Sun Dried Goodness

Ryan picked the title, but I agree. We bought a bag of sundried tomatoes at Costco today, so we had to do something with them for dinner. This is the result. We put the pasta on, sauted the chicken with onions, garlic, sundried tomatoes, sundried tomato vinagrette, Italian seasoning, and oregano. When things were looking close to done, we added a bit of white wine for more flavor (I couldn't taste the wine, which is always the goal). About a minute before the pasta was done, we threw some spinach in with the chicken mixture. Then we put the finished pasta in the fancy bowls and topped it with the chicken mixture and feta. It was excellent. Next time (yes, there will be a next time), we'll use more spinach and less pasta.


Update: The picture didn't work the first time. And we forgot to mention that this was really easy. And fast.

Indian Spiced Chicken

Thursday afternoon, I went to Costco with another grad student who has a membership. While there, I purchased a 3 lb. bag of dried apricots for less than $7. I also purchased two gallons of milk for $5.39 (the cheapest it is anywhere else in town is $7.50/two gallons), but that's not relevant to this story. Ryan was excited when I got home because we could put the apricots in Moroccan Vegetable Stew (about which we shall have to report another time). Then we remembered that we had once made this recipe using apricots instead of raisins, and it was really good. So we made it again tonight, except that we made the rice separately, skipped the baking step, and therefore the phyllo dough, used sour cream instead of plain yogurt (somehow, I don't think raspberry yogurt would be a good substitute for plain, and I was wary of using vanilla), cut the chicken into tiny pieces instead of as described, used ground ginger instead of fresh, and didn't really bother to measure anything. It was really good, and the point of this post was not so much to inform you of that as to document the location of the recipe for ourselves so I don't have to search for it every time. However, it's very easy (at least, when you do it our way), very tasty, and makes really good leftovers.

Chicken Pot Pie

The other day (where the other day should be read as somewhere between the beginning of February and the beginning of May), after browsing through our collection of Kraft Food and Family magazines, we decided to make Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie in our Deep Dish Baker (which, by the way, is not glazed with any color on the outside, but Pampered Chef has apparently discontinued that version...sad). We basically followed the recipe, but Ryan made pie crust from scratch instead of using a refrigerated one, I have no idea in what type of dressing we cooked the chicken (it may actually have been the one recommended in the recipe--if we had it--we usually just skip that part of the recipe but I know we didn't this time), we used more vegetables than suggested, and we added rosemary and thyme. Oh, and I'm sure we used less than a full pound of chicken because we rarely use the whole amount of meat in a recipe. It was really good (and pretty easy), but we're not convinced it would have been without the rosemary and thyme. I've decided that rosemary has recently pushed its way onto my list of favorite spices.

Thai Lettuce Wraps

 

So if you couldn't already tell we have been quite busy this summer. This last week Rebekah had a chance to make Thai Lettuce Wraps and they were delicious. Perhaps it is the complementary combinations of hot and cold, sweet and sour, crunchy and smooth that makes TLW's so tasty. Maybe it is the savory pop of the lettuce as you bite in to its ambrosial innards that ensures TLW's place on the podium of goodness. Whatever it is, you must try them; they are even easy to make.

To prepare, marinate some chicken in a mixture of Newman's own Sesame Ginger salad dressing and teriyaki sauce. Just before starting, grate some carrots and make sure you have lettuce leaves and bean sprouts ready but chilled (you want to eat the chicken while it is hot, but you don't want your lettuce to wilt).

Start cooking rice. Chop up the chicken and cook with chopped red peppers in a hot skillet adding more teriyaki and Sesame Ginger as needed. Oh, also add Thai seasoning if you have it.

In another pan add garlic, Sesame Ginger, soy sauce, hot chili sauce, teriyaki, peanut butter (chunky, or superchunk), and sugar. Bring to a boil and stir around until it is consistent (this is the sauce for the top).

Construct your wraps with lettuce first then filling that with rice, chicken, carrots, bean sprouts, and finally sauce. Be careful not to overfill! Most people recommend Boston lettuce and it would probably work better then the Romaine lettuce that we used as they are broader leaves.

Oh and don't let your cat too close to it, you know where those paws have been. 

Skewers

We used our grill for the first time in a long time this evening. We had chicken, green pepper, red pepper, and onion skewers. We marinated the chicken in A1 Cajun Marinade, which we both greatly enjoyed. I'm incredibly tired, so this is a very uninteresting post. Mostly I'm writing it because we haven't updated in awhile and it seems that most of the blogs I read regularly are having that same issue, which frustrates me when I'm looking for a short distraction. So here's my contribution to the short distractions of the world. When I have completed two Algebraic Topology homework assignments, one Real Analysis homework assignment, one Real Analysis project, one Real Analysis final, one Master's project paper (the first draft has already been turned in), given one more presentation of my project, written quizzes for my students to take on their projects, graded said quizzes, graded my students' "research" papers, written a final, graded a final, and completed my students' grades, then I may write a more interesting post on our culinary delights, for then we may actually have some. Until then, you'll have to rely on the over-worked Ryan (who, by the way, is still up himself working on stuff for a demanding customer) to update you. In other words, it may be two weeks before you have any idea that we are actually being nourished. I hope you can live with that. Here's one last tidbit (this is especially for Catherine, who may be concerned that we are losing important moments for posterity by neglecting our blog): we had frozen pizza again this week--but this time, we didn't do anything to it. We tried Freschetta's Special Deluxe, and, I must say, I have never had worse sausage in my life. The rest of it was fine, but the sausage was so bad it was offensive.

My New Apron

Continuing with our grand update, we have... Me, in my new apron! Making the chicken for Buffalo Chip Chicken Dip. So you make the chicken, rip it into tiny pieces, mix with cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and sour cream, then bake for a while. But first you ask Rachel for the recipe (she recently received Gmail chat). We took it to our Superbowl party (they were all Seahawks fans, so they didn't comment on the dip).

Updates

Contrary to popular belief, we have eaten since December (I know our figures don't show it). I'm writing this to let all of our readers know about the delightful culinary adventures we have had and will write up. Due to lack of temporal assets, we have heretofore been unable to delight in the writing up of said adventures.

First we have Rebekah's recent success in making Challah. Since then we have modified the recipe to move closer to the lovely loaves of bread given at Outback Steakhouse (and with each step also closer to the coupe du monde de boulangerie).

Next we have pictures of myself in my new apron (an essential for all cooks!). I am sporting my new adornment while placing chicken on our grill. Little did we know that the grill was about five minutes from being out of gas.

Lastly we have the aforementioned chicken (after finishing its cooking indoors) shredded and mixed with various cheeses to make Robin via Rachel Buffalo Chip Dip (Rebekah uses the name Buffalo Chicken Dip, but we all know its true name).

This is simply to whet your appetite for what is to come!

Indonesian Peanut Sauce Chicken

We decided to try this recipe before we realized that it called for chili sauce, which we didn't have, so we went to Albertsons to pickup some. There were only a couple of options so we got a hot one from the Asian food isle and a mild one next to the BBQ sauce. When we checked out the expensive one rang up wrong so we got it for free. The recipe we have wanted us to cook the chicken pieces whole for 20 minutes, but that would have taken too long, so we treated it like a normal stirfry and cut the chicken into little pieces and cooked it without any oil for about 5 or 6 min (until it's done). Oh we had onion and red peppers in there too. Once the chicken was cooked we took it out and put in crunchy peanut butter and chili sauce (about equal amounts) stirring constantly and adding water in small amounts until the peanut butter is all melted and the whole thing is boiling. After that we added the chicken back in just in time for the rice to be done.



The chopsticks are authentic southeast Asian utensils (a wedding present from Pierce Baehr out of Papua New Guinea). This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

"Chicken Tortilla Soup" and its close (albeit weakling) cousin "wimpy-no-spicy" soup have becomes staples of our house. We made it again this week as the weather has once again turned cold in the mountains. The key ingredient that pushes this soup from tasty to down right scrump-"give me another serving"-tious is what we call the "crunchies".

Now to the crunch. As is implied in the name this is a soup with chicken and tortilla. There really is no replacement for a tortilla lovingly crafted by the artisan hands of a sweet Mexican lady over a mesquite charcoal flame in a stick and mud hut that was built a hundred years ago, but they don't have those in Montana so we use flower tortillas bought from Albertsons. No wait come back! I know that is an insulting substitute, I'm not finished though. We take the store bought "Tortilla Wraps" and cut them into slices and bake them on our handy baking stone. To bring them to the level of the aforementioned scrumptious (not the village made ambrosia, but the "give me another serving" kind) you must use the tomato basil flavored wraps.

For the soup itself it is best to use leftover grilled chicken, lightly blackened and marinated in a mesquite, lime, or something of that sort sauce. Tear the chicken into pieces and add to the soup. Oh yeah, the soup is chicken stock with cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, Santa Barbara brand Green Salsa (it's amazing), Ma Se Ca tortilla mix (we noticed that Wolfgang Puck adds this to his CTS), diced green chilies, Jalapeños if you got 'em, garlic, onion, green pepper, red pepper, and sometimes corn.

Top it off with sour cream and Cheddar or Pepper Jack cheese and the crunchies.

P.S. For the "Wimpy-no-spicy" version don't add anything that you would consider spicy (yeah, I know you are left with slightly spiced chicken broth).

Spices

The chicken needed some other spices, but we followed the recipe. We should have gone with the gouda option as opposed to swiss cheese, but we didn't have any gouda and it was already 6:00 PM (the story of our cooking--though it's often already 7:30 or so before we start thinking about dinner). Next time....

We have a working title

Tonight we had Chicken stuffed with Swiss cheese and spinach. It was pretty good, but was missing something. The chicken came out a little dry after 45 minutes at 375, but it was easier then I thought it was going to be. As an appetizer we had some mixed vegetables with some butter, pepper, and salt.