Filed under: random, wine | Tags: Chicken, farmers' market, garlic, lemon, rosemary, Swiss Chard, White Wine
This meal was so easy to make AND delicious. Thank you epicuruious.com for two amazing recipes.
Let me start off by saying that I went a little crazy at the farmers’ market today, coming home with a whole chicken, the afore mentioned chicken legs and swiss chard, beef sausage, arugula, fresh mozzarella, scallions and two plants (rosemary and oregano)-which I am praying I do not kill-thank god my fiance seems to have a green thumb.
So, I am currently on Marc’s computer as mine has been attacked by a nasty virus. Because his laptop is geriatric, uploading pictures is a difficult task, so they will be coming soon…hopefully.
Now, onto the recipe. Click the link below for the exact recipe, because, as we all know, I never follow things to the letter.
Sauteed Swiss Chard with Onions.
I started off with a bunch of swiss chard, a large onion, and a clove of garlic. I also added a dash of salt and pepper while cooking.
After rinsing the swiss chard, I seperated the stem from the actual leaf. I chopped the stems and threw them into a bowl. Then I took the leaves, rolling them lengthwise and cut the cylinder this formed in half. ( This is far less complicated than it sounds, as I discovered). After dealing with the chard, I sliced the onion and diced up the garlic.
I put some olive oil and about a tablespoon of unsalted butter into a pan and let it melt. Then I added the onions and garlic. When the onions started to soften I threw the swiss chard stems in. I lowered the heat to medium and let this cook, covered for about 8 minutes, stirring it occasionally.
When the stems and onions were softened I started to add in the leafy parts. I added it about a handful at a time, waiting for the leaves to wilt (This cooks like spinach, sort of). Once all of the mix was added I added a little bit of salt and black pepper and let it cook for about 6 minutes on low heat (or until tender and wilted…like spinach).
As I love to multi-task, I was making the chicken at the same time. For the faint of heart, here is the exact recipe:
Lemon-Rubbed Chicken Legs with Garlic and Rosemary
I used chicken legs, but you could definitely make this with chicken breast, thighs, or the boneless skinless variety. It will work with all.
I used 2 chicken legs, a lemon-halved, rosemary-about a tbsp (yay! I got to try some from my new plant!), olive oil, a clove of garlic-minced and 3 tbsp white wine (I used some barefoot chardonnay)…or water, as the recipe calls for.
I started off by patting the chicken dry. Then I took a lemon half and rubbed it all over the chicken. I seasoned it with a little bit of salt and black pepper, along with some of my amazing rosemary ( feel free to use dried or fresh, it will be good either way).
After seasoning, heat the oil in a pan. When hot, but not burning, place the chicken, skin side down. Brown it. This took about 10 minutes, I flipped it to get both sides.
When browned, flip the chicken, skin side up and squeeze the remaining lemon all over it. Then cover, cook over low heat. Again, I would flip it over occasionally. Depending on the size of the chicken legs, time will vary, but this took about 35 minutes.
Once the chicken is cooked, transfer it to a plate, leaving the juice and drippings in the pan. Add the remaining rosemary and the minced garlic. Saute over med-high heat. When slightly golden, add the white wine, stir and cook for about 1 minute and a half.
Drizzle the sauce over the chicken, add the Swiss chard and nice piece of french bread, and Ta Da! You have a delicious meal in under an hour.
This came out really good and it had a nice, zesty taste, without being too much. I would also recommend serving with rice or some pasta. Use the extra sauce on either. YUM!
Pictures to come.
Have a great night everyone! :-D
Look for more farmers’ market inspired recipes this week.
Filed under: random | Tags: chicken thighs, Emeril, garlic, lemon, parsley, pasta
After another long day, I decided that I wanted to try something new without too too much effort, so I did what I always do when looking for a new recipe, I scoured the internet.
Inevitably, I wound up on the food network site. I decided to try out this recipe, a great chicken dish by Emeril-you can’t go wrong.
I won’t bore you with a list of ingredients, these instructions are pretty easy to follow. But I would recommend cutting down the olive oil, lemon juice and chicken stock, because this gives you a TON of liquid. And by a ton, I mean, WAY TOO Much. Even with half (or less than half) of these three ingredients, you’ll still have a lot of yummy sauce to pour over your pasta in the end, an abundance of sauce, if you will. I also used whole wheat linguine instead of angel hair pasta.
Browning the chicken...
Another thing that I changed when making this-mostly because I didn’t have a pan that I could use on the stove and in the oven-was that I dumped everything in to a big glass baking dish and covered it with aluminum foil before putting it in the oven. It’s a little more clean up, but it was less hassle for me. This method also made it easier to regulate how much of the sauce/liquid you put over the pasta and chicken. I had to bake it a little longer than the recipe calls for, but this will vary depending on your oven, the size of your (chicken) thighs and other factors.
My Abundance of sauce, pre-oven.
Another recommendation I would make is that I would dip the chicken into some egg before coating it with flour. I would also add some bread crumbs to crisp up the skin. I read some reviews that said Emeril actually just threw in some lemon wedges, as opposed to using that much juice, this may solve the liquid problem as well.
Besides these minor things, the meal came out great, the chicken was flavorful and juicy without being greasy and the parsley was a great compliment to the lemon-garlic sauce.
Overall I really enjoyed this trial-run. Next time I’ll adjust it to my own style (i.e. not really measuring anything and seriously cutting down the liquids while up-ing the crisp factor for the chicken), but for a test run, I think this came out great. It’s easy and serves a big crowd. I’d give it a 7.5 on a scale of 1-10.
The final product, sprinkled with some parmesan cheese of course!
Filed under: cheese, random, tomato, wine | Tags: avocado, Easy, Marinade, meat, Quick, salad
I love things that make my life easier. This includes my Smartrip card, my cellular device, paperclips, Real Simple Magazine and various ingredients that I always have in abundance in my kitchen.
These ingredients go in almost everything I cook.
My Key Ingredients
Tonight after a ridiculous day at work, an amazing run and a trip to the grocery store that took entirely too long, I was not in the mood to fuss with dinner. So I pulled out the old stand-bys and began dumping them all willy-nily into a tupperware. I poured what is probably the equivalent of 2 tablespoons of olive oil in, then an unknown amount of balsamic vinegar. Then I added a large clove of chopped garlic.
I mixed these up, then I sprinkled in some black pepper, basil, and grated lemon peel, gave it a quick stir, and added some meat (this goes well with everything). I closed the container and then shook it up (make sure your tupperware/ziploc bag is sealed, as this could make a real mess).
I then let the mix sit for a few minutes and sliced up a medium sized onion.
I put everything into a medium sized frying pan and cooked it on low heat, covered.
Mmmm....
While this was cooking, I started on my amazing salad! I usually keep some raw spinach around, as it can be eaten on its own, or cooked into pretty much anything. I put some on a large plate and added some craisins, a few slices of avocado, some tomato and some chopped up red pepper.
When the meat and onions were cooked to my (meaning my fiance’s) satisfaction, I topped my salad with the onion/meat goodness and topped it all off with a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese- thank God Lent is over!
So, I only spent about 30 minutes on my dinner and it came out amazing! I didn’t use any salad dressing, but this would go really well a balsamic vinagrette, or maybe a nice blue cheese, depending on your taste.
Fast, Fantastic, Fun.
Oh, by the way! I had this with a glass of 7 Deadly Zins. It was a great combo!
Alright, don’t be weirded out by the title, venison (Or Bambi, as some like to call it) is surprisingly tasty. You can use it in pretty much anything that you would use beef and it’s a lot leaner than its cow counterpart. As I am from upstate NY and my husband-to-be is a hunter, we’ve got a supply of it in our freezer.
Today for lunch I noticed that we had some venison grinds in our fridge but I wasn’t in the mood to make meat sauce, meatloaf, or burgers. I perused the internet to see if I could gather any inspiration…it didn’t work.
I finally settled on meatballs. But I wasn’t in the mood for just plain old meatballs.
After this revelation, I searched high and low to see what I could pull together for a quick easy lunch…
I ended up with this:
The Ingredients
I started by dicing up the 1/2 an onion and a clove of garlic. Then I dumped the pound of venison (You could also use ground beef, or fake meat-Pat, recommendations?), 2 tablespoons of softened butter, a pinch of salt, the egg and an unknown amount of Cajun seasoning and pepper (These are to your own tastes) into a mixing bowl. Then I realized that I forgot about the jalapenos, so I added a couple of
spoonfuls into the mix.After the jalapenos, mix well.
Beginning
Once everything is evenly distributed, add 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs and about half as much milk. Using hands- or like me, a spoon until I had to use my hands-stir up the mixture is even throughout. At this point, I added a little more cajun seasoning and black pepper, but again, that’s up to your own taste buds. Once you have the mixture to the right consistency, begin rolling it into balls, about the size of a ping pong ball. Drop the meatballs into a pan with olive oil and cook at medium heat for about 15 minutes or until fully cooked. I covered mine for part of the cook time, but that’s up to you
- Cooking…
When finished, they will be moist, juicy, and brown all the way through. I put them on a plate with paper towels, to get rid of the excess olive oil.
Now that's juicy!
While I was waiting for them to cool I made some rice to serve on the side. For an extra pop, I added a clove of chopped up garlic to the rice during cook time. I also paired my finished sandwich with a green salad (I skipped breakfast, so I was STARVING!). They came out great, you’ll love this if you have a craving for ground beef/venison/turkey/pork/fake meat with an added zest.
Ta Da!!! Tasty Sandwiches! Notice, mine has no cheese on it.
Alright, after putting it off, I am finally posting a blog, and that was my obviously lame attempt at a joke.
First of all, there is something you should know about me before I begin: I am addicted to cheese. Any kind, ranging from cottage to parmesan to gouda. I love it all. There’s nothing better than a scoop of cottage cheese topped with some black pepper, or a spinach salad topped with some mozzarella cheese.
That being said, I also love to cook. I love to find new recipes or just mix a bunch of things together and see how it comes out.
Now, if you haven’t found a connection yet, I think you should just stop reading. But here’s a hint, I love to COOK with CHEESE!
On a somewhat related topic, it’s everyone’s favorite time of year… or least favorite, depending on how you look at it…it’s the tail end of Lent! Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Holy Sunday (otherwise known as Easter). During these forty days, it is traditional to abstain and/or fast (ie giving something up, anything ranging from sex, to biting one’s nails, to a certain kind of food). For a more complete background, visit the second best information source on the internet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent
Although this tradition is typically Catholic, I, myself, choose to participate in it, as I find the sentiment behind this particular form of religious sacrifice to be gratifying.
I’ve never realized that food could be such a spiritual thing… until this year when I gave up cheese. Although I have given things up for lent before, I am only now seeing how something as commonplace as a dairy product can impact every meal.
During my past few weeks of sacrifice, I’ve become much more in tune with the ingredients I use in my food. For example, when I make pasta, I use parmesan cheese. Or when I make dips, I’ll use cream cheese, or blue cheese with wings! I mean, I can’t even have pizza right now! It’s ridiculous. The first week, I almost gave up my sacrifice…but as time goes by, things are getting easier. Now instead of just adding cheese, I’m experimenting with different spices and new vegetables to compliment the natural flavors in my food. I’m also branching out and trying new recipes, instead of just making your basic chicken or beef, I’ve braved the world of lamb, pork, and GASP! Meatless!
Although I occasionally find myself saying, “man, this would be pretty amazing with a slice of muenster,” I have to say that I am definitely getting better and even enjoying going cheeseless. Yes, I admit, when lent is over, I am really looking forward to sinking my teeth into a giant slice of cheese pizza, or enjoying some delicious brie with fresh fruit, I’ll now consider other ways to pump up the flavor without that milky goodness. One thing I definitely try to focus on is bringing color to my meals. This has come partly from having lived with Shap and partly from wanting to incorporate a greater variety into my diet during my cheese sebatical. I love the natural greens, yellows, and reds that come from fresh fruits and vegetables and all of their flavor.
I truly believe that this short break from one of my true loves in life has really opened my eyes to new possibilities, and in the end, it will bring us closer. I have a new found appreciation for herbs, vegetables, and yes, a greater love of cheese. I am constantly amazed how my tastebuds react to my cooking creations, it’s a spiritual awakening and I thank god everyday for being able to enjoy it.
Happy Lent everyone, and may your last week of sacrifice be just as blissful as mine.
Filed under: random
okay. this is day 2 of blogging and i’m confessing deep dark secrets. i guess that’s the effect the internet has. here is my secret: i have never eaten a mushroom. and anytime they are in a dish, or someone offers one to me, i always shriek “ewwww i don’t like mushrooms!” yes.. i did not think i would be a person who would choose to arbitrarily not eat a food, but alas. i don’t know if i’ll ever get over this mushroom thing. but ANYWAY. the point of me telling you my life story is not just for the quiz (which there will be one later) but i’m wondering what other food issues, fears, strong dislikes, and obsessions you all have. and by “you all” i mean “shap and ohlno,” because, no one else reads this.
here’s my NO list:
1. mushrooms- see above.
2. shellfish- i’m allergic. but i used to not be. i can’t say i really miss it, though.
3. caraway seeds- i used to gag when a single caraway seed would make it’s way onto my sesame seed bagel (when i used to eat bagels).
4. rye- obviously, the caraway issue.
5. now, i’m really really not one of those nutrition people who think anything besides broccoli is evil. this fact will be evinced by my YES list. but i do have issues with processed foods, soda, bagels, pepperoni… not to say i don’t like those because they are not healthy, but i have issues with them for a variety of reasons…
6. dry red wine. or dry white wine for that matter. give me a riesling or a moscato, please.
7. egg yolks- just creep me out.
8. olives- again, never eaten one. i think the smell turns me off.
the YES list:
1. brussells sprouts and cara cara navels are my newest obsessions- i mentioned this yesterday.
2. CHEESE. any and all varieties. i would live on cheese alone if i could. maybe one day i will. favorites: fresh mozarella, smoked gouda, extra extra sharp cheddar, smoked cheddar, jarlsberg baby swiss, BRIE, parmesan, asiago… i could keep going.
3. tomatoes. i wish i didn’t live in this silly city so i could grow tomatoes, being as i would eat about 3 pints of grape tomatoes every day if they weren’t $3 a pint.
4. bread- especially the crust. not sliced bread, you know, the good stuff.
5. having said the above three, pizza is definitely my favorite food.
6. i’m currently obsessing over vegetarian sausage and more specifically “soyrizo.”
7. saracco sparkling moscato wine. there are no words.
8. proscuitto. i haven’t eaten meat in about 3 months, but, holy shit that’s good stuff.
moving on, i made a really simple dinner tonight so i could make it to class on time. i used the brussells sprouts recipe i mentioned yesterday and made a veggie burger from trader joe’s. but as i am trying to get a handle on this whole taking pictures of food business (and i bought batteries for my camera today) i present to you my dinner…
After not much deliberation at all, it was decided that a joint blog should be started to give us a place to ramble (besides to each other). What about? A few obsessions: food, cooking, nutrition…
