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Chicken Thighs with Shallots and Tomatoes

April 2, 2014 //
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Chicken Thighs with Shallots and Tomatoes
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The minute I read this recipe in a recent NY Times Magazine I knew I had to make it. It is essentially a one-pan dish, and uses some of my favorite ingredients – chicken thighs, shallots, white wine and mustard. It did not disappoint. The dish takes a bit longer than my typical, weekday dinners, so you may want to save it for the weekend. I also think it would be a wonderful dinner party dish since it looks so scrumptious and preparation is relatively hands-off once everything is in the pan. As the article suggests, serve it with a good baguette so you don’t waste a drop of the amazing sauce.

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Categories Meals

Cravings

March 27, 2014 //
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What do you crave? Even though I am more of a savory rather than sweet kind of gal, my cravings tend to be for sugar. When I have an itch that needs to be scratched it is usually for a cookie, or ice cream, or chocolate. This was only magnified when I was pregnant with Eliza. Of course, then I was fine with it because I figured if I wasn’t going to drink I could at least have dessert! For the non-pregnant times of my life I often try to distract myself away from an oatmeal cookie the size of my head toward perhaps a small piece of dark chocolate. Sometimes it works, but other times it doesn’t… Cravings are kind of like a piece of clothing or pair of shoes that you’ve been coveting. If it sticks with you and you can’t get it out of your head you must really want it and you should give in. You’ll probably be glad that you did.

macarons_Midgley_flickr
Photo by Midgley/CC by 2.0

So, where am I going with all of this? Well, this week I had a craving for something totally random – roast beef. Weird, I know. I have no idea why, but I really wanted roast beef and kept thinking about it for days. Maybe I needed more iron? Funny enough, I’ve never made it before, so this past Sunday I took the leap. I’m glad I did – the recipe link is below. With that need taken care of I feel better already…

Meal #1: Roast Beef with Potatoes and Shallots + Steamed Green Beans
Meal #2: Spicy Peanut Chicken and Broccoli + Rice
Meal #3: Beer-Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage
Meal #4: Baked Fish with Tomatoes and Olives + Kale Caesar Salad

Your grocery list, excluding the usual pantry items:

red or Yukon gold potatoes – 1 1/2 lb.
shallots – 8
green beans – 1 1/2 lb.
broccoli – 1 large head
red cabbage – 1 medium head
apple – 1
plum tomatoes – 8
lemon – 2
tuscan kale – 1 large bunch
dried bay leaf (if you don’t already have it)
soy sauce (if you don’t already have it)
brown sugar (if you don’t already have it)
smooth peanut butter (if you don’t already have it)
sesame oil (if you don’t already have it)
rice vinegar (if you don’t already have it)
apple cider vinegar (if you don’t already have it)
Sriracha (if you don’t already have it)
kalamata olives – 1/4 cup (if you don’t already have it)
Parmesan cheese (if you don’t already have it)
rice – 1 box or bag
eye of round roast beef – 1 1/2 lb
skinless chicken thighs – 4
pork tenderloins – 2 (1 1/2-1 3/4 pounds total)
white fish fillets – 6 ounces per person
beer  – 1 can or bottle

 

 

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Categories Meal Plans

Cooking with Wine

March 14, 2014 //
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Well, this week wasn’t any calmer than last. That may be why three out of the four recipes I choose for this week include white wine! Obviously, something is on my mind…

I do love to cook with wine. Like lemon juice or butter a little bit adds a ton of flavor and in a snap you can make a sauce to accompany almost anything. One of my rules for cooking with wine, which I learned watching Mario Batali, is to always use a wine you would drink on its own. This is great advice not only because you want to treat your dish with respect and not ruin it with something that doesn’t taste good, but also because it is nice to have a glass of wine while you cook. You don’t have to use a $30 bottle, but don’t use those “cooking wines” you sometimes see at the grocery store. There are enough decent $10ish bottles around these days which will do the job nicely. Note, the alcohol burns off as you cook so kids can eat any of these dishes.

(Meals should feed four adults and take about 30-40 minutes to prepare, or the time it takes Patrick to give Eliza a bottle and put her to bed.)

Meal #1: Perfect Pan-Roasted Chicken Thighs + Roasted Potatoes with Green Beans
Meal #2: Swordfish Parmesan + Roasted Broccoli
Meal #3: Porchetta Pork Chops + Fennel with Shallots and White Wine
Meal #4: Chicken Piccata with Noodles + Green Salad

Your grocery list, excluding the usual pantry items:

red or yukon gold potatoes – 6 medium
broccoli – 1 large head
green beans – 1 lb.
fennel – 2 large bulbs
shallot – 2
lemon – 4
lettuce – 1 head or bag
rosemary – 1 bunch
fennel seeds
noodles- 1 bag
eggs – 2
garlic (if you don’t already have it)
flour (if you don’t already have it)
capers (if you don’t already have it)
red pepper flakes (if you don’t already have it)
Parmesan cheese (if you don’t already have it)
bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs – 4-8 (depending on the size)
bone-in pork chops – 4
thin chicken cutlets – 1 ½ lb.
swordfish steaks (6-8 ounces per person)
white wine

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Perfect Pan-Roasted Chicken Thighs and Roasted Potatoes with Green Beans

March 12, 2014 //
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Perfect Pan-Roasted Chicken Thighs

I love chicken thighs because they have so much flavor and cook relatively quickly. This recipe celebrates chicken thighs and elevates them to bacon – that’s right, I said bacon – status. It can be a bit messy, and the chicken may set off your smoke detector, but it is worth it.

Roasted Potatoes with Green Beans

A simple side dish, that depending on how you look at it, either lightens up a typical potato dish or makes a side of green beans a bit heartier.

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6 medium red or yukon gold potatoes, sliced thinly
1 lb. green beans, ends trimmed
2 TB. olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Toss potatoes and green beans in olive oil and salt and pepper to taste and spread on a baking sheet (you may need two so the vegetables aren’t on top of each other). Roast for 20-25 minutes, checking them after 15 minutes to make sure the potatoes don’t burn.

 

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Lemon Chicken Breasts with Noodles and Sautéed Spinach

February 28, 2014 //
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Lemon Chicken Breasts

I thought I was familiar with all of Ina Garten’s recipes, but I was wrong. I tried this recipe for the first time this week and I’m glad I did. It is one of those dishes that you throw in the oven for awhile so you have time to work on side dishes or just check your email.

I do have one reservation about this dish. While it isn’t hard to make, Ina recommends that you use boneless, skin-on chicken breasts, which can be hard to find. If you have a good butcher I’m sure they will debone them for you, but if you rely on a grocery store for your chicken – good luck. We happened to go to Fairway this week to shop, rather than our usual run around the neighborhood, so I had to rely on what they had. I got bone-in, skin-on chicken because I knew the skin was going to be important to the flavor of the dish. I decided to bone them myself – big mistake. It added another 10 minutes of prep time, and a lot of frustration. My suggestion – buy bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts and just expect this to take 40 minutes to cook. You could probably use cutlets but it will definitely not be as juicy.

Noodles
They will be perfect for sopping up the lovely sauce from the chicken.

Boil salted water and follow the directions on the bag.

Sautéed Spinach

2 TB. olive oil
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 TB. pine nuts (optional)
2 bags or bunches of spinach
salt and pepper
lemon wedge

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, when the oil begins to shimmer add the garlic and pine nuts, saute for 1-2 minutes. Add spinach to the pot and stir.  As it wilts it will release water; let the spinach saute some more (1-2 minutes), stirring frequently, until the water mostly evaporates. Add salt and pepper to taste, and squirt the lemon wedge over the spinach to serve.

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Categories Meals

Try it, You’ll Like it!

February 28, 2014 //
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When I was a kid I ate nothing but chicken cutlets, hamburgers, pizza, pasta, rice, potatoes, bread, cheese, corn and peas. As I got to be a teenager I added a few items to the list, such as steak and salad. An exciting palate, it wasn’t. In fact, it wasn’t until I was in my early 20’s, and lived in California’s Bay Area for a year, that I started to be adventurous with food. I was at least 22 before I even tried hummus for the first time! You want to know what finally got me to try new things? I felt left out. In California, I was exposed to so many new foods that I was tired of always saying no. Moving to CA was already a big adventure, so why not eat a little shrimp?

These days, I eat, or at least will try, almost anything. At the same time that I started to eat a bunch of new foods, the whole country seemed to become exposed to a lot of new items which are now relatively easy to get at the grocery store or a farmers market. Arugula, fennel, kalamata olives, etc. are all foods that I didn’t have to reject as a kid – I had never heard of them!

Expanding the variety of foods I eat has also made me a better cook because I now have more ingredients to experiment with. One tip for getting over the fear of preparing or eating something for the first time is to have it with something else that you already love. For example, take this week’s recipe for sausage with caramelized red onions and radicchio. Maybe you haven’t had or cooked radicchio before, but you love sausages and caramelized onions. How bad could it be? Pairing one new thing with a few, old favorites is a less scary way for you, or others in your family, to try new things. So, try it – you’ll like it!

(Meals should feed four adults and take about 30-40 minutes to prepare, or the time it takes Patrick to give Eliza a bottle and put her to bed.)

Meal #1: Panko-Crusted Salmon + Fennel and Parmesan Salad
Meal #2: Sausage with Caramelized Red Onions and Radicchio + Green Salad
Meal #3: Lemon Chicken Breasts + Sautéed Spinach
Meal # 4: Penne alla Vodka + Green Salad

Your grocery list, excluding the usual pantry items:

parsley – 1 bunch
fennel – 2 heads
lemons – 5
red onion – 2 medium
radicchio – 2 large heads
spinach – 2 large bunches or bags
panko breadcrumbs
Italian plum tomatoes (diced or crushed) – 1, 35 ounce can (or 1 large and 1 small can)
penne – 1 box
egg noodles – 1 bag
heavy cream – small container
balsamic vinegar (if you don’t already have it)
Parmesan cheese (if you don’t already have it)
dried oregano (if you don’t already have it)
fresh or dried thyme (if you don’t already have it)
pine nuts (optional)
salmon fillets, skin on – 4 (6-8 oz. each)
sausages – 1-2 per person depending on their size
chicken breasts – 4 bone-in, skin-on (if you have a butcher get them to debone the chicken)
dry white wine
vodka

 

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Categories Meal Plans

Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry with Rice

February 21, 2014 //
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Chicken & Vegetable Stir Fry
Stir Fry Ingredients_web

There is nothing special about this recipe; it is a variation on what you have probably been making since college. Lately, I’ve been trying out some different sauces, rather than just my standard soy sauce. I came up with this sauce on the fly while the chicken and vegetables were cooking so I’m open to suggestions.

1 TB. vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, minced
½ inch of ginger, minced
1 bunch of scallions, whites and a little bit of the green stem chopped*
2 red, yellow or orange peppers, chopped *
2 zucchini and/or summer squash, chopped *
1 cup, or a handful of snap peas
1 lb. chicken breast, cut into strips *

* ingredients that can be prepped several days ahead.

Heat vegetable oil in a wok or large saute pan until almost, but not quite, smoking. Add garlic and ginger and stir constantly until you can smell their loveliness. Add scallions, pepper, and squash and saute for about 3 minutes. When the pepper starts to soften a bit add the chicken and quickly stir together. After 3-5 minutes the chicken should be cooked through; add the snap peas and give it a quick stir. Then, add the sauce (see below for ingredients) and stir for about a minute to thicken it up and coat all of the vegetables and chicken. Top with the greens of the scallions.

Sauce:

¼ cup soy sauce
½ ts. oyster sauce
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
1 ts. sesame oil

Mix all ingredients together and set aside.

Rice

 

 

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Cooking for a Crowd

February 21, 2014 //
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Last weekend we escaped the dirty snow of New York and spent several days at my parent’s new house in Vermont. It is the perfect vacation house because it has plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms, and a huge living room with two giant couches. It begs for groups. Funny enough, since I am an only child, there have only been a few nights where more than five of us have stayed there. But this weekend we packed the house – there were the five of us, two of my best friends, one of their boyfriends, and one of their daughters. Besides a lot of sledding, downhill skiing, and snowshoeing, we drank a bit too much wine and bourbon, and ate a ton of Vermont cheese.

Patrick in the snow fort he built out of 3 feet of snow.

Patrick in the snow fort he built out of 3 feet of snow.

Leading up to the weekend, my Mom and I planned the weekend’s menus. Knowing we had a lot of people to feed we tried to design meals that would be easy to prepare for a big group, be universally loved, and accommodate a variety of tastes and dietary needs. A couple of our weekend’s feasts made it to this week’s meal plan, along with two others that would also work for a large group. All of these meals can also be adjusted for as few as two people.

(Meals should feed four adults and take about 30-40 minutes to prepare, or the time it takes Patrick to give Eliza a bottle and put her to bed.)

Meal # 1: Cauliflower and Sausage Casserole + Green Salad
Meal # 2: Meatloaf, Roasted Potatoes + Green Beans
Meal # 3: Shrimp “Scampi” with Linguine + Green Salad
Meal # 4: Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry + Rice

Your Grocery List, excluding the usual pantry items:

cauliflower – 1 medium (about 2 lb.)
onion – 2
scallions – 1 bunch
snap peas – 1 cup, or handful
lettuce – 1 head or bag
lemon – 1
red or yukon gold potatoes – 1 lb.
red, yellow or orange pepper – 2
zucchini and/or summer squash – 2
green beans – 1 ½ lb.
ginger – 1 small piece
whole peeled tomatoes – 1, 28-ounce can
breadcrumbs
fresh or dried thyme (if you don’t already have it)
dried basil (if you don’t already have it)
dried oregano (if you don’t already have it)
garlic powder (if you don’t already have it)
Worcestershire sauce (if you don’t already have it) – optional
Parmesan cheese (if you don’t already have it)
ketchup (if you don’t already have it)
soy sauce  (if you don’t already have it)
oyster sauce (if you don’t already have it)
rice wine vinegar (if you don’t already have it)
sesame oil  (if you don’t already have it)
eggs – 2
linguine – 2-3 oz. per person
sausage – ½ lb.
ground beef – 2 lb.
chicken breast – 1 lb.
bacon – 3 strips
cheddar cheese – ¼ lb.
shrimp – 1 ½ lb.
dry white wine

 

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Categories Meal Plans

Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2014 //
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On this day in 2009, Patrick proposed at Simon Pearce Restaurant in Quechee, Vermont. We were on our way to the Mad River Valley for a long weekend when he suggested we stop at one of my favorite restaurants for lunch. I was thrilled! After a leisurely meal of rich, cheddar soup, airy scones, and Vermont draught beer, Patrick suggested we visit the restaurant’s deck where you can see the adjacent waterfall. Despite what sounds like a total set-up, I had no idea what was coming. No sooner had we walked onto the deck that I turned around to see him down on one knee. Well, the rest is history –  and these days, that day feels like ancient history…

Minutes after I said yes!

Minutes after I said yes!

Five years later, we are driving to Vermont again for the long weekend, but with a toddler in tow. However, we were fortunate to celebrate the holiday, albeit a bit early, last weekend with another delicious meal, this time in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at St. Anselm. Sitting at the bar, we split a duck rillette appetizer, a plate of roasted shoshito peppers, a side of spinach gratin and I had a juicy, hanger steak with garlic butter while Patrick dug into a bourbon-soaked pork chop. Divine. It smelled so good at the restaurant that I told our waiter I wanted to live there. I think Patrick was bit embarrassed.

As you can tell, the way to this lady’s heart is through her stomach and in honor of this day of hugs and kisses I have prepared several meals for you that bring together ingredients that I love: artichokes, macaroni and cheese, shallots, olives, kielbasa, etc. Hope you enjoy them!

xoxo, Kelly

(Meals should feed four adults and take about 30-40 minutes to prepare, or the time it takes Patrick to give Eliza a bottle and put her to bed.)

Meal #1: Kale, White Bean, and Kielbasa Stew + Bread
Meal #2: Roasted Wild Striped Bass with Lemon, Olives, and Rosemary + Roasted Fennel with Artichoke Hearts
Meal #3: Macaroni and Cheese with Prosciutto + Green Salad
Meal #4: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Tomatoes, Olives, and Feta + Sauteed Green Beans with Shallots

Your Grocery List, excluding the usual pantry items:
kale – 1 large bunch
lemon – 3
fennel – 2
lettuce or mixed greens – 1 head or bag
grape or cherry tomatoes – 1 pint or container
shallots – 7
rosemary – 1 bunch
green beans – 1 ½ lb.
kalamata olives – ¼ cup
Spanish olives – ½ cup (or just buy more of the kalamata olives and use those instead)
artichoke hearts – 2 cans
chicken broth – 1 small can
white beans (cannellini or navy) – 2 small cans
small elbow macaroni – 1 box
Gruyere cheese – approx. ½ lb.
whipping or heavy cream – 1 small container or 8 oz.
whole milk – 1 small container or 8 oz.
feta cheese – ¼ lb.
baguette or Italian bread
Parmesan cheese (if you don’t already have it)
ground nutmeg (if you don’t already have it)
thinly sliced prosciutto – 3 oz.
wild striped bass – 1 ½ lb. fillet
bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs – 8 or approx. 2 ½ lbs.
kielbasa – ½ lb.

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Roasted Chicken Thighs with Tomatoes, Olives, and Feta and Sautéed Green Beans with Shallots

February 14, 2014 //
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Roasted Chicken Thighs with Tomatoes, Olives, and Feta
This simple dish is a little bit salty, a little bit fatty, and super satisfying…
Chix Thighs w Shallots_Web


Sautéed Green Beans and Shallots
The addition of a shallot elevates this side dish from average to memorable.
Green Beans w Shallots_Web

1 ½ lb. green beans, ends trimmed
1 TB. butter
1 TB. olive oil
1 shallot, minced (optional)
salt and pepper

Bring salted water to a boil in a pot or saucepan and add green beans. Boil for about 5 minutes, or until crisp, tender. Drain the beans. In the same pot or pan, heat oil and butter over medium heat. When butter is melted, add shallot and saute for about 2 minutes. Add green beans to the pan and saute for another 30 seconds, add salt and pepper to taste.

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