Under Pressure

My pressure cooker is definitely the most underused appliance in my kitchen.  So when I was browsing cookbooks recently at the library, a cookbook specializing in pressure cooker recipes caught my eye.  We chose three recipes for the menu this week:

Pot Roast with Potatoes

By and far the best recipe of the three, but definitely took the most time to prepare.  It was a good choice for a  Sunday night dinner, and had lots of great flavor.



Enchilada-Glazed Chicken Tacos

This made a tasty, saucy shredded chicken, which we served with flour tortillas, rice and beans and for the grown-ups, sliced avocado.  (Though the kids can try this whenever they like!)
However tasty it was, though, my taco completely fell apart.  Leftovers were taco "bowls" with all the fixings.


Pork Chops with Buttery Apples served over Shaved Brussels Sprouts

This was definitely the worst recipe of the three.  Overdone pork, apples turned to mushy sauce, and watery shaved Brussels sprouts.  Brian and I each ate a bit and it did little more than "fill the belly."  All leftovers were promptly discarded and we tried to forget the sadness of this recipe.


So....thoughts on pressure cookers.

1.  The "browning" feature?  It doesn't really brown, at least not as well as on the stovetop.

2.  I didn't find any of these recipes to be a huge timesaver.  The pot roast recipe took about three hours.  Which, I guess, is a timesaver compared to how long it takes to make a pot roast and potatoes in the oven.

That being said, I'd still try some different recipes with the pressure cooker.  It is great for "set it and forget it" until it's time to depressurize.  Think we'll stick to weekends, though.

Livin it Up

The boys went to visit their grandparents in PA for a week before the four of us headed to Virginia for vacation.  Sadly, both parents had to work that week.  But night can be fun, especially when there's no kiddie restrictions to dinner!

We stopped at the grocery store on our way back and picked up some live lobsters and fresh corn on the cob.   So delicious, and yes, I'm convinced now that steaming is better than boiling.  The plate doesn't get all waterlogged while cracking for lobster meat.  So, so good.

On Monday,  we fixed Brian's "I've never had a margarita" problem by heading to Mezcal in Worcester.  Upon hearing that held never had a margarita, the bartender asked to make us something special off-menu.  We were not disappointed!!!  Add some tuna tostada, chicken mole and steak chimichanga, and of course, their famous homemade guacamole and it was a great night.  No "ew, what's that" or tears.  Just full bellies and happiness. 

Tuesday was some of the biggest stuffed chicken breasts that I've ever seen.  Filled with spinach and feta cheese, they were dinner for TWO nights.  Thursday brought us to pork lettuce wraps with veggies, ginger, garlic,  housing, spicy peanut sauce, along with almonds for crunch.  Oh, and the second trip for ice cream that week.  Followed by a ton of packing for the trip.

On Friday, we began the drive down. But as a last hurrah, we went back to a special place:  Paul's Pasta in Groton, CT.  We hadn't been on about six years, and some of our early dates were there 18 years ago.  Still delicious, relatively inexpensive and so tasty.

So, our week of Food Comas was complete, including a few trips for ice cream.  It was worth it.  

The Salad Blues

I go to Panera Bread every Wednesday to meet up with my knitting group, and if I eat dinner while there, I usually order the Asian Sesame Chicken Salad.  It's been my favorite for a long time.  Sure, I eat other things there, but keep going back to the salad.

Well.  Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago that the salad, a long-time menu item, has been discontinued!  I ate my last Asian Sesame Chicken Salad and I didn't know it.  The restaurant has switched over to "all-natural" ingredients in everything and apparently, there's something in the salad that doesn't make the cut.  (My friend Rayna is bummed about no more pepperoncini in her Greek salad, apparently they didn't make the cut either.)

I'm bummed.  I get the desire for natural ingredients but sheesh!  Let people decide for themselves.  Although, I guess they ARE letting people decide, in terms of deciding to eat at Panera or not.  Since it's still a super-convenient place to hold knit night and was tough to find a new location in the first place, we'll be staying.  And most nights, eating.

So to satisfy that craving, I vowed to make an Asian Sesame Chicken salad myself.  Sauteed chicken breast, greens, cucumber, cilantro and toasted almonds, topped with a little homemade Carrot-Ginger dressing.  (Recipe courtesy of America's Test Kitchen's "Light Cooking" cookbook.)  It wasn't the same.  However, it was still very good.  All of those flavors worked well together and made for a filling, healthy lunch.  And homemade dressing always beats the pants off of bottled store-bought, in terms of flavor, fat AND calories.

Hmmmm.   Maybe if it had tortilla strips next time, it'll be a closer match.  Probably not, but I'll keep trying.

Savory Cupcakes

My neighbor and I were talking about food on the bus stop last week and he was raving about his wife's "chicken pot pie cupcakes."  Well, I couldn't stop thinking about them even a day or so afterwards so off to Pinterest I went!  Turns out they're pretty easy:  some veggies, cooked chicken, canned biscuit mix and cream of chicken soup.

They came out a little brown but were still good.

Will was a bit disappointed to look at the menu board and see cupcakes, but have them be chicken pot pie cupcakes.  He was amused at this though, so points for that!

Oh, and if you are interested, here is a link to the recipe that I used.  It's from a blog called "Cupcake Fanatic.  http://cupcakefanatic.com/recipes/chicken-pot-pie-cupcakes/

Chicken Tortellini Soup

My first from-scratch soup made without a recipe!  Ta-Da!

First, I boiled a whole chicken.  Yep....just threw it in a pot with some onion, carrots and celery and filled it up past the chicken.  Oh, and I added plenty of salt, a small handful.  I'm usually guilty of not seasoning enough.  I boiled that chicken for about 45 minutes, then took it out and carved it.  And by carved, I mean pulled the meat off barbarically.  :)  I threw it back in the pot with some sauteed peppers and onions and cooked tortellini.  Lastly, I tossed in fresh baby spinach leaves.  Voila!  Lunch, with a ton of leftovers.  The only thing that I thought that it could use was some mushrooms.

Can't wait to make some homemade soup again.  This weather certainly calls for it.

Gettin' Fancy

Last week's dinner menu was more written for the adults than for the kids.  And it's good to do that sometimes.

Two meals stood out:

The chicken and polenta dish looked good enough to offer at a restaurant!  It was delicious to boot....I used to dislike polenta. But now that I know that there's other ways to have it other than a sliced tube at the grocery store, I'm more likely to eat it.  "Tube-y" polenta tastes firm and weird.  This stuff reminded me of mashed potatoes.

And this right here?  Seared scallops over lemony zucchini risotto.  I know, really fancied for a Tuesday night!  Best scallops I've had in a long time.  And this risotto rules, too.  I ate the leftover risotto for breakfast the next two days, with a fried egg on top.  Awesome.

Weekend Warriors

What a weekend in our kitchen.

First, let's talk about this pizza for Saturday lunch.  I had no idea that ricotta, arugula and caramelized onion would make such fantastic pizza toppings.  Unfortunately, you can't reheat pizza with arugula on top, because it wilts.  So we had to eat it all, tough break.

I made stuff for our freezer.  Three freezer bags of ratatouille, and this time I salted the eggplant slices first a la Alton Brown.  It definitely got some of the moisture out, making the finished product less "mushy."  It'll go great with a starch and a little grated Parmesan later.

Then it was time for a magic trick....turning a $4.23 whole chicken into two meals and then boiling the carcass for chicken stock.  (Thank you, rapidly approaching "sell-by" dates!)  And honestly, it didn't take very long.  I just sauteed some aromatics (in this case a whole sliced onion, a couple of carrots and some celery ribs) and added the carcass, covered with water and let it boil for an hour.  I'll strain the fat off the top tonight and put it in the freezer for some delightful chicken soup at a later date.

Now, I've got some overripe bananas to turn into muffins, and yesterday we went apple picking.   Thinking about what to make!  

New Cookbook in the House!

Last week was Brian's birthday and Will picked out a new cookbook for his gift.  Since  Dad is a big fan of the Food Network show "Chopped" why not a cookbook from that show?  He loved it and we tried two recipes this weekend.

The first was a warm banana pudding with caramel sauce.  I love that I'm married to someone who, on a Saturday night will spontaneously decide to make treats from scratch.  :)  Let me tell you, it smelled incredible.  The taste was good too, though it felt weird to be eating pudding that hadn't "set."  And if you are eating hot banana and caramel topping, watch out!  My tongue and throat are still slightly scorched. 

Next up was grilled chicken sandwiches for lunch, with a parsley pesto spread.  I had a ton of parsley to use up on the deck so this recipe seemed like a no-brainer.  I'd never had anything other than basil pesto, and clearly I've been missing out!  This also had a great way of toasting the bun using an egg white instead of butter or just dry in the toaster oven. 

This cookbook has a lot of potential.  And obviously,  since I've marked it up, it's here to stay. 

Sunday Comfort Food: Chicken and Dumplings

Sundays are good for a warm, comforting meal, especially in the winter.  This week we had chicken and dumplings.

Let me just tell you, the house smelled AMAZING while it cooked.  And why wouldn't it, with onions, celery, chicken thighs, carrots, broth and bread-y goodness that is the dumpling?  Snow was falling, food was simmering, it was an iconic Winter Sunday.

And best of all--three servings for leftovers, and it's another food that tastes even better the next day.  Happiness.

We Do Snowstorms Right

I'm a lucky girl.  When Brian hears that there's going to be a storm and we're going to be snowed in, he starts dreaming up something good to cook.  Because, if you're going to be stuck inside, you might as well eat well.

This particular storm:  chicken and waffles, and our first homemade ice cream.

First up, chicken and waffles.  I'd never had chicken and waffles before.  I knew that it was a Southern thing, and I've said it before:  I adore southern cooking.  We don't eat a lot of southern food often because done right, it's laden with calories.

Now, I couldn't see what the big deal was about chicken and waffles because I was picturing a fried chicken breast on a plate, side by side with a waffle with maple syrup and butter.  And although that sounded intriguing, it wasn't WOW!  This is incredible!

Suffice it to say, I get it now:

This. Was. Incredible!  Fried chicken, in a batter with tabasco flavoring, served atop a perfectly crisp waffle, and then topped with a pan gravy that has a little bit of maple syrup in it.  The most beautiful pairing of sweet and savory that I have ever tasted.  That being said, it's certainly not going on our menu again anytime soon.  And I don't feel the need, because a once-in-a-long-while treat like this is the greatest.   I don't want it to lose it's special-ness.



And now for the ice cream...Brian got an ice cream maker for Christmas, because when watching Cutthroat Kitchen or Chopped he always remarks "We should make our own ice cream!"  It's definitely not cheaper than buying ice cream, but certainly fresher.  And it doubles as a fun activity for kids.  Will helped make the base, and he smashed the cookies for our inaugural ice cream batch:  Chocolate Cookies and Cream.

It was deliciously rich, and I'm glad it doesn't make a bigger batch.  The only critique that Brian and I agree on:  scrape the chocolate cream out of the oreos next time.

Next time we may make strawberry ice cream.  I'm not a fan of artificial strawberry flavored anything, but I'll bet fresh strawberry ice cream would be incredible!  Or banana, with bits of Nilla Wafers.  Good Lord, the possibilities!

Orange is the New Ingredient

In the "something different"dept, chicken with orange and feta.  Served with couscous.  It was a nice, light meal from an America's Test Kitchen book that I brought home from the library.  It's all about healthier fare, which is the opposite of what ATK usually focuses on.  I'd definitely make this again.

First Meals of 2015

The holidays have passed, and now we're happy to get back to a routine.  And also, cook some healthier, less rich food.  Not that we don't love the rich stuff, because we do.

Brian got a new 30-minute meal cookbook for Christmas put out by America's Test Kitchen.  So far we've had three recipes from it and have plans for more.  Like most things ATK puts out, everything has been good so far.

First dinner:  Salmon with lime and spice, with rice and broccoli.  Nothing too fancy...

Saturday night: white chicken chili.  This was definitely more than 30 minutes, more like 45.  It probably has more to do with the fact that dried hominy was used instead of the canned hominy that the recipe listed...but oh well. Hominy was a new ingredient to us, and took a little getting used to.   Leftovers yesterday weren't quite as chewy, and the flavor was really good.  It's weird eating chili with no tomatoes or beans, I definitely prefer the other way better.

I roasted a chicken on Sunday, and we had baked potatoes and roast carrots and parsnips.  The whole dinner in the oven, yeah!  Roast parsnips are so delicious and sweet.

last night:  meatless Monday!  Tortellini with asparagus and peas, in a tarragon cream sauce.  Yeah, I said healthier and less rich.  Total lie tonight, but no meat, so it's a trade?

Tonight's dinner is scallop risotto with tomatoes.  I'm dying to see if the "thirty minute recipe" is the real deal or full of lies.  We shall see.

Taking the Reins

As I've mentioned before, my husband is the cook.  I CAN cook, but he's more of the family chef than I am.  I can certainly feed my family, and I can make good food, but fancy food is not in my reparte.

Except for last night, where I have to say I made a pretty damn good Chicken Marsala.

Chicken Marsala is my favorite meal.  It's what I judge a new (to me) restaurant on, and a favorite at some of my favorites.  So when I saw that Brian had put it on the menu with rice and steamed zucchini, I was excited for a Monday night dinner.  Being excited for anything on a Monday is a stretch, so this was a big deal.

In comes Murphy's Law.  Good Ol' Mr. Murphy likes Mondays.  And a big monkey wrench was thrown into the Chicken Marsala plans.  Huge accident on the MassPike involving a coffee truck overturning and leaking fuel, which naturally brought gridlock and a rotten commute for all.  Even for me, the lady who has nothing to complain about now that she has a itty bitty commute compared to the big honking 35-miles-each-way-through-Hell that I had years ago.  I called Brian on the way home and reported the mess, and told him that it was going to take a while.  He said that we could order sandwiches when he got home, whenever that was going to be.

Upon getting home though, I remembered that driving in that kind of mess just sucks the energy right out of you.  Sometimes Brian would have a hot meal waiting for me and the travel stress would just slide away like water off a duck's back.  So my mind was made up...dammit, I'm going in.....to the kitchen.

Instead of rice, I chose mashed potatoes since potatoes go bad a lot faster than rice.  I pounded chicken breasts, sauteed mushrooms and onions, made sauce from scratch.  All while feeding the kids sliced apples and leftover homemade mac n cheese with ham and fielding math questions from Sean and Minecraft video recaps from Will.  At one point my house grew very smoky, and I had to run around opening doors and windows.  (No fire alarms!)  I was plating the chicken as the garage door opened, and everything was perfect.  Well, truth be told the house was a little chilly because I forgot to close the dining room window.  Usually I'm the chilly one but I was in a camisole and busting my butt in the kitchen!  The chicken was perfectly cooked, soft without a hint of "rubber."  The mushroom and onions didn't burn at all and the sauce was blended nicely.  Awesome, I pulled it off!!!
And Brian?   He loved it.    Not that our local sandwich place doesn't have mighty fine wares, but a homecooked meal from someone that loves you at the end of a stressful day....nothing better than that.

A Chicken in Every Pot

When I wrote the menu last week, I decided to give something a try...

I go home for lunch most days, it's a nifty benefit of living and working in the same town.  So...why not put together a crockpot meal while I'm there?  I chose something easy, Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki.    This way, there wasn't chopping of a million ingredients or having to pre-cook anything.  And hey, if it didn't come out well, there's always pizza.  (my standard answer to bad dinners everywhere)

It came out better than well.  It was great!  Imagine coming home from work after picking up the kids at school/preschool, to the smell of dinner already cooking.  All that was left to do was make rice, steam broccoli and thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch.  (We were out so Brian used a tiny amount of flour while I was folding laundry.)  Bang!  Dinner on the table at 6pm, leaving time for Will and I to finish watching "Goonies."

Hmmm...."Crockpot Monday" may just become a thing!

Summer Wrap-Up

Look at that!  A whole month went by with no posts.

That's not to say that we haven't been eating.  Obviously, we ate, or I wouldn't be here to write this!  We had a lot of good stuff, not that I can remember all of it for this post.  I found a bangin' recipe for chicken caprese that was out of this world good.  I'd post a pic, but every since I replaced my phone a couple of months ago when my youngest dropped it at Disney World, I can't auto-update photos from my phone.  So here's the recipe:  Chicken Caprese.  Normally I'm not a fan of grape tomatoes, but they really worked in this dish.

Another Pinterest recipe that I tried this summer:  Nectarine and Basil Pizza.    I substituted peaches which was a mistake, because the peach crop this year was abysmal.  Well, at least in the grocery stores it was, I have YET to go peach picking!  Another tip....don't try to make it a quicker dinner by using a Boboli crust.  It just didn't work.  Eating weird-textured peaches on a boboli feels like you are eating a very sad cracker.

Now we're starting to get towards fall, and tonight I made chili.  It wasn't quite "chili weather" but it still tasted good.  oh, and meatballs for the freezer.  Now THOSE came out well!

Tomorrow night we're having a chicken ginger stir-fry, and trying a new recipe on Tuesday.  It's chicken with artichokes and red potatoes.  Looking forward to it.  And though I don't update often, I'm glad to be back!

Best Ever Chicken Thighs

Allow me to introduce you to some of the BEST chicken thighs I've ever had!!

Brown Sugar and Mustard Chicken Thighs and Sweet Potatoes.  

Here's the link to the recipe.

Hooray for awesome Pinterest finds!

Only one issue:  I really need to learn to read the recipe before putting it on the weekday menu.  This was an oven recipe, with almost an hour of baking time.  That being said, it was worth it!  Not too bad in calories and delicious to boot.  

Brian's Creations

Brian wrote the menu last week, and it was all based on ideas instead of recipes.  I don't usually cook like that, I prefer a recipe.  But he's good at it.  

First one was his new take on Chicken Parmesan.  He had seen something on a food network gameshow that gave him the idea, and this is the result:

Fresh Chicken Parm with Couscous

Pan-fried chicken cutlet, topped with canned tomato, a slice of mozzarella and a spinach-arugula blend.  Oh, and shredded parmesan.  Couscous was a nice departure from the normal spaghetti, too.  It tasted light and fresh, which while I love traditional chicken parm, one does not describe it as "light."

Seared sea scallops over linguine.

This recipe puts Olive Garden to shame!  I say that because we went to Olive Garden last month and it was truly disappointing.  I ordered a chicken pasta dish that was like sixteen bucks and what was it?  A pound of angel hair with a little butter and wine, couple of pieces of chicken and a whole pepper cut into huge hunks.  Not their best efforts.  This was scallops, a wine and butter sauce, pepper and onion stirfy and some more of that shredded parmesan.  Not to mention, the rest of that spinach and arugula blend, with Brian's own made-up balsamic and lemon dressing!  (Totally made up on the spot, and it was great!)

I wrote the menu this week, and it's back to recipes.  It'll still be good, though.

Something Different

Three "Different" dinners had in this house in the past week.  Because the "same old, same old" gets well....old!

 Fried Chicken isn't new.....but this was a cornmeal fried chicken instead of breaded.  Still was good, but I like breading better.  The batter got Hubby thinking about corn dogs.

 Flank steak with a chipotle aioli.  Delicious!  Flank steak is my new favorite cut of beef.  On the side is saffron rice and peas.

Tonight:  what I refer to as "Chinese Spaghetti."  It's kind of like a pork lo mein, but unfortunately we put too much rice noodle in it.  Still had great flavor though.

First Dinner Post of 2014

First Dinner post of the year!  

 Apple Cider chicken with rice and broccoli.  We've had variations of this before, but this version from America's Test Kitchen was by far the best.  I loved sopping up the gravy with that rice.

Parmesan-Breaded Pork Chops with couscous and green beans.  We've made this recipe many times as well but usually serve over thin spaghetti.  This one dinner has made me decide that I like it over couscous better.  And the leftovers the next day are even better.     I can't believe I used to hate couscous!

A Cheesy Day

Today's recipes are courtesy of my trolling around on Pinterest.  Cheesy Potato Soup and Spinach, Chicken and Pasta Casserole.

First up:  the soup.  The first instruction is to cook a pound of diced bacon.  OH YEAH!!!  The chopping was almost theraputic today, onions, celery and garlic and then, potato all having a turn on the cutting board.  Brian got a new peeler set for Christmas, and I didn't realize until today just how DULL our old one is!    It took forever to cook the potatoes because I didn't cut them up small enough, making our lunch a very quick one at that because we had movie plans.  It was delicious though, and there's enough for leftovers AND the freezer.  Hooray!

The casserole was good, but a bit of a pain to make.  The only reason it was a pain was our lack of planning, though.  Brian browned red onion in the oven while I defrosted chicken and frozen spinach.  And I'm making a decision:  no more frozen spinach in casseroles.  Or maybe at all:  why would you put yourself through squeezing all the moisture out of it with paper towels if you don't have to?  Peeling chopped spinach out of a paper towel is tedious, next time I'll just wilt some fresh spinach in a skillet and add it later.  The cheesy part of this casserole that I liked best was adding 8 oz of chive and onion cream cheese to the pasta, chicken and spinach.  It melted beautifully and combined with a can of diced Italian-style tomatoes to make a thick "sauce."  And the mozzarella cheese melted on the top was pretty fantastic, too.