The Turkey Trials (Episode 2)

Last night, the turkey trials continued with a venture into the world of stuffing.  You may be thinking, who needs to practice such an all-American classic?

I do!

Growing up, my grandmother always brought the stuffing to Thanksgiving.  Her stuffing is a super moist meaty-bread concoction that, to the naked eye, does not look like stuffing.  Don't get me wrong, it's DELICIOUS (I mean it's full of bread and meat, how can it now be), but it's not your traditional all-American stuffing (which she gets away with because she's adorably Portuguese).

My grandmother still brings her wonderful stuffing to Thanksgiving every year, but last year I decided to add a second type of stuffing (because, you know there's not ever enough food choices on Thanksgiving).  It all started when we went to a Friends-giving get together at my friend VT's house the weekend before Turkey Day last year.

VT has this amazing gift where she can stay totally calm in the kitchen and throw together a massively fabulous meal without (seemingly) any practice or prepping.  Last year she whipped up a last minute stuffing for our Friends-giving and it BLEW MY MIND.  My entire perception of stuffing was changed and it seemed so simple.  There was some sausage and some green apples and oh man it was crazy good.  With only a few days to go before Turkey Day last year, I attempted my own VT-style stuffing and it turned out pretty decently.

With more time to plan this year, I've decided to attempt VT's yummy stuffing again.  I searched for recipes and found one that looked pretty close so last night, I gave it a whirl.

Here is the recipe I used.

I melted some butter in my wonderful dutch oven and threw in 2 chopped Granny Smith apples.

Butter + apples + heat = a deliciously fall scent!

When those looked slightly browned, I removed them to a bowl and added some more butter (mmm....butter) and threw in the chopped celery, onion, and sweet Italian sausage.  All of that goodness cooked up and looked amazing.

At this point, in went the chicken broth and a whole lot more butter.

In a separate dish, I mixed together the stuffing mix, a bag of croutons, 1 beaten egg, a whole lot of chopped sage, and the apples.

Look at how pretty that is!

When my sausage/broth/butter mix came to a boil...

(Ok so my awesomely professional cell phone camera could not capture the true boiling that was going on here but just believe me, it was.)

The bread/apple/sage mix then promptly went to mingle with the sausage broth mix.  I threw a cover on there and into the oven it went for 45 minutes.

Get in your time machine and travel 45 minutes into the future with me.

Sha-bam!  There you have it!  I took the lid off for the last five minutes of baking to get some crispy-ness going on up top.

There it is served up next to some yummy mustard crusted chicken (that was a little too mustardy but that's a story for another night).

Drumroll please for the verdict....

Pretty delicious!  Hubby liked it too which is a big plus.  I kind of wanted the apples to be a bit crispier, they were super soft.  Hubby said he liked them soft and would not like them crispy so I'm thinking next week I'll have them somewhere between crispy and squishy.

Either way, this is definitely on the T-Day menu...although I may add a few changes to the recipe last minute.

I would love any stuffing-related hints!!

Countdown to T-Day

Thanksgiving is fast approaching!  November is flying by!  Since the highly successful saffron butternut squash trial, I have not had the chance to do much cooking or turkey day practice.  This week I am planning my second trial recipe...apple and sausage stuffing.  I have, however, come up with a final menu...and by final menu I mean the first draft of a menu that will inevitably change daily until November 22nd.

So here it is, as of today:


Thanksgiving 2012 Menu

Roast turkey
Fried turkey
Mashed potatoes
Saffron butternut squash risotto
Corn chowder
Apple sausage stuffing
Roast autumn vegetable medley
Assorted breads
Salad


I'll come up with sassy restaurant quality, less boring names for those dishes as we get closer to the big day.

Check out my Thanksgiving Pinterest board here.

An Ode to Bob

It all started about a year ago when I was on a homemade pasta kick, all thanks to a particularly delectable pasta making article in Food Network Magazine.  In a desperate search for semolina flour to perfect my pasta making endeavors, I scoured every local grocery store. 

My search was concluded upon my discovery of Bob's Red Mill natural food line. 

Hidden amongst the natural section of my local big name grocery store, I was drawn into the various mixes and natural Bob's Red Mill products that appealed to my inner hipster wanna-be.  Over the past year, I bought more than just semolina flour from good ole' Bob, I began to dabble in pancake mixes and grains. 

Alas, tonight....Bob changed my life. 

Over the weekend, I made an impulse stop at Ocean State Job Lot.  If you've never been to Job Lot (that's what the cool kids call it), think of the sketchiest dollar store you have ever been in, mentally add a few degrees of sketchy, mix it with every random purchase you never knew you needed, and throw in some totally arbitrary food products.  There you have it, Job Lot.

Any who...

among other things (like every other thing known to man), Job Lot has a HUGE selection of Bob's Red Mill products for crazy cheap prices.  This weekend I decided to branch out and grab a bag of Bob's Vegi Soup mix. 

It appealed to my sudden desire to eat healthy, hearty foods and well, it was super cheap.  Tonight, I decided to give this soup mix a whirl.

I was slightly skeptical about how this soup would turn out for a few reasons.  (Have I mentioned that I love making lists??)

1. I'm generally wary of any kind of store bought soup/soup mix, homemade is always way better.
2. There's a ton of healthy junk in there and that generally means flavorless, in my experience.
3. There is absolutely no seasoning in the mix, just healthy stuff.
4. I purchased it at the wonderfully sketchy Ocean State Job Lot, it may taste like rubber garden gloves and marbles.

The directions on the back of this bad boy said to simmer 4 cups of water and 1 cup of Vegi soup mix for an hour and add whatever spices tickle your fancy.  I opted to simmer the mix in 4 cups of chicken broth for some extra hearty-ness.  I tossed in some Italian spices and then swirled in a few good squirts of tomato paste.  

About 20 minutes in, I started to get really excited.  The smell was amazing!

About 40 minutes in, my dear hubby (who told me he was not hungry for dinner tonight) pulled a Toucan Sam and followed his nose to the stove.  I should mention....my hubby dislikes soup for the most part (I know, he's un-American).  Based on smell and sight alone, he asked for a (small) bowl of the soup when it was done.  I warned him that it was full of healthy stuff and was really good for him.  He still insisted.

At the 1 hour mark, the soup looked thick and chunky and all sorts of amazing so into bowls it went.  I grated some fancy, stinky Parmesan cheese on top and it looked a little like this...

This is the point at which my life changed.

This stuff was so good, even my un-American, soup-hating husband loved it and went back for seconds.  He didn't believe that it was super healthy as per my warning.  I had to show him the nutritional facts...he still continued to eat it. 

Total success.

Way to go Bob's Red Mill.  I will be purchasing more of your delicious mixes at my local sketchy store.  I highly advise everyone to follow suit.

The Turkey Trials (Episode 1)

Apparently I'm not very good at this blogging thing.  Well, at least at the blogging consistently thing.  Have no fear, I haven't had any culinary breakthroughs in the time that I've been away.  A few disasters (spaghetti squash...I need to practice that some more) but nothing huge.

I did make some adorable and delicious hurricane cookies the day that Hurricane Sandy rolled through.

I found the idea and recipe for these cute little things here.

There is one important thing that happened while I was being too lazy to blog....

NOVEMBER arrived.

I love November.  Mostly, I love gorging myself at Thanksgiving.  I have been hosting Turkey Day for a few years now (since hubby and I have been married).  I thoroughly enjoy hosting, despite my mother's premonitions that this won't always be the case (advice from a woman who hosted Thanksgiving for over 20 years...I love you, mom!).

I spend most of November planning and prepping for Thanksgiving.  Planning the menu, testing various new recipes, cleaning the house, and spending way too much time on Pinterest looking for ideas.

One of the most important parts of this November nutty-ness is testing new recipes.  I'm slowly pinning down favorite turkey day staples but I also love changing things up every year.  Today I attempted my first Turkey Day trial (thus it's officially Thanksgiving season!)

What recipe did I choose for this momentous occasion?  A highly rated little gem by none other than my favorite celebrity chef, Ms. Ina Garten.

Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash

I know what you're thinking...holy ambitious, Batman!  Well, you're right.  This recipe was a crazy jump for me for the following reasons:

1. I've never made risotto before.
2. I've never cooked with butternut squash before.
3. I've never used saffron in cooking before.
4. I've never had or cooked with pancetta (an ingredient in this risotto).

Are we noticing a pattern here, people?

In an effort to channel Ina's spirit as good luck for this recipe, I took a trip to my local fancy cheese shop.  I pretended to know what I was doing and walked away with a hunk of pancetta and some stinky Parmesan cheese.

Back at home, I turned on some tunes, went for it and started risotto-ing.

I peeled and chopped up the butternut squash (so what if I had to Google how to peel a butternut squash...it's a learning process, people).  I threw all that golden goodness into a pan, tossed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and into the oven at 400 it went.

While the squash was roasting away for about 30 minutes, I diced up my pancetta and onion.  The recipe calls for shallots but I couldn't find any at the store (I didn't look very hard...) so I substituted in some onion.

After perusing reviews of this recipe online, I decided to make a few tweaks, such as using less butter in the next step.  I melted about 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter in my trusty dutch oven and added the pancetta and onion over medium low heat.

While that was sizzling away, I began to warm up my chicken broth (not homemade, sorry Ina) on a back burner. 

On a side note...pancetta smells so ridiculously amazing while cooking.  Why have I never used this stuff before??

About 10 minutes later, my onions were translucent and my pancetta appeared to be cooked through.
Time to add the rice!  Can we just talk about how adorable Arborio rice is?  It's so little and squat and ovalish.  Super cute.  Have I mentioned that rice is my favorite food?  Anyway, in went the rice and saffron.  I didn't have any white wine (a sin, I know) so I used a little bit of my warmed up chicken broth instead.

As a saffron virgin, I totally expected the entire dish to turn saffrony golden yellow instantly when the saffron was added.  Alas, I was disappointed to see no such miraculous color change.  As per reviews of this recipe, I only added about half a teaspoon of saffron instead of the full teaspoon in the ingredient list.

After a few minutes, it was time to start the intimidating part.  If you've watched food shows half as much as I have, you probably have a healthy fear of the risotto process, just as I do.  Facing my fear and putting my trust in Ina's recipe, I slowly added two ladles of my simmering chicken broth and held my breath....

I stirred and watched and waited.

A little more than 5 minutes later, when the broth appeared to be soaked up, I did it all over again.  It seemed to be coming along nicely.  I still held my breath.

There's that pretty saffron yellow I was looking for!  It was being shy and took a while to warm up to me.

While this wild risotto dance was taking place, my butternut squash finished roasting and it came out to cool.

Hello, beautiful.

After adding ladles of broth, stirring, and waiting about 3 times, I added the squash, one more ladle of broth, and my fancy cheese.

 
I let all of that golden deliciousness sit over low heat for a few minutes, still going stir-crazy (haha get it?) and gently breaking up the chunks of squash with my spoon.

A few minutes later, I couldn't stand it anymore and licking the spoon wasn't cutting it so I let out my held breath and declared my risotto experiment finished.

DO YOU SEE THAT COLOR?  That bowl is screaming, "It's Autumn, eat me!".  I had to listen to it.

Two bowls later, I called my first turkey trial a success.

HOLY CRAP, I MADE RISOTTO. 

This stuff is seriously delicious.  Is all risotto like this??  I've only had risotto a few times in my life but oh man, I've been missing out.  What did I take away from this experiment of mine?

• risotto is not as scary as I thought
• maybe a tad less saffron next time, I couldn't taste the butternut squash as much as I wanted to
• empty your bladder and turn off your phone before embarking on a risotto journey, you'll be way too paranoid to leave that sizzling pot for even a second 

 I would love to add this dish officially to my Thanksgiving 2012 menu but I have some worries...I'm all about making anything I can ahead of time to cut down on the craziness of turkey day and I'm concerned about this recipe being a bit too time consuming for the big day.  I'm typically juggling a dozen different last minute foods half an hour before Thanksgiving dinner, will I really have the time to dedicate to risotto making?

I'll have to ponder this quandary.

For now, happy November and I'll try to be better about posting :)

Pulled Pork, take 1 (a C+ for effort)

A few weeks ago we visited friends and had some spectacular pulled pork, which they cooked all day in the crock pot.  I was so impressed with the ease and overall deliciousness of the whole meal that I decided to take it on, recipe-less, myself.

Spoiler note...I probably should have used a recipe!

My recent sans recipe adventures have been mildly successful so I got super daring on this one.  I have never made pulled pork before nor am I very familiar with pork (other than the occasional chop).  I found a smoked shoulder picnic cut at the grocery store for super duper cheap and figured it was my lucky day.

Early on the morning of pork day, I got crazy with some spices and created a rub for my cheap pork (that some how doesn't sound right).

That lovely looking bowl contains some chopped garlic, salt, Italian seasonings, pepper, chili powder, onion powder, paprika, and ground mustard.  I smooshed it all together with some red onion jam and it turned a beautiful brick color (so I assumed I was on the right track).

I threw my pork picnic in the crock pot and slathered this rub all over the pork.

About 12 hours later, after cooking on low all day, I returned home to a delightful scent.  Happy with my work thus far, I shredded the pork, drooling, and removed the bones.  Then I took my first taste.

HOLY SALTY, BATMAN.

Looking back on my rub ingredients, I didn't recall putting very much salt in so I'm not exactly sure where I went wrong.  Maybe my lack of pork knowledge is to blame...is pork way saltier than I realized?  Or maybe it's the cheap smoked pork I purchased, extra salty?

In a panic to somehow save dinner, I dumped a huge glob of red pepper jelly in with the shredded meat and stirred it up.  I feel like someone somewhere told me that sweet balances salty.  I dared another taste and it actually worked (for the most part).  Still saltier than I would have preferred, I decided it was safe enough to cover in cheese and BBQ sauce and throw on a sandwich.

So into the toaster oven went some crusty bread, covered in sliced pepper jack cheese.

I added some BBQ sauce to hubby's sandwich because, well, he loves BBQ sauce.  We both finished our sandwiches without hesitation so they weren't terrible by any means.

I'm just now realizing how unappetizing all of that pork juice on the plate looks but it was yummy soaked into the bread.

The verdict?  The next time I venture into pulled pork land, I'm thinking I'm going to be wary of the type of pork I purchase (salt content) and definitely not add any extra salt.

C+ for effort but maybe I'm not ready to stray so far from recipes just yet!!

Stuffed Pepper (just one)

Hubby hates peppers.  What does that mean, you ask?  It means he's a food wuss.  Just kidding!  It means more stuffed peppers for me!

I've had a lovely yellow pepper sitting in my fridge for a few days now, just begging to be stuffed with rice and tasty goodness.  Tonight, I fulfilled that poor pepper's wish.

In an effort to stay away from sandwiches, I made this sucker for tomorrow's lunch.  I like stuffed peppers even better a day later, when the pepper flavor has had a chance to really jive with the stuffing.

I started this pepper stuffing extravaganza in my favorite sort of way...with some chopped onions and garlic sizzling in a pan with olive oil.

When the onions were soft and yellow, I threw some canned diced tomatoes (not drained) in the pan to join the sizzling stuffing shindig.

After a few minutes, I added some cooked brown rice, a bay leaf, dried basil, dried oregano, a shake of Emeril's Original Essence, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and some frozen chopped spinach.  Whew!  That seemed like a lot less ingredients as I was adding them.  I doused the whole colorful party in some chicken stock and let it get warm and soak up some of that yummy broth.

While this mixture simmered away, I took the top off of my pepper.

It's doing a little bow to show you how nicely I cut off it's little hat.

In went the rice mixture, sans bay leaf.  I made a little too much stuffing mixture but I'm thinking that will taste great in an individual serving size of soup, maybe for another lunch this week!

I sprinkled a little Parmesan cheese on the top for funsies and got ready to cook this baby.  Now, prepare yourself.  I'm going to admit to what is probably a stuffed pepper sin right now.

I microwave my stuffed peppers.

Eek!  Gasp!  Alert the media!

That's the way my grandmother taught me to do it and that's how I'm doing it for now (I also don't feel like baking one little lonely pepper in the oven or burning it in my toaster oven so I think I'm justified).

Five minutes later, Mr. Bowing Pepper looked ready to eat.

Alas, he will have to wait until tomorrow's lunch to be devoured.  I should note that I usually put meat in my stuffed peppers (ground turkey or shrimp) but I didn't have any handy, most likely due to the fact that I haven't had to cook once yet this week!

I can't wait to find this festive looking feast in my lunch box tomorrow.  I always love having an exciting meal to look forward to in the middle of the day!




**A note from the future....oooooooooh crazy!!  I had this stuffed pepper for lunch today and it was FANTASTIC.  Super moist (all that chicken stock I drowned it in) and great flavors.  I'm totally going to make it this way again!

Carb-alicious Comfort Food

Today was a dreary, rainy Sunday.  Sundays are the best days for dreary, rainy weather.  On this particular dreary, rainy Sunday, I received my favorite kind of early morning (okay not so early but I was still in bed enjoying the dreary rain) text message. 

My delightful friend, Red invited me on a journey to Trader Joe's.  Red introduced me to Trader Joe's and it's been a whirling romance ever since (between myself and Trader Joe's, not between myself and Red...) 

One of the cons of living in suburbia is the lack of access to trendy grocery and specialty stores.  The nearest TJ's is about an hour away so we really have to make a journey out of it. 

Red plans out her weekly menus here.  I witnessed her natural culinary inclinations in action today as she planned her week's menu on the fly amidst the fluorescent lighting of TJ's produce section.  It took me approximately one hour in the car while muttering ideas to myself and about 20 minutes of staring at different kinds of squash and frozen foods to come up with a menu for the week.  Here's the plan:

Monday:  Butternut squash ravioli (a very ambitious choice...my fallback is noodles and butter)
Tuesday:  bday dinner for my sister-in-law, no cooking for me!
Wednesday:  Dinner with Red and her hubby, maybe I'll make a sweet treat, TBD later
Thursday:  Spaghetti squash with meatballs/garlic Parmesan sauce
Friday:  Homemade pizzas

It's going to be a very squashy week.

Around 3pm this afternoon, while playing a board game with my hubby, it dawned on me that we would probably need to eat dinner tonight.  I was inspired to wing it and throw some odds and ends in a crock pot (an inspiration that typically ends in near disaster). 

Into the crock pot went:  one frozen chicken breast, some chopped up red potatoes, half a diced onion, a splash of chicken broth, a bit of ground mustard, and a heavy sprinkle of a new seasoning I bought at TJ's today (21 Spice Salute). 

After about 3 hours the chicken was cooked so I shredded it and decided it needed a little more substantial sauce so I cooked up a quick roux (I'm still trying to use that word like I have any idea what it is) with butter, flour, garlic powder, onion powder, ground mustard, a splash of Worcestershire sauce and some chicken broth (it may be more of a gravy than a roux or sauce...who knows, I'm just pretending to know what I'm doing).  I slathered that on the crock pot mixture and then grated some Parmesan cheese on the whole thing and it came out as a big 'ole bowl of carb-alicious comfort food.  The potatoes way outnumbered the chicken but I think that's what I was going for....

I snapped that picture on our ping pong table minutes before devouring the whole thing with Mr. Gamer while watching a movie.  I'm clearly a professional. 

All in all, it wasn't terrible and definitely was not a disaster so let's count that as a success.  It wasn't mind blowing but it was warm, full of carbs, and great for a dreary, rainy Sunday.  Hubby insisted it was super yummy but he would say that no matter what because he's wonderful :)

 

Grilling in the Rain

As much as I love Autumn, I have been hanging dearly onto one very Summery activity (okay, maybe two if we're counting wearing flip-flops).  Grilling.

Grilling is still entirely possible and enjoyable on a mild, golden Autumn day--days which we have not been blessed with lately.  I've been making and gobbling up comfort food these past few dreary, rain filled days, however today I decided to revert to Summer/early Autumn cooking in hopes that the weather will follow suit.

This Summer, I discovered one of my favorite types of meat to grill...chicken thighs.  They have a rich and hearty flavor, are generally super cheap at the store, and cook so quickly.  During my chicken thigh bonanza this summer, I discovered an easy recipe by Guy Fieri that contains ingredients that I usually have on hand.  I have made this recipe a few times now and every time it gets rave reviews.

In effort to get rid of my over-abundance of CSA potatoes, I threw them all in a pan and roasted the petooties out of them.  I also decided tonight was a good time to get a Pinterest recipe craving out of my craw.  I have seen many pins for grilled romaine hearts/grilled salad and decided to give that a whirl tonight.

You can find the recipe to my favorite grilled chicken thighs here:

Garlic-Ginger Chicken Thighs

The only tweaks I make to the recipe is to use skinless chicken thighs (boneless).  Chicken thighs are already so moist, fatty, and delicious they don't really need the skin.  I also use a fridge squeezy bottle of ginger puree.  I don't cook with ginger very often and have no idea what to do with a real piece of ginger.  The recipe gives the option of tangerine or orange juice and I always opt for orange juice (I've used bottled and fresh, both work well).

So this morning I threw all the marinade ingredients and the chicken in a big ole' bag of wonderful and let it all hang out in the fridge while I was at work.  When I got home I started working on the roast potatoes because they take a while.

The way I made potatoes tonight is actually my mom/grandmother's way of roasting potatoes.  I've tried other ways and always revert to their recipe because it's so darn good and makes me think of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It's super simple....

Wash and dry potatoes (I like to leave the skin on).  Cut them into similar size chunks/wedges.  Mix up a bottle of Good Seasons Italian dressing and dump the whole thing over the potatoes, stir.  Cover in tin foil and roast at 425 for one hour, remove tin foil and let it continue to roast until browned and slightly crispy, about 15-20 minutes.  I threw some Parmesan cheese on at the end for fun.  It all came out looking and smelling amazing.

The chicken thighs are so easy to cook, even I can grill them (I am so inept with a grill, usually hubby is the grill master).  Set the grill to medium high heat, wipe the grill with vegetable oil, and throw the thighs on (I usually add the onions from the marinade to the grill too, on top of the chicken).  Let them do their thing for about 5-6 minutes a side, then eat them ALL.

This garlic-ginger marinade is so wonderful.  The flavors work well together, without being overwhelming.  You know you want to try this.

I was quite pleased with my grilled lettuce experiment.  I was so skeptical of grilled lettuce but kept seeing different versions all over Pinterest and decided to try it out.  I sliced one Romaine heart in half, lengthwise then brushed it with a mix of lemon flavored olive oil, rice wine vinegar, Italian seasonings, and garlic powder.  Here are the before and after pics.

Before grilling.

After grilling.  I couldn't resist shredding some Parmesan cheese on there!

I chopped the salad up and boy oh boy it was delicious!  It tastes nice warm and would make a great main dish, maybe with some grilled chicken.  Who would'a thunk??

So the moral of tonight's story?  Grill in the rain, chicken thighs are the way to go, and get out of your salad slump by grilling that lettuce!!

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese and Terrific Tuesday

Tuesdays are my new favorite day of the week.  I didn't always look upon the second day of the work week with such glee and eagerness.  In fact, Tuesdays were boring.  They didn't contain the excitement of a new week like their older sister, Monday.  They didn't have the benefit of being the halfway point of the week or a day away from Friday like Wednesday and Thursday.

Why, do you ask, have I begun such a jovial and carefree love affair with Tuesday?  On a typical week, I have nothing planned on Tuesday nights.  Of course date night plans with Mr. Gamer usually land on Tuesday nights for this same reason but I'm generally home 2-3 hours before him.  That's 2-3 hours of blissful alone time.

As of late, I have been using these hours to bake or cook.  I mean really bake or cook.  Such as play around with new recipes, bake a delicious treat, or attack an ambitious meal project.  That's what happened tonight.  Not only did I think outside of my recipe box, I rocked the proverbial socks off of my recipe box.

Seriously.  Amazing. 

It all began, once upon a time (okay so it was last night) during a busy late night grocery shopping trip.  I had my dinner menu meticulously planned out for the week:

Monday-soup
Tuesday-crock pot turkey chili
Wednesday-Red and her hubby over for dinner, grilled ginger chicken thighs and salad
Thursday-Mr. Gamer fends for himself while I'm at class
Friday-homemade pizza

That's when everything went wrong.  Or very right.  As I made a bee-line for the organic ground turkey that was on sale at a fabulous price this week, my hopes and dreams of Tuesday night turkey chili were dashed.  Sold out. 

This is where it gets intense.

I had to think of an alternative quickly.  With the pressure of late night grocery shopping and wanting to get home to make last night's yummy soup, I caved.  I decided to keep Tuesday night's dinner a mystery, to be determined later.  

Fast forward about 10 hours later, circa 5am this morning.  Inspiration struck while in the shower.  I find that most of my ideas-good or bad-originate in the shower.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that's why my showers are so long, I need to get all of my major ideas for the day out of the way so I can go about my morning routine and have a stress-less day.

Side note...while Mr. Gamer does not endorse my wasteful showering habits, he reaps the benefits of my idea forming sessions when a fabulous meal idea is the end product, so I think I'm justified.

It came to me somewhere between lather and rinse.  Buffalo chicken mac and cheese.

Before skidattling off to work this morning, I threw two frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot, went to town with some garlic powder, then splashed on a ton of hot sauce.  Ten hours later, I took two forks to it, swirled in a dollop of sour cream and it looked heavenly.

I let that hang out while preparing the mac and cheese.  Now, a brief word about mac and cheese.  I have been trying to make the perfect homemade mac and cheese for about 2 years now.  I have tried various recipes, I have experimented with my own versions and at most, I've ended up with a good meal (let's not talk about what I've ended up with at worst).  Nothing mind blowing, nothing spectacular.

Until tonight.

I based my mac and cheese tonight loosely off of the Betty Crocker version I used the very first time I ever attempted homemade mac and cheese. 

While boiling some noodles (bow ties because they're fun!), I melted 4 (butter makes it better, right?) tablespoons of butter in a pan, then threw in a quarter cup of flour, a heavy handed shickity shake of garlic powder and onion powder, some salt, and a dash of ground mustard.  I let this all come to a slow bubble on medium low heat until it looked golden and smooth.

This is the point where things got a little crazy as I attempted to juggle the noodles and not burning my roux (I had to Google that word to make sure I was using it correctly).

I added about 2 cups of milk to the roux and stirred like crazy over medium heat until the whole shebang began to boil softly.  I then pulled it all off the heat and dumped in about 2 cups of white cheddar cheese.  While that turned into a creamy cheesy masterpiece, I poured my buffalo chicken concoction over the noodles, then topped it with the cheesy roux (is it still roux when I add the milk and cheese??) mixture.

Noodles, buffalo chicken, and cheesy goodness all went into a casserole dish and looked a little like this...

Until I poured shredded cheese, crushed tortilla chips, and more cheddar cheese all over it.

20-25 minutes later, after baking at 350, and THIS came out of the oven...

I totally planned on taking a picture of this served up in a bowl but I was too distracted by the enticing bowl of comfort food in front of me to find my camera.

This was SO, SO very delicious.  Like words cannot describe how delicious.  Mr. Gamer raved about it and is even willing to overcome his strange avoidance of Tupperware/leftovers to take some in for lunch tomorrow.

All in all, it was a very successful endeavor, a perfect compliment to my new favorite day of the week!

Southwestern Chicken Barley Soup (recipe relapse)

Tonight I relapsed to my recipe following ways.  I followed a recipe exactly.

I CAN EXPLAIN.  I'm rationalizing my culinary slip in the following ways:

1.  Some recipes are way too delicious to attempt straying.
2.  Following recipes will teach me the essentials of cooking on my own.
3.  It's Monday and I'm too lazy to get creative in the kitchen.

Now that the excuses are off of my shoulders, join me for some Southwestern Chicken Barley Soup.  Seriously, you will LOVE this soup.  Trust me.  Unless you don't like soup, like my Gamer (crazy, I know...not sure how I managed to marry a man with such apathy toward a whole genre of comfort food).  

This recipe hails from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Ultimate Soup Cookbook by Reader's Digest.  This thing is a mammoth trove of mouthwatering soups, stews, and chowders.  I mean, look at this bad boy...

Aside from it's amazing flavors, I love this Southwestern Chicken Barley Soup recipe because it's healthy, easy peasy lemon squeezy to make, can be adapted to a crock pot, and it can all be made in one pot!

To begin, you will need olive oil (I use extra virgin), garlic, an onion, cans of whole-kernel corn, black beans, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and chopped green chiles, medium pearl barley, chicken broth, chili powder, ground cumin, and cooked chicken.  Boo, listed ingredients are boring.  Let's use a visual!  

Throw some olive oil in your pot or dutch oven and place it over medium heat.

Totally unnecessary side note...The Gamer gave me a gorgeous red cast iron dutch oven for Christmas last year.  I think romantic, swooning thoughts about him and smile a little every time I use it.  It makes the food taste better.  :)

Chippity chop up your onion and throw that sucker in the pot, pausing a moment to admire the satisfying sizzle.  The recipe calls for one clove of garlic but, seriously, who only puts one clove of garlic in soup?  I went ahead and squished a whole head of garlic through my garlic press and tossed that in with the onion.

Saute for about 3-5 minutes or until it smells OH-MAZING and looks like this.  

Now you're ready for the best part.  Brace yourself, this is requires advanced culinary skill.  Dump in your cans of corn, beans, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and chiles.  Very advanced.  Also, add the chili powder, cumin, barley, and chicken broth.  The recipe says to add water but I typically use chicken stock instead of water because water is B-O-R-I-N-G.  

Bring it all to a boil.

Reduce the heat, throw the cover on and let it simmer away happily for about 45 minutes.  Toss in your chicken and let it go for another 15 minutes with the lid on.  The chicken should be warmed through and the barley should be soft and fluffy.  

TA-DA!! 

Salt as needed, I find that this soup needs very little salt, even when using a reduced sodium chicken stock.  

I should note that I'm not a huge fan of spicy foods and I love this soup so no worries if you're eyeing those chopped green chiles with fear.  If you like spicy, I'm sure you could amp up the heat with some Cayenne or something (I told you I'm not very good at this straying from the recipe thing).  

If anyone makes this soup with some creative touches (I'm talking to you lucky, lucky culinary naturals) I'd love to know what you did.  

Here's the exact recipe for the rest of you that are like me and need measurements:  


Southwestern Chicken Barley Soup
Adapted from The Ultimate Soup Cookbook by Reader's Digest

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small head of garlic, minced
1 (15 1/4 oz) can whole-kernel corn, drained
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (14 1/2 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
About 5-6 cups of chicken stock or broth
1/2 cup medium pearl barley
1 (4-6oz) can chopped green chiles, drained
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
3 cups cooked chicken, chopped or cubed

Heat oil in pot or Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic, saute for 3-5 minutes or until golden yellow and tender.

Add all other ingredients EXCEPT FOR THE CHICKEN.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.  

Add in chicken and cook, covered, another 15 minutes.  

Cheating on Ina

I love Ina Garten.  I love her recipes, I love her soothing cooking show, I love all things Ina.  Amidst my recipe hoarding collection, I have 5 Ina cookbooks and way too many of her recipes saved online.

Aside from my love of her simple yet awesomely delicious recipes, I want nothing more than to be her friend.  I want to have casual lunch and garden parties at her beautiful home in the Hamptons, I want to take a stroll through her local fancy cheese shop, and I want to meet her delightfully adorable husband.

Enough with my borderline creepy admiration of Ms. Garten.  Imaginary friendship aside, the Barefoot Contessa makes some fabulous food.

About two years ago I decided to cross roasting a chicken off of my recipe bucket list and stumbled upon a recipe by none other than my Food Network friend.

Behold.  Garlic roast chicken, Ina style.

I followed this recipe exactly (of course) and it BLEW MY MIND.  I have made this recipe dozens of times now, it is the only roast chicken I have ever braved...well except that one time I attempted straying and got creative--we won't talk about how that turned out.

That brings us to tonight.  I don't know if I was getting bored of the same (AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS) roast chicken or if I was just feeling adventurous but I decided to stray.  To cheat on Ina.

Hubby and I have been taking part in our local Community Supported Agriculture program.  Every week we get a bundle of fresh, organic fruits and veggies.  It's been great for cooking outside the box.  We've gotten a few veggies that we're not familiar with and it's been a fun culinary challenge to work them into our weekly menu.

The remnants of this week's veggies.  SO. MANY. POTATOES.  Not pictured are two additional bags of spuds from weeks previous.  Some sad looking leeks (sad because they have been in my fridge for four days-alas no fear, now is their time to shine!), and a mystery squash.

Did I mention I'm not very experienced with vegetables?

I had no idea what type of squash this was, how to cook it, if it was even edible.  I figured cutting it open was a good place to start.

Upon cutting this bad boy open, I was relieved to learn it looked similar to butternut squash.  Then....I had a light bulb moment.

My collection of culinary literature must have the solution!  My favorite recipe reading guilty pleasure is Food Network Magazine and, in a recent edition they featured a winter squash article that identifies many a mystery squash.  So between the pages I went and discovered....

drum roll please....

I am the proud parent of an absolutely adorable ACORN SQUASH.

I immediately felt silly for not knowing what this gourd was, I mean acorn squash are pretty typical, right?

Mystery solved, I continued onward in my practically recipe-less Sunday night venture.

I sliced and chopped and clobbered (I'm not very graceful with a kitchen knife, another reason I need to be friends with Ina) away at my veggies until they were all about the same size.

Then came the butter.

I was recently inspired by my dear friend Red (all the cool bloggers nickname their friends with sassy titles, I figured I can too).  Red has a blog that lives here.  Red is the type of chef that I'm completely jealous of...she can fling random things together, sans recipe, and end up with a feast.  Last week I was lucky enough to have some of her Boursin stuffed chicken breast.  She shoved some sort of delectable cheesy concoction under the skin of some chicken breasts and WHAM-O it was killer.

That got me thinking.  I can cram some yummy ingredients under the skin of my roast chicken too, right?

So in an effort to spice up my Sunday dinner (pun intended), I smushed (very technical culinary jargon going on here) up some CSA dill with some butter until it looked like this....

I then proceeded to slather said dilly butter under Mr. Chicken's skin.  Then all over him.  Mind you, this was my first experience going under the chicken skin with anything...I was terrified I was going to either rip the skin or encounter some sort of gross under the skin chicken innards on my adventure.

Yes, I realize how unappetizing I just made this whole entry with the mention of gross under the skin chicken innards.

Alas, I managed to finish my smooshing problem free, poured my chopped veggies around my greasy chicken and ended up with something I think Ina would be proud of.

Oh yea, speaking of shoving and smooshing things, I crammed two heads of garlic (cut in half), some lemon juice and lemon olive oil inside Mr. Chicken and salted the whole thing all over.

I had to reference the original recipe for oven temps because, well let's face it, I have no idea what I'm doing in the kitchen most of the time.

So into the oven this went at 425 for an hour and a half.  It came out looking a little something like this.

I took my tasty chicken out of the pan and let it sit wrapped in tin foil, splashed the veggies with some olive oil and chicken stock and threw them back in the oven to brown up some more.   Ten to fifteen minutes later, we were chowing down.

So how did it all turn out, you wonder?  Or maybe you're not wondering because you're still so turned off at the mention of gross under skin chicken innards.

All in all, this was pretty yummy.  Not a total failure!  I found the chicken breast to be a little dryer than when I make the Barefoot Contessa recipe but that could be due to the fact that this was a slightly larger chicken than I typically roast.

My hubby (let's give hubby a cute bloggy nickname too...I now pronounce him The Gamer) always ends up slathering it all in BBQ sauce anyway so he liked it.  Which makes me think that the next time I cheat on Ina, I'll try to make some sort of BBQ roast chicken.  Is that even possible??

Oh yea, the veggies were awesome.  I had no idea how mystery squash and potatoes would even taste with dill but the dill flavor was pretty mild and roast veggies are always awesome.

Whew!

Well I guess this recipe straying mission was successful.  Until next time!