to the market I buy a whole chicken or two. When I get home from the market I cut the chicken up into pieces, legs, thighs, breasts. I take off all the skin and remove the breast bone (This depends on my menu for the week. For some recipes I keep the bone on). Then I freeze the pieces for weeknight dinners and make stock out of the back bone and wings. Thus one chicken bought for 4-6 dollars, depending, makes us 2-3 dinners and at least two pints of homemade chicken stock. Whereas 4-6 dollars worth of boneless skinless chicken breast might have bought us 2 dinners--maybe.

At first it was a little tricky to learn to cut up the chicken. My Mom had to come and help. Then she had to help over the phone and finally after a few rounds I got it down. Now my chicken process takes me 15-2o minutes from when I walk in the front door form the market to when I have broth simmering, chicken cut up in the freezer and the counter clean and disinfected. This 20 minutes is what you pay up $2 more a pound for at the grocery store.

To Cut up a chicken (I apologize for the lack of pictures. My camera is broken.)

*I am the first to admit this is gross project especially when you get started. The first 5-8 times I did this I whined and squealed about how gross it was the whole time. It gets easier I promise. You must focus on the satisfaction you get from being an economical wife.

1 whole chicken
1 large plastic cutting board
1 good sharp sturdy knife
3 quart size freezer bags
1 large stock pot
disinfectant, I use 409 kitchen cleaner
rag

Take chicken out of bag wash with cold water. Look for any straggling feathers and pull out. Reach inside cavity and remove kidney, giblets, liver and neck (this might not all be there) put these into stock pot if you want. I usually put the neck into pot but discard kidney, liver and giblets. Place chicken on cutting board. First you want to cut off wings and place these in stock pot. Grab wing and feel along until you find the joint. Pull wing away from chicken by joint and cut in between ball of joint. It may sound weird but when you are actually holding the chicken it will make sense. If all else fails yank and you can pull joint out of socket. Cutting up a chicken is all about learning where the joints are and how they work. It took me a good deal of yanking at first. Then turn chicken so breast side is down. Find the thigh joint. This is where the thigh separates from the body. It helps to pull on the joint until you can feel it moving and then wedge your knife into the joint to separate. Once you have the thigh and leg off you can pull of the skin and then separate into leg and thigh pieces. I place both legs and thighs into one freezer bag for one dinner. That was the hardest part I promise. Now stand the chicken cavity up and cut directly down the rib cage separating the back bone from the breast bone. Place back into stock pot. Pull skin off breast bone and turn over so bone is up. Directly in center of breast bone is a dark red area. You want to place sharp point of knife directly in the center of that area then pound hard on knife with other hand to crack the breast bone. Once cracked you can cut it in half. Cut chicken off bone if desired. I freeze breasts each in separate freezer bag because one breast can easily feed two people. Label freezer bags and place in freezer. Place stock pot on stove. Wash knife and cutting board. Now disinfect the entire area. I find chicken bits and juices splatter and a good disinfecting of the entire surface area is necessary. Now you have cut up a chicken. Don't you feel accomplished?

Homemade Chicken stock

Chicken back and wings, or a whole chicken, or carcase of a roast chicken, or chicken feet
2 stalks celery
2 carrots scrubbed
1 onion, optional
4 dried red chilies
1 bay leaf
3 cloves garlic
whole peppercorns or lots of cracked pepper
1-2 TB salt
Fresh or dried herbs of any kind, I just use whatever I have on hand

Place all in stock pot. Don't worry too much about chopping. I usually break carrots in half and cut onion into 1/4ths. I leave garlic in skins. Fill pot with water. Bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and simmer 4 hours. Let cool. Strain. Place into containers to freeze. Keeps in fridge for a week and in freezer for months. I usually freeze in 1, 2 and 3 cup measurements. This makes it easier to pull out for a recipe. If stock gels that is a good sign and you should be proud.

*You can make stock out of the whole chicken. I find this wasteful unless I am going to stop and remove the meat from the chicken. Stock made from the back, wings and other various chicken parts is just as good as using the meat. Actually the best stock is from chicken feet. The only time I use a whole chicken in stock is if I'm making chicken soup. To do that place whole washed chicken in pot, don't forget to clean out cavity. Add celery, carrot, chilies, rosemary, garlic and bay leaf, salt and pepper. Bring to boil, simmer 45 minutes. After 45 minutes remove chicken and place on plate. Let cool. While it cools strain stock. Dice 2 carrots, 2 celery, bell pepper, fresh rosemary and add to strained broth. Simmer 20 minutes while chicken cools. When chicken cool pull off meat and add to broth. Bring to boil and either add noodles or cooked rice. Season to taste. This makes a ton of soup.

Now my friends. Go forth and buy a whole chicken. It will be fun I promise.

Beans Beans Beans

I love beans. They are one of my all time favorite foods. Really they are kind of amazing. I mean they are dirt cheap, they are super healthy, they are low fat and they are so easy to cook. They also happen to pair beautifully with one of my other favorite foods—sausage.

Last night I made one of my favorite soups with garbanzo beans. It’s called Gypsy soup and it’s from the Moosewood cookbook

This soup is a great easy quick week night dinner. Recipe can be found here. You can use either canned or dried and cooked chickpeas. We use canned tomatoes. Last night we added left over cooked chicken. It’s also good with fresh fish added in toward the end.

Here are some of the other was I love to cook beans. On a cold Sunday afternoon:

Baked Black Beans and Chorizo

2 cups dried black beans, soaked 4 hours or overnight
2 links Spanish or Mexican chorizo, or linguica
One bell pepper chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
One onion
2 fresh tomatoes or one can whole tomatoes
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
Bay leaf
Salt and pepper
Butter
Tobasco or other hot sauce

Place soaked beans in oven safe pot or dutch oven. Add bell pepper, garlic, onion, tomatoes, spices, bell pepper and some salt and pepper. Add enough water to cover. Mix well. Slice sausage and lay over beans. Place tight fitting lid and cook in 350 degree oven for 3 hours or so until beans are tender. Check every hour and make sure there is still liquid. When beans are done stir sausage in and add some butter to taste about 2 TB. Taste for seasoning and add salt, pepper and hot sauce as needed. Serve with rice or tortillas or bread.

Simple Pork and Beans

2 cups dried pinto beans
1 onion
¼ pound salt pork
Bay leaf
Salt and pepper
Butter
Hot sauce

Place beans and coarsely chopped onion in pot. Cover with at least an inch of water. Boil 2 minutes. Place lid on pot and let soak for 1.5 hours or all day. Sometimes I do this step before work and then let them soak all day while I’m at work. Add some more water to cover. Add salt pork and bay leaf. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer and simmer 1.5 hours or until tender. Add 2 Tb butter. Taste add salt and pepper as needed and hot sauce to taste. I like to serve this with corn bread or tortillas and cooked greens, although you can also serve the beans with rice or plain bread. You can leave out the salt pork too and they are still good especially as a side to enchiladas or with tacos.

Ham and Beans on toast

2 cups dried white beans
One onion
¼ pound left over ham or a meaty ham bone
Bay leaf
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 cloves garlic
4 Tb butter
Salt and pepper
Good crusty bakery bread

Soak beans over night. Add beans to pot with lots a water, at least an inch over the beans. Add rosemary sprigs, garlic whole and in skin, onion finely chopped, ham chopped and bay leaf. Bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook about 1.5-2 hours until done but not mushy. You want the beans to be brothy but not too much so. If you think there is too much liquid ladle some out. Remove garlic cloves. Peel and mash up garlic add back to pot. Add butter. Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary. Serve beans over toasted pieces of crusty bread along with a nice side salad for a lovely Sunday dinner.

And lastly my most favorite way to eat beans in the world:

Red Beans and Rice

2 cups dried red beans, soaked over night
Green bell pepper chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
One onion chopped
2 Tb fresh savory chopped (optional)
Ham hock (optional but it’s really good so I recommend it)
4 links andouille sausage or chorizo (make sure it’s spicy)
Bay leaf
1 TB plus more to taste Hot sauce such as crystal or Tabasco
Cooked rice to serve

There are a few methods to employ here. Normally I through in everything except the sausage add a lot of water, bring to boil and simmer for 2 hours. Taste for salt, pepper and hot sauce. Then fry up my sausage and serve it on top. I usually leave out the ham hock just to make it a more economical meal. My Mom on the other hand cooks hers with the ham hock and it really is much better and more decedent that way. I think of these as my special occasion red beans and rice versus my own cheaper version. She also fries up her sliced sausage first then adds everything to the pot on top and cooks it. This is nice because you have the added flavor of slow cooking everything in the sausage fat. Regardless of how you make them red beans and rice are so good. Actually I’m pretty sure they are my favorite meal, especially since I can’t eat tacos, my former favorite meal.

Do you eat beans? What is your favorite way to eat them?

Yay for Friday

I'm so happy it's Friday. After a week of slacks, heels and blouses I love my jeans so much today. I have been cleaning house, grocery shopping and packing because we're going to the cabin with friends this weekend. I packed my camera so I will try and post some pictures of the cabin up on Monday. Although we go fairly frequently it never occurs to me to bring my camera.

I just made my new favorite salad dressing to take with us. I've adapted it from a Ina Garten recipe. I've been making a large batch then buying mixed greens and tossing the greens with the dressing for quick dinner salads.

Cider Vinaigrette
1 cup of apple cider or unfiltered apple juice
1 TB or so stone ground mustard
1 tsp fresh thyme
drizzle of white wine vinegar
drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Bring cider to boil small sauce pan. Reduce heat. Cook until cider reduces about 5 minutes
Let cool a bit. Whisk in mustard and fresh thyme. add some white wine vinegar, a few table spoons. drizzle in olive oil while whisking until consistency looks good. Add salt and pepper and taste. You may need to add more mustard. I eye ball this but i would guess it's about 1/3 cup olive oil and 3 TB vinegar.

If I remember right the Ina Garten recipe had cider vinegar instead of white wine and also had shallots. I don't believe it had thyme. Regardless it's delicious!

Happy weekend everyone!

rain, rain, go away, come again another day...

After our nice and sunny Sunday the rain has returned with a vengeance. It’s been horribly cold and rainy all week. But I’m comforted as I write this by a piping hot bowl of spicy Mexican chorizo stew. This is one of my favorite recipes that I have invented. It is such a life saver for a cold and icky evening. When I am cold while I’m making dinner I tend to make foods way spicier. And if I’m cold when I get home from work I go straight for my standby of hot and spicy recipes. This recipe is also great because it hardly takes any time but it tastes like it’s been simmering away for hours. It also boasts one of my absolute favorite ingredients: Chorizo. I wish I had a picture to share but my camera batteries are dead and I keep forgetting to charge them.

Spicy Mexican Chorizo Stew

16 oz of Mexican Chorizo*
1 green or red bell pepper, chopped
1 4 oz can of mild green chilies
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp of cayenne or 1 TB of red Tabasco optional
2 cans black beans drained
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can full of water
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Rice to serve, optional

Heat olive oil in heavy dutch oven. Add onion, garlic, and peppers. Sauté until begin veggies begin to brown. While those are browning peel the casings off the chorizo and slice into bit sized pieces. Add the chorizo to pan. When the chorizo just starts to brown, add cumin, salt and pepper. Very important: at this point do not drain the fat from the pan. It isn’t a lot of fat and all that fat is coating the vegetables and infusing the soup with lots of yummy spices and flavor. Go easy on the salt because the chorizo has salt. Cook 30 seconds or so. Add the tomatoes, chilies, beans and a can full of water. Then add bay leaf, bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Simmer 15 minutes. After 15 minutes all the flavors will meld and you can taste the soup. If you want it spicier add Tabasco or cayenne. I prefer the Tabasco. You can also add more salt at this point if need be. You can serve by itself with bread or tortillas or over rice.

*You want to make sure you get a Mexican Chorizo and not a Baque Chorizo for this recipe. The Mexican Chorizo has a lot more flavor and really makes this dish. You don't have to peel the casings. It really depends on the chorizo you buy. But if you do the chorizo will break up into the stew more.

What is your favorite food on a cold and rainy day?

A perfectly lovely weekend and some yummy recipes

I am in such a good mood this Monday because I had a lovely weekend. To begin with it was a three day weekend for me. Friday I slept in and then went on a really long walk along the river. Then I cleaned house. That afternoon Mr. P convinced me to tag along with him as he scouted duck hunting sites. We cooked fresh snapper for dinner. This was another new invented recipe for me and turned out really well.

Fresh Snapper with sauteed veggies

1 lb of fresh red snapper
1 pt of cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes
6 button mushrooms
1 bag of fresh baby spinach
2 cloves garlic
butter
salt and pepper
olive oil

Season snapper with salt and pepper. Slice mushrooms and chop 2 cloves garlic. Heat olive oil into two skillets, one to med-high and the other to med. Add 1 Tb of butter to each skillet. To the med heat one add tomatoes and mushrooms. In the other add fish. Cook fish for 3-4 minutes on each side. Once mushrooms are browned add garlic. Saute one minutes. Add spinach, salt and pepper. Serve fish on bed of veggies.

Saturday Mr. P left at the crack of dawn to go hunting with his friend Isaiah. I woke up at a much more reasonable hour and went on a wonderful jog with my brother. Then Isaiah's wife, my friend, JoAnna came over for breakfast with their wonderfully sweet baby boy, Jed. Saturday night a bunch of friends congregated for dinner at our house then we had another Brothers & Sisters marathon.

Sunday the sun came out and it was gorgeous out. After church JoAnna and I decided to take Jed out for a walk in the sunshine, the guys joined us and we had such a great time outside in the warm sun without coats and scarves. Then we ate my all time favorite soup for dinner, Jamie Oliver squash soup. So yummy!!!

I hope everyone else had a great weekend too--I can't believe it's already February!

A Complex Diet

As I have alluded to before on this little blog I have a somewhat difficult diet. My doctor thinks I have a food allergy of some sort. In August she had me take wheat, dairy, sugar, coffee, caffeine and hydrogenated oils out of my diet. But that wasn’t quite doing the trick so in early December I had a food sensitivity test. This is a crazy test when measures how your body responds to 90 different food substances. It is NOT an allergy test. However, according to my doctor, if you have had an undetected food allergy for a long time you system will weaken and it will become intolerant to more and more foods. The food sensitivity test can tell you what foods you have become intolerant too. Then you take all those foods out of your diet for 6 weeks to set you system heal. At that time you start testing the foods one at a time. The idea is that one or more of the foods you’ve tested sensitive too are the root allergy and they others you may be able to have again.

The results of my food sensitivity test were not so great. I showed sensitivity to over 20 foods. Among them are: all dairy (except butter), wheat, gluten, eggs, corn, potatoes, onions, citrus, honey, sugar, molasses, red wine, and shrimp. This is particularly bad because ever since I had to take wheat and dairy out my diet I have been living on corn tortillas, potatoes, eggs and oatmeal, all things I can no longer eat. You are probably thinking right now, “what can you eat?”. I get this question a lot. But luckily there are a lot of good foods I can eat. Sometimes it just requires a little bit of creativity. I can eat meat, all vegetables (except potatoes and onions), sweet potatoes, squash, lentils, beans, rice, fruit and nuts. However, it does make eating and cooking a lot more challenging.

Since my new diet restrictions have been in place I haven’t really been able to follow recipes. I can start with a recipe as a loose guide and alter it as I go. For example last night I made a rice and garbanzo bean chili. Because I had to leave out the onions I added more garlic. I had to leave out the Worcestershire sauce (you don’t even want to know what all is in that stuff) I added a dash of soy sauce. To make cranberry sauce at Christmas I replaced the oranges with apples, the sugar with some pure maple syrup, the white wine vinegar with raspberry vinegar. So it works. But I also have to make up a lot of my own recipes. My favorite recipe I’ve made up so far is a super quick easy chicken recipe that I serve with mashed sweet potatoes and sautéed spinach. It makes such a quick and easy dinner and is super yummy.

Balsamic and Thyme Chicken with mashed sweet potatoes and spinach (serves 4)

2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
2 TB olive oil
2 TB balsamic vinegar
2 Tb fresh thyme leaves
2 large cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper

3 large sweet potatoes
Good nob of butter
Salt and pepper

1 bag of fresh baby spinach
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper

First mix the oil, vinegar, thyme and garlic in shallow dish. Add generous amount of salt and pepper. Pound chicken with meat mallet until very thin. Basically you want it thin enough that it will cook very quickly. Cut each piece in half so you have four pieces of chicken. Place chicken in marinade and turn over to coat each side. Let it sit out in marinade while you continue with sides.

Peel and chop potatoes. Place in pot, cover with cold water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook 10-15 minutes until tender. Drain.

While potatoes are draining heat oil in skillet until smoking. Add chicken pieces.

While chicken is cooking run potatoes through a potato ricer if you have one. If not just mash in bowl. Add good nob of butter and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

When chicken has cooked 3-4 minutes turn over. Cook a few more minutes on other side. Remove from pan and set aside. Add a little more oil to pan, add garlic and sauté 30 seconds. Add spinach. Turn heat down to med. Cook spinach just till wilted. Season to taste.

Serve chicken on bed of spinach with sweet potatoes on the side.

*Recipe is by Laura Potter.

It's Almost Thanksgiving!!!!

It should be no surprise to you all that I love Thanksgiving. After all I love food! I love to cook! And I love friends and family, so a Holiday devoted to these three things is bound to be one of my favorites. Yet this year Thanksgiving has really snuck up on me. Usually I spend the whole month before hand thinking about Thanksgiving. What will I cook? Where will we go? Should I go with an old favorite recipe or try something new? What will I wear? And so on.

This is my second Thanksgiving being married but my fourth one with Mr. P. In fact the first time I went home with him to meet his family was the first Thanksgiving after we started dating. Despite being married and having wonderful China and serve ware and beautiful pots and pans and so on, I have never hosted Thanksgiving. I'm very excited for the day I get too but for now where we live is just too small and so we go to our parents house. Last year we were with the Potters so this year we are with my Mom's family.

Because I have been so busy and time is flying I am rather frantically trying to put together all the recipes I am making. We actually have three Thanksgiving dinners to attend this year. The first one is Saturday at my Grandparent's Ranch with my Dad's family. For this dinner I have been assigned Sweet Potatoes and Cranberry Sauce. Our second dinner is the Church Thanksgiving Dinner Sunday after service. I signed up to bring cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes (these are my two specialties). Then for actual Thanksgiving my Mom, and I and my Uncle Frank and our friend David are all collaborating on the cooking. I am in charge of cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, green vegetable and one dessert. I am going to do the same cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes recipes for both weekend dinner's so I can just make double batches on Saturday morning. In my hurried attempt to do so I am using my favorite cooking sites rather then thumb through my extensive cook book selection. Martha Stewart has a great thanksgiving site, as does Epicurus and of course The Food Network. I love the looking through the menu's on these sites. One thing I have always wanted to do and am looking forward to doing when I do host thanksgiving is to pick an amazing menu out of Martha Stewart or Gourmet and follow it 100%. Perhaps this is my Type A personality coming out but I just think it would be lots of fun. Here are the recipes I am trying this year:

For Saturday and Sunday:
Cranberry Chutney

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar and Pecan's

For Thanksgiving Day:
Cranberry Sauce with Dried Cherries
Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes
Roasted Green Beans and Brussels Sprouts
Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart

So that's what I am cooking this year. I have yet to decide what I am going to wear...What are your Thanksgiving plans? What favorite dish are you cooking this year?

Oh woe is me and my scrambled eggs

Apparently I cannot make scrambled eggs. This is news to me. Lately Mr. P has been commenting on my eggs a lot. Since he’s been home, on crutches and needing to gain weight I have been making him breakfast every morning, and not cereal but real breakfast: pancakes, eggs, bacon, French toast, potatoes. Well every time I have made scrambled eggs Mr. P says something. First he suggested that perhaps I was cooking them too long and he thinks that’s what makes them watery. Well this has progressed. Over the weekend we were watching Barefoot Contessa and she made scrambled eggs and there is Mr. P, “See how she does it? She takes them off the heat before they are done blah blah blah”. So how has my husband suddenly become an egg connoisseur? Remember this is my husband who doesn’t cook! And never once has he made me scrambled eggs. Apparently, when he worked in the residence hall kitchen in college they made a lot of eggs. But why is he just bringing this up now? I made plenty of scrambled eggs over the past year and he never said a word. Were the scrambled eggs at OCS such exemplary culinary gems that he just can’t face my watery excuse for eggs? I think the first thing Mr. P can start doing when he is off those crutches is demonstrate this apparent egg knowledge he seems to possess.

Eggs aside, here are some culinary successes of my weekend:Risotto with pecorino, prosciutto, and goat cheese by Jamie Oliver

This was delicious but a little on the expensive side. It’s good for a special meal.

Recipe: olive oil, 1 onion chopped, 3 stalks celery, finely chopped, 3 cloves garlic chopped, 14 oz aborio rice, 2 quarts veg broth, 2 wine glasses full of good dry white wine, 2 handfuls of fresh lemon thyme, ½ stick butter, handful of Parmesan cheese, handful of pecorino, some proscuitto, and some goat cheese.

Bring broth to boil in one pan, reduce to simmer. In another pan heat oil. Saute onion, and celery a few minutes. Add garlic and sauté another minute. Add rice and cook 1-2 minutes stirring. Add the wine and thyme and cook, stirring constantly, until absorbed. Once wine is absorbed add one ladleful of stock cook, stirring until absorbed. Continue this until rice is al dente, about 15 minutes. Turn off burner. Then add parmesan cheese and pecorino cheese and butter. Gently stir in then place lid on pot and let stand covered for 3 minutes. Dish onto plates. Top each plate with prosciutto and crumbled goat cheese.

Banana Pancakes by Ina Gardner

No joke the best pancakes I have ever eaten. They are so good. You can view the recipe here.
http://www.barefootcontessa.com/recipes/bcfs-1.shtml

Mrs. P

Friday Eats at Potter Place

So I'm not actually at Potter Place right now. I'm taking care of my sister while my parents are out of town, so I am at their house. She had her wisdom teeth taken out this morning. I am going to try to keep making menus and cooking even though Mr. P is gone. I will try my hardest to refrain from my cereal and fried egg sandwich tendencies. Even though I really do like to cook I pretty muched lived off cereal and eggs before Mr. P moved in. That being said my inspiration my wagger a bit. I did still make a menu so here goes.

Friday: Potato Leek Soup, Taste of Oregon Cook Book
Saturday: Curried Lentil Soup, no recipe I'm going to wing it
Sunday: Some friends from church are having me over for dinner
Monday: Italian Sausage Spagetti (my own recipe) and salad
Tuesday: I have meetings till 9 so it's left over spagetti in between
Wednesday: My Dad's birthday dinner
Thursday: Teriyaki Chicken, baked potato and salad, again I'm winging it
Friday: Chicken Fried rice and steamed Asian greens, again winging it

Next week I'll try to do more recipe research. Now I'm still too tired. Mr. P left at 4 am thursday morning and I woke up at 3 with him then drove 2 hours at 4am to get home and get ready for work. Then after working from 7-5, I made my sister dinner and sat through her senior awards ceremony. By 9:30 I was so looking forward to bed but Jess wanted to enjoy her last night without pain so we went and got frozen yogurt and watched a movie. I finally went to bed at midnight. Now I'm going to take a nap. As always I will happily pass along any recipes.

Mrs. P

Recipes to Share

Cyndi at Southern Daze requested I pass along good easy recipes so I decided today I'd share a few from this weeks menu. Sadly I have no pictures because my camera batteries died and I can't find the other set. I still haven't really unpacked from the move a few weeks ago. With Mr. P about to leave and my sister moving her stuff in I just figured I'd wait till he leaves. Anyway...

Creamy Asparagus Soup (from Jamie Oliver, slightly adapted and cut in half)

*this recipe is quick, easy, cheap and really healthy

1 lb asparagus, woody ends snapped off
1 piece celery, finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
1 quart chicken stock or vegetable stock
some olive oil
salt and pepper
good crusty bread like ciabatta

To prepare leek remove green tops and discard. Cut leek in half and slice. Place in large bowl of cold water and use your fingers to wash the leek well. Let it sit 10 minutes then remove leek with slotted spoon onto paper towel. The reason for this is leeks grow in really sandy soil and a lot of the sand and dirt works up into the leek. Letting the leek sit in cold water the sand falls to the bottom.

Remove the nice tips off the asparagus and set aside. Chop the stalks.

Heat the olive oil in pot. Add celery, onion, and leek. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes stirring frequently till soft. Add the asparagus stocks (not the tips) and the broth. Bring to a boil, lower to simmer, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Transfer soup to a blender or food processor and puree till very smooth. Return to pan. Season to taste with salt and pepper (it needs kind of a lot of salt and pepper just keep tasting till it tastes right). Bring back to boil, add tops of the asparagus that were set aside. Simmer for a few minutes till tender. While soup is simmering toast some bread in oven. Serve soup with bread.

*optional: poach some eggs and serve each bowl of soup with a piece of bread and an egg on top. Mr. P liked this a lot. I thought the soup was so good on it's own I just ate it with the bread.
*serves 4

Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy (from my Dad )

*This recipe is less healthy but worth it for a special occasion. It's one of Mr. P's favorites and he wanted it before he leaves. It's a family recipe. My Dad learned how to make it at Camp Baker, the boy scout camp he went to every summer. The secret to is in the gravy and not skimping. I think there are some foods that you can't try to make healthy or low fat and this in one of them. This recipe isn't difficult but it is a little time consuming. A good weekend dinner.

4 pieces of Round steak
Flour
bread crumbs
salt
pepper
olive oil
butter
milk (you can use 2% or 1% but don't try skim
6-7 Yukon gold potatoes
some more butter
carnation canned milk

Pound steak with meat mallet until they are thinner and larger and look pretty beat up. Heat olive oil (a good amount) in large skillet about med-high. They should grow by a good inch. Get out two pie plates. In one but a bunch of flour and break crumbs, fairly equal amounts, and salt and pepper. In the other beat two eggs and add a splash of milk. Dredge the meat in the egg then the flour then place in skillet. Let the meat brown a few minutes on each side then turn heat down to med low and let cook 20 minutes turning frequently. Make sure you don't burn the meat. The drippings in this pan make the gravy and if you burn it you can't make good gravy. Pre-heat oven to 350.

While meat is cooking peel and chop your potatoes. Bring water to boil for those. Bring to boil and turn town a bit.

After 20 minutes knock off a little of the breading from the meat and transfer the meat to a baking sheet and throw in the oven. To the skillet add a pat of butter or margarine. Once melted add some flour. Be careful not to add too much flour just 1-2 TB is good. Mix flour and fat well then slowly start adding milk stirring constantly. Let milk thicken then add a little more and so on until it's a good gravy color, not white but not brown. Turn heat down to medium low and cook 20 minutes stirring frequently. If it gets too thick or too dark a little more milk.

When potatoes are done drain well and add 3 Tb of butter or margarine. As you mash add canned milk until you have the right consistency. You shouldn't add more than a few TB of the milk. Add salt and pepper to potatoes and keep warm.

When gravy has cooked 20 minutes taste and add salt and pepper to taste. If it tastes too bland try adding more salt. Careful not to make it too salty but the salt brings out the flavor of the gravy.

I like to serve this with steamed pees, it just seems to go.

Happy cooking,

Mrs. P