Another So So Bachelor Performance

I am not sure how many of you watch “The Bachelor” anymore, but Emily, Elizabeth and I have all decided that it each season gets a little trashier than the previous. So, we’ve started talking about maybe finding a new show to replace “The Bachelor” for our get togethers. Much like the show I feel like Russ and my food contributions have also gone downhill over the seasons too. You might remember a few of our not so great contributions like the Stuffed Chicken Breasts that took forever and were just okay, or the Shish Kebabs that got a little over cooked, or there was another recent Bachelor that didn’t make it to the blog where I made the Roasted Broccoli (that I raved about here) only to under cook it and that is just naming a few... So, tonight Russ and I are in charge of the appetizer and dessert. I decide to try a new recipe for the appetizer and go with a fool proof dessert recipe repeating the Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip Cookies that I made here. Well, despite the fact that the appetizer featured two of my favorite foods – roasted red peppers and goat cheese – the recipe as a whole fell flat and was didn’t take advantage of these amazing ingredients. Oh, the cookies you ask… well I forgot to soften the butter and I was running late, so I picked up some ice cream sandwiches at the store… at least they were tasty!

The appetizer I made tonight is Goat Cheese Spread with Roasted Red Peppers from the Birmingham Junior League "Food for Thought" cookbook (which is one of my underused cookbooks and counts towards my New Year's Resolution!). To make it you start by combining the goat cheese, cream cheese, and thyme. I did this in the food processor, but if you don’t have one you could do it by hand. Spread this evenly in a serving dish and set it in the fridge to chill. Next you roast the red peppers. You can do this several ways, but tonight I decided to just do it on the stove top (must be gas). You just lay them over the flame and turn them periodically until they are fairly black. Then toss them in a zip lock bag and let them hang out for a few minutes. Once they have cooled, pull them out, and peel off the outer peel. Then cut them into pieces and puree them in the food processor. Pull out the cheese spread and pile the red pepper puree evenly over the top. The recipe instructs you use plastic wrap to pull the cheese spread out and put it on a plate and then top it with the peppers. While this may be a little more appealing as far as appearance I didn’t find it necessary so I just left it in my container. I served it with crostini (slices of baguette that Russ grilled lightly on both sides).

As I mentioned earlier roasted red peppers and goat cheese are two of my favorite foods (hence why I selected this recipe to try). Despite having these two ingredients the recipe just didn’t add any extra flavor to them and didn’t do a good job in bringing the flavors together. To be honest it would have been just as tasty and easier to just take the crostini and spread some goat cheese on it and top it with a roasted red pepper. The thyme didn’t add much flavor and the cream cheese while it added some creaminess to the dip it really wasn’t necessary. All in all it was just okay and with a combination of goat cheese and roasted red peppers you could definitely come up with a better way of pairing them. Russ rates the dip a 7. In case you are wondering what show we are going to start watching after this season of The Bachelor... well we just discovered that they are doing another Bachelorette season - so we have to watch that!

Goat Cheese Spread with Roasted Red Peppers, Food for Thought
Makes 2 Cups

Ingredients:
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
8 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
3 sweet red peppers

Combine the first 4 ingredients in the food processor, and blend until smooth. Press mixture into a ramekin or mold lined with plastic wrap and chill. Roast peppers over gas flame or under broiler, turning until the skins are charred all over. Place peppers in a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside for 20 minutes. Halve the peppers and remove the cores; peel off skin. Cut peppers into 1 inch strips, and place strips in the food processor; pulse 3 or 4 times. Unmold chilled cheese mixture; top with red pepper puree. Serve with crostini or melba toast.

Make Your Day Bread

As I mentioned in my last post I was pleasantly surprised when Claire called and came down to my floor with a surprise of Amish Friendship Bread starter for me on Monday. I have always heard of things like this, but have never done one so I was beyond excited to give it a go. So, the way it works is that you take the starter and follow the directions on how to care for it which are basically to mush the bag for several days, then add flour, sugar and milk to it, then mush the bag for a few more days, and then add more flour, sugar and milk to it. At this point you then remove part of what is in the bag to make four new starters. Then you take what is left and add the remaining ingredients and make 2 loaves of delicious bread! So, I decided that instead of making 2 loaves that I would make 4 small loaves and deliver a small loaf with a starter to Jess, Elizabeth, and Sumner. I kept one starter to make the bread one more time, so if anyone wants their very own starter give me a holler or post a comment to make your claim. I already have one claimed (Ken, that’s you), so there are three left up for grabs this next go around.

The bread is delicious! It is moist and sweet and savory all at the same time. It really works well for breakfast or dessert (anyone noticing a theme with the breads I have been baking lately…. I can pass them off as not dessert, but they really can count as dessert…). I love the cinnamon in the bread and think it adds a savory component to it and balances out the sweetness. I am looking forward to making it again in about 10 days and then I think I will stop and hope that I’ll have my day made again by someone bringing me a bread starter! Thanks Claire! Russ rates the bread an 8.

Saturday Morning Muffins on Wednesday

For the last few weekends when we have been home we have eaten muffins for breakfast on Saturday. The way it works is that we wake up and I am starving (I am always starving when I wake up and it runs in my family) and I want a muffin, but I am too hungry to find a recipe, make sure we have all the ingredients, make the batter, and bake them. That is a lot of work when one is already starving for a muffin. Russ likes a good muffin too, so he is usually game for going to get muffins (he is very sweet!) for both of us. There is a local coffee shop, Cool Beans, just down the rode that makes wonderful, huge, homemade, tasty, yummy muffins and that is where we (as in Russ, except for one time when I went) have been going to get muffins. While this is a great relaxing Saturday morning ritual I have to be honest that I have missed baking muffins or bread of any kind for that matter. So, I finally decided to make muffins tonight because it is a Thursday night…. Right now you might be wondering what a Wednesday night muffin has to do with a Saturday morning muffin ritual. Well, I will tell you. I got a very exciting surprise from Claire on Monday. Right now it is in a plastic bag on our counter and looks kind of gooey. She claims it will turn into bread if I feed it. I am super excited, so the muffins got moved to Wednesday and on Saturday morning I’ll attempt to make the gooey stuff in the plastic bag turn into a loaf of bread for breakfast. Magic will not be involved, but I may need luck… stay tuned to see how it turns out.

The muffins I made tonight are ones we saw on Jamie Oliver’s show on the Food Network, Jamie at Home. Russ and I both love this show and pretty much want to try most of the recipes. This is the first one we have had time to try. The muffins are called Butternut Squash Muffins with a Frosty Top. During the episode when Jamie made these he called them muffins sometimes and cupcakes other times. I am not sure if the two are interchangeable in British English or not, but I think they really could pass for either a muffin or cupcake.

To make the muffins you start by deseeding the butternut squash and giving it a rough chop. You don’t peel it which really surprised me, but on the same episode Jamie made a butternut squash soup and again left the skin on the squash when he cooked it. You take the pieces of squash and put them in the food processor and process them it is finely chopped. Then add the sugar and eggs and pulse it a couple times until it is blended. Then add the salt, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and olive oil and process it until it is all blended. You could add walnuts when you are adding the previous ingredients. I left them out as Russ doesn’t really like nuts in things. I think they would be so small that he probably wouldn’t have even noticed, but to be on the safe side I left them out. You then take the batter and fill the muffin tin (use paper muffin liners). These bake at 350 for about 20 to 25 minutes. While they are baking you make the frosty topping. In a bowl zest a Clementine and a lemon. Then add the juice from half of the lemon. Then mix in the sour cream, confectioners’ sugar, and a little vanilla extract (I used this instead of a vanilla bean). Then taste and adjust it as needed to have a good balance of sweet and sour. Mine was a little on the sour side, so I added more confectioners sugar until it was tart, yet sweet. Stick the frosting in the fridge until the muffins are done and then when they come out and cool slightly frost them.

These were really tasty and as I said before they could pass for a muffin or a cupcake. The muffin is dense and moist and has a wonderful flavor from the butternut squash and cinnamon. I love how bright and colorful they are too from the squash. As I mentioned earlier it really surprised me that he didn’t have you peel the squash. I have never not peeled a butternut squash unless I am going to roast it and then scoop out the squash after it roasts. You really can’t tell that the peel wasn’t removed and it makes preparing the muffins so much easier and faster. The frosting is more like a glaze as it is runny and slightly thin. I love the tart and sweet flavor combination from the lemon juice and the confectioners’ sugar and the zest adds a bright freshness to it. While I really, really liked the muffins to me the frosting was phenomenal. It might not have been Saturday morning, but we still enjoyed them and plan to eat them for breakfast tomorrow. Russ rates the muffins a 9.

Exceeding Expectations

I have always liked mayonnaise spread on my sandwiches in fact it is my preferred condiment when it comes to sandwiches. It has a creamy texture and great flavor that just add that perfect touch to a sandwich. I’ve always loved it in chicken salad and pimento salad too. It wasn’t until I ate hot artichoke dip for the first time and requested the recipe that I realized I’ve probably been eating mayonnaise in lots of other dishes for years and not even known it. When I saw the ingredients in baked artichoke dip for the first time I almost fell out of my chair. I couldn’t believe that baked mayonnaise with just some cheese and chopped artichokes could be good. I mean really the thought of hot mayonnaise is disgusting and this is coming from a long time fan of mayonnaise. I am not sure I will ever understand how hot, baked mayonnaise can actually taste good, but you know what it really does. Even knowing that I like it baked in dishes such as hot artichoke dip I am still skeptical every time I try a new recipe that involves baking with mayonnaise. Tonight’s recipe was no exception. After reading the recipe I thought these are going to taste like hot mayonnaise… but once again I was proven wrong. I guess I need to just accept the fact that I am an all around fan of mayonnaise cold or hot.

To make the chicken tenders you start by mixing the panko with salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. I would highly recommend not substituting a different kind of bread crumb for the panko. You can now find panko in almost every grocery store and it really is the best for this recipe. Then you trim the chicken tenders to remove any of the exposed tendon if they have it. Then in another bowl mix the mayonnaise, hot sauce (I used wing sauce), cayenne, and salt together. Then add the chicken tenders to the mayonnaise mixture and make sure each one gets a good coat on it. Then take each chicken tender and roll it around in the panko mixture and then place them on a rimmed baking sheet. Preheat the broiler for at least ten minutes. Once the broiler has been thoroughly heated then put the baking sheet in making sure it is far enough away from the flames to not burn the breading. Let them broil for about 6 minutes on each side. While they are broiling mix the blue cheese, sour cream, milk, salt and pepper together in a bowl. This made a lot, so next time I would cut this back by half. I served the chicken tenders with carrot sticks, celery sticks, and John’s slaw.

These really exceeded my expectations! They were crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. They had a little bit of a kick from the wing sauce and cayenne without being too spicy. They were really simple and quick to make in fact I think tonight was the earliest we have eaten dinner in a long time. These were excellent as an entrée, but I think they would also make a fabulous appetizer or great game day food (if you are watching the game at home). The blue cheese dipping sauce was very creamy and tasty. I felt like it definitely had a fresher and brighter flavor than most store bought blue cheese dressings. It did make a ton, so as I mentioned before next time I'll cut the recipe for the sauce in half. Russ and I both really enjoyed the chicken tneders and blue cheese dipping sauce. After a having the last four recipes come in at 8s I have finally broken the streak and Russ gave the chicken tenders a 10! (Hass: I think you would really like these.)

Crisp and Spicy Chicken Tenders with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce, Fine Cooking
Serves four.

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper1-1/2 lb. chicken tenders3/4 cup mayonnaise1 Tbs. hot pepper sauce (I actually used our favorite wing sauce – Phil’s)1/4 tsp. cayenne3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese (about 4 oz.)1/2 cup sour cream3 Tbs. milk

Pour the panko into a shallow dish (like a pie pan) and toss with 3/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper.

Trim off any exposed tendon ends from the wide tips of the chicken tenders, if necessary. In a medium bowl, whisk 1/4 cup of the mayonnaise with the hot sauce, cayenne, and 1/8 tsp. salt. Add the chicken and toss with your hands to coat well. Coat each tender in the panko and arrange in a single layer on a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate while you heat the broiler and make the sauce. Position an oven rack 6 inches from the broiler element and heat the broiler on high for at least 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the remaining 1/2 cup mayonnaise with the blue cheese, sour cream, milk, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a few grinds of pepper in a medium bowl. Whisk until well combined and only small bits of cheese remain intact. Broil the tenders, flipping once, until they are crisp and golden brown in spots on the outside and cooked through, 4 to 6 minutes per side (rotate the pan as needed for even browning). Transfer the tenders to a platter or to individual plates and serve with the dipping sauce.

Serving Suggestions:

As with Buffalo wings, fresh carrot and celery sticks are perfect here.

Stir Fry Night

As I mentioned in my last post I was just in a rut trying to decide what to make for dinner this week. I think I was also fairly tired because not counting last night’s very involved dinner I only selected fairly quick and easy meals for the menu. Tonight I went back to my New Year’s Resolution of using my underused and never used cookbooks. This is actually (Jess, sit down so you don’t faint)… the second time this year I have used one of my previously underused cookbooks, Southern Living’s Light and Easy Comfort Food. Tonight I made the Beef, Pepper, and Shiitake Mushroom Stir Fry from its Cooking for Two Section.

To make the stir fry you start by slicing the peppers, mushrooms, steak, shallot, and garlic (mince the garlic). Then heat the oil and cook the beef. Then remove the beef and wipe out the skillet. Then add all the vegetables except the mushrooms and stir fry for a couple minutes (I actually used more peppers than the recipe called for, so I did mine longer than the 1 minute the recipe says). Then add the mushrooms and stir fry for a couple minutes. Then stir in the wine and let it cook for a minute or so. Then add the broth and bring to a simmer for at least 3 minutes. Then add the beef back in and finally add the basil, salt, and pepper.

This was super fast and easy to make. The brown rice took the longest, but since I started it first it was ready by the time the stir fry was done. I love peppers and mushrooms and they really are showcased in this dish. The beef was tender and complemented the vegetables well. The sauce while very simple and fast was nothing exciting and a little bland. I love stir fry dishes and I think that this has a good base with the three colors of peppers and the shiitakes, but I think the sauce left a little to be desired. I think next time I’ll go with a stir fry similar to this one or this one both are still quick and easy, but their sauces have just a few more ingredients that give them a more exciting and tasty flavor. Next time I will use the tenderloin instead of the other cuts of beef (that the other stir fry recipes call for) and include the shiitakes. All in all it was super easy and a great week night meal. Russ rates the stir fry an 8.

Beef, Pepper, and Shiitake Mushroom Stir Fry, Southern Living Light and Easy Comfort Food
Serves 2

Cooking spray
1 teaspoon olive oil, divided
1 (6 oz) beef tenderloin steak, cut into ½ inch strips
½ cup sliced shallots
½ cup (1/4 inch thick) strips green bell pepper
½ cup (1/4 inch thick) strips red bell pepper
½ cup (1/4 inch thick) strips yellow bell pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups sliced fresh shiitake mushroom caps (about 1 [3 and ½ oz] package)
¼ cup dry white wine
½ cup fat-free, less sodium beef broth (such as Swanson)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 and ½ cups hot cooked rice, cooked without salt or fat

Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; add ½ teaspoon oil, and place over medium-high heat until hot. Add beef; stir-fry 2 minutes. Remove beef from skillet; set aside. Wipe drippings from skillet with a paper towel.

Heat remaining ½ teaspoon oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots, bell pepper strips, and garlic; stir-fry 1 minute. Add mushrooms; stir-fry 2 minutes. Stir in wine, and cook 1 minute. Add broth; reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes. Return beef to skillet; cook 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in basil, salt, and pepper. Serve over rice.

Another Lesson Learned

I have learned a lot about cooking over the past couple years and lots of what I have learned has been through my own mistakes. Some as simple as that microwave popcorn does not need very long to pop and our microwave has a popcorn button that pops it perfectly… I ended up with black popcorn that sent smoke all over the house and forever stained the inside of our microwave yellow. I learned that fish marinated in alcohol needs to be a good distance from the broiler while cooking… or it will catch on fire. There are many more and tonight I learned yet another lesson the hard way.

Our “Bachelor” group came over for dinner tonight which meant Russ and I were in charge of the entrée. On Sunday I was trying to figure out not only what to do for our “Bachelor” dinner, but also for the rest of the nights of the week. I couldn’t come up with anything for any night. You would think if you receive three cooking magazines on a regular basis and own a lot of cookbooks that you would be able to come up with a million ideas of what to make for dinner, but for some reason nothing was catching my eye. It was either too wintery or too summery or too boring or too similar to what we just had last week… So, I finally just chose a few recipes including a recipe in my new Cooks’ Illustrated for Stuffed Chicken Breasts. The problem is that I didn’t actually read the article or the recipe… I just saw the name, scanned the list of ingredients and thought this is perfect for tomorrow night…. It ended up being okay, but it was a lot more work than I had thought and you didn’t finish it by baking it in the oven as I had assumed and it had a sauce that I didn’t know it had and I didn’t know it involved using the food processor twice and… well you get the picture.

To make the Stuffed Chicken Breasts first read the recipe in its entirety (lesson learned). Then take the chicken breasts and butterfly them, pound them, trim them to form an 8 by 5 inch rectangle and set them aside. This is a lot of work by the way when you are doing multiple chicken breasts. Thankfully Russ did all of this while I made the stuffing. To make the stuffing you clean, trim and slice the mushrooms. Add some oil to a skillet and then add the mushrooms cooking until all the moisture has evaporated and they are brown. While they are cooking wash and chop the leek, mince the garlic and chop the thyme leaves. Once the mushrooms are cooked add a little more oil and the leeks and continue to cook until the leeks are soft. Then add the garlic and thyme and cook for just under a minute. Than add the lemon juice and cook until the moisture has evaporated. Move the mushroom mixture to the bowl of the food processor and pulse until it is roughly chopped. Then move the mushroom mixture to a separate bowl. In the pan that you cooked the mushrooms in return it to the stove and add the wine and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. (I was slightly exasperated with this recipe since it was turning out like I thought it was based on the name and list of ingredients… so I opted to skip the step of heating the wine and getting the brown bits up. Russ convinced me that we should not skip it and it did turn out to get lots of goodness up from the bottom of the pan. This meal was definitely a team effort and the team gets a little bigger in just a minute.) Set the wine with browned bits aside in another bowl. Then take the chicken trimmings and add them to the food processor until they are pureed. Then add the chicken puree, parsley, salt, and pepper to the mushroom mixture and combine. Then grab the butterflied, pounded, trimmed chicken breasts and lay one out flat and spread the stuffing evenly over it and roll it up and place it seam side down. Then use three pieces of kitchen twine and tie it up. Then season the chicken with salt and pepper and heat the oil in a skillet. Once it is hot add the chicken bundles and brown them on all four sides for about two minutes on each. Then add the broth (low sodium… only I managed to skip that on the ingredient list when making my grocery list and used bouillon cubes to make the chicken broth which is anything but low in sodium…) and wine to the pan and bring it to a boil. Elizabeth arrived just in time to help with browning the bundle (see what a mean… it took three of us). Then put the lid on and reduce the heat to a simmer and let it simmer until the chicken breasts are done. Once the chicken bundles are done then remove them from the pan and make the sauce using the remaining liquid. Whisk the mustard into the broth / wine mixture and scarp the bottom of the pan to get the brown bits up. Finally take it off the heat and whisk in the butter, parsley, lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper (trust me mine did not need any more salt). Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.

This took forever and was a ton of work for what it was. That being said I still should have read the recipe in its entirety to realize this prior to deciding to make it on a night when we were having people over… The mushroom stuffing was very tasty; however, I thought goat cheese would have made an excellent addition to it and made it a little moister. Our chicken bundles ended up a little salty, but I think that was mainly because of not using the reduced sodium chicken broth, as the recipe stated to use, and because we added more to the pan thinking it needed more which only added more salt. Also, I didn’t think to put the meat thermometer in the chicken after we browned it, so I think I let them cook a little too long. I did like the look of the chicken when you cut it and it was all rolled with the mushroom stuffing showing through. Overall this was good, but not worth the time or effort. There are dishes where I think it is worth every minute and every dirty dish even if it takes a long time and uses every clean dish, but this is not one of those. I think that the work involved tainted our view of the dish as it was good. Russ rates it an 8.

Elizabeth brought butter beans and a salad as sides. Emily brought Baked Pimento Cheese Dip for an appetizer and chocolate / peanut butter treats for dessert. We enjoyed being with everyone (only we missed Seth who was working late counting beans) and watching the dogs play together!

Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Cooks’ Illustrated May / June 2008
Serves 4 to 6

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (8 ounces each)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
10 ounces white mushrooms, trimmed, wiped clean, and sliced thin
1 small leek, white part halved lengthwise, washed, and chopped (about 1 cup)
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon juice from 1 lemon
½ cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
Table salt and ground black pepper
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the chicken: Use tip of sharp chef’s knife to cut each breast horizontally, starting at the thinnest end and stopping knife tip ½ inch away from edge so that halves remain attached. Open up breasts to create 4 cutlets. Place one cutlet at a time in a heavy-duty zipper lock bag and pound to ¼ inch thickness (cutlet should measure about 8 inches by 6 inches). Trim about ½ inch from long sides of cutlets (about 1 and ½ to 2 ounces of meat per cutlet, or a total of ½ cup from all 4 cutlets) to form rectangles that measure about 8 by 5 inches. Process all trimmings in food processor until smooth, about 20 seconds. Transfer puree to a medium bowl and set aside. (Do not wash the food processor bowl.)

For the Stuffing: Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until all moisture has evaporated and mushrooms are golden brown, 8 to 11 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon oil and leek; continue to cook, stirring frequently, until softened, 2 to 4 minutes. Add garlic and thyme, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 1 and ½ teaspoons lemon juice and cook until all moisture has evaporated, about 30 seconds. Transfer mixture to bowl of food processor. Return pan to heat; add wine and scrape pan bottom to loosen browned bits. Transfer wine to small bowl and set aside. Rinse and dry skillet.

Pulse mushroom mixture in food processor until roughly chopped, about five 1-second pulses. Transfer mushroom mixture to bowl with pureed chicken. Add 1 and ½ teaspoons parsley, ¾ teaspoon table salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Using rubber spatula, fold together stuffing ingredients until well combined (you should have about 1 and ½ cups stuffing).

To Assemble and Cook: With thinnest ends of cutlet pointing away from you, spread one quarter of stuffing evenly over each cutlet with rubber spatula, leaving ¾ inch border along short sides and ¼ inch border along long sides. Roll each breast up as tightly as possible without squeezing out filling and place seam-side down. Evenly space 3 pieces of twine (each about 12 inches long) beneath each breast and tie, trimming any excess.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat remaining tablespoon oil in skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add chicken bundles and brown on 4 sides, about 2 minutes per side. Add broth and reserved wine to pan and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pan, and cook until instant read thermometer registers 160 degrees when inserted into thickest part of chicken, 12 to 18 minutes. Transfer chicken to cutting board and loosely tent with foil.

To Make Sauce and Serve: While chicken rests, whisk mustard into cooking liquid. Increase heat to high and simmer, scraping pan bottom to loosen browned bits, until dark brown and reduced to ½ cup, 7 to 10 minutes. Off heat, whisk in butter and remaining 1 and ½ teaspoons parsley and 1 and ½ teaspoons lemon juice; season with salt and pepper. Remove twine and cut each chicken bundle on bias into 6 medallions. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve.

Our Spontaneous Dinner Party

Russ and I both love having company and even though I generally like planning ahead and being organized sometimes the best things are those that are unplanned. This afternoon we had heavy downpours and thunderstorm that knocked out my parents’ power and took down a few of their trees. Since they were in the dark and Russ and I had just planned on staying in tonight and cooking we invited them to come over for dinner. Mary Margaret was driving home during the torrential rain and since she could barely see to drive she stopped by our house to wait for it to let up some before driving home. We opened a bottle of wine, pulled out some cheese and crackers, and got our spontaneous dinner party started. Mom and Dad came over later and Mary Margaret, after a little convincing, stayed through dinner. Since it was unplanned it almost made me relax a little more about everything. The house was fairly clean, but I didn’t feel the need to swiffer the floors. Dinner was already planned and we just added a little more to it. It was a relaxing, wonderful evening with great company!

I made Oven Roasted Salmon with Tomato Relish for dinner tonight and served it with a side of sautéed spinach and wild rice. To make the salmon you heat the oven up to 500 with the baking sheet in it. While it is heating up you take the salmon fillets and make shallow cuts in the skin side of each. Then rub them with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Once the fillets are ready and the oven has reached 500 degrees turn it down to 275 and remove the baking sheet. Place the salmon fillets skin side down on the baking sheet and put them in the oven. Roast them until they are done to your liking. While they are roasting chop the tomato, shallot, garlic, and basil. Combine them in a bowl with the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. When the salmon is done serve the relish on top of the fillets.

This was a very quick and easy recipe and the salmon turned out very moist. The salmon had a nice simple flavor to it, but I was really expecting it to have a stronger flavor from the roasting process. The relish was wonderful and I always love the combination of salmon with tomatoes and shallots, but at the same time it was nothing new or exciting. In hindsight I wish I had tried one of the other relish recipes offered - Spicy Cucumber Relish, Tangerine and Ginger Relish, or Grapefruit and Basil Relish. It also reminded me a lot of Giada’s Salmon Baked in Foil only it wasn’t as flavorful. The other relish recipes are very intriguing to me, so I think next time I’ll let Russ grill the salmon and then I’ll try one of the more exciting relishes. All in all it was a good meal with great potential. Russ rates the Oven Roasted Salmon with Tomato Relish an 8.

Oven Roasted Salmon, Cooks’ Illustrated March / April 2008
Serves 4

1 skin-on salmon fillet (1 and ¾ - 2 pounds), about 1 and ½ inches at thickest part (see note)
2 teaspoons olive oil
Table salt and ground black pepper
1 recipe relish (recipe follow)

Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Use a sharp knife to remove any whitish fat from belly of fillet and cut into 4 equal pieces. Make 4 or 5 shallow slashes about an inch apart along skin side of each piece, being careful not to cut into flesh.

Pat salmon dry with paper towels. Rub fillets evenly with oil and season liberally with salt and pepper. Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees and remove baking sheet. Carefully place salmon skin-side down on baking sheet. Roast until centers of thickest part of fillets are still translucent when cut into with paring knife or instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of fillets registers 125 degrees, 9 to 13 minutes. Transfer fillets to individual plates or platter. Top with relish and serve.

Fresh Tomato Relish
Makes about 1 and ½ cups

¾ pound ripe tomatoes, cored, seeded, and cut into ¼ inch dice (about 1 and ½ cups)
½ small shallot, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
1 small garlic clove, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about ½ teaspoon)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
Table salt and ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Not so simple sauce...

So, I have only had my Cooks’ Illustrated subscription for a few months now, but even before the subscription started I began to have a love / hate relationship with it. I don’t know if you remember the cookies from Jess and my holiday baking this past December. Well, two of the cookie recipes came from Cooks’ Illustrated. The Nut Crescent Cookies were easy to make, looked great, and tasted wonderful. Now, the Chocolate Butter Cookies were a major pain and very time consuming to make. They did end up tasting good and while they looked fine they didn’t look as good as they should have since the white chocolate topping didn’t work out… These cookies pretty much started my love / hate relationship with Cooks’ Illustrated. Since then I have made their Roasted Broccoli which was amazing and pretty much the best broccoli ever which makes me love Cooks’ Illustrated. Which brings us to tonight… where I make their Simple Italian-Style Meat Sauce which while it was not difficult it was also not a simple, week night sauce at all as it was touted to be. I am not sure that Cooks’ Illustrated cares, but we are having a very tumultuous relationship.

To make the “Simple” Italian-Style Meat Sauce you start by cleaning the mushrooms and giving them a rough chop. Then put them in the food processor until they are finally chopped. See what I mean, when a food processor is involved it is not exactly what I would I would call a simple sauce. Then you put the mushrooms in a bowl and set them aside. Then add the bread, milk, salt and pepper to the food processor and process it until it is pasty. Then add the ground beef and pulse until it is combined with the bread mixture. Add the oil to the pan and heat it up. Then add the onions and mushrooms and cook until they are browned. Then add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and tomato paste. Next add the tomato liquid and oregano. Lastly add the meat mixture to the pan and use a wooden spoon to break it up while it cooks. Once the beef has lost its raw color then add the crushed and diced tomatoes and let is simmer for about 30 minutes. Last add the parmesan cheese, the remaining oregano (or a little more to taste), and salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta.

The sauce was tasty and even a little creamy. It had a nice smooth texture to it which I liked as a change from my chunkier spaghetti sauce. I did need to add extra oregano, salt, and pepper to it. Russ and I both thought it would be better with a smaller pasta than the rigatoni that we used (which was what CI showed with it in the picture). While we both enjoyed it and I did especially like the creaminess and smoothness of the sauce it really wasn’t anything special. I also did not think it was as simple as Cooks’ Illustrated did since it involved lots of equipment and steps for a fairly plain sauce. Russ rates the sauce an 8.

Simple Italian-Style Meat Sauce, Cooks’ Illustrated March / April 2008
Makes about 6 cups

4 ounces white mushrooms, cleaned, stems trimmed, and broken into rough pieces
1 large slice high-quality white sandwich bread, torn into quarters
2 tablespoons whole milk
Table salt and ground black pepper
1 pound 85 percent lean ground beef (not ground round)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped fine (about 1 and ½ cups)
6 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 2 tablespoons)
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained, ¼ cup liquid reserved
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano leaves or 1 teaspoon dried
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
½ ounce grated Parmesan cheese (about ¼ cup)

Process mushrooms in food processor until finely chopped, about eight 1-second pulses, scraping down side of bowl as needed; transfer to medium bowl. Add bread, milk, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper to now empty food processor and process until paste forms, about eight 1 second pulses. Add beef and pulse until mixture is well combined, about six 1 second pulses.

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add onion and mushrooms; cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are browned and dark bits form on pan bottom, 6 to 12 minutes. Stir in garlic, pepper flakes, and tomato paste; cook until fragrant and tomato paste starts to brown, about 1 minute. Add ¼ cup reserved liquid and 2 teaspoons fresh oregano (if using dried, add full amount), scraping bottom of pan with wooden spoon to loosen browned bits. Add meat mixture and cook, breaking meat into small pieces with wooden spoon, until beef loses its raw color, 2 to 4 minutes, making sure that meat does not brown.

Stir in crushed and drained diced tomatoes and bring to simmer; reduce heat to low and gently simmer; reduce heat to low and gently simmer until sauce has thickened and flavors have blended, about 30 minutes. Stir in cheese and remaining teaspoon fresh oregano; season with salt and pepper to taste.

Simple and Yummy Chicken Fajitas

Sometimes simple recipes end up being my favorites. Tonight’s recipe came out of the fold out section at the end of Fine Cooking that has simple, quick meals that work great for weeknight dinners. What I love about a simple recipe like this is that I’ll probably never pull this recipe out again, but I’ll use it as a building block for quick dinners in the future. This recipe has just a few ingredients and the method of cooking it is very simple which makes it great for making it your own. You could easily use a variety of additional ingredients including yellow and green bell peppers, black beans, avocado slices, diced fresh tomatoes, and so on. There are so many options and I think that any twist you take on it will be delicious!

To make the chicken fajitas we sprinkled the chicken with the chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. I’ll be honest here… I didn’t measure them all out into a small bowl. When it comes to recipes like this one I tend to not measure the ingredients. I just gave them a good sprinkling on each side of all the spices and then Russ grilled them on the Egg. We used boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of thighs because that is what we had on hand. I put the sliced onion and red pepper in the skillet with a little oil and let them cook for a couple minutes until they were soft. I added a little salt and pepper to them while cooking. Next time I’ll add the red peppers first as they need a little longer than the onions need to soften. Once they are soft you add the garlic, cumin, and chili powder. I didn’t measure again, but just added a nice sprinkling of the cumin and chili powder. Once the chicken came off the grill, Russ let it rest and then cut it into strips on the bias. I heated the tortillas and then we filled our fajitas with chicken and the red pepper and onion mixture. I realized at this point that I had not added the lime juice, so I just squeezed a little lime juice over the fajitas. We topped them off with a little sour cream and the shredded Monterey Jack cheese.

These were incredibly flavorful and tasty. I liked the warmth from the cumin and chili powder and the nice fresh flavor that the lime juice added. While I think cooking the chicken in the skillet would work just fine, I did enjoy the grilled flavor from the Egg. These came together really quickly and worked well for an easy weeknight dinner. As I mentioned before we will definitely make a variation of these again! Russ rates the fajitas a 9.

Chicken Fajitas with Red Pepper, Onion, and Lime, Fine Cooking
Serves four.

Ingredients:
1-1/2 tsp. chili powder

1-1/4 tsp. ground cumin

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 to 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (1-1/2 to 2 lb.), trimmed of excess fat

2 Tbs. canola, vegetable, or corn oil (I used canola)

1 very large or 2 medium yellow onions, quartered and thinly sliced crosswise (about 4 cups)

1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into strips about 1/4 inch wide and 2 inches long

3 medium cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbs. fresh lime juice

Twelve 5- to 6-inch corn tortillas

1-1/2 cups crumbled queso fresco or grated Monterey Jack cheese

Mix 1 tsp. of the chili powder, 1/2 tsp. of the cumin, 3/4 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper in a small bowl. Season the chicken on both sides with the spice rub. Heat 1 Tbs. of the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Cook the chicken without disturbing, except to flip, until both sides are browned and the chicken is firm to the touch, 3 to 4 minutes per side. If it browns too quickly, reduce the heat to medium. Transfer the thighs to a cutting board and let them cool slightly.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 Tbs. oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, just until the vegetables begin to soften, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and the remaining 3/4 tsp. cumin and 1/2 tsp. chili powder and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the lime juice. Transfer to a bowl, cover loosely with foil, and keep warm.

Cut the thighs on the diagonal into thin slices, transfer to a plate, cover, and keep warm.
Heat the tortillas according to package directions. Fill each one with a few slices of the chicken and some of the onion mixture and cheese. Fold the filled tortillas and serve.

My Notes: We used boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of thighs. Russ grilled the chicken for us and we used flour tortillas instead of corn. I couldn’t find the queso fresco, so we used the grated Monterey Jack. I am keeping my eye out for crumbled queso fresco, so if you happen to run across it let me know where you saw it please.