Wine and Tomato Braised Chicken

Here we have something that I like cooking with a lot - chicken thighs!  I recently, semi-unofficially, gave up chicken breasts.  I was tired of the chicken always coming out really dry and it was always so hard getting it to retain flavor.  Down with chicken breasts, I’d say, unenthusiastically cooking with it.  And then I realized … I am in charge of this here kitchen.  If I don’t want to cook with chicken breasts, who’s to say I have to?

No one, that’s who.  And this is why I kicked them out of my kitchen once and for all.

Amy suggested this recipe to me, in my usual early morning “I have this, this and that.  What can I make?”  quest.  Amy, you’re my greatest inspiration!  Martin, in contrast, is not helpful at all.  Sometimes, I even ask him basic decisions like “Chicken or pasta?” and he gives me a blank look.  I just need some direction, please!  Amy understands this and always points me towards a good starting point.  And, Amy, that is why you need to move to this area.  Seattle won’t love you the way I do!

I’m just going to link to the recipe I used, as I don’t think I made too many substitutions.  Here we go, here we go, here we go now.

Now, some notes.  The sauce was more watery than I was expecting.  I kept it simmering for a long time, uncovered, trying to cook off a bunch of the liquid, before giving up.  The flavor was tasty and strong.  And it might be better to go the boneless thighs route, as it was pretty hard to cut the meat off.  But that’s me and Martin’s laziness at work!  Go include the bones, if you feel like it!  It went well over pasta, as I can demonstrate here:

I thinly sliced some green onions to sprinkle on top because I had green onions chilling in the crisper.  I also like the extra snap green onions add.  Overall, delicious and I will make it again, when the weather cools down!

Broiled Salmon with Sweet Pea, Sun-Dried Tomato, and Lemon Fusili

Yes, that was a mouthful and so was meal that goes along with it.  Namely, this:

It doesn’t look too appealing, all red and saucy like.  Piled high.  Warm looking on these hot summer nights.  But I really liked it.  It had salmon and sundried tomatoes, two of my favorite foods to eat.  And pasta, from the Santa Cruz pasta man that comes to the farmer’s market, which is sneaking up on my list of favorite foods.

This was another dish where I thought, “What do I have in my refrigerator?” aka “What needs to be eaten right now?”  And then I searched around and found this recipe!  I had everything right on hand, except for Emeril’s Essence and peas.  So I made a few substitutions, tweaked it a bit to suit my taste and came up with this dish that I now present before you.

So, what are my thoughts?  My thoughts are that I can’t really remember this dish, as I made it awhile ago.  I really need to do a better create / picture take / relate turnaround  (and by the way, did you see how I managed to make all of that rhyme?  Freakin’ sweet …) so when I talk about foods, I can say more than “It done tasted good.”

I remember the sauce being a little on the thick side, because the pasta is coated in the sauce.  And not understanding what Emeril meant when he said to shingle 1/2″ slices.  Perhaps this works better if your salmon is more towards the center and not the tail (my favorite part and, therefore, the part I buy), so your “shingles” will be a bit longer in length. I did like how it incorporated sundried tomatoes.  And was a different way for me to prepare salmon.

With that said, I end this entry with a plea.  I love salmon and I probably buy it 1 - 2 times a month.  But I need new ways to prepare said salmon!  So if you have a dish that you made recently that made your heart skip a beat and features salmon, please, pass it my way!

Here’s the one I gift to you. 

Shrimp Risotto

I absolutely love risotto but I have never had any luck making it in my own kitchen. I pulled the shrimp out Monday afternoon and mentally started pepping myself up for it. You know - you can do it, rah rah rah, confidence is everything. Doesn’t everybody do that right before they cook dinner?

I had frozen, uncooked shrimp on hand and, literally, as I was pouring the proper serving size into a bowl to thaw, Alan called. He wanted Martin and I to go out to dinner with him and his girlfriend! Having never met her before, and not seen Alan in a month or so, I readily agreed. We decided to go out and that effectively put a hold on shrimp risotto.

The next day, I tried again. And oh boy! I will never have to wait until we go to an Italian restaurant to eat risotto again! It came out exactly the way I hoped, all creamy with a little bite to it, and spiced just the way I want. I think there might have been enough for 4 servings, but Martin and I liked it so much, we pigged and ATE IT ALL. That’s right, there were no leftovers in our apartment that night!

Now I want to make risotto all the time! I am drunk off my success! But I think my waistline would appreciate it if I did not, so I might abstain … for a week. Okay, really, maybe 3 days.

A couple of hints this time that Alex gave me that I think contributed to my success:

- Warm up the broth. Keeping everything at around the same temperature helps to prevent the cooking process from stalling.

Actually, that’s the best and only hint I took away from him. But I thought it was a good one. Also, another one is: make sure you don’t listen to Alex when he tells you 2 cups of chicken broth. Because that would be wrong. And it will prevent you from tasting your rice, reflecting on how crunchy it tastes and how it probably needs more broth and scrambling to heat up your refrigerated chicken broth very quickly.

With that, here is shrimp risotto. Obviously, spicing and ingredients are to taste and it’s easy to customize this dish to your own. But here is what I did for mine.

Oh, and another note: Because I like bite-sized food, I cut my shrimp up into smaller pieces. But, of course, that’s not necessary.

Shrimp Risotto

1 lb. extra large shrimp
1 cup Arborio rice
1 large onion
3 tbsp. butter
Olive oil
Pepper
4+ cups chicken broth
½ cup white wine (optional)
½ cup grated Parmesan
2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream

1- If shrimp is frozen, defrost. Peel and devein.

2- Finely dice onion.

3- In large skillet, melt butter. When butter is bubbly, add a little bit of olive oil.

4- Add onion to skillet and sauté until onion is translucent.

5- Add rice and let toast, 5+ minutes or until rice starts sticking to the skillet, and has turned a nice golden brown color.

6- Add wine here, if desired. If adding wine, remove from heat temporarily. Let rice absorb wine.

7- When rice has absorbed wine, add 1 cup chicken broth. Let absorb.

8- Keep adding broth slowly, until all the broth has been used or risotto has reached desired consistency. Taste to test.

9- When almost ready to serve, throw in shrimp. Let cook fully.

10- Add cheese, pepper to taste and other spices. Add cream. Stir to combine.

11- Plate, let rest for 2 minutes and serve.

Servings: Should be 4, was 2

Can I have some more? Right now? Please?

Meatball-Kielbasa Soup

Sometimes, when I read blogs, I get annoyed that they don’t include a recipe with the yummy foods they post about. But now I can definitely see why it sometimes get skipped - when the instructions are easy-peasy, what’s the point of including one?

Take for example, a recent meal of mine - meatball soup. The best way to describe it is … throw stuff into pot and let cook. Add pasta and let cook until finished. Serve.

I thought that this recipe was actually pretty good, except I didn’t take the advice of a few reviewers and I added more than a cup of short pasta. I should have listened, as the pasta promptly absorbed any and all liquid and turned it more into pasta dish rather than soup.

Either way, it was pretty tasty, especially the next day. I did a mix of kielbasa and meatballs and it all came out pretty tasty. The original recipe was basically tomato sauce + pasta + meatballs, but I threw in whatever vegetables I happened to have in my crisper that I thought would compliment the dish. This happens a lot in meals, as I try to up the nutritional ante. I wonder if it works or if I’m following some hybrid bastardization of what Jessica Seinfeld has been preaching.

Meatball Soup

2 quarts water
20 small meatballs
1 cup chopped kielbasa
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt
Pepper
2 carrots, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can (8 oz.) corn
1 cup elbow macaroni

1- Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan.

2- Chop carrots into rounds and mince garlic.

3- Add meatballs, kielbasa, tomato sauce, oregano, basil, thyme, salt and pepper to taste, garlic, carrots and corn. Let simmer until cooked throughout.

4- Add macaroni and cook until pasta is done. Do not add more than 1 cup pasta or else too much liquid will be absorbed.

5- Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Servings: 6 - 8

Soup that oso quickly became pasta, you were yum!

Chicken Penne in a Tomato Cream Sauce

Usually, I post chronologically but the next recipe to post is Avocado Shrimp Salad. While I thought this was lovely and yummy and all that jazz, I am pretty sure everyone knows the basics of dicing up ingredients, mixing them all together and then chilling them. But perhaps if I’m slow to upload the new shots, I’ll take the time to write something more in-depth.

Instead, I will talk about the utterly fabulous chicken penne in a tomato cream sauce that we made. It is fabulous. I forgot to check serving size and, as much, made a BOAT LOAD of pasta that lasted Martin and I for days. But (rare for me in leftovers), I wasn’t complaining.

The first thing you might notice about the picture is that there seems to be a haze in front of it. That’s steam. Also, it will appear in several other photos, as I am too impatient to eat to wait any longer than necessary. I am lucky I managed to stifle my hunger long enough to snap the shot!

A second thing, which I will point out rather than hope you can read my mind, is how textural the pasta is. I liked that it wasn’t just some soupy cream sauce with a few pieces of chicken thrown in. The onions and chicken came together with the penne to make a great dish. I had accidentally bought “small” penne apparently but I was actually glad that I did. As weird as it is to say that I hate a pasta shape, I actually thought I hated penne because of its weird tubular tube-ness. But these small penne were great - all easily scoopable with a fork and little prongs of pasta holding lots of tomato-y goodness.

One thing I wish, however, was that I’d had a cup of white wine to add instead of the chicken broth that I did add. I feel that that would have packed a nice extra zing, though it was still yummy all on its own.

Martin absolutely loved this dish, and I don’t blame him. I put in a cup of heavy cream. A CUP! With that much fat, who could possibly hold out against it?

No one human, that’s who. And with that said, here is the recipe. It is SUPER!

Chicken Penne in a Tomato Cream Sauce

4 - 5 boned skinned chicken thighs
1 lb. penne or other short pasta
1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. olive oil, separated
Onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup white wine (or low-sodium chicken broth)
1 can (8oz.) tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream
Parsley
Basil
Salt
Pepper

1- Finely dice onions. If using fresh herbs, finely dice these as well. Mince garlic. Bring pot of water to boil, in preparation for pasta later.

2- Heat 1 tbsp. butter in skillet until bubbly. Add chicken and cook, turning occasionally, until cooked throughout. Remove to plate and set aside.

3- Add pasta to water and let cook until al dente.

4- Lower heat of skillet. Add onions and garlic to skillet and cook until onions are golden and translucent.

5- While onions are cooking, chop chicken into cubes. Set aside.

6- Add white wine or chicken broth to onions. Let bubble for a few minutes.

7- Add tomato sauce and stir well. Add heavy cream and stir until well combined. Turn heat to low and let simmer.

8- Add basil, parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Chop more basil if desired

9- Add pasta a few scoopfuls at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Re-taste and add more seasonings if desired. Serve hot!

Servings: 2 people over the course of 4 days

Mmmm, so good.

Lasagna

I’ve been meaning to post but always get sidetracked. So I have a lot in my Flickr queue to keep me busy but I thought I’d post this recipe for the lasagna I made for dinner the other night, partly because there is no accompanying picture and I don’t want to forget about it and partly because it was pretty tasty.

The first time I followed this recipe, I used ricotta instead of cottage cheese and added salt where it asked for. I felt the whole result was very very salty and I did not enjoy it, which I felt sad about on two levels: 1/ I love lasagna and 2/ Lasagna has to be made in such big quantities that you almost have to have a special reason to make it, otherwise you and your boyfriend will be eating nothing but for the next 2 weeks.

Since our flight to NC was coming up quite rapidly, I was trying to get rid of all the things in our house that will expire while we were gone, one of them being a very big sized tub of cottage cheese. Perfect for this recipe! I tweaked it here and there to accommodate what I had in my refrigerator - for example, using all the cottage cheese rather than 3 cups and egg substitute (leftover from the cookie dough truffles) rather than eggs. Overall, I think it came out pretty well - soft, pillowy noodles and lots of hearty meat and gooey cheese. The recipe below is how I made it, though I took out 1 tsp. of salt in both meat and cheese mixture in addition to the other changes I mentioned earlier.

When I dumped the can of whole tomatoes into the skillet, I was a little doubtful - the sauce was very runny and the tomatoes were giant chunks. But I broke them up with my spoon and the tomato paste thickened up that sauce very nicely. It will spray little tiny tomato sauce dots everywhere, so be warned! And the original recipe (cottage cheese and NOT ricotta!) was great and definitely not salty at all. For those who don’t like cottage cheese - if I hadn’t put it in there myself, I wouldn’t have even known. It tasted great but was very much on the meaty side - I almost wished I’d put in another layer of noodles (the original recipe calls for just two layers). I love lasagna and I loved this recipe.

This makes a lot of food, which was perfect, as I had invited some people over to help us consume it. The six of us consumed all but a healthy single portion and everyone went back for seconds. Success!

Lasagna
courtesy of thepioneerwoman.com

1 lb. ground turkey
1-¼ lb. hot breakfast sausage
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. dried parsley flakes
2 tbsp. dried basil
2 cans (14.5 oz.) whole tomatoes
2 cans (6 oz.) tomato paste

8 lasagna noodles

3 cups cottage cheese
½ cup egg substitute
½ cup Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp. dried parsley flakes

1 lb. shredded mozzarella
Parmesan cheese

1- Preheat oven to 350-degrees and lightly grease lasagna pan.

2- In a large skillet, combine garlic and beef and cook until meat has browned. Drain half the fat and add the next six ingredients. Simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes, mixing occasionally with spoon.

3- Combine noodles, ½ tsp. salt and 1 tbsp. olive oil in pot of water. Boil until noodles are al dente and drain. Immediately lay out on flat surface for easier handling later.

4- Combine cottage cheese, eggs, Parmesan cheese, salt and parsley in bowl.

5- To layer: Place 4 noodles, overlapping, in bottom of baking dish. Top with half the cheese, half the mozarella and half the meat. Repeat, ending with meat. Sprinkle generously with Parmesan.

6- Bake until it is hot and bubbly. Let stand 15 – 20 minutes before cutting.

Servings: 12

Cheesy Mushroom Grits

I have just found happiness in the form of these cheese grits. It was everything I imagined grits could be, if it could just live up to its full potential. I was so happy that these tasted so good, I was willing to forgive the salmon for not meshing well with its soy-wasabi glaze. I did not like you, soy-wasabi glaze. Please do not disappoint me again.

The mushrooms were a last minute addition, coming from a need to get rid of three lone ridiculously large button mushrooms hanging out in our crisper. I was worried that letting it simmer with the grits would release a weird flavor, but Martin thinks that the mushrooms definitely put one of the finishing touches on this dish. It was a good compliment to the havarti.

The picture makes it look like a big pile of cream of mushroom but don’t let it fool you - TAS-TAY! It is TAS-TAY, I say!

With that said, here is the recipe for the hands-down best grits I have ever had in my entire life. I did the same as I did with the polenta, letting it cool down until it had developed an almost firm texture. I really do like this texture in food, apparently!

Also, to be more fair, the salmon wasn’t bad. I was just so focused on how much I loved the grits that I probably would have hated anything that detracted from its flavor.

Cheesy Mushroom Grits

3 cups water
3/4 cups slow-cooking grits
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup half-and-half (or cream)
3 large button mushrooms
1 hunk havarti (about 1/2 cup worth)
Pepper

1/ Finely chop mushrooms. Cut cheese into 1/2″ cubes.

2/ Boil water in large saucepan. Add grits and salt. When it has thickened, add milk, cream, mushrooms and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer.

3/ Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let thicken to desired texture. For fairly thick, about 20+ minutes.

4/ When ready to serve, stir in cheese until melted.

Awesome cheesy gritty happiness with forgettable salmon

Polenta with Havarti and Thyme

One time, Alex made me this divine polenta. It was soft, sort of like a thickened oatmeal or grits. Even though it was soft, you could scoop it up with your fork and the rest wouldn’t run. Sort of like my ideal mashed potatoes. I find that, apparently, I like this texture in a lot of foods. And I liked it in this polenta, especially considering the other “type” of polenta is the hard, brick-like kind.

So, Whole Foods had a sale on polenta cornmeal and it was like manna from heaven came and dropped in my hand. I think I could have eaten this without the shrimp. In fact, I know I could have because I quickly ate all my shrimp so I could slowly savor the polenta.

The shrimp was a simple tossing of melted butter, garlic, lemon juice, spinach and shrimp. However, the generous handfuls of spinach I added quickly wilted to much less than I expected, throwing off the pink-to-green ratio (not good). The recipe Alex linked me to asked for fontina rather than havarti … but I had havarti on hand and both are or can be soft cheeses so I decreed that a replacement must be made. Also, I ladled the polenta onto the plate right before adding the shrimp and served immediately. I think this is fine, but I let mine sit for a few minutes after serving to give the polenta a little cooling off / stiffening time. Then it was perfect, texturally, for me. Yum!

Amusingly enough, Martin saw the havarti and parmesan sitting on the counter after dinner and was like “What is wrong with this cheese!? It’s all brown … and hard!!!” And then I looked and told him it was parmesan cheese. Martin looked nonplussed and unconvinced.

Polenta with Havarti and Thyme

5 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme (or 1 tsp. dried)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup polenta (coarse cornmeal)
1 cup packed grated havarti cheese
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/ Find a large, heavy saucepan to use.

2/ Bring broth, thyme and garlic to a boil in saucepan.

3/ Gradually whisk in polenta.

4/ Reduce heat to medium and cook until polenta is thick and creamy, whisking frequently, about 20 minutes.

5/ Add cheeses. Stir until melted.

6/ Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Servings: 4

Melanie’s presentation style

Martin’s presentation style

Stuffed Shells with Green Beans

Last night, I again didn’t know what to make and I had a crisper full of vegetables that were starting to look very sad indeed. In the past, when I had that, I would generally throw my hands up in defeat. This time, I decided to make stuffed shells. I poked around for a few recipes and realized I had no ricotta on hand, but I did have a bar of cream cheese.

The result was creamy and I actually liked it better than the normal ricotta-Parmesan mixture. This might also be because I generally hate ricotta and only tolerated its addition to stuffed shells for its binding cheesiness. Now that I know cream cheese can also work, I will be using this method from now on. Mashed potatoes, stuffed shells … cream cheese, you can randomly turn up into anything and taste yummy. You are awesome!

In an attempt to add a color besides orange to our meal (though it WAS Halloween!), I briefly blanched some green beans and sprinkled them with pepper and garlic powder. They added a nice crunch to the smooth and creamy pasta.

So here is the recipe. Original recipes called for nothing but beef + cream cheese + shells + sauce. I had no thawed beef but I had plenty of vegetables and so …. Vegetarian Stuffed Shells was born! I commented during dinner that I would have liked more spice, such as pepper, which I’d forgotten to do during the sauteing process) but Martin commented that he thought it was great as is. Take that how you will.

For the record, my chopped vegetables were Italian bell peppers, fresh mushrooms, spinach and onion. I should have seasoned the vegetables with pepper before adding it to the cheese. The next time I make this, I am definitely going to try ground beef, like the original recipes suggested. That is all.

Stuffed Shells

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 box stuffed shells
2 cloves garlic, minced
Shredded cheese
Filling of choice (ground beef, chopped vegetables, etc.)
1 jar vodka spaghetti sauce

1/ Preheat oven to 350-degrees and lightly grease baking dish.

2/ Arrange shells in baking dish to determine how many shells need to be boiled. Add to pot and boil shells until al dente.

3/ Heat oil in large skillet until hot. Add minced garlic and cook until golden brown.

4/ Add vegetables or ground beef and sauté until completely cooked.

5/ In a bowl, combine cream cheese, filling and 1 cup of spaghetti sauce. Mix well, until combined.

6/ Stuff into shells and arrange so that the opening is facing down.

7/ Bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and keep baking until cheese is bubbly.

Servings: 4

Fresh out of the oven

Served nicely on a plate

Tuna Noodle Casserole

I am all about reading up on lots of recipes and then sort of conglomerating them together. Sometimes, like my shepherd’s pie, this does not turn out well. Sometimes, like last night’s tuna noodle casserole, it does. So here is the recipe for good old, basic, happy comfort food tuna noodle casserole.

Just one note: Reheated, the shepherd’s pie tasted much better, even with reheated mashed potatoes. Don’t know why. But it was tasty.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

3 cups egg noodles
1 can tuna
1 can cream of chicken
½ tsp. pepper
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. garlic powder
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas
American cheese or cheddar slices
Panko bread crumbs

Preparation: Preheat oven to 350-degrees and prepare 8 x 8 inch baking pan.

1/ Boil noodles until cooked. Drain and place in large mixing bowl.

2/ Add tuna, cream of chicken, vegetables and seasoning. Mix well.

3/ Spoon half of mixture into baking dish. Place slices of cheese on top. Spoon remaining mixture on top of cheese.

4/ Sprinkle generously with bread crumbs.

5/ Bake approximately 30 minutes, until cheese has melted.

Servings: 4 – 6 hearty servings