February 9, 2012 – Spicy Chicken, Parsnips and Turnips A Naturale

I love my family.  I brag about them more than I brag about anything, and the funniest part of the bragging is that I had almost nothing to do with getting them as a family and really I don’t think I had too much to do with their awesomeness, but they’re mine so I think that I’m allowed to brag about their awesomeness.  They are all really awesome and special.  I would be lying if I said I couldn’t pick out which ones were my favorites (honesty bomb) but I do love them all.  Some of them I see a lot (like my Teta and Uncle and Cousin for Sunday Family Dinners) and some of them I see less often (like my Uncle and Aunt and Cousins who live in Cali) but all of them rock the cas-bah (I’m not sure I know what that means).  I had the fortune to have an accidental chat with my darling cousin MB and got totally psyched for August for our family reunion (yes people really do that every year).  Then for some reason made the following meal to consume in the time I had between work and meeting up with my ex-work wife Bindy and her dear friend for vino and cheese!

Spicy Chicken, Parsnikps and Turnips A Naturale – from my brain

Ingredients:

• 1 parsnip – check
• 1 turnip – check
• 1 portion chicken – check
• ½ tsp hot sauce (Texas Pete if you know what’s good for you) – check
• Sprinkle Bread Crumbs – check
• Sprinkle Red Pepper Flakes – check
• Salt – check
• Pepper – check
• ½ tsp veg oil – check

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350F.  I don’t know why I find this to be my favorite oven temperature but it works.  Peel the parsnip.  I’m not entirely sure that’s how a parsnip is supposed to be cooked because I’ve never cooked with them before but I figured they look like a potato and British people put parsnips in mashed potatoes (a practice I’ve tried and decided it’s just downright Un-American) so they can probably be treated similar to a potato. 

Step 2: Slice the parsnip into similar sizes.  This is tricky with parsnips because they’re a tuber that gets fatter, or skinner depending on your perspective.  So just try to make it work.  Set aside.

Step 3: Cut the ends off the turnip, I’m not sure that’s how to treat turnips either but I didn’t really have time for youtube.  Slice the turnip into roughly the same sizes.  Taste a bit of the turnip and a bit of the parsnip so you’ll know what they might taste like.  Turnips are  a bit sweet and parsnips have a bit of a bite.

Step 4: Mix the parsnip and the turnip together, add the veg. oil and just a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  This will hopefully make them yummy. Put them in a dish so that they’re all spread out.  Sometimes, it may take you many tries to find the right size, but eventually you’ll get there.  Pop them into the oven.

Step 5: Coat the chicken with the Texas Pete, then bread and red pepper flake and bake the chicken.  Then put it in the oven.  Let everything cook about 35-40minutes or until the veggies are soft-ish and the chicken is cooked.  The “I just checked but it clearly needs a little more time to cook” is a perfect time to take a phone call from your best friend Heids to plan things about the weekend.

Catching a small phone chat with Heids is not only the perfect time user (it’s not a waste so I’m not going to use that term) to finish cooking, but also to allow your food to cool.  Plus it’s a pleasure to get a minute to chat about weekend plans, even when your best friend tells you that you’re nuts to have too many things booked and that you might need to relax.  Ok, relax.

I can’t rave about this meal enough.  Wowza.  The chicken was the PERFECT amount of spicy.  The parsnips, well we’ll come to terms with them in a while, but the TURNIPS are like CANDY.  The best part is that they’re candy that’s good for you.  How did I never know that before?  I’m honestly floored by this.  I can’t wait to try it with a multitude of other things.

This foodsperiment gets +7 for taste, +5 for turnips, +5 for easy dishes, +5 for cousins, +5 for best friends, +5 for Chelsea Handler (who I watched on Rosie during dinner), and +5 for drinks later with my ex-work wife Bindy and Co! Happy Sperimenting!

Spicy Chicken, Parsnips and Turnips A Naturale!

February 7, 2012 – Kale and Fennel Walnut Frittata

On my walk to work in the morning I considered what was in my kitchen. Maybe that’s a bit odd, but there you go. I had eggs that I knew needed to get used and I’d decided it would be a meatless Tuesday, which is less trendy sounding than Meatless Monday but I prefer the idea of Hamburger Monday to Meatless Monday therefore, a non-trendy name for not consuming meat on Tuesday.  Anyway, I considered what to make with the need to use them eggs in my fridge and I decided on a frittata.  Fate must have agreed with me as I arrived at work to a president, from my co-worker who has chickens, of 6 VERY fresh eggs!  I figured if I didn’t eat eggs today God might smite me down.

On the walk home from work I re-considered my options and solidified my frittata plan.  Frittatas are typically cooked in a saucepan and then transferred to the oven but I decided to go with a different method.  I’m lucky enough to have inheritated these two amazing small, single serving casserole dishes from my Teta.  They also have tops and thus can become a simple storage device.  I decided that I’d make enough for two frittatas to bring one for lunch tomorrow.

Kale and Fennel Walnut Frittata – from my brain via what fate intended when six eggs arrived on my desk this morning.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs - check
• ½ tsp chili powder - check
• ½ tsp paprika - check
• 2 cloves garlic, minced - check
• 1/3 cup minced fennel  - check
• 1/3 cup grated parm - check
• Salt and pepper -check
• 1/8 cup heavy cream - check
• ½ tsp lemon juice - check
• ¼ cup minced kale – check
• 1/3 cup walnut pieces - check

Step 1: Read my nerdy science book (Cooking for Geeks by Jeff Potter) and learn that the “order of operations” is important.  So you know that 2 cloves garlic, minced means mince the cloves after you measure out the portion while 1/3 cup minced fennel means mince the fennel and THEN measure out the portion.  WOAH! SCIENCE!

Step 2: Preheat the oven to 350F.  Take all refrigerated ingredients out of the fridge. Cooking with ingredients at room temperature makes all of the reactions and bonding better so your food tastes better (this is usually the case but not always). 

Step 3: Put the garlic and fennel into your Cuisinart grinder/mincer thing and mince.  Then use the mincer to mince the kale.  Grate your parm.  Generally prep all of your ingredients.  During the prep stage, toast the walnut pieces and allow to cool before using them (about 2 min in the oven and one or two minutes cooling).  Also toast (I’m not sure I’d call it toasting but I can’t think of a better term) the fennel and garlic in the oven about a minute. 

Step 4: Crack the eggs (on a flat surface, not on the edge of the bowl) and whisk together all of the ingredients.  Pour half the mixture into one casserole dish and the other half in the second casserole dish.  Top with some freshly grated parm.

Step 5: Bake 15ish minutes, until just crispy on top, while you clean up the kitchen.  While you were mincing, you probably considered “why don’t I always use this handy dandy machine thing” and while you cleaning you remember why. 

Step 6: Consume, feel free to have a little bit of hot sauce on the side. 

This was good.  I tried really hard to taste everything separately and maybe that’s why I couldn’t.  I couldn’t really taste the chili powder or paprika and my untrained palette knows that I liked it best with the hot sauce (don’t worry, I mostly resisted using too much hot sauce).  I did notice subtle flavors now and again and it was very filling and delicious.  Maybe I needed to not focus so hard, and increase the amount of spices.  I think I’d also make it without the walnuts.  To be fair, I wanted them to be pine nuts but I don’t have any pine nuts.  Turns out that while in a soup a little spice goes a LONG way, in an egg a little spice goes significantly smaller of a way.

Overall I give this foodsperiment a +5 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for freshness, +5 for final cleanup, and +5 for tomorrow’s lunch! Happy Sperimenting!

February 6, 2012 - Sweet and Spicy Pork and Roasted Fennel

Mondays have a nasty habit of sneaking up on you.  No matter how relaxing and/or fun your weekend was, no matter how much sleep you got, or how much time you spent watching movies and/or commercials with your Cousin, Aunt, and Uncle; Mondays still hit you like a ton of bricks.  Today was just such a Monday, and even though I had good PT session in the morning, and I got a number of fairly important things done at work, it still felt like a serious Monday problem.

I get a daily email from Prevention.com that sends me recipes.  Most of the time I ignore the recipe and/or open it so it’s not sitting unopened in my inbox and then proceed to forget that it ever existed.  However, today I knew I had pork thawing and the recipe I received was for Sweet and Spicy Pork.  When I arrived at my humble abode I checked out the recipe a little more closely and decided I’d make it but with some modifications.  I had already determinedto have some roasted fennel alongside it, since February is the month I nix all soda from my diet, and also try to nix my carbs (mostly in order to force me to try new things). 

Sweet and Spicy Pork and Roasted Fennel – from my brain via Prevention.com

Ingredients:

• Ground Cumin - check
• Ground Cinnamon - check
• Pepper - check
• Salt - check
• Allspice (Jamaican) - check
• Chili powder - check
• 2 clove crushed and chopped garlic - check
• Pork portion - check
• Veg oil - check
• Honey - check
• Fennel bulb - check
• Oregano – check

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350F.  Crush and chop the garlic; put into separate tiny casserole dishes, unless you don’t have a tiny casserole dish in which case use your discretion.  Pour a tiny splash of oil over each pile of garlic bits. Put the garlic into the oven while you prep the fennel.

Step 2: Prep fennel…see youtube how to do this here; you should have done parts of this the day you bought the fennel because it makes your life so much easier. 

Step 3: Take your casserole dishes out of the oven.   In a bowl mix half the fennel with one of the sets of garlic and oil, toss in some oregano and a bit of salt and pepper.  Place back into the casserole dish.

Step 4: Wipe the bowl you used for the fennel and mix cumin, cinnamon, pepper, salt, allspice, and chili powder. I didn’t use exact measurements but you want to have approximately the same amount of each spice.

Step 5: In the casserole dish with the garlic and oil, squeeze just a touch (rougly ¼ tsp) of honey and mix well.

Step 6: Coat your pork portion first with the spices, then with the honey/garlic/oil glaze.  Try to make it even all over.

Step 7: If your pork is a pretty big honker, put the pork in the oven for 15min while you do the dishes.  When your timer goes off, flip the pork.  Then put the pork and the fennel into the oven for 25minutes or until cooked (it might need another 10minutes).

This meal turned out very light and very interesting.  Perhaps my palate is finally becoming sophisticated; the pork was perfectly tender with only a hint of sweetness.  I could tell I probably used just a little more cinnamon than the other spices but it was for sure a dish I’d make again.  The original recipe called for hot sauce too which I would have incorporated if I’d READ THE WHOLE RECIPE instead of skimming it.  The book I’m reading, a geeky science+food book I’m sure I’ll mention again, deplores the practice of skimming recipes…I guess this just proved to me yet again that I need to be better at being fully engaged in the recipe before I start cooking.  Lesson possibly learned.  As for the fennel, it was a win.  I love fennel, no matter how my dear friend KP feels. 

This foodsperiment gets a +5 for taste, +5 for nutrient levels, and +5 for a quite Monday meal making sunshine out of a mild weathered day.  Happy Sperimenting!

Sweet and Spicy Pork and Roasted Fennel

January 21, 2012 – Crab Fried Rice

It is a very rare day indeed that I don’t have a thousand different plans and all my hours aren’t filled.  Today was one of those very rare days.  I woke up to snow covering the alley and reports of more snow to come, and spent most of the day watching tv, lounging, knitting, writing, answering emails and chatting with Erin and Mai.   Finally, it was well past dinner time and I wanted to make something but I didn’t really know what and  Erin mentioned fried rice so I decided that I was going to be inspired by her.

Crab Fried Rice – from my brain

Ingredients:

• ½ bag Uncle Ben’s rice - check
• ½ bag of imitation crab – leftovers, check
• 1 clove garlic – check
• Onion, about a tbs – check
• Carrots, about ½ tbs – check
• Oil, a splash – check
• Rice wine vinegar – check
• Soy Sauce – check

Step 1: Make a bag of uncle ben’s rice per instructions; mostly consists of water etc. 

Step 2: While the rice is cooking, mince the garlic clove and the bits of onion. Also cut the carrot into small pieces.

Step 3: Drain the rice and wash the pot.  Put the pot on low heat; heat a splash of veg. oil and sauté the onions, garlic, and carrots together.

Step 4: Cut the imitation crab into pieces, add these to the pot.

Step 5: Add half the bag of rice to the pot, keep stirring a bit.  Add a splash of rice wine vinegar to the pot and stir.

Step 6: Add about two splashes of soy sauce and stir.  Keep stirring until you feel pretty awesome about what’s going on in the pot and you decide you’re going to eat it.  Leave it in for at least the one minute you put the plate you’ll use into the microwave.

Step 7: Plate the fried rice and clean up so you don’t burn yourself on it. Then consume. Use chopsticks for best results.

Pretty perfect end to a snow day.  It was just a little less like fried rice than I maybe would have liked, but it was so yummy and light that I didn’t even care.  Hurrah for Erin, hurrah for my love of Asians, hurrah for easy cooking and easy cleanup. 

This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +5 for quickness, +5 for using up ingredients in my kitchen, +5 for easy clean up, +5 for friendship inspiration.  Happy Sperimenting!

Crab Fried Rice!

January 18, 2012 – Beef Chicken and Veg Soup, Chicken Nugs, Kale Chips, and Love aka Cousinship

My dahling cousin Katie is taking a semester off from college and living at home at my fabulous Aunt and Uncle’s out in the burbs of the City of Brotherly Love and working in her industry so there’s great potential for many more cousin dates.  Also, Katie is a food science major so it’s delightful cooking with her.  We determined that she’d come over, I’d make soup, and in general there would be friendship.  She was a bit late coming over, which was perfect because I was a bit late getting out of my doctor’s appointment so instead of having dinner mostly ready upon her arrival, I had last minute request of hot cocoa available on the frigid night but dinner yet to be made.  As things were constructed we chatted and enjoyed each other’s company.  We decided to make soup (because it’s soup month) and some other items.

We started dinner by making some Kale Chips, since I still had leftover Kale from Tapas night.  They were thoroughly enjoyed by all as the rest of dinner cooked.

Beef Chicken and Veg Soup – from my brain

Ingredients:

• Beef stock – roughly 2 cups? I used the rest that I had in the fridge
• Chicken stock – roughly 2 cups, same method of use as beef stock
• 1 Bay leaf – check
• 3 cloves garlic – check
• Handful carrots – check
• Pinch of red pepper flakes – check
• Oregano  - check
• Marjoram – check
• Onions – check

Step 1: Cut onion into cube-like nature. Smash and slice the garlic.

Step 2: Combine Beef stock, chicken stock, onions, garlic, bay leaf, red pepper flakes, pinch of marjoram, pinch of oregano.  Set to simmer for a while.

Step 3: Make cousin peel a giant carrot while you prep the chicken nuggets you intend to make.

Step 4: Cut up the carrot into a bit of a cubelike strategy.  Nice bit about this part is that the soup has been simmering for a while, and you can cut the whole carrot up and parcel out the bits you aren’t going to eat in tonights soup into ziploc’s for future lunch or soup.  Add about a handful of cubed carrot to the soup.

Step 5: Simmer until the carrots are soft; turn off heat; remove bay leaf and serve.

Beef and Chicken Veg Soup

Chicken Nuggets – from my brain

Ingredients:

• Bread crumbs – check
• Red pepper flakes – check
• Chicken – check

Step 1: Thaw some chicken breast. You previously froze it into normal people sized portions.

Step 2: Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.

Step 3: In a Ziploc combine some bread crumbs (roughly ½ cup?) and red pepper flakes (the more the merrier) and mix. Add the chicken bites and use the old shake and bake method.

Step 4: Bake in the oven at roughly 400F for 15 to 20 minutes.

Chicken Nuggets

Other items that were included in the dinner menu were some rolls that were reheated, and leftover Cucumbers in Cream.  I thoughly enjoyed everything and Katie agreed!  The soup was spicy but delicious, and there was more than enough food to go around. Almost too much, woops.  We watched Betty White’s 90^th Birthday from my dvr and chatted, and agreed that our Staramama’s 90^th birthday is going to be better (sorry Betty, you’re still pretty). 

This foodsperiment gets an overall +5 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for easy cleanup, +5 for great company, -3 for too much breadcrumbs, +5 for leftovers, and +5 for Betty White.  Happy Sperimenting!

Cousin Dinner Spread

August 16, 2011 – Chicken Breast w/Honey Balsamic Glaze, Tri-Color Rotini, and Red Bell Pepper

Walking to work provides me such an intense joy, except when my gimp foot just goes “no please don’t” etc.  Regardless, today was a slow day, where I basically dreamed of things to buy for my apartment and of course, what to make for dinner.  What a delightfully sleepy walk home too, this whole weaning myself off of caffeine is not going so well…so of course when I got home I took an accidental power nap. 

Anyway, post power nap it was time to get down to the cooking.  I found this recipe on food.com for Chicken Breast with Honey Balsamic Glaze.  It seemed like the easiest thing in the world, and the funny thing is, it totally was.  I set the pot of water to boil for the tri-color rotini (my personal specialty and frankly the only pasta I ever make).  Then I got down to business.  The recipe called for:

• Thyme – or its substitute thanks to the internet of Basil
• Salt – check
• Black Pepper – check
• Olive Oil – I’m not sure if I was using veg. olive, or any other kind of oil but I figured it all works relatively the same (the one is unlabeled on accident but womp womp)
• Chicken breast halves – check
• Balsamic Vinegar – check
• Honey – check

Talk about simple.  Put the spices together, done easy.  Cut the chicken into halves, totally simple thank you knives and opposable thumbs.  Sprinkle the spice mixture onto the chicken, fantastically simple.  Throw the rotini in the pot with the water (thought I forgot about that? No dice).  Then throw the chicken into the pan to fry up.  While it fried (with turning) sautéed?  Whatever you call it….I cleaned and cut the red bell pepper, so I’d have some for lunches (yum).  Anyway, then the chicken goes on top of the pasta and you measure in the ingredients to the pan (still easy).  Anyway, plated the whole thing (pasta, chicken on top, glaze on top, bell peppers around the edges on a whim)…and then it was time to consume.

Gotta say, that chicken was BANGIN’.  In full disclosure…it was a weightwatchers recipe too (4points for the chicken) which made me feel even better!

For this foodsperiment: +8 for taste, -2 for using the tri-color, with the chicken it should be rice or potatoes not pasta…, +10 for clean-up while cooking, +2 for the random choice to add the bell peppers.  Def going to try this one again, so quick and easy!

June 28, 2011 – Four Cheese Pizza

I’ve been thinking about pizza ever since I discovered there was a pizza pan residing in my house, and as it doesn’t belong to me I’d have to make the pizza prior to moving out.  I still felt pretty exhilarated from the weekend of cooking and delight, and I thought “if I don’t do it on Tuesday it won’t happen.”  I knew I had Romano cheese, and feta, and I figured that to make a pizza for just me would be kind of useless so I asked my roommate Sarah if she’d be interested in pizza for dinner. Hurrah! She was!

I found the dough recipe on allrecipes.com (of course) and it was a non-rising dough so it would be quick.  It called for:

• Flour - check
• Yeast - check
• White sugar – check
• Water – check
• Veg oil – check

The dough took about five minutes to make.  It got a little not sticky enough, and when I added water it got a little too sticky but I managed.  I also wish that I had a rolling pin (well to be fair I do but it’s packed away ready to be moved into my new apartment this weekend).  All in all I got the dough onto the pan without it slipping too much into the cracks, and then put together the sauce.  I used sauce out of a bottle, for convenience sake (much to the chagrin of VLynn) but added to it minced garlic, and oregano.  We topped the pizza with the Romano and feta, and Sarah added in parmesan and muenster.  FOUR CHEESES!  It only took about 25min in the oven and it baked up nicely!

I quite enjoyed it, even though it looked a little less like a pizza than I'd prefer.  Next time I’d try to spread the dough a bit thinner, and probably put more sauce and more cheese but it was still fabulous.  Roommate Gretchen declared “it tastes like I’m in Chicago!”  I will take that as a compliment.

This foodsperiment gets a +8 for taste, +5 for simplicity, +8 for roommate bonding, and +4 for decent cleanup.  I’d also give it a +8 for having leftovers I can eat tonight after the Phils game! Huzzah!

June 18, 2011 - Gorgonzola Chicken Thighs

I’d been planning tonight’s speriment for about a week, ever since I still had gorgonzola.  So even though I’d already baked bread this morning, I couldn’t pass up this recipe.  Gorgonzola Chicken Thighs from food.com.  I have to say as I re-read the recipe, it seemed a little complicated. 

Ingredients:

• Gorgonzola – check
• Breadcrumbs – check
• Ground Black Pepper – check
• Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs – check
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – check
• Salt – check

So the whole ordeal began with cutting up some potatoes, which were fully NOT involved in this dish specifically, but I made mashed potatoes too (I’m an old hand at that one, pretty much my family you have to be).  So anyway, I cut the potatoes and then put them in a pot with water to boil slowly while I prepped the chicken.

The recipe is a little complicated…but ok, so breading things with gorgonzola and trying to make it stick is NOT EASY.  Trying to roll chicken thighs into a semblance of wonder also NOT EASY.  Long story short I put the chicken together and got them into the oven.  I’m sure you can check out the recipe on google if you’d like.  While the chicken cooked, I cleaned up and mashed the potatoes. 

The first time I took the chicken out, I realized it really needed to cook longer, so this teaches me that I need to be better at understanding what looks “done” coming out of an oven.  Finally they were finished.  I had also attempted some gravy for the potatoes but that ended in an epic fail so I won’t document that here.

My take on this recipe: +5 for taste, they were really good!  I’m glad I’ll have some extra dinner items for this week.  Even though you couldn’t really taste the gorgonzola at all, but I suppose I shouldn’t have expected any different, -3 for complicated set up and cooking, -2 for too much cleanup.  I definitely enjoyed the end result, but I think I wouldn’t make it again in a hurry due to my lack of desiring to get so messy, or maybe I’d do it if I hadn’t made bread in the morning.