Cook. Craft. Enjoy.

White Chili

In my quest to find quick, easy, healthy meals I came across this recipe for white chili.  I was thinking this is a unique way to make it -- cook the "chili" part of it separately from the chicken (which you grill) and then combine it all together.

How was it?  Well, I don't think I'll make it again.  I didn't eat it (my stomach still isn't behaving itself) but Don and the kids just gave it an "eh".  I mean, it got eaten, but not gobbled.  Hence, I'm not posting the recipe... but if you'd like it (and it looks good to you!), click on the above link and it will take you to it on Food Network's site.

In other "news", Liam's second soccer game yesterday was another win.  Yeah!  I'm so glad he has fun playing soccer -- he played the first 3 quarters and thankfully it wasn't as hot as it was last weekend.  (Though the game was at 8am so that helped).

Chicken with Peppers

I know there are many out there that don't care for Rachael Ray and her persona, but I really think she comes up with some great recipes at times (and other times, not so much).  My only issue with her 30-minute meal concept is that a great majority of her recipes take much longer than the 30 minutes she states.  And while I don't mind spending upwards of an hour cooking dinner at times, don't advertise it'll be ready in 30 when it won't.

This recipe for grilled chicken and mashed potatoes is one of those recipes.  This time I opted for chicken breasts instead of thighs (I am not a fan of chicken thighs), small mushrooms instead of portobellos, and making the mashed potatoes "plain" by only adding some milk and butter and it was ready in about 50 minutes.

No matter, it was still a delicious meal and one that I'll repeat again.  You wouldn't think a quick sit in balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire and some spices would produce much more than a mess of flavors but they actually work.  And best yet you don't have to add much more than a salad for this meal to be complete.

Two More Picnic Recipes

Yesterday I shared with you the Bean & Tomato salad (yum!) and today I'll let you know what else we had for our dinner (and dessert too.. but I think I'll save that for tomorrow ...)

The protein of the dinner was Maple-Mustard Baked Chicken which I thought was just "okay" (everyone ate it though so it wasn't bad).  I'm not going to post the recipe, but if you're interested, click on the link above.

Basically it's chicken that you marinate in a Dijon mustard/maple syrup/thyme marinade, coat with fresh bread crumbs and then bake.  I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts whereas the recipe calls for bone-in chicken but I can't imagine that would make that big of a difference.  Oh, and that cup of orange next to the chicken?  Liam got a cookbook for his birthday that uses silicone cupcake cups to make different things -- one of the recipes was to make baked risotto and he decided we had to have that too.  Came out pretty good for baked rice.

The other recipe that I tried was for Country Potato Salad and it was a winner.  I was very leary of using buttermilk to coat the potatoes as the dressing but honestly it worked out great.  (In fact I made my brother taste it before I poured the buttermilk over the potatoes -- he declared it edible so we were safe.)  He took some of the leftovers home and said it tasted even better the next day (whereas he thought the bean and tomato salad really didn't).

PPN: Sesame Chicken Pasta Salad

Do you have one of those recipes that everyone just loves and you find yourself falling back to?  For me this was my go to recipe when we would have playgroup and it always got rave reviews.  Unfortunately since the kids are older and no longer "into" playgroups I don't make it nearly often enough.

Don doesn't care for the taste of cilantro or sesame so this is just an "eh" for him.  The kids?  Well, if you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know that they really like basic food and this wouldn't appeal to them.  Last weekend, however, I decided to make a batch and eat it for lunch during the week and I'm so glad I did.

Usually I add some carrots into the salad and sliced avocado on top of the served salad but this was good just as written.  The dressing I always cut down on the oil slightly and mix in some sesame seeds (white and black).  And because it's a pasta salad, I get to submit it to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night over at her blog Once Upon a Feast.  Head over there on Friday and see what other lovely creations everyone has cooked up!

Turkey Burgers and Salad

While I really used to look forward to making my weekly menu, lately nothing (and I mean NOTHING) sounds good and it's becoming increasingly harder and harder to figure out what I'm going to make for dinner.  Yesterday I spent about an hour searching online through recipes and still only ended up with dinners through Sunday night (sigh).  I hope my menu making skills will come back to me soon -- I'm tired of scrambling for what we're going to eat!

For last night I decided on turkey burgers and a salad.  Relatively easy and when I make grilled chicken for Liam along side of it, something everyone will eat.  I opted for this recipe from Food Network for an Asian style turkey burger though had to make some substitutions (basically didn't use their glaze and had to leave out the cilantro since my grocery store didn't have any).  I'll let you go over to get the recipe if you'd like -- it was good, but not a "oh goodness, let's have this again" type meal. 

The salad, however, was surprisingly good.  It also come from Food Network but this time from Rachael Ray.   I was worried that the salad dressing would just be, well, yuck, but I have to say I'd have it again.  Just the right amount of sweet/savory (with the addition of lots of pepper) and it worked really well with the burgers.  If you get a chance, give it a try!

Chicken and Mushrooms (Together but Separate)

My passion for cooking shows dates back to the (very) early 90s and PBS television.  I loved watching on Saturday afternoons show after show of cooking.  Some hosts were more amusing than others but they all tried their best to teach you the basics of their cuisine.

In comes Food Network in the late 90s and I thought it was the greatest thing.  A network dedicated to just cooking.  Don't worry this won't turn into a rant post, but I have to say I am disappointed that really the only cooking that goes on there now is in the afternoon.  Where I would keep Food Network on all night (even as "background"), I very rarely turn it on anymore.  Once in a great while I'll turn the tv on during the day (usually in 10 minute spurts while I'm waiting to go do something) and catch a recipe or two.

Where is this going?  Earlier this week I happened to catch the end of a Rachael Ray 30 MInute Meals episode and she created a warm mushroom and tomato "salad".  It looked so good I knew I had to make.

I served it with grilled chicken and mashed potatoes -- yum!   I really loved the flavor of the mushrooms but don't think the tomatoes added that much to the dish.  My brother was here as well and agreed that maybe with 1/4 of the tomatoes it would have been better.  My other change was the garlic "chips" she made -- I didn't have any fresh garlic (and Trader Joe's didn't have any either yesterday) so I just used some jarred garlic at the beginning of the cooking ... worked out fine.  Definitely something to make again!

Happy April!

I know I keep repeating myself, but I find it hard to believe how fast time is flying recently.  One of the things I'm regretting this year (as it's 1/4 over with) is I haven't been able to keep up with this blog like I want to.  I've decided in this new quarter I'm going to try to post daily and get back into the swing of things.

On Sunday my brother came over for dinner and I made this recipe again for chicken tacos.  The chicken is marinated in a soy sauce/ginger/garlic/black pepper mixture, grilled and then served in corn tortillas with some other ingredients.  The only problem?  Our grill ran out of propane 1/2 way through the cooking time so I had to finish them in the oven.  While they weren't as good baked as grilled, they still made some awfully tasty tacos.

Having 2 of the chicken breasts left over I knew I had to do something with them and a quick glance through Dana Carpender's Every Calorie Counts Cookbook led me to the recipe for Ginger-Lime Slaw with Teriyaki Chicken.  Simply it's a chicken topped coleslaw.  I thought that would be a perfect light, healthy meal and I was right.

I would definitely make this again however I would cut down on the fish sauce.  It just seemed to overwhelm some of the other flavors.  Also, my mom and I both decided that the chicken should be served warm over the top -- I just took it straight from the fridge and while it was good, a little contrast in temperature would have been nice.

PPN: Chicken Chow Mein Sort-of

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since my last submission to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night over at her blog Once Upon a Feast.  For a year I was joining in weekly (with just a few misses) and then BAM! life gets in the way and I don't get to post.  This week might have been another one of those misses but Liam found a recipe in his kids cookbook that he wanted to try:  Chicken Chow Mein.

The only problem with Liam deciding he wanted this recipe was I didn't have time to run to the store yesterday to pick up the items we didn't have -- that's where improvisation comes in.  Didn't have Chinese egg noodles?  No problem -- how about whole wheat thin spaghetti.  No green beans, snow peas or scallions?  No problem -- search through the freezer for some sugar snap peas.  Add some Chinese chili paste on top and some black and white sesame seeds - yum!

Awesome Chicken Tacos

Starting today the rest of my week is going to be crazy around dinnertime.  We've got kids activities tonight, a late meeting tomorrow and then Friday is my father-in-law's "big" birthday dinner we need to attend.  I figured last night was my last chance this week to get a good "recipe-based" meal in and I'm so glad I did some searching to find this new recipe.

It doesn't look like much, but the recipe for Black Pepper and Ginger Chicken Taco with Red Curry-Peanut Sauce and Peanut Relish from Bobby Flay was so good.  I mean so good that several hours later I wished we had leftovers because I wanted more.  And the best part?  Everyone enjoyed it.  Liam just ate the grilled chicken with a flour tortilla and Adrienne and Travis skipped the sauce, but there were no complaints or half-eaten plates.  A success!

The only thing I did differently was the preparation of the tacos -- the original recipe has you bake the tacos to get crisp but if I tried to fold the tortillas over before putting them in the oven they would crack (even if I heated them in the microwave first).  Plus the couple I did do in the oven seemed more soggy than crisp so I put a little peanut oil in a frying pan and crisped them that way.  (Once the tortillas heated a bit in the frying pan they were easy to fold over.)

Southwestern Chicken and a Vent

I am so angry right now.  Adrienne's antibiotics are a 10 day course - 4 times a day.  That means we've been waking her up at midnight to take her dose and she needs to take a dose during school at lunch time.  This morning Don went in to her school with their policy printed out that states that she can self medicate herself as long as it's not a controlled substance.  They took the forms he filled out, and her prescription and let him know as soon as they checked their list of controlled substances to make sure it wasn't on there they'd call her out of class so she can take her dosage.  I picked her up and she told me they didn't call her until after school.  So, 2 1/2 hours after she was supposed to have her dose.  I know, I know, what's the big deal, right?  Well, since this is her second antibiotic for strep I want to make sure that she has it every 6 hours so it doesn't recur.  Besides which, we told them this morning what had to be done.  What happens if it was a medication she needed for a life-threatening illness?  How irresponsible of the office staff.  Tomorrow morning they will be getting an earful.  I know, I know, you don't come here to hear me vent <grin>.  But, it does make me feel better.

Onto what you really come here for, food.  This weekend Travis and I both decided that it was time to get back to real cooking.  I don't mean throw together meals (like last night's chili dogs) but real recipes and tasty food.  Tonight's recipes come from The Big Book of Easy Suppers by Maryana Vollstedt.  This is a cookbook I've had for a while but haven't yet made any recipes from. 

Unfortunately dinner was not well received.  The kids didn't like it much at all - though Adrienne did eat the chicken.  Don and I both really enjoyed it and I especially liked the corn pudding. (The author calls it a polenta -- but this doesn't remind me of anything like polenta.  There was very little cornmeal flavor and it had the consistency of a bread pudding.  All in all, not a repeat but nice.