Greek Style Rack of Lamb

Lamb is one of those foods that instantly reminds me of Greece. I know a lot of people that eat lamb with mint sauce. If you are one of those people, I won’t hold it against you. But I will show how I think lamb is supposed to be eaten…with lots of garlic, threebee
and lemon. To be honest, I didn’t even know what mint sauce was until I met my husband. His dad is English, and that’s how the Brits eat lamb. I did try mint sauce once, and it’s not my thing, so let me tell you how I make lamb.

I bought a beautiful rack of lamb at Costco. It’s imported from Australia, and although it’s a little on the pricey side, it’s well worth every penny. When I splurge on items like steaks, lambs and my personal favorite, king crab legs, I always seem to justify it by thinking about what I would spend if I went out to dinner and ordered that at a restaurant.
So say a rack of lamb at costco is $25, you could easily spend twice that for lamb chops in a nice restaurant. When you think how much money you can spend in a restaurant on a nice entrée, salads and wine, the option of staying at home and cooking up the same thing at half the cost becomes much more appealing. Anyways, enough about that…

I started by peeling and cutting potatoes in wedges. Then, I added some chicken stock, lemon juice, olive oil fresh rosemary and pepper to them. I roasted them covered for about 25 minutes at 350, then uncovered for about 10 minutes to brown them up and absorb most of the moisture.

I seasoned the lamb with salt, pepper, a healthy smearing of EVOO, garlic and threebe. What is threebe you might ask? Threebe is a greek herb that is native to island of Kalymnos. It grows wild on the mountains, and is similar in taste to oregano. I use it on everything from salads to meats to soups. In regards to the garlic, The way that I use it in the lamb is a technique that I learned from my dad. He would take whole cloves of peeled garlic, create a small slit in the lamb, and tuck the clove inside the meat. I did this with about 10 cloves of garlic. Then, I heated up my pan with a little bit of EVOO in it, and placed the lamb in it so it would get a nice brown crust. I know a lot of people like to do pistachio-crusted lamb, or herb crusted lamb, but when it comes to how I prepare lamb I take a more purist approach. While it was sizzling in the pan and smelling delicious, I juiced ½ of a lemon over it. After I had a nice carmelazation on the meat going on, I flipped it over and did the same to the other side. Once both sides had browned nicely, I transferred the rack to a roasting pan and cooked it for about 40 minutes. I was surprised that it took that long, but once it was finished it was cooked perfectly. I don’t like lamb too rare, just a hint of pink is how I like it.

I also roasted up some asparagus with EVOO salt and pepper. The great thing about this meal is that it’s very simple, but it looks like something you would of spent all day on. Lamb is one of those meats that seems fancy, when really all you did is sear it and stick it in the oven.

I can’t remember the exact name of the wine that we had with it, but it was an Italian red. We seem to be enjoying those lately and it’s been a nice diversion from our normal pinots.

Cheers and Happy Cooking!
Rosie

Making Grammy proud...

I have wonderful memories of cooking with my "Grammy" ( my mom's mother) as a kid. I think it was with her that I learned to enjoy cooking from a young age. She was always so patient and and let me actually try to make things,even though she knew that I wouldn't do it "just right." With her, it didn't matter.I was about 8 years old when my mom went back to school for some graduate work, so my brother and I were with Grammy and Granddad (AKA-Hotdog)two nights a week while my mom was away. My dad had the restaurant at that time so he wasn't able to be with us at night/after school, so my grandparents stepped in those couple nights. I used to LOVE going to Grammy's house during the week. My grandma had this big collection of recipes that she kept in a large binder, and I was allowed to go through it and pick out what I wanted to make for dinner. It gave me a feeling of being so grown up, and being in charge of what we were going to eat that night seemed like this huge deal at the time.

Anyways, one of my absolute favorite meals that Grammy made was chicken paprikash. My Grammy is 100% Hungarian, born to two Hungarian immigrants who came to The States around 1910. Chicken paprikash is the Hungarian version of chicken and dumplings. For me, this is total comfort food. I always requested either chicken paprikash or Hungarian chicken soup for my birthday dinner as a kid. I think the next thing I try to master is going to have to be Hungarian chicken soup...stay tuned for that adventure!

I stumbled across a recipe for chicken paprikash in the latest issue of Real Simple. I was instantly drawn to it and was reminded of how much I love it. It seemed easy enough, so I thought I would try it out and make it for dinner. After I looked at the recipe closer, I realized that this wasn't the paprikash I was used to. For starters, it had green bell peppers in it and fresh dill. While I like both green bell peppers and fresh dill, I just couldn't imagine having it in my paprikash. Later that day, I was over at my mom's house and asked if she had the recipe for Grammy's paprikash. She did, so I made of a copy of it, along with Hungarian dumpling recipe that you serve with it. Originally, I had planned to serve it with egg noodles like the Real Simple recipe suggested, but I thought I would give it a try.
After I read through Grammy's recipe, I realized that it wasn't that hard,and I thought to myself...'I could so do this!' My only concern was the dumplings. I have watched dumplings being made countless times, but to make them on my own, without any guidance or coaching seemed daunting to me. But I decided I would try it, and if they turned out like little dough-bullets I would just cook up the egg noodles as a back up plan.

So, I set out to make my very first chicken paprikash. I started by browning an onion and garlic in some oil. Grammy's recipe calls for bacon grease, but since I didn't have any on hand ( bad girl!), I went with vegetable oil. After that, I added a whole cut up chicken and let that brown a little bit. Then I added 3 tablespoons of tomato paste, 1 can tomato sauce, 1/4 tsp. paprkia, and a dash of S&P. I let this cook down for a good bit, covered over medium heat.

Now, let's get down to business and talk about the dumplings. Dumplings done right are a thing to savor, done wrong, they will sit in your stomach for what seems like days like little lead bullets. At least that's been my experience....
Take 4 cups of flour, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup cold water and a pinch of salt. Make a hollow in the center of the flour and crack the eggs, pour the water and add the salt in the center. Slowly work your wet ingredients into your dry, adding more water as necessary ( but be careful not to put too much water or you will end up with a runny mess) until your dough is in a ball and is a stiff-sticky consistency. Then, drop the dough by small balls ( I prefer mine smaller than bigger) into boiling water. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Drain, and rinse with cold water.

Now, put your focus back on the bird stewing in that lovely tomato sauce. Remove the chicken from the sauce and set aside. Bring the sauce up to just before a boil, and then remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup sour cream. Don't use the low-fat stuff either. My philosophy is if I just stood at the stove and hand dropped enough dumplings for 5 people, by gosh I'm going to eat real sour cream as a reward!
Once the sour cream is stirred in, add the dumplings to the sauce and coat them with the sauce. At this point, I took a taste and was amazed that it actually tasted what Grammy makes! For some reason I was thinking that no one could make it except for her, and although hers is way better than mine, I think for a first timer I did ok!

It was an event that definitely would of made Grammy proud, so I had to call her and tell her of my success. I'm also sure that Grammy's mom, Mamaw, was looking down on me from heaven as I was dropping those dumplings in the water and smiling. It feels good to be keeping the Hungarian ancestry alive. Grammy was just as pleased as I was, so now I have to have the family over for chicken paprikash so that they will actually believe that I can make it. I bet it will be the first time in a long time that Grammy will have paprikash that wasn't made by her. I am so thankful for my family being so close and still in such good health. What a blessing not only to have such great memories of my family from childhood, but to also be able to create new memories with them everyday!

Cheers and happy cooking,
Rosie

Paula Dean, Y'all!

Who doesn’t love brunch? I mean, really? You get breakfast foods combined with lunch and you can put champagne in your orange juice!

I had a family brunch on labor day and cooked up some tasty things. The menu was, baked French toast casserole, creamy hash browns, sausage soufflé, biscuits, coffee cake, fruit plate, sliced tomatoes, sausage links and patties ( because I’m certain there wasn’t enough fat in this meal) and coffee cake! Whew, I’m full just thinking about it.

The French toast casserole and the creamy hash browns were a Paula Dean recipe. Both were so good. The thing that I loved about the French toast recipe was that the majority of the prep was done the night before, so in the morning all I had to do was make the praline topping and bake it. I took a nice loaf of French bread from the bakery, sliced into 1 inch thick slices and overlapped them in a buttered baking dish. ( I used my beloved le crueset gratin pan). Then you take 2 cups half and half, 1 cup milk, cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg and pour that mixture over the bread. Let it sit overnight, and then in the morning melt 2 sticks of butter. Yes, I really did just say 2 whole sticks of butter. To the butter combine 1 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla flavoring and 1 cup chopped pecans. Mix that together and pour over your bread. Bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes. One of the best things about making this was how divine it made my house smell. It reminded me of Christmas and this would be a great dish to make Christmas morning. I almost forgot to mention that we served it with real, warm maple syrup drizzled over top. Doesn’t that just sound delightful? Both recipes can be found on food networks website, www.foodnetwork.com if you are interested

The hash brown casserole was a snap. All I did was take one package hash brown potatoes, combined with 1 package shredded cheddar, 1 can cream of mushroom, 1 diced sautéed onion ( in butter of course) and 1 cup milk. Mix that all together and bake for 45 minutes until it gets nice and brown on top. This reminded me of the hash brown casserole at cracker barrel that I adore. So if you’re a fan of that stuff, you will want to make a pan of this. Trust me!

I can’t take any credit for the sausage soufflé or for the coffee cake, because my lovely mom and grandma made those. I’m blessed with a family of great cooks!

To top the whole thing off, Chris set up a Bloody Mary bar and was custom making them! Even though he doesn’t drink he can sure make a mean cocktail. He had the whole shebang, horseradish, worcestershire sauce, Tabasco the whole enchilada. My brother made the comment that it was better than the bloody mary he had a St. George and the Dragon’s so I think that is a compliment.

The ladies drank mimosas. I picked up a couple bottles of inexpensive Spanish champagne called Rondel. Although you’re not supposed to call it champagne unless it was made in France, so I guess I need to refer to it as sparkling wine. It was pretty good for $7.99 a bottle. I mean, as good as you would expect for $7.99 a bottle. The good thing is when you’re mixing it with orange juice you can’t really tell as much that you’re drinking cheap stuff!
All in all, I would say it was a very good meal. The best part was that I got to share it with my family. Nothing brings people together like a good meal!

Cheers and happy cooking,
Rosie

Homemade Lo-Mein

Hi there food lovers!

Sorry my posts have been non-existent lately. I actually have been cooking quite a bit, but have lacked the motivation to get on and blog about it. I don't have any good excuses; I just have felt kind of blah about it lately. But this week I've been making some neat stuff every night, and each night has been something new that I've never made before or haven't made in a really long time. It's been refreshing this week which has given the motivation to get back in the swing of things. I think sometimes you just get stuck in a rut, and that makes it hard to get excited about what your cooking.

I really enjoy Chinese food. For me, it's right up there with pasta and Greek food. Pasta is my all time favorite, second is Greek (which funny enough has a lot of pasta-influence) and lastly would have to be Chinese food. There isn't much food I don't like, except for sushi. I can't touch that stuff…sorry sushi lovers!

I used to eat Chinese food a lot more than I do now, but I've cut back significantly because it's laden with excessive amounts of sodium and MSG and other bad things that make me bloat up like a puffer fish. I've been hankering for some lo-mein, and thought about stopping by my favorite little Chinese whole-in-the-wall restaurant, Jasmine ( by the Berkshire Publix in Naples). Then I thought to myself, why can't I just make some at home? I'd never done it before how hard could it be? Turns out, it's very easy and way healthier than what I would of gotten at Jasmine's.

I found authentic Lo-Mein noodles in the Chinese section at Publix. They came in a peculiar looking box named "China Boy." They were more expensive than regular pasta at about $1.69 a box, but I figured I would try them out and see if they were worth it.

I heated up about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in my pan over high heat. I have a wok that I should of used, but it was easier to use a regular pan than go hunt down the wok. Once the pan was hot, I grated fresh ginger root and garlic directly into the pan. Then I added very thinly sliced chicken breast and let those brown up nicely. After that had browned, I added snow peas, carrots and celery. I would of liked to have added broccoli as well, but I forgot to pick that up at the store. I added very little soy sauce, some Thai-chili sauce (Chris and I both like spicy food so I was pretty liberal with it) and a dash of some bottled stir-fry sauce from Kikkoman. I added the cooked lo-mein noodles, which cooked up very fast in about 4 minutes and combined all the ingredients together. This was one of those things that I knew just by looking at it that it was going to be yummy. One taste was I needed to confirm that fact! This was some great tasting stuff, and it was really easy and a lot healthier than I what I would of eaten had I of caved in and got take-out!

This made a ton of food. Chris and I both ate it for dinner that night, he took it for “pre” dinner with him the next day to school, and I still had enough left over to take for a good size lunch to take to work. Next time that I make it, I’m going to try to use whole-wheat thin spaghetti and see how that is. I’m also going to use pork next time and I think that will give it even more flavor than the chicken. I hope you try it and enjoy it as much as I did!

Cheers and Happy Cooking,

Rosie

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Greetings my fellow foodies,

Ahhh, the French Classic Chicken Cordon Bleu. (Chicken stuffed with swiss cheese and ham). It is something that most people only order in restaurants , or eat as frozen entree when cooking dinner at night seems a little bit too lofty a goal. But, I would like to tell you that this is actually not a hard meal to prepare. Or, at least, the way I prepare it isn't hard!

This is my version that I have adapted from recipes and just eating it the darn thing for so long! Take your chicken breast and split it long ways down the middle with out separating it completely. Then, beat the daylights out of it with a meat pulverizer until it's nice and thin. I find this step extremely therapeutic for some bizarre reason. Take your cheese, I used what I had on hand which was finlandia swiss, and lay one piece on each side. Then, take your ham, ( I had an applewood smoked ham) and lay that over top of the cheese. Now, here's the only tricky part-Rolling it all up and making sure that the stuff doesn't fall out when you dip it in egg and breadcrumbs. I'm not going to lie to you folks, this is slightly challenging, but one thing I have learned from trying countless recipes is- BE FEARLESS! Never look at a recipe and say, " Oh, I could never make ____." Because- you can! Sure, you might have a few mishaps along the way, but when you make mistakes in the kitchen is when you learn! So go on; try it, and you'll be surprised and impressed with yourself when it actually works out.

So, where was I? Ah, yes. Eggs and breadcrumbs. I'm pretty sure the French make their own breadcrumbs, but they also only work about 2 days a week so they have all sorts of free time on their hands. I on the other hand, work that dreaded 9-5 schedule 5 days a week, so I am not ashamed to say I use the stuff in a jar.

Dip the chicken breasts in egg, let the excess drip off, and then roll in the breadcrumbs.
Heat some butter in a skillet until it starts to bubble, but don't let it brown. I can't really tell you how much butter I used because I pretty much just eyeball it. And, since this is French dish, there really never is too much butter. So don't be shy.
After you browned your stuffed chicken on all sides, pop them in a nonstick oven safe pan, cover them with foil, and bake for 25-30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
After I got those in the oven, I thought about what to make for a side. I had put some potatoes in the oven earlier thinking that I would just have baked potatoes on the side, but then I had a better idea. Twice baked potatoes! I hadn't had them in forever, and they sounded incredibly good. All I did was split them down the middle, scoop out the insides, and then mash them up with some freshly shredded cheddar cheese, provolone cheese, sour cream and whole milk. But them back in the oven so the cheese gets all melt-y and brown and that's it! I would of liked to of put bacon and chives in them too, but I didn't have any on hand and I really didn't feel like a trip to the store. I cooked up some peas, and voila-dinner was served in the Hatwell house before 7:30 pm on a work night!

We very much enjoyed our dinner while watching our dvr'd episode of Mad Men. Andy boy, was it juicy. ( Both the show and the chicken!)
Sorry I don't have any pictures to share, but I just wasn't in the picture taking mood. I promise to have some for next time.

Cheers and Happy Cooking,
Rosie

Bottleshock

Dear lovely foodies,

I am so sorry that it has been so long in between posts...all 3 of you must really be torn up about it! But, it has been a really busy couple of weeks in my little world recently. It's been so busy, that I have been (gasp) eating out a lot! Yes, I would say that in the past 10 days I've eaten out more than I would like to say. But, the great thing about eating out, is that it gives me inspiration to try out what I just ate at home. And, it gives my pots and pans (and manicures) a much needed night or nights off.

My favorite restaurant dish of all time has to be the Chicken Bryan at Carrabba's. For those of you that aren't carrabba's addicts like me, Chicken Bryan is a perfectly sauteed chicken breast topped with goat cheese, fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes and a lemon-butter reduction sauce. It is simply divine. I have had it a number of times, and it wasn't until recently, that I even attempted to make it. It seemed so complex and fancy. But really, when you think about it, it's just a few ingredients.

I had a request on Sunday to make a roast, but with the beef roast frozen solid at 11am, I knew that wasn't going to be an option. So, my mind drifted to something that both me and my hubby love...Chicken Bryan.

The menu was going to be similar in style to carrabba's. They serve a lovely sauteed spinach with fresh garlic and really, it is so easy. I also had some asparagus in the fridge that were begging to be roasted, so I got those out as well. I also had some "cavatappi" pasta in the pantry. For those of you not familiar, it is a corkscrew like pasta that I have come to have love, although not all in my household share the same affinity for it. But I think they might be coming around. I also wanted some garlic bread, so I used two sandwich ciabatta rolls and brushed them with olive oil and topped with fresh basil and chopped garlic.

I think I figured out what makes the chicken at carrabba's so great. For one, it's probably swimming in butter, but also, they do such a good job trimming it. And I don't just mean the fat, I mean all the connective tissue as well. I know that's not appetizing to think about, but trimming all that way really leaves you with tender poultry. Basically, all I did for the chicken was get some EVOO up to a medium high heat in a heavy bottom skillet. I seasoned the chicken breasts LIGHTLY with salt and heavily with pepper. I went light on the salt, (for once) because the goat cheese has such a high salt content that if you over-salt the chicken you will end up with something that resembles a salt lick. Once the chicken had browned nicely on both sides, I topped it with goat cheese, (not feta, but chevre) fresh basil and sun-dried tomato. Top it off with a little bit of a lemon-butter sauce and you are looking at one good tastin' chicken dish.

Side note about lemon-butter sauce. This is one finicky sauce. Too high of heat, the sauce separates, too low of heat, the sauce gets cloudy. OY. Still working on perfecting that one. I'm tempted to just walk back in the grill line at carrabba's and ask one of those nice young men if he'll share his lemon-butter sauce recipe with me.....or maybe not.

Let's talk about asparagus for a minute. They are most delicious (to me) when bathed (lightly) in olive and course ground salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes, juice half a lemon over it, and you have the most heavenly, crispy, salty, asparagus-y tasting veggie ever. Even if you say you don't like asparagus, try it like this and let me know what you think.

The spinach....oh I do love sauteed spinach. It's amazing how a whole bag of the stuff cooks down to nothing. I took a picture of the amount of spinach I started with just to give you an idea. This cooked down to enough for 2 people with a little bit left over. All I did with the spinach was heat some olive oil over high heat and throw in some minced fresh garlic. Then, toss in the spinach leaves and mix them around until they are wilted...so easy and so good.

Now, on to the pasta. I took one can of diced tomatoes, added sauteed garlic, a splash of white wine and some red pepper flakes and simmered over low heat. Once the pasta was done, I combined the pasta with the sauce. This kind of pasta begs to be tossed with the sauce because it really has the ability to absorb the sauce. Topped with freshly grated parmigianno reggiano. The only bad thing about this pasta is getting it to stay on your fork-they really are slippery little suckers!

Well, this post wouldn't be complete with out one last thing. I have to tell you what I'm drinking with this! The white wine that I'm drinking at the moment is nothing to write home about. It's a great everyday table white, but nothing note worthy. But...the red that I'm drinking is very note worthy. (Actually not so much the wine itself but rather the winery). It's so note worthy in fact they made a movie about it! Chateau Montelena winery is located in Napa Valley and has been in business since the late 1800's. Chateau Montelena gained the world's attention when their 1973 chardonnay won the 1976 Paris tasting. It ranked above the top white French burgundies and was tasted by the snobbiest of French wine judges. Chateau Montelena put California wines on the map and showed the rest of the world that the hippies in California could make a better wine than the French! The movie is called "Bottleshock" if you are looking for something to add to your netflix list.
I picked up a bottle of their 2006 Zinfandel a few weeks ago, and it's very good. The 2007 got stellar reviews, and was just released this past spring so I will look forward to getting a bottle and seeing if I can taste a difference.

I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings, because I certainly enjoy writing all of this.

Cheers and happy cooking,
Rosie

For the love of Garlic

Good morning fellow foodies,

I really love re-creating a restaurant dish at home. There is such an accomplished feeling that I get when I can whip up (almost) the exact same thing that I normally would pay good money for at a fraction of the cost. As a side note, I also have a hard time paying $10 a glass for a mediocre chardonnay when I can buy a whole bottle of the same darn thing for less. Oh, the shameless markup of wine in restaurants, but I feel that is a topic for another blog entirely.

I had this dish once a while ago in a buca di beppo. I think it was called shrimp Diablo (shrimp of the devil) or something along those lines. It basically is just a few things, crushed tomatoes, lots-o-garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, a touch of white wine, ( hey, look folks,we’re cooking with wine!) all sautéed up with big shrimp and tossed with al dente spaghetti. It was really good and while I was eating it, I was thinking, ‘I could so make this…’

Speaking of lots-o-garlic, I’m fairly certain that garlic comes out my pores at times. I once worked with a guy who definitely like his cocktails, and when he would sweat, tequila would permeate out of his pores. Mmmm….sweaty tequila. (Not). I much prefer sweating garlic if I had to choose, but I digress. I purchased the mother load of peeled fresh garlic during one of my latest trips to the famed warehouse costco. It’s 3 pounds of pure garlic goodness. Yes, I really did buy 3 pounds of garlic and yes, I only cook for 2 people. So, as you can imagine, I have been handing out Ziploc baggies of garlic cloves to people like a drug dealer. But, when you buy enough garlic to feed the entire state of Florida, you have to share the wealth. On the bright side, our condo is free from vampires.

Well, since this dish’s main ingredient was shrimp, I set out to find the perfect ones. I am plagued with what I like to call “shrimp apprehension.” It all stems from a very bad experience I had about a year ago with sour shrimp in a shrimp curry. It took me a good while to get over that and to work up the courage to put another shrimp in my mouth. It’s not unusual for me to ask the person behind the seafood counter if I can smell the shrimp before I buy it. I don’t care if he thinks I’m one grape short a fruit salad, I refuse to relive that dreaded sour shrimp night again. My nose does not lie, so take that Mr. Seafood man.

I have made this dish once before at home a few weeks ago, and loved the simplicity of it. It’s just a few simple steps. First, finely chop the garlic gloves. I recommend chopping over putting them through a garlic press to really keep the garlic flavor/texture in tact because there aren’t a lot of ingredients in this so every flavor is at the front. Sauté up the garlic in olive oil for about 3 minutes. Add 2 cans diced tomatoes, a touch of red pepper flakes, salt, and about ½ cup white wine. Let this all cook down while your spaghetti is cooking to al dente. Once your spaghetti has cooked, drain it and give it a cold shock of water to stop the cooking process. To the tomato sauce, add your shrimp. I had previously cooked shrimp, so placing the shrimp in the sauce was essentially just warming them up, not cooking them. I also added a touch of cream to the sauce, although it’s not in the buca di beppo version. It just sweetens up the sauce a little bit and makes a nice soft pink color. Add your pasta and toss to incorporate all of the ingredients in the pan. I served with chopped fresh basil and freshly grated parmigianno regiano. Everything is better with cheese.

Side note about shrimp….I was disappointed last night with them. It’s hard to find good shrimp in this town, which you wouldn’t think would be the case since we live on the COAST but whatever. The best shrimp that I have found are sold at Costco on the weekends. They are mammoth shrimp that were fed steroids; I think one shrimp is about ½ pound! If I saw one of those things in the water I would run away. But they are good and fresh. Fresh is KEY when it comes to seafood.

Something I would like to briefly mention before I close is how thankful I am for my fellow food enthusiast husband. He understands and appreciates good food. He is always game to try one of my new concoctions and always gives me honest feedback. Thanks hubby for being such an appreciative guinea pig. You rock.

Well foodies, it’s time I leave you. But I did take some pictures so I do hope you enjoy.

Cheers and happy cooking,

Crispy chicken skin, my personal fav.

Good morning dear cooking enthusiasts,
I realize that is is probably a bad decision to start my first real post about cooking and have it be about chicken, but you know what, oh well. It was a really good dish that I made up on the fly. Sometimes I cook straight from recipes, sometimes I cook a variation of that same recipe. I think I have the most fun in the kitchen when I make something that doesn't come right out of a book. Which is exactly what I did on Sunday night.
I love when I can use what is in my freezer ( granted, it's not a huge freezer, I do live in a condo) but you would be amazed at the stuff that I squirrel away in it. Anyway, I had some skin on chicken thighs left over from a chicken picatta gratin recipe that I had made a few weeks ago, and I stumbled on 5 lonely chicken thighs in a ziploc and decided I needed to do something with them.
Since it was a Sunday night, I felt the need for something a little "roast-y" if you know what I mean. But, for me, my deal breaker about chicken is that if the skin is left on, it must be crispy and browned. It's the only way to go.
I heated about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Let me explain why I used vegetable oil. As a life long lover/believer in extra virgin olive oil (first cold press from Greece is just about the only thing I will use), it is sometimes hard to bring out that unromantic wesson oil bottle. But, my dears, every thing has it's place in the kitchen. Vegetable oil allows you to come to a very high heat with out scorching the oil, where olive oil does not. Yes, you could do the chicken in olive oil, but this is one of the rare occasions that I will say reach for the wesson.
I seasoned the skin side of my chicken breasts with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and a touch of poultry seasoning. Once the oil began to ripple and slightly smoke, I put the chicken skin side down in the pan and let the magic happen. It's a good idea to put a splatter screen over the pan to avoid a mess (and 2nd degree burns) because this chicken is going to POP like a son of a gun. Once the skin has browned nicely, ( about 4 minutes) flip it over for an additional 2 minutes.
I mentioned earlier that I wanted a "roast-y" feel since it was Sunday, so here is my variation on that.
I took some carrots, celery, onion, and whole fresh cloves of garlic and scattered them around the bottom of my baking dish. I cut the carrots, celery and onion into julienne strips so they would cook faster. ( Since my chicken had a head start on cooking in the skillet). Then I added about a cup of chicken stock to the veggies and placed the chicken, skin side up on top of the veggies, covered with foil, and baked for 35 minutes. I took the foil off after 35 minutes and let it cook for an additional 10 minutes to absorb some of the moisture. I wish I had taken a picture, because this is such a pretty dish. The brown chicken skin standing on top of a bed of celery, onions, carrots and garlic was really nice to look at it. And it tasted even better.
All of that chicken-y goodness got sealed in when I browned the chicken. Then, by cooking it over the veggies and chicken stock, it sealed in a lot of flavor.
I served with some mashed potatoes, ( another Sunday night comfort food) steamed broccoli with fresh lemon and pepper, and a simple tomato salad.
It was a simple meal, but sometimes, simple meals are the best.

Well, there won't be much cooking going on in my house tonight due to scheduling conflicts, but I already have an idea for Wednesday night and I think you are going to like it.

Cheers and happy cooking,
Rosie

Here we go...

I love to cook. In this day and age, it seems like the number of people who say that are becoming less and less. Our world is go-go-go all the time, and more often than not that translates into our cooking and eating habits. Don't get me wrong, I love a quick-fix meal just as much as the next working gal trying to keep her head above water.(Thank the good Lord for my cuisinart panini press and costco rotisserie chickens for you have saved me many nights). But, when I have the time, ( which seems to be more now than ever with my husband buried in a graduate program that requires about 28 hours of studying a day), I find myself with plenty of spare time. So, what better do with that time than pour a glass of wine and get in the kitchen and cook something delicious and sometimes even healthy! Please take note of the word "sometimes" in the previous sentence. I say this because I have a public love affair with butter.

I'm not saying that I am a classically trained chef. In fact I'm far from it. What I am is a person that simply loves food and loves a good glass of wine with it. I love the experience of cooking, the smells, the sounds, and most of all the joy that comes from feeding your loved ones something that they actually like. Hearing a yum or a groan of appreciation goes a long way with me after I've been spattered with hot oil or had to climb on top of the dining room table to fan the blaring smoke detector with a dish towel.

So, here we go people. I would like to take you on my journeys in the kitchen and see how this whole things turns out. Who knows, maybe by the time you read about how much I like being in the kitchen, you might just put down that take out menu and pick up a spatula!

Cheers and happy cooking,
Rosie