Slow Cooker Peanut Chicken and Broccoli

This meal of Peanut Chicken and Brocooli was waiting for us when we got home from work/school today. I would recommend with a couple minor tweaks:

*Serve with rice. Brown, white, basmati, etc. I served with brown rice noodles and I don't think it soaked up the broth as nicely as rice would

*Don't skimp on the broccoli or the thai curry sauce

*Add some extra salt if you use low sodium chicken broth and unsalted natural PB

*You'll definitely want that siracha sauce if you like spicy food

This was a solid weeknight slow cooker meal; a one pot meal that didn't need much prep. Go to the link above to see some pretty pictures!

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One Pan Chicken

Were you wondering if we still cooked at our house? I will admit, recipes on the blog have been few and far between lately. But keep in mind I do the screening for you and only post recipes if they're worthy. So when I say this "One Pan Chicken" is amazing and you should make it, you really should :)

The Recipe is from a blog called Nerds with Knives here. You can find beautiful pictures of the dish on this site.

The biggest modifications I made were:
1) Used un-cased venison italian sausage
2) Cooked orzo separately and added to the pan at the end

One­Pan Baked Chicken, Sausage and Brussels Sprouts
Author: Emily Clifton ­ Nerds with Knives This crispy chicken, sausage and brussels sprouts dish bakes in a bed of spiced flavors and best of all it uses a single skillet.

Ingredients 
1 pound (450g) Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved (or quartered if very large) 5 shallots, peeled and quartered 1 lemon, thinly sliced into rounds, seeds discarded 3 tablespoons (45ml) extra­virgin olive oil, divided ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, divided ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided 3 medium cloves garlic, minced or grated 1½ tablespoons (20ml) Dijon mustard 1½ tablespoons (20ml) honey 1 tablespoon (15ml) Worcestershire sauce 3 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary needles (from about 5 sprigs)
4 bone­in, skin­ on chicken thighs (about 1½ pounds; 680g) 4 large Italian sausages, hot or sweet, cut into 2­inch lengths ] 
1 lb Italian venison sausage, ground
2 cups cooked orzo

Instructions

1. Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 450°F (232°C). 2. Combine Brussels sprouts, shallots, and lemon with 2 tablespoons (30ml) oil and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper in a 12­inch cast iron skillet. (Alternatively, you can use a rimmed baking sheet.) 3. In a small bowl, combine garlic, mustard, honey, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, and remaining 1 tablespoon (15ml) oil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper, stirring to form a paste. Rub paste all over chicken. Nestle chicken and sausage pieces on top of Brussels sprouts. 4. Roast on lower rack until Brussels sprouts are browned and tender and an instant­read thermometer inserted into thickest part of chicken without touching bone registers 165°F (74°C), 25 to 30 minutes. (If chicken & sausage are done before sprouts have browned enough, you can transfer the meat to a plate and let the vegetables finish in the oven; recombine before serving.) Add cooked orzo to pan. Serve.

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A vegetarian meal?

I don't eat or prepare vegetarian meals very often, but after trying this dish (thanks Mom) I'm thinking it's not so bad. Mom made this Rachel Ray recipe for Roasted Mushrooms with a Chipotle Pumpkin Polenta a few nights ago. The mushrooms have a hearty, almost chewy texture that fool you into thinking you're eating steak- ok maybe that's a stretch, but you get the idea. I failed to take any pictures but go check out the link and see for yourself!

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Recipe Share

We had friends Kaity and Hunter over for a meal a couple weeks ago... We tried out some new recipes, which I thought I would share because they were delish!

Miso Cucumber Salad

Sesame-Miso Cucumber Salad

Miso is a thick soybean paste with a salty, slightly sweet flavor. Look for it in the refrigerated part of the produce section or with the dairy products, or substitute soy sauce.

Cooking Light MAY 2011

• Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 3/4 cup)
• Total:20 Minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
• 2 tablespoons white miso (soybean paste) or lower-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey

• 1 tablespoon hot water
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
• 4 cups thinly sliced seeded cucumber

Preparation

1. Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add cucumber; toss to coat.
SAUTÉED MISO VARIATION: Omit seeds, honey, and red pepper; decrease miso to 1 1/2 tablespoons. Combine miso, water, vinegar, 1 tablespoon sliced green onions, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Heat 1 tablespoon sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add cucumber to pan; sauté 4 minutes. Toss cucumber with juice mixture.
Yield: 6 servings.

 Roasted Carrots

Roasted Carrots (Cooks Illustrated)

1 1/2 lbs. carrots, peeled, halved crosswise, and cut lengthwise if necessary to create even pieces
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Table salt and pepper

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. In large bowl, combine carrots with butter, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper; toss to coat. Transfer carrots to foil- or parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and spread in single layer.


2. Cover baking sheet tightly with foil and cook for 15 minutes. Remove foil and continue to cook, stirring twice, until carrots are well browned and tender, 30 to 35 minutes.

Smashed Potatoes

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Grilled Pork Tenderloin (Alton Brown)

Ingredients

• 1 whole pork tenderloin, approximately 1 pound
• 1 lime, zest finely grated
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Directions

Trim the pork tenderloin of any excess fat and silver skin.

Place the lime zest, lime juice, honey, salt, and garlic powder in a small, lidded jar and shake to combine. Pour half of the marinade mixture into a 1-gallon resealable bag, add the chipotle pepper, and move around to combine. Add the pork tenderloin to the bag and seal, removing as much air as possible and place in a container to catch any leaks. Marinate in the refrigerator for 6 to 24 hours, rotating the bag halfway through the time. Place the remaining marinade in a covered container and refrigerate until ready to use.
Remove the tenderloin from the bag and allow to sit at room temperature while preparing the grill. Remove the reserved marinade from the refrigerator.
Fill a large chimney starter with natural lump charcoal and light. Once the charcoal is ashy and white, approximately 30 minutes, dump the hot charcoal onto the lowest grate of the grill and spread into an even layer using extra-long tongs. Place the cooking grate back on the grill and cover with the lid; heat the grate to medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
Brush the grill with vegetable oil. Remove the tenderloin from the bag and place in the center of grate. Discard bag with marinade. Cover and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, turning every 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, until the tenderloin reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees F.
Remove the tenderloin from the grill and place on a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil folded at the edges to create a basket, and pour on the reserved marinade. Wrap tightly and rest for 10 minutes. Remove to a cutting board and slice. Garnish with cilantro and serve.
SERVES 4

1 years ago: Special Friends
2 years ago: Another Sunset

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Stuffed Chicken

Kaity has hosted "The Bachelor" girl night dinners for basically the whole season of the show. To be completely honest, I'm not a big fan of the show and usually skip out a bit early (2 hours is too long to stretch out all that drama!), but I LOVE having a girls night during the week. Food+wine+stories. Sometimes baby Owen and baby Eddie even make an appearance.

Anyway, the season ended last week and it was definitely my turn to do some cooking. I chose to make Apple/Fontina/Cranberry Stuffed Chicken, Lemon Asparagus, Spinach Couscous. The chicken got rave reviews from the ladies (including myself). Ross thought the leftovers were pretty good too :) Check out the recipe below. 

Drizzle Sauce: White wine and Cranberry Reduction. It bubbled away for ~2-3 hours.

The chicken gets charred on the grill, to give the breasts the nice cross-hatched markings. Then, they're stuffed with caramelized apples, fontina cheese, and dried cranberries before heading into to the oven to cook. So good!

 

Spinach Couscous

Roasted Lemon Asparagus

Stuffed Chicken topped with wine reduction.

Finished plating!

The ladies: Kaity, Emily, Kim, Sierra, and Roma (of course!)

Apple/Fontina/Cranberry Stuffed Chicken
Recipe from Step by Step Gourmet

Helpful Hints...
1. This is a great dish for dinner parties as the chicken breasts can be grilled and stuffed and then refrigerated up to 24 hours in advance.
2. Try to find chicken breasts that are thicker in the middle, giving you plenty of room for your stuffing.
3. I would recommend some sort of accompanying sauce. In the pictures below I made a cranberry wine sauce using 3 cups white wine, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup dried cranberries and 1 Tbs dijon mustard, brought to a boil then simmered for several hours.

INGREDIENTS
Marinade
4 Tbs red wine vinegar
6 Tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp dry mustard
4 tsp honey
5/6 cup olive oil

Chicken and Stuffing
8 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 medium Fuji apples
1 Tbs unsalted butter
4 oz fontina cheese, shredded
4 oz dried cranberries

DIRECTIONS
Marinade
1. Place the red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, the mustards and honey in a food processor.
2. Turn it on and drizzle in the olive oil until fully incorporated / emulsified.
3. Marinade the chicken breasts overnight in this mixture.
4. Hold breasts in the refrigerator until ready to stuff.

Stuffing
1. Peel, core, and very roughly chop the apples.
2. Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium high heat and add the apples.
3. Cook the apples for roughly 5 to 10 minutes or until they are deeply browned.

Prep
1. Preheat grill to high.
2. Remove chicken breasts from the marinade and transfer to a plate.
3. Season them with salt and pepper.
4. Mark the chicken breasts by grilling them only long enough to make grill marks and then rotating them about 45 degrees to make crosshatch marks. Do this on one side only. The chicken breasts should still be completely raw inside.
5. Remove from heat and transfer to a mixing bowl.
6. Add the fontina and cranberries and mix.
6. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Chicken
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut a slit in the thicker side of the chicken breast about 1 inch wide, creating a pocket almost as large as the breast itself.
3. Stuff the breasts with the apple stuffing mix, cramming in as much as possible without ripping the breast.
4. At this point the breasts are ready to bake and can either be held in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours or baked right away.
5. When ready to bake, place on a baking sheet and bake for about 12-15 minutes or until an instant read thermometer registers 155 degrees in the thickest part of the breast.
6. Let the meat sit and slice each breast for plating. Drizzle with sauce!

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Valentine's Day Math

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
 
Ross and I celebrated with a nice homemade dinner over the weekend. Take a peek...


Math equations can be fun. For example:

Avacado + Red Onion + Cilantro + Tarragon + Honey:

+ GRILLED  LOBSTER:

= Grilled Lobster and Avocado Cocktail.

Lobster prepared plain and simple (with clarified butter) is still my favorite way to eat it because you really get to taste the lobster fully.  However, THIS Bobby Flay recipe was delish also!

But the lobster salad was just appetizer you see..

We also made Bobby Flay's Grilled Asparagus Chopped Salad with a Creamy Lemon Vinaigrette and grilled pita chips. (Recipe at the bottom)

The grilled asparagus gets added to watercress, cherry tomatoes, chedder cheese chunks, olives, tarragon, etc.

Spicy Ancho Chile Rubbed Filet Mignon with the finished Pita Salad on the side. 

If you like to grill, get Bobby Flay's "Grill It" cookbook. I think we've tested every recipe in it, YUM!

And here's a couple pictures of Lobster Fun, ahhh they're ALIVE!!!!

Roma was very interested in dinner.

Grilled Asparagus Chopped Salad with Creamy Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette and Grilled Pita Chip Croutons, pg 14
Ingredients:

• 2 pocketless pita breads
• Olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups mesclun greens
• ½ pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 8 ounces aged white Cheddar cheese, cut into ½ inch dice
• 1 English cucumber, cut into ½ inch dice
• ½ cup black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
• 1 cup canned chickpeas, drained, rinsed and drained again
• Perfectly Grilled Asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces (recipe follows)
• Meyer Lemon Dressing (recipe follows)

Directions:

1. Heat your grill to high.
2. Brush the pita on both sides with oil and season with salt and pepper.  Grill until golden brown and crispy, about 1 minute per side.  Remove the pita to a cutting board and cut each pita in half.  Cut each half into ½ inch slices.
3. Combine the mesclun, tomatoes, cheese, cucumber, olives, chickpeas, and asparagus in a large bowl.  Add half of the dressing and toss well to coat; season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle with more of the dressing and top with the pita chips.

_____________________________
Perfectly Grilled Asparagus, pg 11
Ingredients,

• 1 ½ pounds (about 24 medium stalks) fresh asparagus
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Heat your grill to high.
2. To trim the asparagus, snap the spears with two hands; the tough part should break right off.   For a cleaner look and less waste, you can cut off the tough bottoms with a knife and peel the bottom half of the stalk if necessary.
3. Place the asparagus on a baking sheet, toss with the oil, and season with salt and pepper.  Grill the asparagus, perpendicular to the grates of the grill, for 3 to 5 minutes on each side or until just crisp-tender.

______________________________
Meyer Lemon Dressing, pg 15
Ingredients:

• ¼ cup fresh Meyer lemon juice or 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice plus 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice.
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon whole-grain mustard
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon leaves

Directions:

1. Whisk together the Meyer lemon juice, vinegar, honey, mayonnaise, both mustards, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl.  Slowly whisk in the oil until emulsified and then stir in the tarragon.

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Smokey Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup

Do you like to eat soup when it's cold outside? Do you have a bunch of sweet potatoes on your counter that need to be used? Is your favorite color orange? Thing for bacon?

Whatever the reason, you should make this soup because it's really good. Even if you can't think of a reason, you should still make it. It's Yum. For real.

Smoky Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup

Recipe taken from THIS blog.

2 strips applewood bacon, diced small

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium bulb shallot

2 medium leeks, wash and sliced

½ medium onion, roughly chopped

2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger

1 teaspoon crushed (or ground) coriander seed

1 teaspoon cumin 

1 medium apple, seeded and chopped, I used a Gala apple but Braeburn, Honey Crisp or Granny Smith would work as well

½ pound carrots, roughly chopped

2 large, about 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

2 quarts low sodium chicken broth

½-1 medium canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce, use these judiciously, they are quite hot and spicy, you might want to start with a half, taste and add more if desired - if you don't like things spicy at all, just leave them out

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

fresh mozzarella balls, for floating on the top

fresh chives or parsley, for garnish

toasted salted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds, for garnish

1. Sauté bacon in a large pot until most of the fat has been rendered and bacon is golden and crispy. Remove bacon, drain on a paper towel and set aside.

2. Add garlic, leeks, shallots, onion and ginger, coriander and cumin to the bacon fat and sauté on medium-low until translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add apple, sweet potatoes, carrots and broth and simmer, uncovered, until all veggies are very tender, about 35-40 minutes.

3. Add chipotle and puree, using a stick blender or regular blender. If using a regular blender, let it cool a bit and then blend in batches. (For safety, remove cap from hole in lid, and cover with a dish towel or several thicknesses of paper towel to prevent splattering.) Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

4. Garnish with fresh mozzarella. I like to use the little balls of fresh mozzarella (one per serving unless you have the teeny tiny ones, then use 2-3 per bowl) - I put them on a dinner plate and partially melt them in the microwave (just 8-10 seconds) before floating them on top of the soup. Sprinkle the chives, sunflower seeds and reserved bacon on top of the melted cheese.

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Trout This

Ross made the grocery store run this week, so we are having some great stuff off the grill. Here's a recipe from Steve Raichlen's BBQ USA book: Grilled Trout with Poblano and Corn Relish. The trout had a really nice crust from the thin layer of corn meal that was rubbed on it before it hit the grill. The relish complemented it nicely...the crunch from the pine nuts, the grilled flavor from the corn, the spice from the poblano peppers, and the mexican flavors from the cilantro and the lime juice.  Have I mentioned that fish is my favorite "meat"?? :)  We also had Cook's Illustrated Red Pepper asparagus (similar recipe).

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Let's Paint

Today was a busy busy day. We started painting at 10AM this morning and didn't finish until 4PM. About halfway through we realized the color we were painting the media room looked a lot like Roma. It's a Roma colored room... aahhh! Not intentional I promise. We bought Behr's "premium" paint (primer + paint in one) this time around and were not disappointed. We did 1-2 coats, NOT 4,  like another room we painted a dark, bold color.

After painting, exercise, and a trip to the grocery we whipped up a quick dinner. I saw this recipe in this months issue of Cooking Light- tuna steaks topped with basil verde sauce and roasted fennel. Here's the recipe. Neither Ross nor I like fennel very much, but we decided to give it a try because it was the suggested side dish. We roasted mozzarella cheese with the fennel instead of the asiago the recipe calls for. SO GOOD! Who woulda thought??

We installed a new light fixture in our kitchen, just above the dining table... It seems like a lot more home improvement projects occur AFTER hunting season ends. I love it. :)

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