Chicken française pasta

My husband came up with the suggestion of "chicken française pasta" when I first got some boneless, skinless chicken on clearance at Target.

Today we pulled it out of the freezer and gave it a shot.

Ingredients:

- chicken, boneless, skinless and cut into smaller pieces

- lemon juice, about half a cup (two fresh lemons?) 

- one stick butter

- peas

- broccoli

- pasta of choice

- 1/2 cup fresh dill from the garden

- 1/2 cup fresh parsley from the garden

- about six chives fresh from the garden

- 1 teaspoon garlic powder 

- about 1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper (plus another 1/2 teaspoon)

- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 

- your favorite olive oil 

Heat about one tablespoon butter over low heat in cast iron skillet. Add equal parts lemon juice. Add the garlic powder and the Italian seasoning.

Stir until nicely combined. Add chicken. Increase heat to medium. 

Cook pasta to desired doneness. Drain and set aside. 

When chicken is done, push the meat to one side of skillet. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper. Arrange skillet so empty side is over the heating element.

Add about 1/2 stick butter to empty side of skillet, add fresh herbs and cook while trying to push the sauce around the empty side of the skillet to minimize how much sauce the chicken absorbs. 

Add vegetables to empty side of skillet. Combine both sides of skillet until everything is evenly mixed and evenly heated.

Pour olive oil (cold pressed extra virgin imported from the Middle East is my fav) over the pasta and mix so they are just a tiny bit wet and kind of glistening.

Put pasta in bottom of serving bowl. Top with desired amount of chicken-vegetable mix.

This was incredible!

Corn Salsa

Today we're adapting the Better Homes and Gardens recipe for corn salsa. I tasted a few corn kernels and it is divine.

The BHG recipe calls for:
- 4 large ears corn/2 cups
- 1 large onion/ 1 cup (coarsely chopped)
- 1 large green or red sweet pepper / 1 cup (coarsely chopped)
- 1 cup coarsely chopped peeled tomato
- 1 fresh jalapeño pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped

For my mix I used:
- 3 cups corn from a local farm
- about 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
- 2 tablespoons diced chives from the garden
- 2 (or was it 3) pickling cucumbers (chopped)
- 1 cup and then some chopped tomatoes from a neighbor's garden
- 1 small green pepper and one really small red pepper from my own garden, chopped

For the sauce:
The original BHG
- 1/2 cup lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

To this I added:
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon local honey
- 1/2 teaspoon hot chili powder

Method:
In large saucepan, combine ingredients and bring them to a boil.

Simmer, covered, for ten minutes.

Ladle into half pint jars. (oh bugger! I did 1 half pint, 2 half jellies and a pint.)

Process jars 15 minutes in boiling water canner.

More garden pickling

Three more fairly large pickling cucumbers so we made three more jars of pickles and let our neighbor friend help.

We made one dill jar, one basil dill and one chive dill. (Using herbs from my garden.)

We used the Ball Blue Book as our guide.

Flounder with homemade tartar sauce

Today for Sunday dinner I made white rice, green beans almandine and Archer Farm lemon-chive flounder with homemade tartar sauce.

I got the fish on clearance, $2.48 for three servings. I made the tartar sauce on the back of the box, with modifications based on my family's preferences.

The original recipe:
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 2 tablespoons chopped pickle, relish or capers
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix and refrigerate

My version:
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 1 teaspoon fresh chives (chopped) from my garden
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon thyme from my garden
- 1/2 dill pickle spear, chopped
- 2 teaspoons honey mustard (no other varieties in the house)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice

I loved this sauce, so did my husband. That's amazing since I hate mayo and he hates mustard, citrus and pickles.

Wild scallion butter sauce

My daughter has taken an interest in the wild scallions that grow in the yard so I decided we would try and pick one.

We did.

And now I'm going to chop it, mix it with about one teaspoon each of extra virgin olive oil and butter and brush it over the fresh asparagus before we roast it.

I also checked our perennial herb garden. The sorrel is back in full force, the parsley has reseeded itself, the oregano and chives have fresh growth.

Breakfast for dinner

I looked in the cupboards and in the fridge and felt uninspired. So, I started brainstorming with the family.

Soup. Something breakfasty. Pasta.

"Oh!" the child exclaims. "Breakfast for dinner."

Husband suggests omelets. I remember the fresh broccoli I bought at Target and all the cheese I have leftover from yesterday's spinach dip. And the last round of that HUGE bag of tator tots from Aldi.

Bingo.

Ingredients:
- leftover blueberry cobbler coffee in the carafe
- one teaspoon vegetable oil
- one teaspoon garlic powder
- two tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
-1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 5 eggs, beaten
- ridiculous amounts of fresh broccoli
- 2 ounces sharp cheddar
- 2 ounces mozzarella
- tator tots

Preheat oven and cook tator tots while preparing eggs. In pan, spread oil, garlic and chives. Stir until chives are fragrant.

In separate bowl, combine eggs, cream, salt and pepper. Pour into very hot pan. Add broccoli, cover with cheese, fold when eggs solidify.

Serve with coffee, tots and a side of 50/50 Frank's Red Hot and ketchup for dipping tots.

Creamy potato casserole

I'm not even sure about this one.

I started with this as my base:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,178,135181-251195,00.html

I used a diced smoked pork chop instead of ham and halved the meat, adding close to 2 cups broccoli.
I substituted soy milk for milk and made a "brown" gravy with the last batch of chives from last years garden, a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic and about 1/4 teaspoon of dry mustard instead of the leek mixture.
I forgot the paprika.
I didn't notice the butter and layered my gravy into the casserole instead of butter.
My casserole dish was overstuffed.
And my gravy was lumpy.

Time will tell.

It was very very yummy. Phew! I was sweating that one.

Mommy's five cheese mac

I made Betty Crocker's mac and cheese recipe last night with some classic Angel modifications. I don't have the recipe with me, and I didn't measure as I cooked. So this is a post based on memory.

It tasted incredible. The original Betty Crocker recipe is probably easy to find via the Betty Crocker label under this entry.

I started with about three tablespoons butter melting over medium-high heat with about two tablespoons chopped chives that I froze from my herb garden last summer. After three minutes of hearty swirling, I added about three tablespoons flour, trying not to let it degrade into a solid flour dumpling.

I added some fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Then lowered the heat to extremely low and added one cup heavy cream.  (I discovered I had no milk in the house.) I added a pinch of nutmeg. Once my flour and cream mixture had blended, I added three cups of plain soy milk. (And I am completely aware of how silly it must seem from a culinary perspective to have heavy cream and soy milk in the same dish. I am a big believer in "use what you got" cooking.)

Once that blended, I added the cheese. I probably used four ounces of velveeta (a gift from a friend), three ounces cheddar, and three or four ounces of mozzarella. Then I added the remaining fresh spinach I had on hand (about one cup, ripped into small slivers) and about a cup of frozen peas (again what I had on hand.) I wish I had some broccoli, but I didn't.

I made 16 ounces of small elbow noodles and it made two small casserole dishes full. Before baking at 375 for 30 minutes (and then cooking at 400 just to brown the top), I sprinkled each liberally with grated romano and then shredded asiago.

Fabulous. Truly fabulous. And probably a good thing, since it looks like my cooking might eliminate dairy for the next month to help with the fluid in my daughter's ears. I can survive without milk. Cheese hurts, but I can do it. How on earth am I going to cook without butter? I have a plan...

French Herbs with Cheryl Karcher

Today, thanks to the prodding and support of a very sweet friend, I attended a French herb workshop at Grouse Studios in Frenchtown. The "teacher" for this informal seminar was Cheryl A. Karcher of Hilltop Herbals.

Fun, fun afternoon.

The blend of experience levels at the workshop made it really interesting. I wanted to learn more about some of the French herbs you commonly see in recipes but I've been hesitant to buy them fresh because they're expensive and I wasn't sure what to do with them.

Really~ I have no clue what to do with sorrel, tarragon, and I would love to make more use of my lavender and lemon thyme. I also need to grow my own rosemary. It's pathetic that I don't.

I'm not going to share any of Cheryl's recipes although I can't guarantee I won't be playing with them in the future. Cheryl has to make a living like everyone else, so these recipes are not mine to share. But we dined on toasted bread with Cheryl's herbed butter and of course white wine. We had a lovely sautéed chicken with mustard and rosemary sauce, an orange/spinach salad with tarragon dressing, and a crisp string bean salad with a lemon/garlic/lemon thyme dressing. And she shared some of her lavender cookies and rose raspberry tea with us.

Also exciting for me was to get up close and personal with fleur de sel. I've wanted some but didn't feel justified in making the investment.

So, what did I learn?

That I need to expand my herbs, and that sorrel is high in iron.

My current herbs: lemon thyme, basil, parsley, spearmint, catmint, oregano (a bush these days), chives, lavender, pink lavender...

My wish list: rosemary

Cheryl's workshop gave me some real food (or herb) for thought... and I'm just too excited to contemplate it now. But look for her inspiration in coming days.

Gravy

From all recipes.com:

BEEF GRAVY
Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups water
* 3 teaspoons beef bouillon
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1/4 cup butter

Directions

1. Combine water, bouillon, flour, onion and butter in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until thickened.

I used chives instead of onion and instead of beef bouillon/water I used a can of beef broth.

This was my first gravy and it had no lumps and wash a great consistency.

Pasta with spinach in herbed lemon butter sauce

Since last week's pasta in lemon butter sauce was so popular I opted to try and repeat the experiment.

I started with the Le Creset skillet, a tablespoon of butter, 1/2 a clove of garlic, juice of one lemon, two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, handful of fresh parsley from the garden, and several tablespoons fresh chives from the garden. I stirred over low while it all cooked. I believe I added another tablespoon or so of butter to balance the lemon juice.

Next I added about 1.5 cups chopped spinach leftover from the omelet the other day and increased the heat. Then I added slices of Trader Joe's chicken sausage with apples. Let that cook until the sausage browned and the liquid started to dry up.

I made some whole wheat rotini, put them back in the pan with another two tablespoons of butter and a trickle of extra virgin olive oil. Then I mixed it the spinach mixture from the skillet. Voilà, c'est prêt.

Baked chicken with lemon basil sauce

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1939,148187-237202,00.html BAKED CHICKEN IN LEMON SAUCE

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 6 servings. 4 whole, boneless chicken breasts (about 12 oz. each) 1 tsp. onion powder 1/2 tsp. garlic powder 1/2 tsp. leaf basil, crumbled 1/2 tsp. leaf tarragon, crumbled 1/4 tsp. lemon pepper 1/4 c. (1/2 stick) butter 1/2 c. chopped shallots or green onion 1 1/2 c. heavy cream 1 c. dry white wine 1/2 c. lemon juice 2 tsp. lemon rind 1 tbsp. sugar 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. white pepper 3 tbsp. cornstarch Lemon slices Cooked French green beans (optional) Preheat oven to moderate (375 degrees). Pour oil into large casserole or baking dish. Turn chicken in oil to coat, rubbing all sides; arrange skin-side up. Sprinkle with onion powder, garlic powder, basil, tarragon, and lemon pepper. Bake in preheated moderate oven (375 degrees) for 30 minutes or until chicken is tender and browned on top. Meanwhile, melt butter in medium-size heavy saucepan. Saute shallots in butter 1 minute or until softened. Pour in heavy cream, 1/2 cup of the wine, the lemon juice, lemon rind, sugar, and salt and pepper. Bring to boiling; boil for 15 minutes or until reduced by half. Dissolve cornstarch in the remaining 1/2 cup wine in small cup. Stir into sauce. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens. Keep warm. Overlap chicken breasts on warmed serving platter. Place lemon slices between chicken breasts. Pour some of the sauce over the chicken; pass the remainder. Serve with cooked French green beans, if you wish or browned mushrooms. I promised my family I'd make chicken for dinner so I started with this basic recipe. I used chives instead of shallots and herbs from my garden instead of tarragon. I used white grape juice instead of wine, and soymilk instead of heavy cream. (Which meant I reduced the amount of soymilk used from 1.5 cups of cream to less than 1 cup milk.) It smells fabulous. My husband made his famous vegetable-heaped baked potatoes with sour cream, cheese and broccoli. (Which after I ate all the goodies off mine, I then topped it with the incredible sauce from the chicken. Tomorrow we'll each be taking chicken with some leftover mac and cheese with peas and probably Thursday I'll use the sauce leftover to make some sort of pasta dish.

Spinach Rigatoni with Garden Vegetable Sauce & Gruyère

I made spinach rigatoni from Aldi tonight. I like the spinach rigatoni from Aldi. It's $3.99 for the bag, and the bag feeds the family with some leftovers, especially when I doctor it.

The bag supposedly feeds three. Because of all the cheese, they are high in saturated fat, but they are also high in protein and nutrients. I don't use the seasoning packet so that may reduce the sodium significantly. I don't know.

But one serving of just the pasta has 19 g protein, 5% RDA Vitamin A, 35% RDA calcium, and 15% RDA Iron.

And tonight I made this funky sauce:

• 1/4 cup leftover crôque monsieur sauce
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup shredded gruyère
  
• 2 teaspoons butter
• one teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup diced tomato from the garden
• 4 basil leaves from the garden
• One handful parsley from the garden
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives (from the garden)

I melted the butter, added the cornstarch and whisked until combined. I added the crôque monsieur sauce, the cheese and the heavy cream. Once combined, I added the herbs and the tomato. I cooked until bubbly.

When the noodles were done, I poured the sauce over the noodles in a big pot. Then I added:

• 3/4 cup finely chopped fresh broccoli, cooked
• 1 cup peas, cooked
• 1 shredded morningstar vegetarian chicken finger

And that was dinner.

Beef Burgundy

My recipe for beef burgundy should come up if you click French. It might be listed as "beouf bourgogne."

I've decided to make this for lunch. It's 90 degrees and humid, but I've been dying for this for days. Hence, why I'm making it for lunch and not dinner. It's hot.

I have never made this dish with a good wine. I've never been able to justify buying a good bottle of wine and pouring it into a skillet. But now that I think about it, if I pay $6 for 2 bottles of cooking wine, I could probably find a nice American red that would work for the same cost.

I have some beef cubes from a local farm in the skillet. I cut them small, because 1. I have a small child and this saves interruptions to my meal later and 2. I believe meat should accent the meal, not be central to it.

I cooked the meat slowly with chives from my garden and a few drops olive oil. As the meat cooked, I added some red cooking wine. And topped the meat with four-color pepper, freshly ground.

I poured more wine, a whole lot of vegetable stock and whisked in two tablespoons flour. That was tricky because I let it get too hot before I added the flour so it was a booger to get the lumps out. My daughter peeled five carrots for me, so I chopped them and added them. I'll let them bubble for a bit on medium before I transfer the whole thing to the big stew pot.

The original recipe for beef burgundy calls for a bouquet garni, which wikipedia defines as such:
"There is no generic recipe for bouquet garni, but most recipes include parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Depending on the recipe, the bouquet garni may include basil, burnet, thyme, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon. Sometimes vegetables such as carrot, celery (leaves or stem), celeriac, leek, onion and parsley root are also included in the bouquet.

Sometimes, the bouquet is not bound with string, and its ingredients are filled into a small sachet, a net, or even a tea strainer instead. Traditionally, the aromatics are bound within leek leaves, though a coffee filter and butcher twine can be used instead of leek leaves."

Today, I'm using some herbs from my garden, probably parsley, oregano, a hint of basil and maybe some lemon thyme.

After the stew simmers a while (about three hours) I'll taste the broth and dilute/add wine as needed.

BTW: I've decided never to use cooking wine again. It's real wine or nothing from now on, because the cooking wine is too salty to get the balance of flavor and salt... it either tastes super salty or like nothing.

Herb garden

I started my herb garden as a way to plant perennials that would lower my need for yardwork.

I planted lemon thyme as a ground cover in the front flowerbed. It smells fantastic. I have never cooked with it, but the next time I make chicken francaise I plan on using some.

In the back yard I have chives, oregano and spearmint.

I use the spearmint for iced tea. I use a lot of chives. Occasionally, I remember to use oregano in sauces or chili.

I try to plant parsley and basil every year. Basil is yummy and parsley, according to elook.org, is a good source of vitamin A and vitamin C. For organic gardening, different herbs deter different pests because of their strong scents.

In the past, I've planted catnip. I haven't had good luck with it, which is probably good since it tends to grow like nuts if it really takes off.

I also had a lavender bush die this spring. My mother-in-law planted a new baby lavender, which I use to make lavender sorbet at the end of every summer.

I started freezing my herbs so less "go to waste." I've read that they won't stay firm, but they will retain flavor. One person advocated chopping them roughly and putting some in different sections of an ice cube tray, but I carefully arranged mine in small labeled plastic bags and then laid them on top of a box in the freezer. I made sure they weren't touching so it'd be easier to grab them from the others when I need a pinch. Once they froze, I added the little bag to a big freezer bag labeled fresh herbs.

Foccaccia

To use the ripe tomatoes my mother brought us from her garden, I opted to make a homemade herb foccaccia. As usual, there's the 'real' recipe and my modified version.

We're serving this for dinner with farm-fresh corn-on-the-cob and hopefully the last of the greenbeans from my garden.

I've had the original recipe for more than a decade. My notes say it originated with the VegList, a veg*n email recipe exchange list I belonged to when I first decided to learn to cook. I seem to remember a similar recipe from Vegetarian Times, but I guess I'll have to trust my memory.

Rosemary Foccaccia
from VegList
For the dough

• 1/4 ounce active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water, lukewarm
• 3 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 to 4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves, minced

Topping

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds onions, sliced thin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• fresh rosemary sprigs
  

Garden Foccaccia
Angel's version

For the dough:

• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (maybe a little less)
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 cup rye flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground pasta and pizza seasoning

For the topping:
combine in food processor:

• close to 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons fresh chives

1 to 2 tomatoes, sliced
parmesan cheese

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Combine water and yeast in bowl. Stir with non-metal spoon and set aside for 15 minutes.

2. If you're making Angel's version, prepare the pesto topping and refrigerate to give flavors time to meld.

3. Once the yeast is activated, add the salt and 2 teaspoons olive oil to the yeast and stir with the non-metal spoon. Add 2 cups of flour (if using wheat or rye, use one cup of wheat/rye and one cup white) and the herbs-- fresh rosemary for the rosemary foccaccia and the pasta seasoning for the garden foccaccia. Stir with a heavy wooden spoon.

4. Add another cup flour and stir as dough begins to form a ball. Turn onto floured surface and knead until soft and elastic. Add more flour as dough becomes sticky and difficult to work with. Knead for about ten minutes.

5. Oil a large bowl (with olive oil, cooking spray or butter). Place dough in bowl and flip to coat. Cover bowl with clean, damp cloth and place somewhere warm and free of drafts to allow to rise. It needs to double in volume. Should take about 90 minutes.

6. When it's done, punch down. Oil a 12 x 18 baking pan, including the edges. Place dough in center of pan and spread across the surface evenly. Cover with damp cloth again and let rise for 45 minutes.

7. While dough is rising, if making the rosemary version, heat two tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the onions in the oil, turning to coat as they begin cooking. Cook about 15 minutes until soft but not burned. The oil should be absorbed. (I hate onions so I have never done this.)

8. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. When dough is done rising, make indentations with your fingers in the surface of the dough. Lightly brush olive oil (for the rosemary version) or pesto (for Angel's version) across the bread. Sprinkle with salt if desired. (I don't)

9. If using the onions, spread them evenly across the dough now. I use fresh tomato instead, sliced thin. Raw. I brush the remaining oil/sauce over them as I place them. I also sprinkle parmesan cheese.

10. Bake for 30 minutes until dough is lightly browned. If using fresh rosemary as part of the topping, add in the last five minutes of cooking.

Garden Chili

I wanted to make something a little different for dinner, something we hadn't had in a while and chili seemed right. But we're seriously lacking ingredients, so I had to make do with what I had. So this is what I call "Garden Chili."

Garden Chili
In a big pot, combine:
About three teaspoons fresh oregano
One tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
About 1/4 cup fresh spinach, shredded
About 3 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
1/2 teaspoon fresh parsley

Cook until spices are aromatic and tender.

Add:
Two tablespoons tomato sauce (it was leftover, certainly not 'needed')
Two tablespoons garlic powder
Three tablespoons commercial chili seasoning

Cook until well combined.

Add:
14.5 ounce can diced tomatos with basil, oregano and garlic
10 ounces crushed pineapple 1/2 teaspoon Indian chili powder
2 tablespoons cocoa

Mix and bring to a boil on high. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add:
15.5 ounce can black beans
15.5 ounce can dark kidney beans, organic

Return to a boil; then reduce heat and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Add:
15.5 ounces of sweet yellow corn (Del Monte in this case)
Cook for 15 minutes.

These were literally the only things in my garden and cabinets that would remotely work for chili. We'll be eating at five. I'll edit this post to report in on if it's gross, indifferent or yummy.

And the verdict is: Two bowls each husband and chef, daughter ate all of her bowl and ate well. It was the best bowl of chili I've made in a long time. Not spicy, yet flavorful.