Happy belated...

So two things to belatedly celebrate - my friend Kathleen's birthday, and my first blogaversary! (Okay, I promise to never use that word again.) For me, a year of blogging is an accomplishment - so let's pretend the pictures below are for both occasions :)


For Kathleen's birthday, I hosted a 'comfort' theme party...meaning, I made some of my favorite comfort foods and encouraged everyone to wear comfy clothes so we could just relax and enjoy some games and each other's company. On the menu? Chicken casserole, homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese, butternut squash gratin with pesto, and apple tarts for dessert.

Eating our comforting dinner

This chicken casserole is something my mom has made for as long as I can remember; I even requested it as my birthday dinner growing up. It's totally unsophisticated - heck, it's only 6 ingredients! - and yet totally comforting and delicious. Think of it like chicken pot pie in casserole form - yum!


Mom's Chicken Casserole
(super-stuffed 13x9 serves 12, regular 13x9 serves 8)


1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 bag regular-seasoning stuffing mix
1 8-oz container sour cream
1 14.5-oz can of low sodium chicken broth
1 14.5-oz can of cream of chicken soup
2 rotisserie chickens, meat taken off the bones and shredded (sure, you can cook some chicken yourself, but why complicate an otherwise no-fuss dish?)
1/2 bag of frozen peas/carrots mix (optional - my mom doesn't do this, but I felt a little guilty serving all that comfort food so I threw in some veggies!)


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, add the bag of stuffing mix and the stick of melted butter (hey, I never said this was healthy) and mix it all together to distribute the butter. Spread 2/3 of the stuffing mixture onto the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish. In another bowl, whisk together the sour cream, the cream of chicken soup and 3/4 of the can of chicken broth until it's combined and smooth. Add the cooked, shredded chicken evenly around the baking dish on top of the stuffing, then pour the sour cream/soup mixture over the chicken and spread out so all the nooks and crannies get covered. Top it all off with the other 1/3 of the stuffing mix, then drizzle the remaining 1/4 can of broth over the top of the whole thing. Bake for 40 minutes, or until it's bubbly and golden brown and crispy on top.

Kathleen blowing out her scented, non-birthday-candle candle

Everyone does birthday cake, right? I had to go for individual apple tarts!

Faux au vin

I don't know why I'm just discovering this, but chicken leg quarters are CHEAP! Even not on sale, they're about $.79 a pound at my local grocery store. "Chicken leg quarters" contain the leg, thigh, and part of the back of the chicken - and are so cheap because they require less processing than other cuts sold to consumers. True, they do come with a lot of fat and a fair amount of extra bits...but I have a pretty high 'ick factor' tolerance, and I'm never one to shy away from a challenge - especially if saving money is involved!

Wondering what to do with my $3.00 worth of chicken leg quarters, I quickly discovered several recipes for coq au vin and decided to give it a try. Coq au vin ("rooster in wine") is a classic French dish - essentially, a comforting yet luxurious chicken stew. The leg quarters didn't fail me - in fact, it seems like they were built for this recipe. However, for the time and energy involved (a good 2-3 hours total), the specific recipe I used was good - but not great. I imagine, though, that like pot roast or beef stew, it'll take some trial and error before I find a recipe with the perfect combo of flavors for my tastes.

If you have a great coq au vin or other chicken stew recipe, I'd love to hear it! Anyone else out there discovered the awesome cheapness of chicken leg quarters?

Dinner with friends, and a fudge SUCCESS!

After a whirlwind past week and weekend, I'm finally getting caught up and am excited to share with you how I spent my Valentine's Day! I don't know about you, but sometimes I just like an excuse to get dressed up...so I invited some girlfriends over for a dinner party complete with fussy food (risotto!), sparkly dresses (sequins!) and decadent desserts (nutella!). I even busted out my chef's jacket to protect my dress while I pranced around the kitchen in heels. [Men, are you hearing this? I cook and I wear heels in the kitchen.]

All the ladies, minus the one taking the picture

For dinner, I stuck with some classic yet elegant basics. One package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts turned into fresh herb-seasoned chicken cutlets (halved longwise, pounded thin, flour-egg-breadcrumbs, air-dried on a rack over a baking sheet for 10 minutes, pan-fried), and they were served up with easy sauteed spinach and creamy risotto - both infused with a hint of lemon and garlic to tie it all together.

Not the most creative presentation...but delicious!

The star of the show on Valentine's Day has got to be dessert. I wanted to make sure I had two different things to offer my friends - one intense and rich and sweet, the other a little lighter but still satisfying. Martha Stewart's cranberry-almond biscotti (though made with whole wheat pastry flour) was a great Valentine's Day treat because of the pop of color from the red cranberries, and they were perfect for dunking in coffee. This other recipe, though - OH. EM. GEE. Probably the best fudge I've ever had, and more importantly, it turned out like fudge and not like dirt candy! SUCCESS! Thanks to Nnr for directing to me to Cookin' Canuck's hilarious blog post with the recipe from Giada.

Chocolate Nutella Fudge with Sea Salt

(adapated from Cookin' Canuck)

1 (14 oz. ) can sweetened condensed milk
1 t vanilla extract
1 heaping c dark chocolate, chips or chopped (I used 72% cacao)
1 c Nutella
3 T unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Sea salt, approximately 1/2 t

Line an 8x8 square pan or a pie dish with parchment and spray with cooking oil. Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, chocolate, nutella and butter to a medium glass or stainless steel bowl. Place the bowl over a small saucepan filled with a few inches of boiling water, and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth, about 5-7 minutes. Empty the mixture into the pan, and sprinkle the top evenly with the sea salt - depending on the grain of your salt, you may want to use a little less than the 1/2 t called for. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours. When ready, use the parchment to lift the fudge from the pan and cut into 3/4-inch squares. Note: limit yourself to 8 pieces of fudge per night, and bring the rest in to work when it gets too hard! :)

Thighs and fries

Hehehe. I'm a sucker for a rhyme.


Anyway, this latest endeavor of the Pantry/Freezer Challenge yielded a succulent supper in under 30 minutes. The chicken was moist and flavorful, and the potatoes were just crispy enough on the outside yet had still soaked up some of the chicken flavor. As much as I love to be adventurous and play around in the kitchen, sometimes after a long day I just want to tune out and get a no-nonsense dinner on the table. When I use timeless flavors (like garlic and herbs) and methods (like broiling), I can put my brain on autopilot. 


Broiled Garlic-and-Herb Chicken Thighs and Oven 'Fries'
(serves 2, with leftovers)


4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of any extra fat (F)
1 medium russet (or other baking) potato, cut into wedges
1/2 oversized sweet potato, cut into wedges
2 cloves garlic, minced (keep each clove separated)
2 T fresh herbs, chopped (keep each T separated)
1/4 c olive oil (2 T separated)
salt and pepper


Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, and preheat your broiler (mine doesn't have a tempt - it just says 'broil'). In a bowl, add your potato wedges, 2 T of olive oil, 1 clove of minced garlic, 1 T of fresh chopped herbs (I used rosemary and oregano) and salt and pepper, and toss everything together until the herbs and garlic are distributed and the potatoes are well coated.

Voila!

Unceremoniously dump your potatoes onto the baking sheet and spread them out in one layer.


In the same bowl, add your chicken thighs and the other T of oil, herbs, clove of garlic and salt and pepper. Toss to coat them well with everything, and also dump these unceremoniously onto the baking sheet in one layer (hey - we're tuning out, right?)

Ta-da!

Nice autopiloting, people. That was the hardest part of this recipe. Stick the sheet in the oven and broil about 17-20 minutes, until the thighs and fries are cooked through (on a thermometer the thighs should read 165 degrees - or just give one a little cut and peek inside).

Yum.

Classic Roast Chicken

Holy 2011, Batman! It's been almost a month since my last post, but that's what happens when the holidays come around I suppose. Don't worry though, I've been cooking up a storm - when I wasn't catching up on 5 1/2 seasons of Bones (my new obsession) or cramming 11 cookies into the VCR my mouth, that is. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season; mine was awesome and I always come back from home feeling recharged and grateful for my wonderful family.


One of the first things I wanted to make when I returned to the city was a roast chicken. It's easy, there's plenty of leftovers, and I had a few upcoming recipes I wanted to try that needed chicken stock (which I'll post about after this).


I've made roast chicken before, but this time I was thinking about brining. I've read so much about it, and I know it's supposed to make all the difference - but I wasn't sure for how long, and whether I could possibly get the same effect with just salting the bird several hours in advance. After researching dozens of recipes, I settled on rubbing the rinsed, patted-dry 3.75lb bird with a tablespoon of kosher salt, setting it on a platter and letting it hang out/dry in the refrigerator for about 3 hours (and another hour out of the fridge coming up to room temperature). In my research I also found that loosening the skin from the meat all over the bird would help the skin crisp up and not get soggy while cooking.


The result? A delicious, well-seasoned bird with crispy skin. I think this will be my go-to method from now on.

You're used to my bad-picture disclaimers by now. This one was taken on my phone and I had already started carving before I remembered to take a snapshot!

Classic Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables


1 whole chicken, 3-4 lbs (if you use a kosher chicken, which is already salted/brined to remove impurities, DO NOT salt the bird in advance and follow the recipe after that)
1 T kosher salt
2 T butter, softened
1 t freshly ground black pepper
1/2 one lemon
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 sprig fresh oregano (or 1 t if dry)
4 sprigs fresh rosemary (or 2 t if dry)
1 small potato
1 sweet potato
1 large carrot
1 large parsnip


If salting the bird, shoot to do this in the afternoon before you cook that evening (ideally at least 4 hours in advance). Remove remove giblets and discard, then rinse all over and pat inside and out with paper towels till very dry. Use your fingers to loosen the skin in between the meat all over - the breasts, thighs, back, legs. Liberally rub kosher salt all over the inside and outside of the bird and under the skin, using about 1 T of salt (if your bird is smaller, you may use less). Place on a plate, uncovered, in the fridge for 3 hours. Remove from the fridge about half hour to an hour before you want to cook it to allow to come to room temperature.


While the chicken is coming to room temperature and you're preheating your oven to 350 degrees, chop the root vegetables into 1-inch pieces along with 2 cloves of the garlic. Distribute evenly on the bottom of a roasting pan - since I don't have a roasting rack, these veggies act as my roasting rack (I couldn't just say 'rack' there, lol) - but even if you have one, you could still do the veggies underneath. 


Using paper towels, wipe all visible salt off the chicken. Stuff the half of a lemon, the fresh herbs, and the remaining 3 garlic cloves inside the cavity of the chicken. Using your hands, rub the entire chicken - on the skin and underneath the skin - with the softened butter. Season with black pepper. IMHO trussing = a waste of time, not to mention I never have kitchen twine, so I didn't truss - and I actually think it helps crisp the skin better this way anyway. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables, and roast in the oven for approximately 20 minutes per pound, plus 20 minutes, flipping the veggies/rotating the pan once, until skin is golden brown and the internal temperature of the thickest part of the thigh is around 160 degrees. Remove from oven transfer chicken to a cutting board/platter and let it rest for at least 20 minutes before you DIG IN!


Note: Don't you dare throw away your leftover chicken bones and bits! Make soup, people! Throw the chicken parts into a pot with celery, onion, carrot, bay leaf, some peppercorns, cover with water, and simmer for a few hours!