We had this meal a couple of weeks ago and I think we’ll have to have it again soon. It was really tasty. The original recipe called for chicken thighs but it worked really well with chicken breasts. You could probably go with skinless and boneless (that would take less cooking time) but go ahead and live a little and use bone-in breasts.

Seriously, this was really good. Give it a few days before you actually want to cook again after Thursday and then make this…

Braised Chicken with Apples and Sage
Adapted from a recipe in Gourmet magazine
2 big chicken breasts with skin and bones (you could probably get away with 3-4 breasts with the amount of sauce that this makes, but lost of sauce is good so it woks with 2 breasts fine)
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp packed brown sugar
2 apples (preferably Gala; 3/4 lb total), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges — I used one Gala and one Granny Smith, and I didn’t peel
1/4 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup chopped shallots (2 to 3) — I subbed half a white onion as I didn’t have any shallots
2/3 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp chopped fresh sage (rosemary would work well too)

Pat chicken dry and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown chicken well, starting with skin sides down and turning over once, 10 to 12 minutes total. Transfer chicken to a plate and pour off some of the fat if you have a lot in the pan — you want about 1 tablespoon in the skillet.

Add butter, brown sugar, apples, walnuts and shallots to fat in skillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until apples are browned, about 5 minutes.

Add broth, vinegar, and sage and deglaze skillet by boiling, stirring and scraping up any brown bits, 1 minute. Return chicken, skin sides up, to skillet along with any juices accumulated on plate. Reduce heat and simmer, loosely covered with foil, until chicken is cooked through and sauce is slightly reduced, 30-35 minutes. Check the temperature — you want it to be about 165 degrees.

Mmmm….it’s moist and tasty!

Okay, off to California Wednesday. Have a nice Thanksgiving, everyone!

This is an easy oven-stovetop-blender soup. It might sound complicated because of all the appliances involved but it is S-I-M-P-L-E. Roast your potatoes and garlic. Heat up your broth. throw it all in the broth pot. Puree *whir* *whir* in your blender. Done.

I think without the orange juice it might be a bit too heavy and rich, but the citrus really evens it out nicely. I dare say this might even make a tasty Thanksgiving side. But, please, test run it first and make sure you like it because that’s a lot of pressure, man.

Also, there is a lot of garlic in this soup, if you are a normal person, you might want to dial that down a bit.

Roasted Sweet Potato and Hazelnut Soup
This will feed 2 — double, triple or quadruple to meet your needs
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into about 8 chunks
3 large cloves garlic
salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts
1/4 cup fresh orange juice (about 1/2 an orange)
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup marscapone cheese
1 - 2 sage leaves
1 sprig rosemary
Optional: I’m thinking that if you want to get all fancy and special occasion-y, you could also add some cream or half and half at the end — you know, just because it’s the holidays
Possible garnish: A few drops of chili oil looks nice — as does a rogue sage leaf…

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Toss the sweet potato chunks and the unwrapped garlic cloves with the oil and spread out on a baking sheet. Salt and pepper and bake until nicely caramelized — about 20 - 30 minutes.

In a pot, add the chicken stock, cooked potatoes, toasted hazelnuts*, sage and rosemary. Bring to a boil and squeeze out the garlic paste into the pot. Let simmer for about 5 minutes just to get all the flavors melding and enjoying each other’s company.

Turn off the heat and remove the rosemary sprig (a lot of the rosemary oils already came off the rosemary into the broth). Add the marscapone cheese and orange juice and head to your blender.

Blend until very smooth. Add more broth and/or OJ to get the soup to your desired consistency. Taste and salt/pepper as needed.

Like a lot of soups, this is even better the next day. So, maybe make it the day before you want to eat it. T’is very tasty!

* I toasted my hazelnuts after the potatoes came out of the oven. I turned the heat down to about 350 and put them in there for about 5 minutes. Then, wrapped them in a towel and rubbed them together to try to get as much of the brown papery skin off that I could.

New Subject Starts Now
We are having a Thanksgiving potluck at work next week and I am trying to figure out what to make and bring — some kind of soup like this in a crockpot? The most awesomest cheeseball in the whole world? Martha Stewart cranberry-orange relish? Gingerbread-espresso-pecan brownies? Hmmmm….

Kinda lazy tonight. Will just post pictures of today’s walk around Mt. Tabor.

Okay.

Colorful foliage!

Park bench, trees, and me!

Reservoir and downtown in the background

jwa walking…

Upper reservoir and Fallness

Nice!

Leaves and sky. Duh

Goodnight.

::snore::

I recently got the cookbook, Talk with your Mouth Full by Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh and I absolutely love it. So many pages turned down of recipes that I want to make. This first one I thought would be perfect for the Halloween theme I chose for this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge, which I am super excited to be guest-hosting.

Now, the recipe itself isn’t particularly “Halloweeny” but it is when you add bat and black cat shaped Parmesan croutons and serve it in a big pumpkin soup tureen! Although, every year when jwa and I carve pumpkins, we do use parsnips for the noses, so there you go.

Roasted Honey Parsnip Bisque
2 pounds parsnips, peeled and quartered lengthwise
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I subbed olive oil)
3 tsp salt, divided
6 tbsp honey, divided
6 cups water
1 bunch parsley
1 carrot, cut in 1/2
1 small onion
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp white pepper (I used regular, freshly ground black pepper)
3 cups heavy cream (here, I used about 1.5 cups half and half)
Garnish: chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Toss the parsnips with the oil and 1 teaspoon of salt and drizzle with 3 tablespoons honey. Place on a baking sheet and put into the top half of the oven. Roast 30 minutes, or until the parsnips are a deep golden brown; they tend to burn easily so make sure to toss often while roasting.

Meanwhile, put the water into a large pot and place over high heat. Lay a double layer of cheesecloth on a flat surface and place the carrot, onion, parsley, bay leaves and peppercorns in the center. When I did this, I couldn’t find my kitchen twine, so I just tied the cheesecloth up around everything. Then I realized I forgot my carrots. So, I just added those to the pot, figuring I would fish them out later. Oh and I threw in a garlic clove too.

Tie the cheesecloth up and around the vegetable and herb mix and drop it into the water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove the parsnips from the oven and place them immediately into the stock. Add the remaining honey and salt and white pepper; simmer for about 20 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender.

Return to the saucepan and add the cream (or half and half) and pepper. I found when I did this that a cup and a half made it super creamy so I just stopped there. Feel free to add the whole 3 cups. Stir well to combine and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

For a holiday garnish, cut shapes from sourdough bread using cookie cutters, brush on some olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Toast in the oven and serve with the bisque. Speaking of the bisque, it was so good and creamy — even subbing the half and half for the cream.

So, everyone get your cookbooks out (or even a food magazine) and find a recipe that could fit a Halloween theme, make it, post about it, and send me the link to your post by Monday Sunday, October 21st — you still have 6 days! I’ll round them all up here shortly after the due date.

Recently, it has come to my attention that October 18th is National Meatloaf Appreciation Day. A big thank you to Serious Eats for bringing the enlightenment and for also hosting an event just for all the meat loaves and their special day.

I have been trying to recreate and perfect a meatloaf that I had about nine years ago, while living in California. jwa and I had gone shopping for something and ended up at the California Cafe by the Stanford Mall for an early dinner. They had a chicken, apple and dijon meatloaf for a special which I ordered and loved — it was the greatest meatloaf I had ever had.

Much to jwa’s dismay I have tried to recapture this awesomeness on a plate all these years since but now….I think I’ve finally gotten it (or something I like just as much).

My version has turkey instead of chicken but it’s close enough. And jwa liked it too — a lot! Which is amazing as, although he did like the Montana meatloaf, generally, he’s not a huge fan of big meaty loaves. In all honesty, I am not either — at least not the beef or beef/pork/veal varieties, hence my collection of previous turkey meat loaves.

So, anyway, there you go. A mostly-meatloaf-disliker likes this meatloaf a lot and a turkey-meatloaf-liker loves this meatloaf. How’s that for a recommendation?

Turkey Meatloaf with Apple, Dijon and Carrot or (This is not the greatest meatloaf in the world — no, it’s just a tribute)
1 medium white onion, diced
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 green apple, grated (do not squeeze the juice out)
2 big cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1.5 lb ground turkey
.25 lb sweet pork sausage (you can also use pork sausage in a casing, just remove the casing — that’s what I did)
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
3 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
salt and pepper

glaze + topping:
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp dijon mustard
pinch of dried thyme
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
canola oil spray

Okay — here we go. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the oil in a skillet and saute the onion until soft — about 3-4 minutes. Add the fennel seeds and the apple and carrot. Continue to saute until any apple liquid evaporates and everything gets just a little color, about 3-4 minutes more. Remove the pan from the heat and let the veggies cool off in a big bowl.

Add the turkey, pork, breadcrumbs, eggs, cheese, mustard and thyme to the big bowl with the veggies. Add about one teaspoon salt and a half of a teaspoon freshly ground pepper. Mix it all up with your hands. It’ll be cold. That’s okay, it builds character.

Put your meatloaf mixture into a loaf pan. I like to go around the edges with my fingers and push down a little so there’s an indentation so that any juices can run off to the side.

Once the meat is safely in the pan, make a little something-something for the top. Mix the mustard with the honey and the pinch of dried thyme. Spread over the top of the meatloaf and sprinkle with some Parmesan. Give it just a quick, little spray with canola oil to encourage browning.

Okay, fine, so I used a bit more cheese…

Bake in the oven about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Then, turn the oven up to 375 for 15 more minutes of cooking. This extra blast of heat at the end should ensure you have a nice, toasty crust. After the one hour total baking time, take it out and check the temperature. If it’s at least 165 degrees (it’ll probably be a bit over that temperature), you’re good to go. Cover loosely with some foil and let it rest for 10-20 minutes.

Now, when you turn the heat up (about 15 minutes before it’s done) you can start a quick pan gravy.

Quick Pan Gravy
1 tbsp butter
1/2 white onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 tsp thyme leaves
Salt and pepper

Saute the onion in the butter over medium-low heat until softened and a bit golden — about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and and give it about 4-5 more minutes. Now add the flour and cook a minute or two. Add the stock, wine and mustard. Whisk and bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer until the meatloaf is done resting.

Oh, here’s what else you can do if you are in a daring sort of mood — grab the meatloaf pan with some oven mits. Bring it over to the pan of gravy and tip it slightly so that some of the meatloaf juices pour into your pan gravy. See, this is where the indentations around the meatloaf in the pan help out. And, I think this goes without saying, but don’t drop the whole meatloaf into the gravy pan! Next, your meatloaf safely back on the counter, add the thyme and salt and pepper the gravy to taste.

Slice the meatloaf (ours was so moist it was a little hard to get it out in perfect slices that were all in one piece) and serve with the gravy drizzled over it. Simple steamed broccoli and buttermilk mashed potatoes make great sides!

And, wow, this was soooo good. This was the first time I added pork to the combo and I think that was what took it over the edge. I knew I had experienced a major turkey meatloaf breakthrough when jwa was all, “oh, can I take the leftovers for lunch tomorrow?” Ha! Victory is mine!

Thanks again to Serious Eats for hosting this event and giving meatloaf some love.

This is really, really easy and super good. Who doesn’t have a bag or half bag of frozen peas in the house? With that and a few more items you could have an excellent dinner and even a lunch or two for later in the week. What a deal!

Aside from that, we had a great time in Ashland. The leaves were changing — it was very pretty and scenic. We ate at Dragonfly, Morning Glory and the Winchester Inn. More on that later in the week. For now — let’s get to the pasta!

Rustic Green Pea Pesto with Whole Wheat Spaghetti
Adapted from a recipe on the Whole Foods Market Web site
1 pound whole wheat linguine
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1/4 cup packed flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/2 cup packed basil leaves (you could also use mint — that sounds great for a Spring version of this dish)
1 tbsp capers, drained
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until it is al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta-cooking water. Drain the pasta, then transfer it to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, combine the peas, parsley, basil, Parmesan, capers, garlic and lemon juice in a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the oil in a steady stream while pulsing. Add salt and pepper, taste and adjust seasoning.

Toss the hot pasta with the reserved pasta-cooking water and pesto. Top with toasted walnuts and serve immediately. Oh fine. Add some more Parmesan cheese to the top as well.

First off, goodbye Summer theme…hello again Autumn theme! I’ve missed you!

Now, this recipe is from my friend Vanessa. We met at DePaul freshman year of college and then both transferred to other places. We managed to stay in touch for a few years after school, then kind of went on with our lives for a few years after that and just recently got back in touch. Hooray!

She even gave me this awesome recipe for tuna and white beans as a great week night, comforting, quick dinner. It really is…and it fits right in with my (and jwa’s reluctant) goal to eat more economical fish. Frozen tuna is about $6.99/pound at Trader Joe’s. That’s vs. about $20/pound fresh. So, while I will always love the fresh, seared, rare ahi more than anything, it’s good to have a few tricks with frozen tuna. Add this to the list because it’s great!

I didn’t change much from the original, but I did add orange and olives. That’s what so great about this recipe — you can really alter it to fit what you have on hand or flavors that you are in the mood to eat.

Baked Tuna & White Beans from Vanessa
1 medium to large onion, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
4-5 medium garlic cloves - crushed and roughly chopped
2 cans Cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
1 lb tuna (defrosted frozen is really good for this — albacore or ahi)
salt and pepper
Olive oil
2 sprigs fresh thyme
Optional: 1 orange, zested and juiced
1/4 cup green olives

Saute onion along with the carrots in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook (but don’t brown).

Next, throw in drained beans just to get them fusing with onion/garlic/olive oil. Add the orange zest and juice. Salt & pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a casserole dish, add half of the bean mixture to bottom. Sprinkle the beans with half the thyme leaves. Cut tuna into 4-6 chunks so it cooks faster and put on top of beans.

Dump other half of bean mixture over top of tuna. Drizzle with little more olive oil and the feta cheese.

Bake (uncovered) for about 20 minutes or until tuna is cooked/flaky. Before serving, use a spoon to stir everything up so that tuna flakes and is distributed (in small flakes) through beans. Serve with more fresh thyme and green olives.

You could also use fresh basil and Parmesan in place of the thyme and feta. Vanessa first described with with the parm and basil, which I would have done, except the garden thyme was much closer to the kitchen door and it was raining. So there. Also, if you use basil, just add that at the end, after it comes out of the oven.

Here the meal is with some tasty crostini slathered with arugula pesto. How did I make that? Well, a few very big (overflowing, really) handfuls of arugula leaves, about 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 2 garlic cloves salt and pepper. Add to a food processor and combine. Stream olive oil in until it’s smooth and looks like pesto. Get a big bowl of pasta, some crostini or a spoon. All done.

Okay, now off for a bike ride with jwa!

Sugar High Friday, hosted by Cream Puffs in Venice is all about figs this month. Awesome. I really like figs. For this SHF I turned towards perhaps the perfect cookbook for this event — The Girl and the Fig cookbook, one that I really like. In fact, I’m trying to finagle my way into lunch or dinner there next time we’re near Sonoma. But, back to SHF, I’m going to guess I’m not the only one who makes something out of this book given the theme. We’ll see…

Anyway, this was wonderful! A lot of steps, but it makes a great Saturday afternoon project. I did halve the recipe (I used a square 8 inch X 8 inch baking pan) and still ended up freezing about half of it for later snacking — it’s very rich.

Warm Fig & Thyme Crisp with Fig Syrup
Pastry:
2 cups walnut halves
6 tbsp + 3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
4 1/2 cups AP flour
3/4 lb (3 sticks) unsalted butter, thinly sliced
3 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks

Jam:
2 1/2 pounds dried figs (I used about half dried figs and half fresh figs, which, for my halved recipe turned out to be 1 8-oz bag of dried figs and 1 pint of fresh figs)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
zest of 3 lemons
1 bunch thyme, tied with twine
3 tbsp lemon juice

Port-Fig Syrup:
2 cups Port
5 dried Black Mission figs, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
1/2 cup sugar

Pastry
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, grind the walnuts (until medium-fine) with the tablespoons of sugar and set aside. Don’t worry, you’ll come back to them, but not until you’re ready to assemble the crisp. Next, mix the 3/4 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, salt, baking powder and flour until well combined. Add the butter and mix until the mixture clumps, about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla and egg yolks to the mixture and mix for 40 seconds. Pack two-thirds of the dough into the bottom of a 9 X 12 inch ungreased pan and bake until it’s lightly golden — about 25-30 minutes.

Jam
To make the Jam, combine the figs, sugar, lemon zest thyme and lemon juice and pour in enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Don’t be shy with the water. I was kinda skimpy and had to add more water half way through cooking. Go ahead and really cover everything from the beginning.

Reduce the heat and simmer until the figs are tender, about 30 minutes. Remove the thyme. Puree the mixture in a food processor.

Syrup
Heat the figs, port, cinnamon and clove in a pan over medium heat and reduce to about 1/2 cup. Strain the sauce, pushing on the figs to get as much juice out as possible. Whisk in the sugar and serve.

Assembley
Spread the jam evenly over the baked dough.

In a bowl, crumble together the remaining third of the dough with the walnut and sugar mixture. Sprinkle this mixture over the jam and bake for about 50 minutes. (If you make a half recipe in a smaller pan, give it about 35 minutes).

Cut into pieces and serve warm with vanilla ice cream (or frozen yogurt) and drizzle with the port sauce. So amazingly decadent! And delicious!

Thanks again to Ivonne for hosting and coming up with a tasty theme! I can’t wait to see all of the fig recipes.

I am very pleased to announce, thanks to Sara, that I am guest hosting October’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge! Hooray! And the theme is…Halloween.

Boo!

Now, you might be thinking, hmmmm, Halloween…what can I make for that? Well, my answer is, pretty much anything — pumpkins, root vegetables, snacks for trick-or-treaters, dishes for Halloween parties, perhaps even a super-scary Sandra Lee recipe — ha! Really, anything that can be remotely tied into Halloween will work..I’m not picky.

Of course, since this is a cookbook challenge, you should try to get your recipe from a cookbook, but if you see an amazingly awesome Halloween recipe in a magazine that you really want to use for this, I’m not going to stand in your way. See? Not much pickiness.

To participate, please make a recipe and post about your dish and send your entry to mlbATjemangelavilleDOTcom by Sunday, October 21. I will plan on getting the recap up very soon after that. Thanks again to Sara for generously letting me host this month — I’m very excited. I hope everyone has fun with this challenge! Please feel free to email if you have any questions.

So, I was all set to do an Indian-inspired Mahi Mahi next when Guilty Carnivore sung the praises of Tilapia in a recent comment. I am very easily influenced by the things that I read so I decided to pick some tilapia up on the way home last week — $5.99/pound at the Whole Foods by work (if I remember correctly). The Mahi Mahi in the freezer will have to wait until next weekend. I’m sure the Mahi Mahi won’t mind — it’s hanging out by some vodka.

I wasn’t sure of what to do with the tilapia first. I saw a recipe where prosciutto is wrapped around it and the fish is grilled with sage. I even considered throwing some Parmesan into that equation, but after being mocked by jwa last week for cooking fish with bacon, I decided to try a different approach this time.

What I ended up with was actually pretty good — kind of like a fish lasagna. Both jwa and I agreed that we would definitely eat it again. And there was no bacon or pork products involved at all! Hooray! (or boo!) — I don’t know which one.

Baked Tilapia Layered with Ricotta and Vegetables
about 1 lb tilapia
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 leek, washed well, trimmed and sliced (use a large leek or 2 small leeks)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium zucchini, sliced into rounds
20 shitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
1 cup loosely packed baby spinach
3 tbsp (or so) white wine
1 cup low fat ricotta cheese
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
5 sprigs fresh thyme
salt & pepper

On the side
Cooked pasta (parpadelle works well) tossed with:
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup pitted green olives
olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat a pan over medium heat and add the oil. Sauté the leek, garlic and mushrooms with the dried basil until the veggies are starting to get soft and they have a little bit of color — about 5-6 minutes.

Spread about 1/2 of the vegetable mixture in a casserole dish. It should just cover the bottom. My dish was about 8 inches by 6 inches. If you are using a bigger dish, you may want to sauté few more veggies. Salt and pepper the fish on both sides and lay that down on top of the veggies and sprinkle with the wine.

Next comes the spinach. Lay that down and spread the ricotta over it. Finish it off with the remaining vegetables and the Parmesan cheese. Drizzle with a little olive oil and lay the thyme sprigs on top.

Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the spinach, veggies and wine have given off some liquid. My theory was that this would help the fish stay nice and moist while the top got a bit golden. I think it worked well.

So you see, I didn’t lie about the liquid in the pan after removing a piece. I chose to not cook the spinach first so it gave off some water. This didn’t bother me but if you want less liquid after baking, just sauté the spinach with the veggies and just add it that way. Anyway, after it comes out of the oven, let it all sit for a couple of minutes and serve with the pasta. In a surprising turn, I must say that the leftovers brought for lunch were even better a couple of days later!

Now, back to watching some more Burn Notice episodes! Maybe fish experiment number three will be prepared with only my cell phone, laptop and things I can get at the hardware store. Oh and there will be yogurt.