Apricot Day
As I’ve said, my New Year’s resolution is a fairly simple one, to celebrate all of the holidays on my calendar. The first one of the year (after New Year's) is Apricot Day! I got myself to the grocery store (unfortunately due to circumstantial evidence…not Reading Terminal…) and procured the necessary ingredients for my apricot day festivities. I 100% did not realize that apricots were the little nubbins that they are, I guess I usually have dried apricots which appear much larger. But anyway, I digress. For the holiday, I decided to make two dishes, one a dessert and one a main course.
On Sunday, before I put away Christmas in my apartment (tear) and went to my Aunt and Uncle’s to have family dinner, I put together the dessert.
Oatmeal Bars- from Martha Stewart online
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Steel-cut Oats – I used instant oatmeal
- 4 Apricots – check
Step 1: Actually use steel-cut oats
Step 2: Peel and dice the apricots
Step 3: Make the oatmeal as directed
Step 4: Mix the apricots into the oatmeal
Step 5: Spread the whole thing into your faithful jellyroll pan and cool in the fridge
Step 6: When you get home from family dinner and realize that the bars are cooled but still mostly the consistency of oatmeal, go ahead and throw the pan into the oven for a while. Make sure you sprinkle some brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice on top because you realize this dish is going to taste like oatmeal.
Step 7: When you wake up in the morning and realize there’s still not enough consistency, go ahead and stick the pan back in the oven while you shower and get ready.
Step 8: Do a taste test at work and realize you can’t share this with anyone because it’s not that good.
So there you have it, you win some, you lose some. And this one, was a lose. I’m going to try real oatmeal bars sometime, but alas this time was definitely a lose. The good news is that at least it’s sitting at work in packaging so I can eat it for breakfast for the week. So yeah for this foodsperiment +5 for celebrating holidays, -3 for failure, +5 for breakfast.
My cold from the weekend became more along the line of “full blown” on Monday, so while I sat at work I decided to add to my planned dinner meal. A starter course, and since it is still soup month…soup.
Chicken Soup – from my brain
Ingredients:
- Chicken stock – check
- Marjoram – check
- Basil – check
- Bay leaf – check
- Onion – check
- Garlic – check
- Red pepper flakes – check
Step 1: Peel and cube the onion, and peel and slice the garlic.
Step 2: Put all ingredients in a pot
Step 3: Simmer for 10 to 15minutes or longer…hopefully your other meal will be ready by then but maybe not.
Wowza, so my idea behind this soup was mainly to be similar to hot and sour soup (which everyone knows is hands down the best cold medicine) and somehow I accidentally put a whole lot more red pepper flakes than I had intended. So this soup was delicious. It was super spicy too so I had to eat it in increments. Next time, definitely (I know it’s sacrilege to say) but I'll use less red pepper flakes, and maybe I’d simmer it for longer…but when a lady wants to eat and go to bed as soon as possible…what are you going to do?
For this foodsperiment +4 for taste, +5 for easy clean up, +5 for quickness, and +3 for a starter course.
Spicy Chicken Soup
As the soup simmered I set up the actual meal…which was premeditated, for the holiday.
Spicy Apricot-Glazed Chicken – from Martha Stewart online
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup apricot jam – I used just some apricots, at least until I discovered I did have some jam so I added a spoonful of jam to the diced apricots
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes – check
- Chicken breast halves – check
- Coarse salt and pepper – check
Step 1: “Broil” seasoned chicken 5 to 6 minutes – if you’re me you don’t have a broiler so stick it in the oven at about 350F and put it in for a full 10 minutes
Step 2: Mix together the apricots, jam, and red pepper.
Step 3: “Brush” chicken with mixture/glaze
Step 4: “Broil” 4 to 5 minutes more, or until done…roughly 25ish minutes in a oven, possibly more. Don’t get salmonella.
Delicious! I liked everything about this! Ok I’m lying, it was just a little sweet and after the fire branded soup it was more difficult to actually taste but still it was yummy! It was, and this cannot be argued, the perfect celebration of Apricot Day! Next time, I’ll make sure I get apricots from Reading Terminal, but yum.
This foodsperiment gets a +5 for taste, +5 for easy cleanup, +5 for ease, +5 for happy tummy!!
Spicy Apricot-Glazed Chicken
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