If you’re a scrapbooker like I am and live near a Cord Camera Scrapbooking Studio store, you’ll want to keep an eye on their blog. Today, for instance, they’re giving away a pack of spring Imaginisce papers, all for commenting and following them on Facebook! How easy is that? Not to mention they also have offered some fun deals at the store that you get by mentioning the blog entry, and they also share fun project ideas, class lists, notice of new products coming to the stores, and so on. Scrapbookers, clicky clicky!
And if you’re not a scrapbooker… please excuse the interruption. Back to your normal blog reading now.
December 23rd, 2009
Rather than the usual weekly entree choice tonight (we seem to have spaghetti, tacos, and grilled chicken on a very short rotation) I jumped off the hamster wheel and tried a couple of different recipes tonight.
For the main entree, I made part of a recipe in the November issue of Better Homes & Gardens. The recipe is titled “Pecan-Crusted Chicken Thighs with Braised Greens and Grapes” — I just made the chicken part. I’ll fill in the rest of the recipe if anyone is interested in following through with the braised greens and grapes.
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 egg
1/3 c. finely chopped pecans (hooray for food processors)
1/3 c. crushed saltine or wheat crackers (I just used Ritz - it’s what I had)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 10-oz. bag mixed salad greens
4 small bunches grapes
1/3 c. frozen harvest blend or white grape juice concentrate, thawed
1. Pound chicken to slightly flatten; sprinkle with salt and pepper. In shallow dish beat egg. In a second dish combine pecans, crackers and nutmeg. Dip chicken in egg then nut mixture, pressing to coat.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in 12 inch skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken 5 to 6 minutes on each side until crisp. Remove and cover to keep warm. [Here's where I stopped tonight -- I didn't have the salad greens, grapes or juice concentrate, not to mention that if I'm braising greens, I like them to have a little more oomph than lettuce -- give me kale please!] In hot skillet cook and stir greens until beginning to wilt. Remove and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a 10-inch skillet. Cook grapes 3 to 4 minutes until skins begin to burst. Add juice concentrate; cook 1 minute more. To serve, drizzle juices over chicken and greens.
Obviously, I can’t make any sort of comment about the greens, as I didn’t do that part, but the concept seems good. But the chicken? Oh, my, the chicken was good. Yummy. There was just enough nutmeg and just enough pecan — it was just delectable. I had to stop myself from taking seconds.
I also needed to use up some sweet potatoes I’d gotten last week, and had initially thought I’d bake them. When I pulled them out of the bag, though, I found a couple of ends were getting kinda funny and needed trimming off. Baking a cut sweet potato is asking for nastiness on the floor of your oven, so instead I turned to Joy of Cooking and found this: Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Brown Sugar.
Heat in a large skillet:
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Add and toss together:
1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch rounds
3 red apples, cored and cut into rounds (I used Honeycrisp apples)
1/3 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add:
1/4 cup apple juice or water
Cover and cook over low heat until the sweet potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Uncover, increase the heat to medium, and cook about 5 minutes more, turning the potatoes and apples every so often so that they are well caramelized but not burned. The juices should boil away. When done, season to taste with ground black pepper.
This one got another thumbs up from the family. I also highly recommend Honeycrisp apples! They held their shape nicely, and had a nice spicy tartness, so they didn’t disappear into the brown sugar sweetness of the dish. It was a perfect complement to the chicken. We threw some crescent rolls into the oven, cooked some frozen broccoli, and there was dinner.
Of course, it took me longer to cook it than it should — new recipes always do for me — but Rick and I enjoyed working in the kitchen together and had a nice time, which is a fun aspect of the evening as well.
November 10th, 2009
I’ve been eyeing this acorn squash recipe from Ree Drummond on the Pioneer Woman blog. I’ve had the acorn squash in the basement, waiting for their turn in the kitchen. Tonight, I decided, was the night to cook a real meal.
But what to have with the squash? The oven would be taken, so a baked chicken meal was out of the question (although it sounded very autumnal). I looked inside a few cookbooks, flipped through some recipe clippings, and still didn’t see anything that grabbed me — so I decided to invent something instead.
I don’t usually do this. I love reading recipes, and can sit for hours with a good cookbook (assuming I’m left alone that long, which is unheard of lately). Rick also comments that I have a good feel for a recipe that’s going to be a winner, so when I suggest we try something, he’s immediately ready to go for it, rather than hesitating and saying “but do you remember the recipe you said would be really good and, well, it kinda WASN’T?” But I’m not an inventor. I’m slow to veer away from a recipe, as I’m typically quite concerned that I’ll mess something up and ruin the meal. This might be a holdover from a “Hazel’s Fish” recipe that befell my parents — my mom made a few substitutions in a recipe and it made for a meal that one wished to forget immediately, but instead passed into family legend, as in “Hazel wasn’t cooking this evening, was she?” (Fortunately for me, the answer was “No.”) However, I’ve grown up keenly aware that a few changes in a recipe can produce disastrous results.
But this time, I decided to brave the waters and just go for it. I came up with an idea, and it turned out — it even turned out well! No leftovers, and my nickname isn’t Hazel. Here’s what I did:
Balsamic and Sage Chicken Thighs
1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
3 small yellow onions, sliced
2 T. butter
1/2 to 3/4 c. chicken broth
2 T. balsamic vinegar
5 fresh sage leaves
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
Melt the butter in a large skillet, and saute the onion slices over medium-high heat until softened and turning a light gold color. Add the chicken and brown on both sides. Once the chicken is browned, pour in the chicken broth, cover the pan, reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is done.
Remove the chicken from the pan (leave in the onions), and turn up the heat to bring the broth up to a rapid boil to reduce the sauce, stirring frequently. After the sauce has reduced a bit and started to thicken, add a couple of scant tablespoonfuls of balsamic vinegar and four or five fresh sage leaves, thinly sliced, plus salt and pepper to taste. Let the sauce cook another four or five minutes (continuing to stir), until it has really thickened and your spoon leaves a path as you move it through the pan. Pour it over the chicken thighs and you’re ready to eat!
This turned out to be YUMMY! I’d make more of it next time — we scarfed it all down, and the kids didn’t eat all that much. Plus, we had the acorn squash, french bread and quinoa (which was marvelous for mopping up the sauces on the plate), so we had plenty of other food. If you are feeding more than two adults, I’d double these amounts and expect it to feed 4-6 people.
I’m quite pleased with myself, actually. The balsamic vinegar gave a very nice depth and rich taste to the sauce, and the onions were delectable. When combined with the fantastic acorn squash and earthy quinoa, it was a comforting fall dinner.
Oh, and about my acorn squash — apparently we grow a tough variety, as these were from the family farm and were the very devil to get cut. It took me forty-five minutes to cut two acorn squash into eighths, and I didn’t even get the last quarter cut. The pan was full, and I stopped before I managed to make myself bleed. But this was the first squash recipe where Rick took seconds and even thirds — he’s usually not a fan of squash. Ree Drummond knows what she’s talking about.
October 23rd, 2009
typical dinner and homework
Originally uploaded by rick020200
We have such amazing kids. It’s fun just to sit and watch them goof off and work on homework. I look at this picture and realize just how full of blessings my life really is.
October 12th, 2009
Yes, it’s been a VERY long time since I’ve responded to one of these. It’s been a long time since I’ve written at all (the calendar is packed full of stuff — life is insane.)
Booking Through Thursday asks: Two-thirds of Brits have lied about reading books they haven’t. Have you? Why? What book?
No, I don’t believe I have. I certainly shock some people when they hear that I haven’t read a certain book that they’re convinced EVERYONE who is a reader should have read, but what’s the point in trying to act like I’ve read it? If someone else has read it, I won’t fool them and I look idiotic. If they haven’t read it, then I’m just acting pretentious, and that’s idiotic. So why try to trip myself up and look like a fool in the process? Why know that I’m acting like a fool, even if the other person never knows? I know. So I can declare that I’ve never read “To Kill a Mockingbird”, even though I’m surrounded by horrified gasps every time I do. (And it’s on my list to read, really, I just have had a very difficult time getting reading time lately.)
There’s a long, long list of books that I *should* read. But I also have the kind of personality that the more a book (or movie or music) is pushed at me, the more I’ll prove that I’ll get along just fine without experiencing that content.
There’s a substantial list of classics of English literature that I haven’t read, despite my liberal arts education with the English Lit. major and History minor. My GoodReads “To Read” shelf is huge. And I haven’t been reading much lately. About the only fiction I’ve read lately is Mary Stewart’s Arthurian trilogy, because I’ve been needing the familiar story to help relax my mind. I haven’t had the mental energy to bring to a new book. I feel as if I’m running frantically and only just keeping up by keeping my head down. I can see the horizon of free time again, however — the school year start is ending and we’re getting things nailed down and the schedule under control. Then I’ll read, and scrapbook, and maybe even make some jewelry. I haven’t been creative lately (except a bit in the kitchen, and it’s been more cooking rather than true creativity, but it’s still fun). I need my creative outlets back — but I have to make mental and physical space for it.
October 1st, 2009
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