In the Heat of Summer

Last night, I sat on the porch and watched the sun go down on the longest day of the year while turning pages in a book that I am actually reading for pleasure. That tree kind of blocks the view, but the pink-purple-blue-yellow streaks of cloud still peaked through. We get some of the best sunsets in the Midwest.

Last summer was a season of live music and cold salads. (I cannot wait for the tomatoes to ripen.) This year I think it will be a summer of outdoor adventures and (somewhat) spicy Mexican cuisine--I'm kind of a baby when it comes to heat. I've already embarked with friends on several biking adventures. However, those may be put on hold for a couple reasons, one being that I ran over my own bicycle and bent the front wheel so badly it won't rotate all the way around. My friend just gave my bike a marvelous tuneup last week. For one glorious ride, my bike shifted gears with ease and made barely a squeak. But Sunday I was in a hurry and pulled out of my garage packed with three bikes and a stupid lacrosse goal (that dang lacrosse goal). My mirror hit the handlebar of my bike and knocked it over and I just kept driving. I didn't actually run it over per se, but jammed it between the wall and my car. You know those times when maybe you walk out of the house with like 10 things in your arms and you're already late for work and then you drop something and instead of picking it up again you just kick it because you're annoyed--that's pretty much what I did to my bike. I am such an idiot.

So far nothing has spoiled my summer of Mexican food. I plan to fully embrace my discovery of the hot pepper and queso with a diversity of cooking. Or maybe I'll just remain content with an easy tortilla dish. I thought for sure I already shared this chili-chicken recipe on here, but I can't find it. It's got to be on this blog somewhere because this is one of the first things I really cooked for myself and kept cooking. I got the recipe from Weight Watchers who recommends cooking the chicken in Pam's light cooking spray. Now that I'm completely off that healthy kick, I douse with olive oil--the "heart-healthy" oil.

Chili Chicken Tortillas: serves 4

2 chicken breasts/thighs whatever, just cubed

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon chili powder

big dash seasoned salt

dash pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Toss uncooked chicken in a bowl of flour, chili powder, seasoned salt, pepper and paprika. Cook in a saute pan with olive oil until the chicken is cooked through. You might need to experiment with the seasonings on this to your preference. Serve in a tortilla garnished with whatever you've got that might go with Mexican food (i.e. cheese, peppers, salsa, tomatoes, sour cream and so on).

Slow Roast This

It seems the only cooking I have time for these days involves frying and egg or slow roasting. Yes, slow roasting so I can leave things on the stove, head to happy hour at Dario's and return to homemade chicken stock a few hours later. I'm barely treading water, yet I somehow manage to make chicken stock. It seemed like such a waste to throw away a perfectly good carcass (I love that word). I had planned on adding this to a vegetarian lentil stew for a party tomorrow, but the chicken stock would make it, you know, not vegetarian. Details.

Chicken Stock: by Barefoot Contessa
1 pound chicken (she recommends whole chicken, whatever, I used used the leftovers)
1 onion, unpeeled and quartered
3 carrots, unpeeled and halved
2 stalks celery, with leaves cut in thirds
1 garlic clove, unpeeld and halved
1 tablespoon dry parsley
1 teapsoon dry thyme
salt and pepper

Toss all that crap in a big ol' pot. Fill with water. Boil, reduce heat to a simmer and let stew for 4 hours. Pour through a strainer and reserve the liquid, throwing the vegetables away.

Apple-cider Braising

Last night was the first thunderstorm of the year here. It was spring in all its glory: downpour, lightning, thunder, leaky roof, even hail. Before that friends came over and we shared chicken, rice, potatoes, parsnips, fruit, mango popsicles and stories (and maybe a few yoga poses) with Dark Was the Night playing in the background. I finally braised chicken according to Molly Stevens instructions. Four hours passed with barely a blink.

My sister, her college roommates and a few extra friends make dinner for each other every single night of the week (here's their blog, including amazing photography from her friend Ryan). They take turns cooking for each other, so everyone only has to take time and money out to  once a week. My sister once made broccoli, by choice. Unbelievable considering our aversion to it as children.

The apple-cider braised chicken, recipe below, it did take a while. About two hours start to finish, though the last hour the chicken baking (er, braising, which Adam says means that it cooks with juices in a tightly-lidded pot)  and me finishing Night by Elie Weisel and then napping on the couch. Now that I've learned about browning meat before baking it all the way, things are crispier on the outside and juicier on the inside. That apple cider did quite a number on the parsnips, making them ever-so-slightly sweet and of a perfect balence between over- and underdone (so just right).

Gotta love the self-timer function.

Apple-cider Braised Chicken and Parsnips: by Molly Stevens
2 teaspoons olive oil
4 strips bacon
1 pound bone-in, skin-on chicken
3 spring onions plus 1 leek
2 1/2 cup hard apple cider
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 pound parsnips

Preheat oven to 325.

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Cook bacon in oil until its crispy. Remove and set aside. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the leftover oil for browning the chicken.

Rinse and pat (completely) dry the chicken. Smear with salt and pepper. Set the chicken skin-side down in the hot oil (I only cooked two pieces at a time). Let sear for a few minutes, turn once the skin has browned and crisped a bit. Brown all the sides and then remove the chicken and set aside.

Chop the onions and leeks. Peel and core the parsnips, removing their woody centers, and then julienne into matchstick pieces. Saute the onions and leeks in the oil leftover from the bacon and the chicken, taking care not to burn the onions. Once they're slightly browned, pour in 2 cups of the hard cider (I used Woodchuck). Using a wooden spoon, scrape up the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Bring cider to a boil and let the volume reduce to about 1/2 cup. Add the rosemary at this point, along with the remaining 1/2 cup of cider. Reduce the volume of the cider again to a generous 3/4 cup. Turn off the heat on the stovetop.

Arrange the parsnips on the bottom of the pot (they don't all have to touch the bottom). Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the bacon over the parsnips. Arrange the chicken skin-side down on top of the parsnips. Cover with aluminum foil and parchment paper that is nearly touching the chicken and drapes over the side of the pot (or if you don't have a fire-proof pot, transfer to a baking sheet or casserole). Lid it. Place it in the oven and cook for 25 minutes. Remove the pot from the oven, turn the chicken and bake it again for another 20 to 25 minutes, until the chicken has cooked through.

To serve, arrange chicken on a serving platter. Check to see if the parsnips are cooked through, if not, you can simmer them on the stovetop for a few minutes. Then the sauce slightly if necessary. It should be thicker than water but not thick enought to coat a spoon.

Frica-what?

I did it. I made a meal on a regular weeknight for no other purpose other than in honor of Gossip Girl Monday. And my friend Liz came over so I didn't have to feel either sad and pathetic eating alone or completely indulgent for going through the trouble to cook fancy for no one. Even though the photos suggest the chicken fricassee was cold with chunky sauce (don't hold my shoddy photography skills against the poultry), it was quite good--creamy, tender, high in cholesterol. Just like meeting a boy with an accent makes him that much cuter, making a dish involving the word "fricassee," which I still don't know the meaning of, makes said entree that much better. I (almost) followed all the detailed directions to Julia Child's chicken stewed in onions and cream (believe it or not, that was one of the least gluttonous recipes as it involved only cream and not cream and egg yolks and bacon).

Liz and I finished an entire bottle of wine on a Monday night (Julia Child would have been proud I think) and totally forgot about Gossip Girl. We chit-chatted about boys, jobs, babies (just kidding, we did not talk about babies)--just the way to start out the week. Maybe next time I'll be up for trying coq au vin, which involves lighting something on fire. Exciting.

You know how you have those relationships in which one is the giver and the other is the taker? One person does most of the talking and the other does most of the listening? Well, I think with Liz, I'm the taker-talker. I hope I'm not too bad, and at least I bribe her with food, but she's such a great listener and totally lets me go off on my storytelling tangents including lots of hand motions and vocal outbursts. I'm glad I've got people around to humor me.

Chicken Stewed in Onions and Cream: from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, serves 4
2 chicken breasts, bone in
2 chicken legs, bone in
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup onions, chopped
salt, pepper
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
3/4 cup dry white wine
2 cups whipping cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Dry the chicken, apparently this is absolutely necessary. I don't know--I had never tried it before tonight. Melt the butter in a fire proof pot. Saute the chicken for about 5 minutes just so the outside stiffens. I think this is to trap in the juices a bit, so turn it as she goes. Remove the chicken and set aside. Saute the onions, covered, for 5 minutes until their softened but not browned. Spread salt, pepper and curry powder on the chicken to season. Place chicken back in the pot, cover and cook for 10 minutes, turning once. In a separate pot, bring the cream to a soft simmer.

Pour in the wine, bring to a rapid boil to reduce the volume of the liquid. Once the liquid is almost gone pour in the cream. Stir to combine and reduce heat so the liquid simmers lightly. Baste the chicken by spooning the sauce over it. Cover and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken to a serving platter. Bring the sauce to a boil to thicken it. Add the lemon juice and more salt and pepper to taste. Sauce is done when is coats a spoon. Add more cream if the sauce is still chunky. Pour sauce over chicken and serve.

Craig and Fajitas

Craig and I go way back to freshman year of college. That's like seven years ago. We've been through thick and thin. We went to Europe together back in '04. I even (mercifully) didn't murder Craig in cold blood on a train to Naples when we went several hours out of our way so Craig could visit Monte frickin' Cassino. Now Craig lives in Atlanta with David, Bump (the chihuahua) and their friend Jenn, and I never ever get to see him. But thanks to a long flight to Africa that bumped me just over the requirement for qualifying for a free flight on United, I was able to go visit Craig in his brand new house. We did all sorts of fun stuff, like swim in the Chattahoochee River, visit a GIANT farmer's market, go to the High Museum and watch the season finale to So You Think You Can Dance. We even managed to cook a few times.

I cook so often by and for myself, I forgot how nice it is to cook with people.

I took care of the chicken: chopping, marinating, making love to, etc. Craig covered the guacamole and salsa, using some of his mom's Tastefully Simple tricks. Craig finished it off by sauteing the chicken and serving it up, while I whined about a cut on my foot to David who was plesantly simpathetic.

Chicken Fajitas: serves 4, from Food and Wine
2 chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 green bell pepper, also cut into strips
1/2 onion, sliced and separated into similarly sized slices
1 tablespoon cornstarch (we actually used flour)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt
pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup water
juice from 1/2 a lime
olive oil
grated cheese, sour cream, salsa and/or guacamole to garnish

In a resealable plastic bag, toss, chicken, vegetables, spices, flour and water. Place in refrigerator for at least 10 minutes to marinate. Remove from fridge and saute on stovetop on medium heat using olive oil. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Cook until chicken is cooked through. Serve with warmed fajitas and cheese, sour cream, salsa and guac to garnish.

Roast Chicken

And I've cooked something again. Feels good. Especially when it's something so easy. I came home from work after reading reading reading all day long, and it was nice to do something else. All I did was slather the chicken with butter (and my hands--don't worry, I washed) and then I sat outside on the deck and savored the outdoors. I realize summer is sort of winding down and I need to bask in it. The public pools are closing this weekend and school starts in a couple weeks. But the good thing about summer when you're not in school (and trust me, I need a good thing) is that it lasts as long as you want it to. So my summer goes from May through the end of September.

Roast Chicken: adapted from Amateur Gourmet
3 tablespoons butter, softened and cut into slices
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 stalks of fresh rosemary, finely chopped (or 1 tsp dried rosemary)
1 teaspoon dried sage
salt and pepper
4 chicken legs

Preheat oven to 400. In a small bowl, mash together butter, garlic, rosemary, sage, and salt and pepper. Place chicken legs in a cast iron skillet or roasting pan or whatever you've got. Rub butter all over the chicken, add extra salt and pepper if needed. Bake for 20 minutes in oven. After 20 minutes, turn the heat down to 350 and bake another 25 to 30 minutes until chicken is cooked through, golden brown and crispy on the outside.

Pan-fried Fingerling Potatoes: handful of fingerling potatoes, sliced thinly
salt
pepper
olive oil

In a medium skillet on medium-high heat, warm olive oil. Add sliced potatoes, salt and pepper according to taste. Saute until potatoes are tender and cooked through.

Garlic Chicken Pizza

My mom is a genius. I called her last week with a dilemma: What to make for some friends. Her response: Pizza. Simple. Everyone loves pizza. On inspiration from the Pizza Shoppe in Benson I went for garlic chicken--also I love garlic. But when I came home to make this pizza Saturday, I discovered the garlic was MIA. Goldilocks had gone through my apartment and rearranged everything in anticipation of our house party--Megan declares it looks better. I admit, some tweaks were improvements. However, those improvements do not include the missing garlic (which I blame on this person without any real proof) and hiding our doorbell in one of the cupboards. I digress. The pizza was great, except for the crust. I bought it freshly made at the Rotella's factory down the street from my office (garlic bread day is the best!). But the crust didn't come with directions, so the first time I made it I couldn't get it to stretch flat enough and then it didn't cook through. The second time was better, though if I do it again I'll set the oven on the highest temp. We scarfed down some of the pizza right before our party started. To clean up, Eric and I just threw it back in the cooled oven and forgot about it until the next day. I live on the wild side when it comes to food, but I drew the line with chicken that had been sitting out all night. Had to throw it away. Garlic-Chicken Pizza: 2 tablespoons butter 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 green onions, finely diced 1 teaspoon dried basil salt and pepper 1 chicken breast 2 roma tomatoes, diced 2 cremini mushrooms, sliced pizza dough parmasan cheese Pre-heat the oven to 500. In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and add the garlic, onions, basil, salt and pepper. Sautee until garlic and onion are barely browned. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a couple minutes. Meanwhile, place chicken breast in a skillet and cover with water. On stovetop, bring water to boil and then reduce to simmer. Simmer until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool for a few minutes. Once cooled, tear chicken into bite-sized pieces. While the butter is cooling, work on the pizza dough. Grease a baking sheet and work dough gently so that the dough is spread to an even thickness throughout. Go back to the butter. In a small mixing bowl, stir together butter mixture and ricotta cheese, adding more salt and pepper to taste if necessary. Spread cheese mixture over the flattened dough. Top pizza with chicken, tomatoes and mushrooms. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until crust is browned and crispy and cooked through.

It's Chicken Noodle Soup Y'all

Some really great things have been happening lately. And I mean really great. So great I can't even handle it. In one day my name was drawn out of a hat to go on a trip to Africa for work. (Let's contemplate the ridiculousness/awesomeness of that in subsequent postings.) And then I got home and had a package sitting on top of my mailbox that signalled my acceptance into a graduate school for creative writing. I did the dance, running up the stairs, calling my mom completely out of breath, lusting after fabulous life in Boston ... and then I freaked out. I thought about my entire future (or at least two years of it) and it was like in tetris when you advance so far and allthetilesstartfallingdownatonceandyoucan'tstopitandit'soutofcontrolandthen game over.

But I got a grip, which I subsequently lost again. Thanks to some coaching by Lindsey, I've got a plan that does not involve an existential crisis.

This will probably come as no surprise, but I use food as a coping mechanism. And last night, what I needed was to cope. And chop things into tiny pieces. And I'm getting a cold, so soup.

Chicken Noodle Soup: 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 large onion, chopped 1/2 cup carrots, chopped (or one or two whole carrots) 1 garlic clove, chopped 4 cups chicken stock 2 pounds chicken (this is approximate, I used one leg and it wasn't enough) 1/2 cup orzo pasta (or 1 cup egg noodles) 1 teapsoon dried parsley 1 teapsoon dried basil

Heat oil in medium skillet on medium heat, saute carrots and onion for a few minutes until onion is a bit translucent. Saute garlic for 1 minute. Add chicken stock, bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Add chicken. I added a chicken leg, boiled it for about 15 minutes until it was cooked through, removed it from the stock and chopped it separately to throw back into the soup. You could probably just use chicken breast or any other meat and chop it beforehand and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

On a heavy simmer, toss in the pasta--I added 1 whole cup of orzo (which is rice-shaped pasta) and it took over, so don't do that. Continue to simmer until pasta is cooked through according to directions. Add salt and pepper to taste and top with parsley and basil (I'm Italian, this is how we roll).

In Praise of Slumdog

I went to India about 10 years ago with a group from church. Not a very likely trip for a 16-year-old. When I came back, everyone asked me how it was and all I could say was "good." I'm sure some of you may understand how difficult it is to sum up an experience that is so overwhelming and (as it turns out) lifechanging. Over Christmas I saw Slumdog Millionaire (twice actually), and could tell my parents and friends, "Yes, that is exactly what Bombay is like." It is absolutley that crowded, that dirty, that colorful, and if movies could smell I'm sure this one would be that smelly. And I don't necessarily mean this in a bad way. India is a country of extremes: the most people you've ever seen, the brightest colors possible and the food has more flavor than you could imagine existing in one bite. My palette had never experienced anything like what India presented. Our group had a cook who would make us breakfast and dinner everyday and would purify our water. Curry, coriander, cumin, marjoram, all these were completely new to me. I had never eaten lentils, eggplant, mutton, chai tea, nan bread ... is it lunchtime yet? Everything so savory with a bit of a kick (and sometimes quite a kick). I haven't even been able to recreate the plain black tea served there from the "chaiwallas" on the trains--and I bought some loose leaf tea while I was there. I wish I could show you some of my photos, but that was in the days prior to digital cameras and I had an unfortunate haircut. I'm clearly on some sort of India kick this week, what with the chutney. I even did yoga right before making this dish. The best part about this meal is that the best is yet to come. The leftovers are going to be ever better than straight out of the pan. Even though the above photo doesn't show it, this is one of the best dishes I've made (especially in recent months). Indian Spiced Chicken with Cous Cous: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced (I used 1 teaspoon powdered ginger) 1/2 (or so)tablespoon cumin 1/2 (or so) tablespoon coriander 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (I didn't have this, skipped it and it was more than fine) 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1 teaspoon salt pinch cayenne pepper 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes 1/4 cup cream 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 1/2 cups water 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips Heat oil in medium skillet on medium heat, add onion and saute until translucent, add garlic and ginger. Continue sauteing for about a minute, do not let the garlic burn. Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, paprika and salt. Stir to coat onion and garlic with spices. Add tomatoes and cayenne pepper. (Here you can add some frozen spinach to give some more color and texture. Be sure that it is defrosted and completely drained of excess water.) Carefully taste sauce to see if you need to add more seasonings. Add cream and water and bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. Cover pan and simmer for five minutes. Add chicken strips to the stew, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Allow sauce to stand for a few minutes before serving so that it will thicken. While the chicken is cooking, bring 1 1/2 cups of lightly salted water to a boil. Add one cup of cous cous to boiling water. Immediately turn off heat. Let cous cous sit for five minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve with chicken stew.

Maria and Garlic.

Maria is one of the first of my friends to get her own house. So she made this dish in a kitchen that she owns. Inferiority complexes aside (it's a bad market anyway, right?), I admit a bit of mouth watering over the dish. It's chicken and veggies in a garlic marinade. Surprised? Anyone who knows Maria understands her love (obsession) with garlic. She puts it in everything. It was sort of a joke back at the house on Florence and Jefferson in Kirksville. She even got one of this metal "bar of soap" thingy that washes off weird odors (like garlic and fish).

My other comment about this to note how healthy my friends/two-of-five faithful readers (doesn't anyone make cookies?). Also how much they seem to like alcohol (note the bottle of beer).

Again, send me some lovely, mouth-watering photos of your food, and I'll do a nice, complimentary post about you (even you, dad, gravy, gravy, gravy). lrseyler at hotmail dot com. Thanks.

I Could Live On Salad Alone.

Oh man, I did not feel like cooking last night. For the first time I felt the pressure: "I started this cooking blog and I have got to update it, I need to make something good." But I didn't even feel like eating anything. Pasta? Had that this weekend--three times. Chicken? Too heavy. Soup? I wanted instant gratification last night; I did not want to wait for something to simmer on my moody stovetop. The only thing I wanted to eat was mushrooms. I used to loathe mushrooms. I thought they were creepy. Fungus? Edible fungus? I found them kind of slimy when sauteed, versus the almost starchy consistency of raw shrooms. You can't trust something like that, right? And I swear even the smell of them caused a gag reflex at age 10. But as with tomatoes, olives, eggplant, squash, garbanzo beans, beans in general, scallops, mussels, tofu, wine and other superior food (can you believe I didn't eat these at one point), I gained an appreciation for them from traveling. In Thailand, my chef/friend/adopted-mother would make me this all-vegetable dish with like seven different kinds of mushrooms: shittake (I love that word), those long and skinny ones, the ones with the lacy edges, probably button mushrooms. I die. There are only like three kinds of mushrooms available at HyVee. Alas, another meal I can never recreate. I finally gave in to my lazy, tired, whiny, I-don't-feel-like-it attitude and bought a rotisserie chicken for $5 at HyVee, feta cheese, portabello mushrooms (because that was all they had), bell peppers and Annie's Naturals Shittake and Sesame dressing (sort of expensive, but the freaking best dressing I have ever had). I made a salad. It took about 5 minutes, and it was awesome. I'm planning on using the rest of the rotisserie chicken to make a homemade stuffed pasta of sorts (or on a salad tonight). Disaster waiting just around the corner.