Although James has already married me, this dish looked tempting enough to make him realize he would marry me all over again. It worked.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024503-marry-me-chicken
Putting my many cookbooks to good use by preparing one new recipe a week.
The title of this blog was inspired by one of my Spanish professor's at Miami University of Ohio, Dr. Robert Phillips, who died in the e...
Although James has already married me, this dish looked tempting enough to make him realize he would marry me all over again. It worked.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024503-marry-me-chicken
Pasta with Bacon, Cheese, Lemon, and Pine Nuts is described in the New York Times Cooking pages as "a modular meal". With pasta as a base and a variety of garnishes to pass around, diners can add as much or as little of each ingredient as they like. I used fettuccini as the pasta which turned out to be a good choice. Toasted pine nuts, cooked bacon, chopped fresh mint, red pepper flakes, grated Parmesan, and lemon zest were placed on the table in their own vessels so each of us could take as much as we wanted. Both James and I used all the "add-ons" but we were each able to decide how much of each according to our own tastes. Note that my labels include both "bacon" and "vegetarian" which illustrate the versatility of this recipe.
A very good and satisfying meal. We will likely try it again in the summer.
We brought this most appetizing pot to the table with fanfare. I don't believe it would have been possible to have prepared a more tender chicken. We both had seconds, and are looking forward to enjoying the leftovers today for lunch!
Brazenly stolen logo in lieu of a photo of this meal, another that tasted far better than it looked. |
As we enjoyed this meal (spoiler alert -- this was fantastic), our son asked why I had decided to make it. I did not have a specific inspiration, but it seemed like a special meal that I could pull together with modest effort -- fancy comfort food, if you will.
It was expensive, of course, but I kept reminding myself of the cost and portion size if three of this were to have this in a sit-down restaurant. My only hesitation was that I have tried non-from-a-box mac & cheese before with fairly poor results. A prudent chef would try some plain mac & cheese before involving an expensive add-in, but I decided to trust my instincts. And the internet.
Searching for mac & cheese recipes, I found several options, including one that referenced the plethora of existing options, almost apologizing for adding to the pile. I checked a few different recipes as I prepared this, but that humble poster was my main inspiration. Here is how it played out:
A search for what to do with some leftover asparagus led me to this recipe from the New York Times Cooking pages. Everything was cooked in my indispensable cast-iron skillet.
After cutting chicken breasts into small pieces and tossing with a mixture of flour, turmeric and salt I cooked them with some oil for three minutes on each side. Chopped asparagus was added and then a mixture of water, honey, and pepper. Lastly some rice vinegar was added.
A relatively quick, easy, delicious, and nutritious weeknight dinner.
After deciding to do "something with chicken" I remembered seeing a recipe online for chicken stew. I don't remember where I saw it, but I figured that if I found any chicken stew recipe it would do. A google search brought me to Food52 "Chicken Stew with Potatoes, Carrots, and Celery". Since I had potatoes, carrots, and celery on hand I figured it was a good choice. However, I discovered that the baby carrots had gone past their prime and had a bit of a slime on them. No worries, I simply added mushrooms instead (since I already had some of those).
I seared two boneless, skinless chicken breasts in my indispensable cast-iron stew pot, and then removed them to cut into small chunks. The chicken was set aside while I prepared the rest of the stew. Diced onion and garlic were cooked along with some herbs. I used sage, thyme, and a pouch of something I found in the spice drawer called "Winter Savory" - no clue what was in it. Next the celery and mushrooms were added to the pot.
Once the vegetables were cooked I added flour and vegetable broth. The recipe called for chicken broth, but I didn't have any. The vegetable broth was left over from the weekend's salmon recipe.
Finally the chicken chunks and potatoes (cut into bite-sized pieces) went in. Everything simmered for 20 minutes until the potatoes were fully cooked.
A warm cozy dish for a cold winter's eve. Made for some dandy leftovers too.
A rather delicious-looking photo and recipe showed up recently on my Facebook feed from a sponsored site. When I clicked on it I got a message that the information was for "members only" with an invitation to sign up.
Nope.
Something I know to be true is that recipes are not copyrighted so I figured there was probably a similar recipe (in fact more that one) available on the interwebs.
Yep.
A simple google search brought me to eatwell101 for their Creamy Tuscan Salmon recipe. The site says that it comes together in 20 minutes or less. I'd say it took about 25 minutes, but still a rather quick meal.
As we almost always do for seafood we started with a visit to Kyler's Catch for some fresh salmon. I followed the directions to pan-cook the fish, and then remove from the indispensable cast-iron skillet. I then melted butter and added the diced garlic, and then onions to sauteƩ. Next went in some vegetable broth and sun-dried tomatoes. The sauce cooked down a bit and then I added heavy cream and baby spinach leaves and cooked until the spinach was wilted, and then added some shredded parmesan cheese. The fish went back into the skillet with the sauce and I let it heat for about a minute more before serving. There was some leftover mashed potatoes in the refrigerator which we heated and served as a side dish.
So creamy and tasty (and pretty). Three people sat down for the meal and three clean-plate rangers left the table.