Menu Monday

Here's what we've got on tap for this week:

Monday: A Valentine's Day dinner to be prepared by Jason!
Tuesday: leftover chicken pot pie
Wednesday: Book Club night which means Jason is on his own and I'm making a honey vanilla pound cake to take for dessert
Thursday: Wild mushroom pasta (new recipe from a Cooking Light cookbook I got for Christmas)

Check back in this week to see how it all turns out!

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day :)

Sunday Dinner: Chicken Pot Pie Edition

It seems like everywhere I've turned lately, I've come across recipes for chicken pot pie. Magazines, blogs, they all seem to be focused on this particular dish of late. I guess it makes sense-- chicken pot pie seems like a good candidate for cold weather fare. After pursuing a number of recipes, I decided to give Faith Durand's (of The Kitchn) version a try. With fennel and lemon as main ingredients/flavors and a biscuit (rather than pastry) crust, I thought hers might be a more interesting take on things.

 The verdict? The flavors were great-- loved the fennel, loved the lemon, and loved the white wine sauce. But something was not right about the biscuit crust. I followed the recipe to a "t" but it didn't get all light and puffy as I had thought. I wonder if I made it too soon in the process and the dough got dried out. I don't know. Next time I think I will swap out half of the potatoes for carrots for a little variation (and color) but all in all it was a good meal, perfect for a casual winter evening. One thing to note--this is definitely a weekend meal. From start to finish it took about 2 hours to make. But it makes a ton so we'll be eating it at least one other time this week.

Lemony Chicken Pot Pie with Parsley Biscuit Crust
Adapted slightly from Faith Durand

Ingredients:

For the biscuit topping:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped fine
1/4 cup butter, cold, cut into pieces
1/2 cup milk

For the chicken:
1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup flour
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch chunks (Or 1/2 potatoes and 1/2 diced carrots)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup frozen peas

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Prepare the biscuit dough. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and parsley in a medium bowl. Add the cold butter and work it in with your fingers or pastry blender until the flour mixture resembles soft bread crumbs. Add the milk, stirring until the dough just comes together. Set aside.
3. Cut the chicken breasts into large bite-size pieces. Toss the pieces in a bowl with the flour and salt and pepper. Set aside.
4. Heat a generous drizzle of olive oil in a large Dutch oven or saute pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and brown for 6 minutes, turning halfway through. Remove chicken with slotted spoon and set aside (it won't be cooked through yet).
5. Reduce the heat to medium. Add onion, fennel, and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook for a few minutes. Add white wine, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer, scrapping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
6. Add broth and chicken and season with salt and pepper. Let the mixture simmer for 5-7 minutes until the liquid starts to thicken. Add frozen peas.
7. Laddle the stew into the prepared baking dish. Drop the biscuit dough across the top. Bake, uncovered, for 35-40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and the biscuit topping is golden brown. Serve.

Morning Coffee

I don't sleep in that much on the weekends. I'm usually up by 8:00 or 8:30 at the latest. But during the week I tend to wait until the last possible moment to get up and get ready for work. I'm not one of those people who gives themselves lots of extra time to watch the news, read the paper, or leisurely eat my breakfast. No, I much prefer the extra sleep. My usual routine looks something like this:

6:27am alarm goes off. I immediately get up, take a shower, do my hair, and get dressed (I usually decide what I'm going to wear the night before or while I'm in the shower which also helps me save time). I make my lunch (which is the same every day) and then eat a bowl of cereal while checking my email/google reader. I brush my teeth, pack up my bag, and am on my way to the metro by 7:15ish. This allows me to be at my desk at work a few minutes before 8am.

This routine does not, however, leave time for coffee. I like coffee. I like the way it tastes and I need that extra energy boost in the morning. But I do not like gulping it down as I'm running out the door. If I'm going to drink it, I want to take my time drinking it and actually enjoy it. For the first 4-5 months of my new job I would buy a cup of coffee from the cafeteria when I got to work and drink it while I checked my email and got settled in. This worked out pretty well-- the coffee was ok and it was only $1.09 (with tax). I felt like I could justify the $5.45 a week I spent getting my coffee fix (especially since I bring my lunch almost every day).

But then it all changed.

Our cafeteria switched management over the holidays and suddenly my morning coffee was no longer $1.09...it was a $1.69 BEFORE TAX. For the same size! The rationale was because they'd switched to a different, fair trade brand. I'm all about fair trade, but I no longer felt I could justify spending almost $2 a day on cafeteria coffee...especially when a small drip coffee at Starbucks was pretty much the exact same price.

But I didn't want to alter my routine too much. So I decided I'd start making my own coffee at home and bringing it to work. Which meant that I'd need a new travel mug-- one that was insulated and completely, 100% spill proof so that I could throw it in my bag in the morning and not have to carry it in my hands on the metro. I did some research and found what appeared to be the perfect solution:

The REI flip-top vacuum tumbler. It has a vaccum seal which means it won't spill and it keeps coffee hot for hours. Seriously. I've gotten side tracked a few times in the morning and come back and my coffee has still been practically burn your mouth hot (which is how I like it) 2 hours later. In short, it's awesome.

So now I get the coffee pot ready to go the night before and then flip the switch while I'm making my lunch. It's been the perfect (and more cost effective way) to enjoy my morning coffee.

Jason's Simple Steps to Perfectly Seared Salmon

Jason doesn't do a ton of cooking, but he does have a few specialties. Pancakes. Waffles. He also makes a really good sandwich. The dish he is most proud of, however, is his seared salmon. The process is so simple, you don't need a recipe. You just follow these four steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly coat an oven-safe skillet with olive oil and heat over high. 
2. Rub a little olive oil over the salmon and season with salt and pepper.
3. Place salmon fillets, skin side up, into hot pan and leave there for exactly 3 minutes. Use a spatula to flip the salmon over.
4. Place skillet into oven and cook for exactly 10 minutes. Serve.

Moist and delicious salmon every.single. time.

Try it-- you'll like it!

Menu Monday

Work has been busy which means that I either haven't cooked much lately or I've gone for recipes that don't require much effort. This coming week is no exception-- on the menu are all things I've made (and blogged about) before. But rather than letting the cobwebs grow further on the ol' blog, I thought I'd shed some light on the recipes I've made that warrant repeat appearances.

So without further ado, I give you this week's meal plan:

Monday: Curry Squash and Carrot Soup

 
Tuesday: Chicken Patty Pitas

Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Roasted Beet Salad

Friday: Dinner out (I hope)

What's on tap for you meals this week?

Sunday Dinner: Chicken Parmigiana (w/ Homemade Tomato Sauce) Edition

It's been another week of less is more (aka less is all I have time for) cooking at our apartment: leftover goulash, veggie and cheese fritatta, and roasted pear salad with a night of takeout Thai thrown in for good measure. I've been feeling kind of guilty about the lack of excitement in the kitchen so I decided to try something new and different for tonight: chicken parmigiana. My mom used to make this when I was in high school so I thought I would ask her for her recipe. Turns out her version is so easy it doesn't even require a recipe-- all you do is bread and brown up some chicken cutlets, place them on top of some spaghetti that has been doused in tomato sauce, top with more sauce and some shredded cheese and bake for 30 minutes. So simple that I decided to use the extra time to try my hand at homemade tomato sauce. A total success- I made a double batch and am planning to use some in shrimp creole later this week and then to freeze the rest for future use. Honestly, both the sauce and the chicken were so good that I'm already looking forward to tomorrow night's leftovers! (Thanks Mom.)

Chicken Parmigiana
From My Mom

Ingredients:
8 ounces of spaghetti
2-3 cups of tomato sauce
2-3 TBL olive oil
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 large egg
2 TBL water
4 chicken cutlets
4 ounces shredded mozzerella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly coat a 13x9 baking pan with cooking spray. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and return spaghetti to pot. Add 1 cup or so of tomato sauce and stir until spaghetti is coated. Spread spaghetti and sauce on the bottom of the prepared baking sheet.
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. In a shallow bowl/plate mix egg and water together to form an egg wash. Place flour in a second shallow bowl/plate and the bread crumbs in a third. Bread chicken cutlets by dredging them first in flour, then the egg wash, followed by the bread crumbs.
3. Brown chicken in oil, 2-3 minutes per side until golden brown. Place browned chicken on top of spaghetti.
4. Pour remaining tomato sauce over chicken. Top with shredded cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and cook for another 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted and starting to brown. Serve!


Homemade Tomato Sauce
From Simply Recipes

Ingredients:
2 TBL olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot (or 1/2 large carrot), finely chopped
1 stalk of celery, including green tops, finely chopped
2 TBL chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
2 TBL chopped fresh basil
1 28 ounce can whole tomatoes, including juice, or 1 3/4 pound fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 teaspoon tomato paste
Salt and pepper

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet or pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion, carrot, celery and parsley. Stir to coat. Reduce heat to low, cover pot/skillet and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are soft and cooked through.
2. Remove cover and add minced garlic. Increase the heat to medium high and cook for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes. If using canned tomatoes, shred with your fingers (or use kitchen shears to break them up). Add tomato paste and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a low simmer, reduce heat to low, and cook (uncovered) until thickened, about 15 minutes. Use blender, food processor, etc. to give it a smooth consistency.

The Perfect Pear

For a long time I did not eat pears. At all. I think it stems from all the canned pears I had as a kid-- there is just something about the texture that I could not overcome. So I was convinced that I just didn't like pears--canned, fresh, or otherwise. But as I've gotten older I've started revisiting those foods that used to be on the "do not like" list. For the most part I have outgrown my childhood food prejudices (although a few do still remain-- I still don't really like bananas in anything other than banana bread and I still think crab tastes too fishy. Oh and don't get me started on canned tuna--yuck!) While I probably wouldn't count pears among my favorite fruits of all time, I definitely like them in certain preparations. For example, I love a good roasted pear salad. Come on! Who wouldn't love pear halves stuffed with a combination of cheese, nuts, and dried cherries all of which is then roasted (and steamed) in a shallow bath of balsamic vinegar?! It's easy, it's delicious and versatile. Good enough to make even the pickiest, pear haters in the world convert.

Before going into the oven.

Roasted Pear Salad
Adapted from a couple of recipes

Ingredients:
2 ripe but firm Anjou Pears
Juice from one lemon
3-4 TBL crumbled goat cheese or blue cheese (most recipes call for blue cheese but Jason is not a fan so we use goat cheese-- just as good!)
2 TBL chopped walnuts
2 TBL chopped dried cherries
3 TBL Balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 TBL brown sugar
5 TBL olive oil
Arugula or other salad greens

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Peel pears and cut in half through the core. Use a spoon or melon baller to scoop out the core, making a cavity for the stuffing. Cut a sliver off the back so the pears sit straight. Place pear halves in a baking dish.
2. Pour lemon juice over pear halves to prevent them from turning brown.
3. Mix together goat/blue cheese, walnuts, and dried cherries in a small bowl. Spoon filling into pear cavities, mounding over the top.
4. In the same bowl you used to make the filling, mix together balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and olive oil. Taste to make sure everything seems in proper proporition. Pour your makeshift vinaigrette over the pears and into the bottom of the dish.
5. Place into the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes. Remove and cover with aluminum foil. Return to oven and cook for another 15-20 minutes or until pears are tender.
6. Place arugula or other salad greens on to plates. Spoon some of the balsamic vinegar over the greens and top with pears (two for an entree or one as a side).