Spring Chicken

On Friday I was faced with quite a dilemma. Pot roast or chicken? It was a close call, but I decided to celebrate spring with a roast chicken on Saturday night. I brined it for a couple of hours, then rubbed it with olive oil, pepper, and truffle salt (amazing stuff, sea salt mixed with little pieces of black truffle), and instead of using a roasting rack, set it on top of a bed of chopped carrots, celery, and onion. I sprinkled it with rosemary and thyme and took Emeril's advice and stuck the herb stems inside the cavity. It was really good! For once, I did not overcook it, although maybe I should have, because the roasted red potatoes and asparagus required a little quality time with the microwave. It was really a lovely dinner, served with Ecco Domani Pino Grigio, which was a little overwhelmed by the flavors. Happy Spring!

Chicken Tagine and Amazing Chips!

On Friday night Craig made Rachel Ray's recipe for chicken tagine.  This was the recipe he made the very first time I came over to his house, so I'd love it even if it weren't delicious, which it is.  He accompanied it with Swiss Chard, one of my favorite veggies, and a nice salad.  You can see the daffodils he brought home, a hopeful sign that spring is on the calendar, actual spring must be on its way.

We had a pre-dinner snack, some chips I bought randomly.  They were sort of spendy, but really really good.  I think they're actually baked, and would do well with a light dip, although they're too fragile for anything heavy.  But they're soooo good on their own, why bother with a dip?  If you can't read it, the brand is FoodShouldTasteGood, and the flavor is olive, although Craig doesn't much like olives, and he loved these chips.

While we're on the subject of snacks, I bought a cheese called Kaltbach last weekend.  I thought it would be similar to gruyere, and I guess it is, but it's not good.  It's stinky and not in a good way.  Word to the wise.

Last night we had a lot of basketball to watch, so in between cheering the Badgers on, I made pasta with mustard greens, fennel seed, fresh basil, roasted garlic, roasted red peppers, green onion, and toasted walnuts.  And some good grated Parmagiano Reggiano, of course.  It turned out really well--those mustard greens are great for pasta, and I'll be doing that again.  The roasted peppers, garlic, and basil were from a dipping sauce I made to take to Easter dinner today.  I'm in the process of making Cora's Shipboard Flatbread and a flavored olive oil as well.  Happy egg-hunting!

Yellow Gazpacho and Black Beans with Mango

Ellie came for a visit last weekend! She arrived around lunchtime on Saturday, bearing lunch--yellow gazpacho she and Dave made and froze last summer. It was soooo good, it tasted like summer. I can't wait for them to make me more! For dinner that night we went to the Mews, where they have 69 beers on tap, and do a brisk enough business that they're all fresh. I fell in love with Sierra Nevada ESB--even Craig thinks it's good, for an ESB.

Sunday night it was time for a little self control, so I made Black Beans with Mango from Vegetable Heaven. I had forgotten how great that recipe is--delicious and easy and healthy. We took Mollie's suggestion and had it with steamed broccoli and brown rice, so now we're all set to eat a lot of cheese and meat at Easter dinner!

Chicken N Aprons

Last Sunday we went to Cora and Allen's house in Wellesley for dinner.  I was a little afraid I wouldn't meet Wellesley dress code, but Craig snuck me in.  Mary Kate was there as well, and she and Cora wore the aprons Cora gave them.  Cora made some amazing flatbread for one of the starters:

For dinner we had roast chicken and vegetables.  I was so distracted by the goodness of my plate I didn't take a picture, but fortunately I did take one of Cora and MK with the main course:

Chicken with Lentils and Cauliflower with Ginger

A couple of years ago, Ellie and Dave gave us "Quick and Easy Indian Cooking" by Madhur Jaffrey.  For some reason it's taken me a while to get into it, but last night I tried two recipes, chicken with lentils and cauliflower with ginger.

The cauliflower was really good, but I was disappointed with the chicken.  I had expected it to be a lot more flavorful, and for once, I can't blame my congenital inability to follow a recipe--aside from not having quite enough red lentils and throwing in a few green, I followed the directions.  Craig liked it better than I, which is good because the leftovers will be his dinner on Wednesday.  I'm not giving up on Indian though.

Monkfish with Ratatouille

Last night Craig made an Epicurious recipe, monkfish with ratatouille.  He took reviewer suggestions and replaced the eggplant with crimini mushrooms, which were delicious.  Dad says he can't eat monkfish after that scary one we caught, but it's really good, I think.  We enjoyed it with a nice pinot grigio and an arugula salad.  This recipe would work well with other fish like halibut or cod, I think.  Here it is just out of the oven:

And on the table:

Scrambled Eggs

Did you know that "Scrambled Eggs" is what the Beatles originally called "Yesterday," until they had the lyrics? Anyway, Cook's finally turned me into someone who can make decent scrambled eggs--not hard, but you have to think about it and resist the temptation to just throw everything in the pan at once.
Craig's been taking a class on Wednesdays, formerly Date Night, but last night his teacher had a colonoscopy. Sucks to be him, but we had a nice date! I made the eggs with sharp provolone, mushrooms, a little bacon, and onion, and served with brown rice (I like rice with eggs somehow) and broccoli rabe. YUM.
The previously posted chicken and bok choy on pan-fried noodles recipe comes from the March/April 2003 issue of Cook's, it's yellow and has mushrooms on the front and bananas on the back. Enjoy!

Pan-fried Noodles!

I LOVE pan-fried noodles, I always have, but it's only been within the past couple of years that I've realized you don't have to be sweating in the back of a Chinese restaurant to make them. Sunday night I made chicken and bok choy stir fry with pan-fried noodles, from Cook's. I used chicken thighs, which were totally worth the effort of getting the meat off the bone and skin, and baby bok choy from the coop. You could really taste the ginger--totally delicious!

Soup and Grilled Cheese

Craig and I went to a play last night, so we needed a quick meal.  I found a recipe for butternut squash-cannellini soup on epicurious, and made grilled cheese.  The soup had gotten rave reviews, but I thought it was only OK, even though I had really tried to follow the recipe.  It was better after I added some ground thyme and topped it with roasted salted pepitas.  The sandwiches were good though.  I steamed some spinach and squeezed out the water, then mixed it with a little leftover leek sauce from Friday to up the veggie quotient.  I used sharp provolone cheese, and lacking  a sandwich press, I pulled out the George Foreman, so I'm sure they were fat-free!

Fettuccine with Slow-Braised Leeks

Here's how great Craig is:  The other night we were watching Jamie Oliver's new show on Food TV, and he made pasta with leeks and these mushroomy breadcrumb things he called porcini pangrattato.  I commented on how that was a meal I would really like to try.  Guess what Craig made last night!  

The leeks are braised under slices of parma ham, and the whole thing is topped with bread crumbs made by processing bread and dried porcini, which are then sauteed in garlic-rosemary olive oil.

It was so good.  Craig's the best.