Kensington Chicken

Last post I talked about adding more vegetables to my diet and I took the easy way out with salad. I know, I feel like a little bit of a sellout. But have no fear! Although I’m gnawing on raw carrots almost every day I have not turned into a bunny. I’m adding more vegetables to my cooked foods too! This week I’m working on a chicken dish with mushrooms, onions, and spinach. Initially I wanted to use cream of mushroom soup to make the sauce, however given my intention to get healthy I thought otherwise. I’ve decided to forgo the cream of mushroom for now and we’ll see how the whole thing tastes. If it needs it I’ll use it, but I think I’ve done well to work around it.

You’ll need:

4 chicken breasts

1 box frozen spinach; defrosted and drained

1 med/large onion

¾ lbs. crimini mushrooms

Flour

Chicken stock

1 cup of wine

A dash of lemon juice

McCormik’s poultry gravy seasoning

rice

So here goes: start by flouring your chicken. I’ve learned to love this method, not sure why it works, it just does. Add a little vegetable oil to a medium hot pan and throw in your chicken breast. Sear on both sides for about 2 minutes each side. Remove the chicken and set aside. Sauté the onions until soft, add mushrooms and sauté until browned. In a separate bowl mix gravy seasoning and chicken stock. I used about 2 rounded tablespoons of gravy seasoning and mixing it with 2 cups of chicken stock. Add the chicken stock to the pot, plus any additional chicken stock you want, I used almost 1 whole box. Add a squeeze of lemon and about a cup of white wine. allow to cook down and double check the seasoning. Add salt and pepper as required. Add the chicken back to the pot, cover and let cook down until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with rice and enjoy

I asked my husband what to call this, looking for a title for this post. His response: "Tasty!"

This also give the benefit of not being creaming, heavy, and rich. This is light and tangy while still filling. I hope you like it as much as we do!

French Cooking

I promised a few months ago when we got married that I would use everything our friends and family gave us for the wedding. I'm doing my best to live up to that and I finally cracked open my Julia Child's "The Art of French Cooking" and pulled a recipe, not really at random.

I have a brand new cast iron pot (thanks Mom and Dad!) so I definitely needed to break it in. Since I had some time I figured why not take my cooking up a notch.  Coc au Vin- roughly translated Rooster in Wine. Gosh those French people are creative with their food names. Basically it's chicken cooked in a bottle of wine and some brandy (of course they call for Cognac, expensive French brandy).

While I won't give you the whole recipe here I'll give you the run down, this is more about the experience of working from one of the great masters of the culinary world.

I've decided French cooking has three main ingredients; butter, booze, and fire.

Julia was not afraid of fat or salt so this isn't something you want to try if you have a heart condition. But if you don't dig in, it's delicious. It was like nibbling on a tiny bit of heaven.

Basically you start with bacon and end with butter. Cook the bacon, brown the chicken in the bacon fat, then cover and cook the chicken for 10 minutes. THEN (can you tell this is my favorite part?) you add the cognac and set the whole thing on fire! It burns a bright blue. My husband turned the lights off so we could see when the flames burned out.
Now add the wine (a "full bodied red" like a Chianti or a Beaujolais) chicken stock, tomato paste, garlic thyme and bay leaf. Allow that to cook for about 1/2 hour. While that cooks you saute mushrooms in butter and oil, and saute two onions in butter and oil until they start to brown a little bit, then you add beef stock and cook in the oven for 40 minutes (they turn out amazing). This is actually where I deviated from Julia a little bit. I discovered that my husband does not like pearl onions (luckily before I bought any). I decided to go with a sweet onion instead. The difference is that you never get a full bite of onion which I find can be distracting from the overall meaty deliciousness of the meal.
Finally when the chicken is cooked and the onions and mushrooms are ready remove the chicken from the pot and put it aside. Allow the sauce to come to a boil and reduce until it is approximately 1/2 the original liquid. Create a roux with flour and butter. Mix that into the sauce until it's smooth. Allow it to simmer a minute or two more. The sauce should be thick enough to coat a spoon. Now everything is ready, add the chicken back to the pot, also add the mushrooms and onions. Mix and allow the sauce to cover everything.

Now eat!

It really was one of the most delicious meals I have ever eaten. The sauce was velvety smooth and the seasonings were right on. There is no improving Coc Au Vin for me. I'm going to continue to make this meal for my friends and family that come over (wink wink come visit).

What I really took away from this particular preparation is that chicken does not have to be boring, or the star of the meal. The true winner were the onions. They were a sweet, bright tickle in the middle of a very savory and hearty and heart warming meal.

I loved it. My husband gave it the "husband stamp of approval". He actually said "two spoons up".

Julia Child is my hero.

One pot chicken

After a long week last week and a weekend that was far too short tonight all I wanted was to curl up with a glass of wine and a book. Sadly however, that was not to be. Laundry needed to be done and real dinner needed to be made (if I'd been alone I probably would have just gone for the wine but the other half needs real dinner). So the question was what to eat? What to make? My first thought was cereal because it's easy. but I wanted something more fulfilling than that. I knew I had chicken in the freezer so I pulled that out right away and let it start to defrost.
Here's what I ended up with:

3 chicken breasts, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
1 1/2 to 2 c peas and carrot frozen mix
1/2 c chicken stock
1 can cream of mushroom soup
paprika
thyme
1 heaping tablespoon flour
2 1/2 c Bisquick
2/3 c milk

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the stock, soup, thyme, and paprika together in an oven safe dish, I used a Corningware dish with a glass lid. Add the chicken breast, peppers, onion, and the pea and carrot mix. Stir until the vegetables and chicken are coated with the stock/soup mix.

Cover and cook for 30 minutes.

Add flour and mix.

Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Increase the oven temp to 450 degrees.

Mix the Bisquick and milk together (follow the directions for biscuits on the box) kneed the dough. Cut and place on the top of the now cooked chicken mixture. (remove the glass cover first, I know I shouldn't have to say that... but someone will forget or not understand) Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown and delicious!

I really wasn't expecting much from this. For some reason I had a feeling it was going to fail or be terrible, to which you might say "well why did you try it?" Because I can be very very wrong sometimes. This happened to be one of those times!! I still have a happy and well fed husband! He gave me the full mouth joy-filled groan plus the thumbs up today :)

Gnocchi

Last weekend I made gnocchi but I just realized I didn't say anything about how to cook it or how to serve it.
So here goes!
Boil at least 4 quarts of water (gnocchi like room to swim around) with a healthy pinch of salt. Bring the water to a rolling boil then pull back until the water is lightly bubbling. Add as much gnocchi as you plan on serving. I find this easier when they're frozen. They'll cook for about 2 minutes, maybe three. You'll know they're done when they start to float to the top. As each little potato pillow floats to the top skim it off with either a slotted spoon or a small strainer of some variety.

Serving suggestion:(This is thanks to my sister and Paris)
Gnocchi with pesto and grilled chicken.
I usually cut my chicken into bite size pieces and toss it into a frying pan with salt pepper and olive oil. Flip at least once.
Place a small amount of pesto in the bottom of a bowl, as you're removing the gnocchi from the hot water shake off the excess water and drop right into the bowl. Add the chicken and toss with extra pesto as desired.

I know not everyone likes pesto soooo alternatively you could put your chicken pieces in a crock pot with some pasta sauce, spice as desired (oregano, parsley, basil, garlic powder, onion powder).

Really you could make both if you have alternate tastes at your table like I do. Neither one is particularly difficult.

BTW: I know you can buy pesto and pasta sauce and gnocchi at the store, but by making it myself I know exactly what's in it, and fresh just tastes better. It takes a little bit of time and a little bit of planning but you're taste buds will thank you!

Buon appatito!!

Come on Irene...

That was it?? Really?
So the Hurricane past us and the worst we got were some leaves in the parking lot but that didn't stop up from preparing for the worst! We had all the candles in the house ready, flashlights, and a battery operated radio just in case and of course food!. We didn't need any of it, well we needed the food.
What did we have for a nasty windy Saturday dinner? Chicken soup! It may be good for the soul but it's also good to warm you up down to your toes and make your heart smile.

2-3 chicken breasts cut into bit sized pieces.
3-4 celery stalks
1/2 onion
1 cup of peas and carrots
some fresh parsley (I'm really not sure how much)
1 1/2 boxes of chicken stock
1 cup pearl barley

Put all the ingredients except the barley and 2 cups of the chicken stock in a 4 qt crock pot and set on high for 4 hours. when the soup has cooked for the 4 hours add the barley and 2 cups of broth a 1 qt pot on the stove on medium/high heat for about 10 minutes; then add to the chicken soup. Cook for at least 1/2 hour more.
Pretty easy for a really filling happy meal! I serve it with nice thick Italian bread to sop up what's left in the bowl. Perfect for hurricanes, blizzards, freezing cold days, and any time you need an internal pick me up!

Getting started

I live in an apartment with a small kitchen. Over time I’ve learned a few things about cooking meals large and small in a tiny space. I have no culinary experience except that I love food, everything about it. I learn by doing. Sometimes it works out for the better and sometimes… not. I have made some colossal mistakes and I have had some amazing triumphs. I want to share my experiences so you can avoid some of the same mistakes and try some of my techniques and recipes.

Two warnings before we really get started:

1. Cooking is dangerous. You’re going to find new foods you really like and want to eat all the time and you’ll be forever spoiled (in a good way) and not want to eat as much processed or ready made store bought food. For me it's home made pasta. It's time consuming totally worth it.
   
2. No really cooking can be dangerous. You should have the proper safety devices in place before you start any type of cooking. You’ll need:

-a fire extinguisher. (I’m not kidding) Mine was mounted on the wall by the landlord. Not really something you’ll see in a kitchen renovation or design show but I’d rather function over form.

-good heat resistant gloves or potholders. I’d suggest gloves; you get protection all the way around your hand. I have had many burns to prove that I don’t always follow my own rules. When I do follow my gloves suggestion I use middle of the road firefighter’s gloves. They will cost more than something like the ‘Ove Glove or products of the sort but they will work better and last longer. They will cost somewhere around $50 to $90 and they take some time to break in but they are worth it.

-sharp knives. you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg but sharp knives will keep your fingers safe. I know this is counter intuitive but it’s true. If your knives a properly sharpened they will glide though whatever you’re cutting without going off course and into your hand. You will also be able to work faster and make more even pieces of whatever you’re cutting

-2 cutting boards. one plastic and one wooden. The plastic board is for all your raw meats. It’s safer than wood because you can throw it in the dishwasher and get it all clean and sanitized. The wooden board can be used for everything else. Wood boards are generally easier on knife blades.

-a good apron. Although this isn’t really a safety thing it will keep your clothes much cleaner. Well, I suppose if your shirts are thin and you’re working with hot oil this might be a safety item too.

When you start cooking make what you love. Cook what you like to eat because then you'll put your heart into what you're making and it will show.

When I was little my favorite food when we would go out to eat was chicken fingers. I still rate diners and chain restaurants by their chicken fingers. This is my recipe for baked chicken fingers.

Easy chicken fingers

1 chicken breast per person

1 egg beaten

1 cup of bread crumbs (you may need more depending on how breaded you like your chicken)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dry parsley

1 tsp dry oregano

1 tsp dry basil

Directions: Pre-heat your oven to 325. Mix the bread crumbs with the spices (these are just the spices I like to use you’re more than welcome to change this up as much as you want, let me know what you come up with). Slice your chicken into strips (fingers). Dunk the strips of chicken into the beaten egg, then dredge them in the bread crumb mixture. Lay all the strips out on a baking sheet or in a shallow baking dish. Bake at 325 for about 15 minutes , or until done in the center of the thickest part of each finger. Turn the chicken fingers over half way through the baking time to have evenly golden brown chicken fingers.

My personal favorite dipping sauce for chicken fingers is honey mustard. I use a good dijon or a fancy stone ground mustard and mix it with equal parts honey. But of course these are equally fantastic with BBQ or ranch dressing.