Experiments and Temptations

Chicken Chili

Charlie’s next request after the soup was chili, chicken chili.  Searched around Pinch of Yum (favorite!) and found http://pinchofyum.com/smoky-white-bean-chili-with-pork  Sounded good, but needed chicken instead…  So I worked that part out on my own.  Her recipe covers everything, but below are my changes:

Instead of the 1lb of ground pork sausage, you’ll need 2 chicken breasts.

Instead of the chili powder, I used 1 tsp of Ancho and 1 tsp of Cayenne.

For the chicken, I heated a frying pan, added the chicken and sprinkled the top side with cumin, paprika, cayenne, Ancho, black pepper and garlic salt.

Flipped the chicken, sprinkled the top with the same spices.

Added 1 1/2 tsp butter-made sure each side had a light coating and then added 1/4 cup chicken broth, kept cooking, covered.

Then left to cool covered and in liquid, shredded chicken and poured the liquid over it.

Molasses Chicken—for lack of a better title

While Arthur has his morning squirm, and I have my morning coffee, I thought I’d take the opportunity to post about last night’s supper.

Unless I have a great recipe in mind, when I make our bi-weekly, pre-grocery shopping, meal plan, I simply put down “chicken” or “roast” or “fish” or whatever…  Then, when it comes to that day, I invent something new.  Last night was “chicken.”  Arthur and I took a walk after coming home from a first birthday party.  Charlie needed some creative time (check out his site at www.undertoadcomics.com), so we got out of the house for a bit.  It was a fantastic day, and we walked past a restaurant up on Bremen, north of Locust that smelled AMAZING!  So, I called Charlie on the way home and asked him to get the chicken out of the freezer if he was willing to grill.  He was, and did.  Got home, Arthur was hungry.  While he had his snack, I brainstormed.  I’ve been wanting to use molasses in my cooking lately.  So I thought molasses, ginger, cooking sherry and balsamic vinegar would be good.  I kept thinking and here’s roughly what I came up with. As usual, I didn’t measure a thing, so these are my best estimates.  I’ll likely do some tweaking, but this one was really, really good.

Ingredients:

5 chicken breasts

2 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp cooking sherry
1.5 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp chicken broth
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp cardamom
1/2 curry powder
1/2 tsp Penzey’s minced garlic (they say 1/4 tsp is equal to one clove of fresh)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Since my chicken breasts were frozen, I did the microwave thaw thing…so sllllooooowwwwww and always begins to cook them.
I added all the marinade ingredients to a sauce pan and heated them slightly over low heat.  Mostly just to get the molasses slightly less thick and combining with the other ingredients.  Hoping their flavors would blend a bit.
Once the chicken was thawed enough to be able to break them apart, I added them, two at a time, to the sauce pan.  Figured if they were going to cook a bit while thawing, they may as well cook a bit in their marinade.  I flipped them once in the pan so both sides got it, and only left them in there till they were mostly thawed and just barely cooked.
Next, they sat in a big ole tupperware on the stove in their marinade while the oven preheated to cook the roasted potatoes and Charlie got the grill ready.
Finally, Charlie grilled them and we devoured them.  Fantastic!

Back from an over long hiatus (heh heh…always wanted to use that word!)

Hello blogger world!

I’m here to update you all finally.  I’d love to blame the birth of my wonderful son, Arthur, for my extended absence…but as I last posted on Nov. 7, 2010…and he wasn’t born until Mar. 29, 2011, well…

To prove that I haven’t been lazy these past months though, I’ll post some pictures of what I have been up to.  Rest assured, this is not a comprehensive list, but just a taster—if you will.  Regular updates will begin: Now!

A word of warning though, regular they may be, but less often as well.  I’d love to cook as often as I used to, but sadly, Arthur does not always allow for that.  I hope you understand.

And without further ado…here are some samples.  If you’re interested in anything, let me know and I’ll share the recipe to the best of my ability.  First follows a list of the next pictures:
Corn Dogs and Onion Rings from scratch
Cranberry Chicken—of my own devising
Crepes!  (dessert and savory)
Lemon Poundcake—thank you, fellow blogger
Raspberry-Peach Sorbet—back to The Splendid Table
Rhubarb Custard Pie—Betty Crocker and Julia Child mashup
Zucchini Bread and Honey Butter—thanks Kerry!

Momma’s Golden Chicken

I ended up making a lot more meat this two week period than I expected…and probably more than our budget was happy with… I couldn’t help it. I found good recipes. And, I mean, I’m pregnant, and I’m supposed to get more protein…so that’s ok, right? Hm. Yeah, explain that to the budget. Oh well. We ate well this week, and will continue to. (Tomorrow is pork, and Tuesday is shrimp.) Anyway, I found a couple recipes in this Italian cookbook I got from my mother-in-law. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the peppered steak, so that’ll have to be a picture-less entry. Ok, back to the chicken. This sounded super tasty, and did not disappoint. I’d highly recommend it. (Oh and I halved the recipe and it worked just fine, but the full recipe is listed below.)

Grilled Chicken with Basil Dressing

This recipe you can find on the Food Network website quite easily. Sadly, this time, I forgot the marinade. Definitely DON’T forget the marinade. It’s quite boring without it. I like making this in the summer though, when I have lots of fresh basil growing.

Drunken Chicken, Couscous, Hand-picked Salad and Sugar and Spice Cookies

Finally! A meal with different parts! Not just a main dish! Sometimes I just get so focused on the main dish, that I forget to make a side. This time, I thought ahead. So, we had some couscous, and I picked some fresh lettuce and peas for Charlie’s salad. I also has been really, really wanting cookies, so I found a new recipe out of yet another new cookbook. I made these right when I got home. I adore molasses and molasses type cookies. Most delicious ever. I wasn’t intending to make molasses cookies, but as I was flipping through the index of this most recent book, I stumbled across Sugar and Spice cookies. Those sounded good. We have the ingredients? Yep. Ok, I’m making these. Then, not long after they were finished baking, I started on the real supper. The couscous came out of a box. It was just original flavor though, so I added some finely chopped garlic and some of Penzey’s Herbs de Provence. The real meal though was the Drunken Chicken. It came out of Momma & Me & You. It was “Momma’s” answer to a guest’s request for Coq au Vin. It was a good choice.

Chicken Pot Pie and Queen of Puds

Unfortunately I cannot share the recipe for this Chicken Pot Pie. It was very reluctantly shared with us by a Beck Family Friend, and we were invited to continue to keep it secret. Perhaps then it will seem cruel to share the picture without the recipe. For this I apologize… As for the dessert, the Queen of Puds, well, that was another one found in Dodgem Logic. It was interesting. I liked it, but it was quite different.

Rosemary Scented Chicken Breasts with Caramelized Orange Sauce

I thought this recipe sounded really fancy. And I ADORE rosemary. Mmmmm….! And, I was curious as to what they meant about the chicken being rosemary “scented.” I mean, I like it when my food smells nice, but I prefer to taste the flavor. As with the other chicken dishes, the flavor of the sauce was great, the chicken, meh, ok. I really am wondering if it’s the fact that it’s the cheap chicken. Next chicken dish, we’ll experiment with that. For now, here’s the recipe. Oh, and also, The Splendid Table has a website where you can find recipes AND you can sign up for their weekly emails. That is where this recipe came from. From what I know of the recipes, they’re all suitable for week night cooking. I know, I know, it doesn’t sound like it, but this one really did not take long at all…but it looks fancy and tastes great!

Tarragon Chicken Breasts with Buttery Leeks

This dish sounded tasty…and I imagined the leeks would provide an easy side dish. The dish was tasty, the leeks cooked down quite a bit and therefore provided a rather scant side dish. The sauce for this one was quite yummy. (Same for the chicken with the cider vinegar earlier.)

Fondue!

Fondue! What a wonderful and exciting food! It’s so much fun to make. Normally we use a marinade provided to us by my wonderful mother-in-law. It’s quite easy and tasty. However, for my sister’s wedding we bought her and her husband a fondue pot and a cookbook…and I kind of took some recipes out of it before we gave it to them. They looked too good to pass up. We then tried the Chimmichurri Marinade and the Herb Butter Sauce. I would recommend the Chimmichurri Marinade (but I can’t post it now because it’s on the other computer) but I would not recommend the Herb Butter Sauce. Too many chives. Both of those recipes came from the Melting Pot’s cookbook. Our traditional fondue marinade is below. (And it works well for beef or chicken.)