Braised Chicken with Tomatillos and Jalapenos

By mlb, on November 28th, 2011%

It seems like I hardly ever sit around on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon anymore and watch cooking shows. I used to do that all the time. Now, meh. I should really try to get back in the habit of doing that, as I feel like I’ve been in a little bit of a food rut lately.

Now this recipe…this is what happens when I actually see something on a cooking show and right then, go out and get what I need to make it. Except, in this case, I forgot limes. Thankfully, I found an orange in the fridge that I used as a substitute. And, although I think that limes would work really well in this recipe (duh), I have to admit, the orange was quite nice. A little sweeter, but it complimented the tomatillos and jalapeno well.

Plus, this is seriously some braising weather lately. Go braise something! Why not this?

Braised Chicken with Tomatillos and Jalapenos
Adapted from a recipe by Anne Burrell (she with the crazy hair). Serves two as written below. Double it up and you’ve got lunches for the next day as well!
3 tomatillos, husked
1 jalapeno pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
4 chicken drumsticks
Kosher . . . → Read More: Braised Chicken with Tomatillos and Jalapenos

Thanksgiving 2011

By mlb, on November 22nd, 2011%

Okay, lazy! Here’s this finally. The cooking officially starts tonight with the making of the cranberry sauce. Puddings, cookie dough, hen brine, cauliflower gratin and roasted veggies all happen tomorrow.

Appetizers:
Wheat Blini w/ Smoked Salmon — recipe from Dorie Greenspan, a French Fridays with Dorie adventure from last month.

Veggies & Balsamic Hummus Dip — pretty easy here. Using a store-bought, local hummus that I like. May thin it a bit with yogurt for easier delicate-vegetables dipping.

Rosemary Marcona Almonds – from Trader Joe’s. But I may try candy-ing some. For fun.

Dinner:
Yeah, there’s no turkey this year. No. Turkey. Instead, everyone gets their own “tiny turkey.”

Cornish game Hens w/ Apple, Sage, Sausage Stuffing & Gravy – America’s Test Kitchen recipe. One day I will type up this recipe. It mainly consists of brining, stuffing, roasting breast-side down for a bit, turning breast-side up and basting with olive oil & balsamic vinegar. I will be adding some butter/roasted garlic/sage leaves up under the skin. Whee!

Stuffing: Got some dried bread stuffing mix that I will doctor up with other stuff. Mainly garlic, sage, apples, sausage. Butter.

Roasted Root Vegetables w/ Balsamic & Lemon Vinaigrette – recipe from Bon Appétit. Made it . . . → Read More: Thanksgiving 2011

FFwD: Braised Cardamon Curry Lamb

By mlb, on November 18th, 2011%

Oh geez, I have been so lazy. I’ve made a couple of really nice meals lately and been out to dinner twice and I’ve blogged about none of these things. I need to get my act together here. Let’s kick that off with this week’s French Fridays with Dorie, shall we?

I am a huge fan of lamb but almost every lamb stew I’ve attempted I’ve been disappointed with…until now. I loved this! I’m not sure even why this is the one lamb stew to rule them all, but it was. It just worked for me, you know? I used my sweet curry powder from Penzey’s and also ground cardamom seeds (I ground them in the coffee grinder), so the cardamom was very fresh tasting. I also added a pinch of dried ginger and extra garlic. Oh and a dash of cayenne for a little heat. Oh, now that I’m thinking about it, I only added one diced apple. Mainly, because it was a fairly big one.

We had this over some cooked bulgur (normally, I would have gone the rice route, but I had bulgur in the fridge). I also served some garlicky yogurt and . . . → Read More: FFwD: Braised Cardamon Curry Lamb

Cooking with Pinterest: Spinach Lasagna Soup

By mlb, on November 8th, 2011%

This was one of the first food images that I came across on pinterest.com (follow me here!) that I pinned and yes, it’s now the first recipe I’ve made from my Savory Snacks board. Not a bad choice. I changed it up a bit and made it a spinach lasagna soup and also decreased the meat a bit (using chicken sausage for the regular pork).

Cooking the noodles separately will let you easily save some of it for lunch the next day (I hate it when pasta sits in soup overnight and soaks up all the liquid).

As a funny anecdote, this recipe is originally (I think) from a Disney site at go.com which is the name of the web property that Disney turned infoseek.com into, which is my old company. I actually worked there when Disney bought us. By the way, I think Go.com is a dumb name, I’m really surprised they kept it all these years. No, I’m not bitter (yes I am!). Kidding! Um , not really…

Anyway. No matter what the source is, this soup is pretty good and a perfect Fall/Winter meal. Leftovers are great for lunch the next day, . . . → Read More: Cooking with Pinterest: Spinach Lasagna Soup

FFwD: Twenty Minute Honey-Glazed Duck Breasts

By mlb, on November 3rd, 2011%

I have really been looking forward to this week’s French Fridays with Dorie as I love duck and I hardly ever cook it at home. I had no idea it could come together so quickly. Although, I think the reason I never make duck at home is that a). it seems expensive — my frozen duck breast was about 1lb and $14 and b.) jwa’s not crazy about duck. But, I made this anyway (haha!) and he liked it and so did I.

Notes:
1. I sliced the breast in half before cooking, figuring it would cook a little faster (more in line with the directions). So, each piece was about 8 oz.
2. I did the 8 minutes on the skin side and then let them go for about 4.5 minutes on the 2nd side and I got nicely medium-rare duck.
3. A splatter screen was a really valuable thing to have here.
4. Honey, balsamic and lime juice FTW!!!
5. On the side we had roasted sweet potatoes and a kale, lemon and Parmesan salad.
6. Great Tuesday night meal! I think the sweet potatoes took the longest amount of time to make.
7. Excuse the blurring, but I did manage . . . → Read More: FFwD: Twenty Minute Honey-Glazed Duck Breasts

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