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By mlb, on January 12th, 2012
Hey, it’s the first French Fridays with Dorie of 2012 (for me, anyway)! And this week….M. Jacques Armagnac Chicken. This is a pretty easy and delicious weeknight dinner. I typically prefer roasted-type birds with golden, crackly skin, but to its credit, this was one helluva moist bird. And, with the new year’s resolutions and all, it’s probably best to not be tempted to eat all that tasty, golden, crackly skin.
Notes:
1. My bird was about 2.75 pounds and I roasted it for 55 minutes. It came out perfectly done and super moist.
2. I used a mix of gold, red and purple potatoes and two rosemary sprigs (no thyme).
3. I added garlic to the pot (duh).
4. I only had fairly cheap brandy. I used that, although, I did contemplate using some marsala wine instead. The cheap brandy seemed to work fine.
5. I wish I had salted . . . → Read More: FFwD: M. Jacques Armagnac Chicken
By mlb, on January 7th, 2012
This marks the return of Thursday soup nights. For awhile last Winter, I was coming home from work on Thursday nights and making a big pot of interesting soup. I decided to start up the tradition again this year and the first experiment was this cumin-y, black bean soup. I thought it had great flavor and while I didn’t include all the seeds from the jalapeño, it was spicy enough for me. jwa, of course, opted for a little hot sauce.
The original instructions said to not drain the beans, but I wanted to rinse a little of the salt/liquid off, so I split the difference and drained one can/used the other without draining. Seemed like a good compromise and I probably added about 1/2 tsp of kosher salt at the end.
Black Bean Soup with Cumin and Jalapeño
Adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit
2 tbsp olive . . . → Read More: Black Bean Soup with Cumin and Jalapeño
By mlb, on January 4th, 2012
I was trying to delete some blog spam the other night and I got distracted (I know, so rare!) by looking through my iphoto annals. It got me to thinking, “hey! I should go through all my pictures from 2011 and pick my favorite two (or three) from each month and put them in a blog post.”
So, that’s what I’ve done here. It was a lot more fun than deleting spam comments from the moderation queue. Although, you have to admit, this one has a certain charm:
I beloved as much as you’ll receive carried out proper here. The caricature is tasteful, your authored material stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an nervousness over that you want be delivering the following. unwell surely come further previously once more since exactly the similar just about very regularly within case you defend this hike.
It’s weird. It always seems . . . → Read More: 2011 in Pictures
By mlb, on December 31st, 2011
I’d like to begin this post by admitting that I am turkey-challenged. It’s the one thing that I can’t seem to have come out right, ever…until now. Yes, I devoted a whole weekend in December to finding a turkey recipe that I could make and have work. And while this one wasn’t perfect, (it wasn’t quite as moist as I was hoping for — that was my own fault for not checking it about 10 minutes earlier), it was pretty damn good.
It was the moistest turkey I’ve ever made (yes, I realize that’s not saying a lot). But, seriously, I almost can’t wait until next Thanksgiving to pop this one out of the kitchen to cheers and gasps of amazement. Even jwa, who is not a big fan of turkey, thought this was “pretty good.” Hey, I’ll take it.
And the sauce. Oh my . . . → Read More: Cranberry-Molasses Glazed Turkey
By mlb, on December 26th, 2011
I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, if that is the holiday you celebrate this time of year. If not, happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, Festivus, what have you. Maybe you just like to sit around in December eating a lot of appetizers and cookies for no real holiday-affiliated reason. If so, hope you had a nice time doing that!
This was our dinner on December 26th, a day known far and wide for its sensible eating. Because of this, I chose to bake the shrimp toasts in the oven (originally, they were deep fried). This is actually a very nice change from the creamy-cheesey-red-meat-dips-crackers type of eating a person might tend to do around this time of year. This soup is light and full of spinach and mushrooms. It’s also vinegary and a little spicy.
Sure, the shrimp toast isn’t entirely necessarily, but it’s . . . → Read More: Thai Hot & Sour Soup with Shrimp Toast
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About Me I like to cook. I like to eat. I like to take photos. I live in SE Portland with my husband jwa and a grumpy, old lady cat named Chelsea. That is all.
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