Happy 9th birthday!

Adventuring in DC :: U Street Corridor

[Ben's Chili Bowl, African American Civil War Memorial, Busboys and Poets Teaching for Change bookstore]

Day 25 :: Thankful for ...

... a little disposable income so I can occasionally treat myself to lunch (or a new shirt, or a book, or stationery).

Day 10 :: Thankful for ...

... family dinners. 

We were blessed when we lived in Los Angeles: dinners with both of our extended families were a regular part of life. Having loud, boisterous meals, talking and laughing (and sometimes arguing), sharing experiences across generations ... it's an amazing part of family life that I now miss terribly.

Since my parents got here, a lot of our activities have revolved around food, and spending time together like that has been special in an incredibly routine kind of way. Like things are back to "normal." Don't get me wrong -- I love my nuclear family more than anything -- but when it comes to food, the more the merrier!

What I Made for Dinner :: Dolores's Brokenhearted Chicken

from November 2012 issue of Saveur

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 3-pound whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 2 slices bacon, roughly chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• 2 tablespoons roughly chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes
• Country bread, for serving

Turns out I need some more practice breaking down a chicken. I'm getting better at detaching the dark meat, but the breast meat got a bit mutilated. Of course, my sister asked me, "Why don't you just buy the parts separately?" Yes, but it's cheaper to buy the whole chicken and now I have what I need to make some chicken stock. :)

I doubled the recipe because I was feeding seven people and it seemed to be all right just doubling most of the ingredients. I only needed to use a 1/2 cup of flour to dredge all of the pieces, and I used 3/4 cup of sherry.

I had a lot of braising liquid left over so it might've been good to cook down the liquid after removing the chicken. I saved what liquid I had in the hopes of making some kind of pasta sauce with it. We'll see ...

I served it with an Israeli Couscous "salad" with spinach, and my sister made a Tortilla Espanola.

 

What I Made for Dinner :: Lemon Chicken

 

I usually don't have a problem with cooking. If I have the time (summer vacation, for instance) it can be a nice thing to concentrate on the act of making food. I do, however, have a problem with choosing what to make. I despise coming up with a menu and I often feel like kicking my husband when he responds with, "I don't know" when I ask him what he wants for dinner.

So I particularly appreciate recipes that are simple and don't require too much thinking or planning. No surprise, I found this recipe for Lemon Chicken on Pinterest. I recommend this recipe if you have a lemon tree and grow herbs (rosemary and thyme). The only thing I had to buy for this meal was the chicken and wild rice pilaf, both of which were on sale this week. Total? $5.

 

Marinating the chicken requires two extra hours. The first time I thought to make this dish, I hadn't read the recipe carefully enough and I didn't have enough time to marinate it. I work half-day on Wednesdays so I made it today instead.

I used an extra pound of chicken so I tried to adjust the marinade recipe accordingly, but I probably could've made a bit more. The one other thing I didn't follow in the recipe -- and I'm not sure if it made a difference -- was that instead of using a ziploc bag to marinate the chicken, I did it in a big bowl and put plastic wrap right over the chicken so it was kinda sealed. I mixed the chicken around an hour into marinating.

  

The chicken came out pretty flavorful, the skin was especially crispy and lemony. The smashed garlic was yummy too. I'll probably use this recipe again when I have an abundance of lemons and I'm getting tired of my usual roast chicken.

[Side note: After zesting and juicing the lemons, put them in a (microwaveable) bowl with water and microwave it for at least 6 minutes. The lemony steam will make the inside of your microwave smell nice and it'll be easy to wipe off any grime. Then, you can either compost whatever's left of the lemons or put them down the garbage disposal; it'll make the compost bin or the garbage disposal smell a bit better.]

What I Made for Dinner :: Bierocks

I feel like cabbage gets a bad rap sometimes. Don't you think it has a reputation as an ingredient for "peasant food" or it's only used as filler? (Not to mention, it gives you gas!) I have no evidence to support this, but I feel like cabbage is not on the Favorite Veggies list in this country because, like its relative the Brussels sprout, it was often overcooked.

[Pickled Veggies by Mama Kawamoto is my mom's pickled cabbage.]

Clearly, though, it's a staple in many food cultures and it can be a versatile ingredient. Thinking back to my childhood, my mom used it in lots of foods: Okonomiyaki (Japanese), stuffed cabbage rolls (Europe and the Middle East), corned beef (every St. Patrick's Day), tsukemono (Japanese pickles), hoi kou rou (Chinese stir fry), etc.

And cabbage can be pretty good for you: 1 cup of cabbage has 19 calories and 2 grams of fiber. According to the SELF Nutrition Data website, it's "very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Protein, Thiamin, Calcium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Folate, Magnesium, Potassium and Manganese." Added bonus? It's pretty cheap.

I'm not sure why I haven't cooked with it much even though I'm accustomed to eating it in various ways and my kids like it. Leave it to Pinterest for inspiring me to try a new cabbage recipe. The picture below is the original Pin I found, and I guess the timing was right because I was in the mood for doughy pockets filled with meat and cabbage.

Source: carzycook.com via Yukari on Pinterest

After a bit more research (you all do know that when I say "research" I actually mean "surf the web," right?), I adapted recipes from Mrs. and Mr. Bear's Kitchen and Fork Fingers Chopsticks.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 package puff pastry (dang, that stuff is hard to work with!)
• 1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 onion chopped
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• salt and pepper
• melted butter

DIRECTIONS:


Chop the onions and garlic (it's hidden under there somewhere) and thinly slice the cabbage.




Cook the ground beef in some olive oil until it starts to crumble. Add the cabbage, onion, and garlic and sautee until the vegetables start to wilt. (Thank goodness for the new 6-quart pot my mother-in-law got me for my birthday!)

It cooks down to almost half pretty quickly. Salt and pepper generously.


Take the meat-cabbage mixture off the stove and let it cool a bit while you work with the puff pastry. (That's my little workhorse of a desk fan; I've had it for years, at least 20, I'd say.)

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

I used frozen puff pastry dough and you must, must, must follow the directions on the box carefully. If it says to let it defrost on the counter for 40 minutes, it means only 40 minutes, not a minute longer! Seriously, I left it out not much longer than 40 minutes and it was way too defrosted; the layers of pastry wouldn't unfold properly and I had to refrigerate it again. Also, while you're working with the first sheet of pastry, leave the second sheet in the fridge so it stays cold. Otherwise it's impossible to work with.

Cut and roll the puff pastry into squares (I want to say mine were at least 6"x6" but I don't remember exactly) and fill each with the meat-cabbage mixture. (I had tons of filling left over so you may want to use another box of puff pastry and freeze any leftover Bierocks for another day.) Fold over the corners and seal the pocket tightly. Mine came out all differently shaped and sized ... sometimes I'm not one for the details.


Did I actually use a kid-size rolling pin? Why, yes, yes I did.


Butter makes lots of things better, don't you think? You can use an egg wash if you prefer, but I went all out and used butter.

Bake the Bierocks in the oven for 20 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden. Serve hot!



Puff pastry is puffy!

What I Made for Dinner :: Fried Rice

When we got married eons ago (okay, it was 12 years ago, not eons) a friend of mine gave us a Japanese rice cooker as a wedding gift. It's a great rice cooker, except that it's huge (it makes 10 cups of rice). Now, if you have an automatic rice cooker, yours might be like mine and have little lines on the inside so you know how high to fill it up with water, depending on how many cups of rice you're making. It's helpful to have the lines, but my rice cooker is so big that the lines start at three cups, which is way more than we eat at one sitting. "Why don't you just make one or two cups?" you may ask. Well, I've tried and the rice always comes out overcooked or undercooked. So, just to be on the safe side, I always make at least three cups of rice to ensure good rice. Which means I almost always have leftovers. And when there's leftover rice, what does any Asian make? Fried rice, of course.

I usually make a simple egg and green onion fried rice as a side dish, nothing fancy or complicated. I use a huge wok (which I think we also got as a wedding gift) just because it seems more authentic that way. With my old stove I always felt I didn't have enough fire power (aka BTUs) to properly cook fried rice, so I was eager to test out my new stove's largest burner, which has a pretty enormous flame.

I tried out a couple of different things this time around, wondering if it would add more flavor. Basically, this is a variation on my usual lazy person's fried rice recipe. Everyone has their own way of making fried rice -- the beauty of the dish is that it's adaptable and you can make it all kinds of ways with all kinds of ingredients and it turns out pretty well.

I think it goes without saying that you need to use leftover rice that's at least a day old (mine was barely a day old and I feel like I should've waited another day). Also, this is not necessarily a healthy dish. It's called fried rice for a reason; you'll use a lot of oil.

I don't have any specific measurements for the ingredients for this recipe -- just use as much as you want of each flavor.

Ingredients:

• leftover rice (at least a day old) --> We eat Japanese short grain rice (i.e., "sticky" rice) that's half way between brown rice and white rice. Because it's a short grain rice it really needs at least two days in the fridge to lose its stickiness and crumble a bit. I don't think you have this problem with longer grain rice.
• vegetable and sesame oil
• green onions, green parts finely chopped 
• green onions, white parts chopped into 1~2 inch pieces
• garlic cloves, smashed
• ginger, sliced
• eggs, beaten (I used three)
• soy sauce
• white pepper
• MSG (totally optional)

The aromatics on the ingredient list don't reflect what you see in the photo above. In hindsight, instead of mincing the aromatics, I should've kept them as fairly large pieces because I wanted them to enhance the flavor of the oil. It was hard to cook the minced aromatics in the oil and fish them out with a fine sieve before they burned.

 

Step 1: Whisk the eggs in a bowl while heating some oil in the wok (more oil than you would usually use to cook scrambled eggs). When the oil is hot, pour in the egg and cook until the edges start to slightly furl up but the middle is still wet and uncooked. Gently fold in the edges of the egg to the middle and give it one or two scrambles with a spatula before sliding the undercooked egg onto a plate. Set aside.

Step 2: Heat a fair amount of vegetable oil (I probably used at least two tablespoons) with some sesame oil in the wok. Add the aromatics (white part of the green onions, garlic, ginger) and cook over medium heat until golden and, guess what? aromatic! Scoop them out before they burn. Since I used minced aromatics I set it aside to add back into the fried rice later. But if you're using larger chunks of aromatics you can toss it out or chop it up to use in your dish.

Step 3: Heat more vegetable oil in the wok; it should be hot. Break of up the rice before adding it to the wok. Make sure the oil gets evenly distributed on the rice and continue "frying." You should see steam coming up off the rice; you want it to dry out and the grains to separate. Once that happens, add the green part of the green onion and heat just a bit longer. Pour in one to two tablespoons of soy sauce around the side of the wok and toss the rice. Add the eggs and aromatics (if you want to) back in. Season with white pepper to taste. If you feel it needs more saltiness, add more soy sauce, salt, or -- gasp! -- MSG.

 

Step 4: Enjoy! We're going through our hot week here in Los Angeles so I was already sweating up a storm making the fried rice. I didn't have the energy to cook much more so I made the easiest chicken dish in the world: garlic chicken. Season skinless, boneless chicken thighs on both sides with pepper and garlic salt (we use Lawry's). Cook on medium high in some oil. That's it, and the kids love it!

What I Made for Dinner :: Roasted Eggplant Salad

It's funny how your taste buds change over the years. I wonder how that works? How is that I used to dislike eggplant (among other vegetables) and now I love it? In the same vein, the kids don't like eggplant right now, but will they love this dish in 20 years? Hmm ...

[Speaking of taste buds, author Rebecca Stead incorporated taste buds in an unexpected way to show the turmoils of adolescent relationships in her new book Liar & Spy. Good stuff, people, good stuff.]

 

For my grandmother-in-law's birthday dinner I was asked to bring a salad. This roasted eggplant salad with almonds and goat cheese was a hit at the last get-together I took it to. Since this batch had to feed 15 people I decided to add it to (2 bags of) mixed salad greens. (My preference was for the combo of the peppery-ness of arugula and the rich, deep creaminess of the roasted eggplant.)

The recipe calls for 2 ounces of goat cheese, but I used a whole 4 ounce container: half was incorporated into the eggplant mixture and the other half was sprinkled amongst the greens. I didn't add salad dressing to the greens because the eggplant and extra cheese acts as the dressing.

I, of course, forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but I received compliments on it so I think everyone liked it. It's a perfect hearty meatless meal for summer evenings. Granted, having to use the oven will heat up your house, but that's when you take your eggplant salad outdoors to your patio to enjoy! :)

What I Made for Dinner :: Spatchcocked Ricotta Chicken + Roasted Mustard Potatoes

Since it's summer I'm getting back into semi-homemaker mode, which means I'm cooking (a bit) more and cleaning (a very tiny bit) more. All of those Pinterest food pins I collected over the last few months are finally getting tested.


Tonight I made spatchcocked ricotta chicken and roasted mustard potatoes. I had leftover ricotta cheese from making lasagna last week and I didn't want to waste it. I browsed Pinterest to see what ricotta recipes are floating around the internet and I pinned this chicken recipe and a cheese cake recipe (which I'll try the next time I have leftover ricotta).

Spatchcock means to butterfly a chicken. Enter my new kitchen shears I got from my mother-in-law. Some people are grossed out by working with a raw, whole chicken but I rather enjoy it. It may sound weird, but I feel like I'm getting to know the food better by touching it all over. (There are lots of videos online if you want to see how to spatchcock a chicken.)

Spatchcocked Ricotta Chicken from the Kitchn (apartment therapy):

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, at least 3 1/2 pounds
• 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup finely chopped basil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Olive oil

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Remove the innards from the chicken and reserve them for another use. Wash and pat dry the chicken.
3. Spatchcock (aka butterfly) the chicken using poultry shears or a sharp chef's knife: first remove the backbone, slicing or cutting it along each side all the way down to the tail end. Splay the chicken open with the skin side up on a flat surface. Place the heel of your hands, one on top of the other, over the middle of the chicken. Press down to flatten the chicken. You may hear the breast-bone crack.
4. Run your fingers under the skin at the neck opening to loosen the skin around the breasts, reaching as far down as the legs if possible.
5. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, parmesan, egg, bread crumbs, basil, garlic, lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Using a spoon, carefully stuff the cheese mixture into the chicken between the skin and the meat, starting at the breasts. Coax the mixture into an even layer by pressing and pushing it from the outside, above the skin. Place the chicken on a rack, or several 1/2-inch-thick slices of onion, in a roasting pan, skin side up. Rub it with about a tablespoon olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper.
7. Roast for an hour or until the juices run clear from the thigh. To test for doneness with a thermometer, check the breast meat for an internal temperature of 165°F. Transfer the chicken to a cutting surface and let stand for 5-10 minutes.
8. To serve, divide the chicken into quarters, splitting the two breasts into four pieces if desired.

When you cut the chicken you can see there's a layer of ricotta cheese, which also paired rather nicely with the potatoes:

Roasted Mustard Potatoes from The High Heeled Hostess:

Ingredients:

• 5 cups potatoes, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing pan
• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard (regular or whole-grain)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest, grated
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon sea or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly grease a large, rimmed, thin baking sheet with olive oil.
2. Whisk mustard, olive oil, butter, lemon juice, zest garlic, oregano, parmesan, salt and a few turns or pinches of black pepper. Add cubed potatoes and toss well.
3. Spread out on baking sheet and bake until crusty and golden brown - they can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending on how well done you like them and how big you cut your potatoes, check every 10 minutes starting around the 30 minute mark.

 

Both are fairly easy recipes, although prepping the chicken is a bit time-consuming. The chicken came out moist and tender and the skin crisped up nicely. I probably had 1/4" layer of the ricotta mixture under the skin but the flavor wasn't overpowering; the nice thing about ricotta is that it's pretty mild and it melds well with the lemon, basil, and garlic (I always use one more clove of garlic than what the recipe calls for, so in this case I used 3 cloves, which I grated with a microplane grater). Although the dish was good, I'm not sure I would go out of my way to make it, meaning I would make it if I had leftover ricotta cheese but I wouldn't buy the ricotta just to make this. Maybe it's just too much work to prepare on a weeknight (especially once I go back to work)?

Here are some additional notes:

• Using the oven at 400 degrees+ in summer is not a good idea -- it makes the kitchen too hot!
• I didn't use all of the ricotta mixture, which would've been fine except that I thought I was going to use it all so I stuck the spatula back into the bowl after it touched the raw chicken. I ended up having to throw out a good amount of the mixture.
• I roasted the potatoes for about 30 minutes and they were great (Rupert said he could eat them all day long), but they could've used more time to crisp up.

What I Made for Dessert :: Strawberries & Cream Pie

My parents bought an insane amount of strawberries (8 pounds for $3.99!) and shared half of them with me. Since fresh strawberry pie is my favorite pie since I was a little girl, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try my hand at baking.

I wanted to have a layer of custard under the strawberries, but what I ended up with is more like a custardy cream ... i.e., it's messy! I used the recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (the yellow version) and it was super easy. Maya LOVED it and asked, "Can we just have a cream pie?"

What I Made for Dinner :: Tomato Quiche

An oldie but a goodie. I don't remember if I've already posted this one, but it's been so long since I've made it that I thought I would post a picture, at the very least.

This is the one tomato dish that Rupert actually enjoys and wants me to make. I haven't been able to make it because Ian loathes tomatoes. Since he's out of town this week and I had a spare pie crust, I dusted off the ol' recipe (a variation on a mini tartlet recipe from the Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook) and made the quiche. Sadly, Maya (who does like tomatoes) didn't like it either. Ah well, that just means more for me + Rupert.

Wurstkuche

Friday night, 6pm.

Rupert and the kids went camping in Long Beach for the night so I went out with my "local BFF," Sidney. Since I rarely get out of the house for grown-up socializing, I had no idea what to do. Sidney emails me the link to Wurstküche in Downtown. Sausages :: what's not to love?

Wurstküche is practically next door to where I worked over 10 years ago. Gosh, east of Alameda has changed quite a bit since then. The restaurant (and its prices) definitely embodies the yuppification of that area.

What I ate :: Rabbit, Veal & Pork seasoned with white wine ($7.50); Klein (small) Belgian Fries with Bleu Cheese Walnut and Bacon dipping sauce ($3.50); Nesbitt's Peach Soda ($3.50); Toasted Apple Pie Ice Cream Sandwich ($4.50), not pictured.

I really wanted to like the place. Fancy sausages, french fries with dipping sauces, and fun sodas (I'm not much of a drinker so I like having alternatives) are right up my alley. You'd think this place fits the bill perfectly. Unfortunately, I can't give Wurstküche a hearty two thumbs up (sorry Sidney).

My suggestion? If you want to actually taste the sausage, skip the bun and push whatever toppings you order off to the side. The rabbit, veal, and pork sausage I ordered is mild to begin with; the sauteed onions and peppers totally overwhelmed the flavor of the meat. I could've been eating who-knows-what-in-a-casing and it would have tasted the same as my $7.50(!) fancy sausage. Frankly, the bratwurst I buy at Bristol Farms for $3.50 a pound is tastier and juicier, and there are sausages that are way better than Bristol Farms'. So that should tell you where I rank Wurstküche's sausage. (Sidenote :: as we were leaving the restaurant, I noticed a bumper sticker on the store next door proclaiming Wurstküche over-priced and over-hyped and I might have to agree.)

I gotta say, though, the fries were quite tasty -- just the right amount of crisp, creamy, and salty. But next time (if there is a next time) I'll choose a different dipping sauce; the bleu cheese, walnut, and bacon sauce didn't taste like any of those things. The Nesbitt's soda wasn't anything to write home about; the fake peach flavor, crazy pink color, and the $3.50 price tag weren't worth it. Bad choice on my part. They do have a big selection of beers that sound interesting ... anyone want to comment on the selection, flavor, and price of the beers?

The one thing I would write home about (if I had to) is the sole dessert they serve, an apple pie ice cream sandwich (with oatmeal raisin cookies). Yes, it's $5 and it wasn't big enough to share (well, I didn't share), but it's the one thing I'd consider going back for (but I probably won't).

We ended our Downtown jaunt at Yogurtland in Little Tokyo. Sidney is a big fan (it's her one dairy indulgence now that she's going dairy-(almost)-free) and I'd never been so it seemed like the right dessert to have. Uh, yeah, my second dessert. Considering all the money I spent on dinner (and first dessert) I'm definitely more enthusiastic about the $3.10 I spent on a fairly decent-size portion of all kinds of fruity yogurt with mango and mochi toppings. Is Yogurtland over-hyped? Maybe (I'm no frozen yogurt expert). But it's definitely not over-priced (the constant line of people in the store proves that).

There happens to be a Yogurtland down the street from my house (even closer than Pinkberry) so I know where I'll be going from now on for my fro-yo fix (Rupert thinks the term "fro-yo" is stupid ... it probably is but I use it anyway).

Wurstküche :: 800 East 3rd Street, LA 90013 | 213.687.4444 | www.wurstkucherestaurant.com

Yogurtland :: 130 South Central Avenue, LA 90012 | 213.687.0733 | www.yogurt-land.com

what I made for dinner :: mini honey-mustard meatloaves

I don't know about you, but I grew up with fabulous meatloaf. My mother makes an amazing meatloaf with some surprises inside :: she would often stick an entire sausage (like a bratwurst) or a hard-boiled egg inside the loaf. It may sound weird, but it's delicious! And her meatloaves were always moist so I never had the aversion to meatloaf that many people seem to have.

Fast forward to college, sophomore year. I attempted to make a meatloaf and I didn't have a recipe. That was a disaster and a memory Rupert seems to have erased from his memory (thankfully).

I think I was traumatized by that cooking experience and I've been very reluctant to make meatloaf for the last 10+ years. But I think I've found a recipe that will help me add meatloaf to my cooking repertoire :: Mini Honey-Mustard Meatloaves from Martha Stewart.


The recipe is not perfect as is, but it's a good start. Rupert was surprised at its moistness, a big plus. Adding cheese to the meatloaf mixture and the top of the meatloaves helps, no doubt! But I found that it's too fluffy, a result from perhaps too much panko breadcrumbs. I don't want the meat to be too dense, but I also want it to still taste like meat; next time I'll reduce the amount of breadcrumbs to a quarter of a cup. The recipe calls for honey-mustard but I didn't have any so I mixed some honey into regular yellow mustard. Next time I may use a Dijon or seedy mustard instead to give it deeper flavor.

One warning, because of the cheese, the meatloaves expel a lot of grease (I also used 80/20 ground beef so there was a lot of fat in the meat too). Be sure to use the cooking pan that is appropriate for you. I used a rimmed baking sheet lined with Silpat and it required a lot of cleaning. Placing the meatloaves on a rack in a deeper baking pan might be better ...

I served the meatloaves with curry roasted cauliflower, which was a hit with everyone. I just cut up a cauliflower, doused it with some olive oil and sprinkled salt, pepper, and a little bit of curry powder on it. I think I roasted it for about 12 minutes in the oven while the meatloaves were cooking. Be sure to toss them midway through the cooking time so they don't get too dry.

what i made for dinner :: chipotle chicken + rice

going back to work dampens my mood for making dinner. well, not really. it dampens my mood for thinking about what to make for dinner. if you tell me what to make, for the most part, i'm okay about the actual cooking part.

to help me find something to make, i signed up to get daily emails from everyday food. i file them away in my email "recipes" folder and scan through them when i'm at a loss as to what to make. i'm all about the simple, quick, as-few-ingredients-as-possible recipes so tonight i made chipotle chicken + rice. (it helped that, when i cleaned out the pantry, i came across a can of chipotle chiles in adobo that needed to be used.)

the cook time is a tad on the long side, but actual prep time is quick. unfortunately, we are light-weights when it comes to spiciness so even just two chipotle chiles made us sweat and our noses run. luckily, ian wasn't around for dinner and maya ate leftover chinese food so we didn't have the kids complaining about "it's too spi~cy! i don't li~ke it!"

i did neglect to use lime and cilantro as garnish, so that might make a difference. the other thing i'm going to try, at rupert's suggestion (and a good one, at that), is to alter the recipe and make a mexican paella. don't you think it would be good with chorizo, seafood, lime, cilantro, etc.?

what i made for dinner :: chicken with balsamic barbecue sauce

summer = bbq, no? it's easy, your kitchen stays cool + you get the husband involved in dinner-making.

since i still have the giada cookbook (giada's kitchen) i prepared a simple dish for rupert to grill. instead of a whole chicken, though, i used four pieces of boneless thigh and eight drumsticks. there was plenty of sauce for all of that chicken.

chicken with balsamic barbecue sauce

(4 servings)

ingredients ::

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 chicken, cut in serving pieces (2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 legs, and 2 wings)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

directions ::

1. combine all the barbecue sauce ingredients in a small nonreactive saucepan and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Simmer over medium heat until reduced by one third, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. place a grill pan over medium heat or preheat an outdoor grill. season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
3. transfer 1/2 cup of the sauce to a small bowl. grill the chicken for about 10 minutes per side, brushing the chicken with the 1/2 cup barbecue sauce for the last 2 or 3 minutes. transfer the chicken to a serving platter and let it rest for at least 5 minutes. serve with the remaining barbecue sauce alongside.

note :: if you prefer not to grill, the chicken can also be baked. place the chicken skin side up in a baking dish and bake for 25 minutes in a 375 degree oven. remove the baking dish from the oven and spoon the barbecue sauce all over the top of the chicken. return the baking dish to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.

what i made for dinner :: Orecchiette with Sausage, Beans, and Mascarpone

i know i said this last time too, but it's been awhile since i've tried a new recipe. our local library has a copy of _giada's kitchen: new italian favorites_ by giada de laurentiis so i thought it was high time to add a new pasta dish to my repertoire. and, although i love baked pastas (such as giada's stuffed manicotti), i don't much feel like turning the oven on in july (even if i wanted to i couldn't since it's broken). i hunted around for a recipe with a short ingredient list and just a few steps.

the recipe for "orecchiette with sausage, beans, and mascarpone" kept catching my eye. i made a few substitutions (medium shell pasta instead of orecchiette, mild italian sausage instead of turkey sausage) and finally used the sea salt i bought in paris (from brittany). i thought it was quite tasty, and the kiddos did too (including a friend's almost-4-year-old).

Orecchiette with Sausage, Beans, and Mascarpone
(4~6 servings)

ingredients ::

• 1 pound orecchiette or other small shaped pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 pound turkey sausage, casings removed
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano leaves
• 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

directions ::

1. bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes. drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.
2. in a large, heavy skillet, warm the olive oil over medium-high heat. add the sausage and onion and cook, using a wooden spoon to break up the sausage into bite-size pieces as it browns. continue cooking until the sausage is golden and the onion is tender.
3. add the beans and oregano and cook for 2 more minutes. add the reserved pasta cooking water and stir, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. add the mascarpone cheese and stir until it dissolves into a light sauce.
4. add the salt, pepper, and hot pasta. stir until coated, and serve.
   

what i made for dinner :: edamame corn chowder

this is really a story for another day, but rupert + i were kinda annoyed at each other this past weekend because we're having a difference of opinion on our roles at home. (or maybe i'm just annoyed and he's not? who knows with him ... i'll have to ask.) anyway, because of that, i wanted to spite him and show him that i'm capable of being super-mom. and what better way than to try out a new recipe, which i haven't done in quite some time.

luckily, a new recipe from everyday food appeared in my inbox and it seemed just the dish to make for a cool evening after freezing our butts off at ian's baseball game :: edamame corn chowder. [and, as an aside, please stop pronouncing it "eda-mommy" -- it's "eda-mamé".]

the ingredient list is simple and it's easy to assemble. but, like most soups, you need to give it some time on the stove to really simmer so the veggies can soften. i also found that, for a corn chowder, it's not super corn-y. my personal preference would be to add another can of creamed corn or fresh corn kernels, but rupert said he could taste the corn as is. the key to this dish, though, is the bacon. don't omit the bacon! in fact, i cooked up twice the amount of bacon it called for, and i recommend that you do the same. the soup greatly benefits (as most dishes do) from the saltiness and crispness of the bacon.

i served the soup with a salad and multigrain rustic bread. it was the perfect almost-meatless meal.

what i made for dinner :: asparagus, mushroom, and tomato tart with ricotta and petite jurassic cheese

yumminess of the week 3 was asparagus, mushroom, and tomato tart with ricotta and petite jurassic cheese. well, it was yummy to me + rupert. no surprise the kids picked off the mushrooms and tomatoes (it's a good thing they eat asparagus, even if it does make their pee smell funny). i just can't seem to find many recipes that appeal to all of us; there's always something wrong with an ingredient or two that makes someone say, "ick!"

anyway, we tried to sell it as "fancy pizza" to the kids but they didn't fall for it. the dish is a tart with a puff pastry bottom and a ricotta, egg, and asparagus puree as a sauce. there's sliced cured meat and veggies on top. i also added extra shredded gruyere cheese to the crust, which gave a nice crispy, cheesy, nutiness to the flaky crust.

i think i might make this for my father-in-law's 60th birthday party in a couple of weeks.

what i made for dinner :: white chicken chili

[i forgot to take a picture of my chili but you can see what it should look like at seriouseats.com where i got the recipe from.]

new dinner numero dos this week was white chicken chili. the weather was a bit on the cooler side this week so it was nice to have another hearty meal. because of the kids i omitted the jalapeno and green chilies, and i'm sure those ingredients would've given the dish the wee bit of oomph i felt it needed.

i think the other issue was that i doubled the recipe and it turns out i used too much chicken broth, which made the chili too soupy (despite mashing up the beans as the recipes suggests), so i added another can of beans ... without adding more spices (although i did salt + pepper accordingly). for the most part, however, this is a super-simple (especially if you use pre-cooked chicken), tummy-warming, and filling dish, which i will probably make again.

i served it with corn chips and the leftover cheddar from the shepherd's pie. next time, i'll prep some onions, cilantro, and avocado as a topping.