Chicken Crapiccata

Having a cooking blog isn't just about sharing successes. It is also important to share failures. Not only does it keep a person humble, but it's a great way to spread the misery of a terrible meal. Perhaps someone can offer some advice on how to enhance this mongol-food of a meal.

Granted, I have never really liked Chicken Piccata. I've received it by accident at a restaurant (honestly, I wanted Jamaican Chicken), and I've had it at a restaurant where I used to work. Both times I was neither impressed or satiated. In fact, I was very put off by the meal. Evidently all of this had slipped my mind as I got excited about making a "white wine and lemon sauce."

Ingredients:
4 chicken tenders
rosemary, sage and thyme
lemon pepper
1 large lemon (1/2 c lemon juice and 1 Tbsp lemon zest)
1/2 c Chardonnay
1/2 c chicken broth
olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
spaghetti
parsley
oregano
flour

Cut slits on each side of the tenders, lightly dash some lemon pepper on both sides of the tenders and place in a small tupperware dish with olive oil, lemon zest, some thyme, rosemary and sage. Put a little bit of lemon juice in there as well. Cut up one clove of garlic and scatter that in there too. Let the chicken marinate for at least an hour.


After the chicken has marinated, pour the contents of the tupperware into a saucepan. Add a little bit of oil if necessary until the surface of the saucepan is covered with oil. Turn the heat on med-high and let the chicken cook evenly.

While the chicken is cooking, put some spaghetti on to boil. Combine the wine, lemon juice, and chicken broth in a container, adding the parsley and oregano. After the chicken is done cooking, remove it from the saucepan. Add the chopped up 2 cloves of garlic to the remaining olive oil (shouldn't be very much, but drain it if it is).

After letting that simmer on medium for a short while, scatter a couple of Tbsps of flour onto the saucepan, letting it absorb the oil. Then slowly pour the lemon juice/wine/chicken broth mixture in, turning the heat up to high. Stir continuously until a thick sauce forms. At some point during this you'll want to drain the spaghetti.

Once the sauce forms, pour it over the chicken and spaghetti.

It's a pretty easy recipe, and maybe that is part of the problem. Perhaps I left out some extremely vital step to making this tasty. The worst part was the sauce, hands down. The best part was the awesomely marinated chicken. So I just scraped the sauce off of the chicken and ate that. The pasta was too far gone.

I dare encourage you to make this dish and tweak it somehow. Let me know how it goes for you. Or don't tweak it all and see how you like it. Maybe I just don't like chicken piccata. It wouldn't be the first time.

A Yummy Meal

Baked chicken, pasta salad, and a peanut butter/honey/banana dessert.

Baked chicken:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 shallot sliced

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

Fat free Italian dressing

pepper

garlic powder

oregano

Preheat the oven to 350. Arrange the chicken breasts in a cooking dish, so that there is not a lot of extra room (preferrably a smaller cooking dish). Lightly cover each side of the breasts with pepper, oregano and garlic powder. Place the sliced shallot and garlic on top of each breast, and then drizzle with the dressing. While it shouldn't completely submerge the chicken breasts, it should pretty well cover them.

Place in oven for 15 minutes, then flip the chicken breasts over. Cook for 15 more minutes or until cooked through.

Pasta Salad (I got this from my roommate, and it's SO good...and will last for several days!)

A little less than a pound of multicolor twirly pasta

2-3 cups of fresh spinach leaves

3/4 can of black olives, drained and sliced

3/4 of a red bell pepper, cut into pieces

some feta cheese, cut up

very thinly sliced red onion

olive oil/vinegar salad dressing

cherry tomatoes, halved

Boil pasta to al dente, then drain. Add all of the other ingredients and two (maybe 3) capfuls of the salad dressing. Done.

Dessert (pay close attention here)

1 small banana

some peanut butter

some honey

1 slice of toast

Smash the banana, add the peanut butter and honey. Mix. Smear on top of toast. Eat.

This meal was positively delicious, incorporating different flavors and textures. Luckily I have enough to last me three more meals. The total cost was about..$18 (including organic ingredients). For four healthy, nutritious meals that's not bad at all. And it's really easy to make. I hope you try this out!

My Favorite Pasta

This dish my favorite pasta dish, and I learned it from my mother. I rarely make it, because it IS fattening (cream, butter...need I say more), but it's SO delicious. My favorite part about it is definitely the sherry.

I typically make enough pasta/cream sauce for one serving, but enough chicken for two. That way, I can use the leftover chicken for the next day's lunch. The cream sauce, as most cream sauces, is not especially fantastic leftover. Edible and tasty for sure, but the consistency is not right. Even so, this rich pasta leaves me so full, I often have enough leftover anyway.


Ingredients:

5-6 chicken tenders (or 2 chicken breasts cut into tender-sized pieces)
1/4 c sliced mushrooms
1 shallot
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese
italian bread crumbs
olive oil
1-2 Tbsp of butter
heavy whipping cream
linguine or angelhair pasta
garlic
.....and SHERRY


1. Put however much linguine you want on to boil. Heat some olive oil in a large skillet, and in a separate skillet put the mushrooms and butter on to heat, sauteeing the mushrooms.


2. Add sliced garlic to the olive oil, add the sliced shallot to the mushrooms.


3. Bread the chicken tenders in the bread crumbs and place them in the olive oil to cook. Once they are brown on one side, turn them over. Once that side is brown as well, lower the heat and cook for about 5 minutes on each side.


4. Pour in some heavy whipping cream to the mushrooms and shallot. Imagine how much sauce you want to eat at the end (1/2 c should be good...) and add 1/4 c more. That's how much cream you should pour in. Stir this continuously.

5. As the chicken is near being done, slowly add parmesan cheese to the cream sauce. I really have no special measurement here. To taste, to consistency, whatever. Cook this down a little bit. About now you'll be able to drain the linguine.

6. Add 1 Tbsp (at least!) of sherry to the cream sauce. After that, depending on how much sherry I need in my life, I add by the tsp, stirring and tasting each time.

Stir again one last time. Hopefully it has reached a thicker consistency. If not, continue to cook it on low heat. But watch it, or it will become too thick. Pour on top of the linguine and add 2-3 chicken tenders on top. Sprinkle the top with a bit of parmesan cheese, and voila!

Enjoy!

Fast and Easy Apple Crisp

Today at work I held my granny smith apple in my hand and stared at it. I really wanted some apple flavor, but I didn't feel like just eating a plain apple. Still not quite sure how to solve this dilemma, I stuffed it in my bag and headed home early (snow today!).

After I woke up from my nap, I still wanted the apple. I meandered into the kitchen.... saw my roommate's oatmeal sitting out. Apple crisp! Of course! But I only had two apples (a honeycrisp and the granny smith). I decided to make a "mini crisp." My roommate and I had them after our dinner, and we both enjoyed them thoroughly.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

To make this seriously fast, easy and delicious crisp, you'll need:
3 ramekins
2 apples, peeled and sliced
2 Tbsp of granulated sugar (originally I had 3 Tbsp, but I thought it was a bit sweet)
3 Tbsp of brown sugar (packed or unpacked, who cares)
1 packet of instant oatmeal (I just happened to have maple and brown sugar flavor on hand) OR 4 Tbsp of instant oatmeal
2 1/2 Tbsp of melted butter
pumpkin spice
cinnamon
1/4 c water

After peeling and slicing the apples, place the pieces in the the ramekins, filling them almost to the top.

Combine the granulated sugar and 1 Tbsp of flour with 2 shakes of pumpkin spice and 2 shakes of cinnamon. Sprinkle this evenly over the apples.

Combine the melted butter, the rest of the flour, oatmeal, and the brown sugar in another bowl. It should make a paste-like substance. Spread this evenly over the apple slices.

Pour the water evenly in the three ramekins, place the ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy a la mode or a la nude (no ice cream).

Special thanks to my sous chef/hoover vacuum, Luna!

Amazing Pumpkin Muffins

To thank my coworker for giving me her tickets to the Blazers game on Friday night, I decided to make some pumpkin muffins. She loves pumpkin treats, and muffins are *relatively* healthy and not as daunting as a pie. Everyone at work commented on how delicious they were, and I have to agree! 

* In every picture I took, the muffin turned out looking like a warped goblin. I didn't think it looked appealing, so there shall be no pictures!

Muffin mix:
1 15 oz. can of pureed pumpkin
1 1/2 c of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 3/4 tsp of pumpkin spice
1 1/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Pecan Streusel topping: (I HIGHLY recommend taking the extra three minutes to use this on the muffins)

1/4 c of chopped roasted pecans (If you buy prepackaged pecans at the store in the baking aisle, chances are they've already been roasted)
3 Tbsp of brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp of flour
2 Tbsp of butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. combine baking powder and 1 1/2 c flour

In a separate, larger bowl:
1. mix pumpkin, vegetable oil, eggs, spices, sugar, salt and baking soda
2. add the flour/baking powder combination to this
3. stir until all lumps are out and it is a smooth, batter-like mixture.
4. Pour into greased/oiled/whatever muffin pan (makes 12 large to normal sized muffins). I filled mine up at LEAST 3/4 of the way, and I still had batter leftover.

Streusel
1. Soften butter
2. Mix butter, chopped pecans, flour, and sugar.
3. Sprinkle on top of muffins

Bake for 30 minutes, turn off heat in the oven and let them sit for a few more minutes.
Remove pan, wait a couple of minutes, then remove muffins and set on cooling rack.

After they had cooled significantly but were still a bit warm, I placed them on a plate and covered them. I know this is supposedly a no-no, but with cookies or other items you want moist or chewy, this is a great way to ensure that happens.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie in a Hazelnut Cocoa Crust

Although I made this pumpkin pie quite awhile ago, I thought it was an appropriate post as the day of pumpkin pies and turkey dies looms ahead. I should say that I got a lot of contradicting comments, compliments and criticism on this pie. Some people thought the amount of spice was perfect, others found it a tad overwhelming. Some people loved the cocoa hazelnut crust, but a couple preferred my usual butter and flour crust. So, when I bake this pie for Thanksgiving, I will probably go with my usual crust -- or find a way to use Nutella in the crust, use less spice and find a different way to integrate the hazelnut and cocoa (perhaps instead of whipped cream use a chocolate ganache covered in chopped hazelnuts?).

Crust (as seen on this website):
1 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cocoa
1/4 butter or shortening
1 C finely chopped or ground roasted hazelnuts
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c cold water

Sift flour, salt and cocoa together. Cut in shortening/butter. Add vanilla and hazelnuts, then add the cold water. Roll together in a ball, place in plastic wrap or sealed container in the refrigerator.

Pie filling:

Equpiment:

large serated knife

large double boiler or large microwaveable bowl

ice cream scoop

food processor


Ingredients:

1 "sugar" or baking pumpkin - to yield 3 cups of pureed pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
one half teaspoon ground ginger
one half teaspoon salt 4 large eggs
1 can (12oz) of evaporated milk














Cut the pumpkin in half vertically, and scoop out seeds and stringy insides. Scrape the walls of the pumpkin clean (and cut off the stem). If these two pieces fit into your double boiler or large microwaveable bowl, great. If not, try cutting each of them in half again. Supposedly the larger the pieces of pumpkin, the easier it is to scrape out the cooked pumpkin. Whatever, it was hard for me anyway.


Set the pumpkin in the double boiler or microwave (on high) to steam and cook for 20-30 minutes. If you're microwaving it, check at 15 minutes and then keep going in small increments of time. I would NOT advise checking to see how soft it is by pressing your finger in the flesh. Unless you enjoy holding an ice cube to your finger while cooking, because it WILL burn you.



In the meantime, mix the sugar, spices, egg and milk together in a VERY large bowl. Yes, it will be sloshy and liquidy, but this is OK! Also use this time to roll the crust out. I have learned that using two sheets of wax paper around the crust when rolling it out is a much more sanitary, efficient way to roll out a crust. And when it's time to place the crust in the pie pan, all you have to do place the whole crust with the wrapping on it (on one side only!!) in the pan, then press it down and remove the wrapping.





















When the pumpkin is done cooking it, use the ice cream scoop or sturdy spoon to scrape out the cooked flesh until you have about 4 cups worth. Then place this in the food processor and puree until you achieve a smooth texture. I did not achieve this smooth texture, and someone pointed that out to me when they ate the pie.



Add the pumpkin to the pie filling mixture to the crust in the pie pan. Don't worry about how liquified it is. It will set up while cooking and even more so after it cools.



Bake this for 15 minutes on 425 degrees then lower it to 350 for another 45-60 minutes. Check to see how cooked it is the usual way -- inserting something and seeing if it comes out clean.

I would absolutely advise waiting until the pie cools completely before eating it. I was mortified by how my freshly cooked slice tasted and felt, but the next day when I had a slice, I was surprisingly delighted.


Enjoy!

Pizza for the Economy Slump

I could buy a pizza for dinner. Or I could get gas. Or pay my electricity bill. Or buy my dog food.

It just seems like $15 is a little steep for a pizza that I won't even finish eating. So...I created a fast and extremely cheap alternative:

Cracker Pizzas.

ingredients (pay attention now... don't want to lose you in the list..)

Saltine Crackers

Pepperoni slices

Cheddar cheese (or mozzarella, provolone, gouda, whatever)

Place two slices of pepperoni on each cracker (I think I used 11, which turned out to be about 2 too many). Cut a small slice of cheese (not bigger than the pepperoni) and set it on top of the cracker.

Put in the oven on 350 until cheese is sufficiently melted.

voila. Cracker Pizza. If you wanna feel like a kid again, drink a Crappy Sun with it.