Zesty Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

First of all, let me apologize for my lack of an update over the last week and a half.  To say life is busy is an understatement.  However, that doesn't mean I haven't partaken in my favorite relaxing past time: cooking!  With that, lets time travel back to Friday night of 2 weekends ago.  Weekends are for fun, right?  I know I personally view them as my escape from the day-to-day grind of work.  However, this week was a doozy and really wore me out, so the last thing I was looking to do was go out.  I wanted to stay in and relax, but that doesn't mean I couldn't still have a little fun with my cooking.

Now, Mother Nature still wasn't quite realizing that it was mid-April, meaning spring, leaving it a balmy 45 degrees outside with a breeze and some rain.  So, my idea of going home after work and firing up the grill for dinner turned in to a plan of staying in and firing up the grill pan on the stove for dinner.  No matter - they have the same end result.  So, I called Shaun and provided him with a list of ingredients needed to make dinner that evening that I expected to find on the counter for me when I got home and let him know we would be having some Zesty Poblano Pepper Bison Burgers With Chipotle Sauce and Sweet Potato Fries with Dipping Sauce.

 Zesty Pablano Pepper Bison Burgers

• 2 pablano peppers
• 1/2 medium red onion
• 1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro
• 4 1/2 hamburger buns
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 lb bison meat
• 4 slices pepper-jack cheese

Chipotle Sauce

• 2tbsp light mayonnaise
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp adobo seasoning

Sweet Potato Fries

• 1 1/4 lbs sweet potato
• 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste to taste
  
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• cold water
• 4 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp chili powder

French Fry Dipping Sauce

• 2 tbsp light mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

First, preheat your broiler to high for the poblano peppers.  While preheating, make your chipotle sauce by combining the mayonnaise, lime juice and adobo seasoning in a small bowl and mixing well.  Cover and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Next, prepare your french fry dipping sauce by combining the mayonnaise, ketchup, onion powder and garlic powder in another small bowl and mixing well.  Cover and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

To begin the french fries at this point, you should peel your sweet potato and cut it into 1/4 inch wide strips, 3-4 inches long each, such that they resemble french fries.  Place the strips in a large bowl and add cold water until the french fries are just covered.  Add the sugar and 1 tsp salt and stir.  Let the french fries soak for 15 minutes.  Soaking the potatoes in a salt-sugar solution will draw out some of their natural water, so they brown, rather than steam, in the oven.




For the burgers, place the poblano peppers on a small sheet pan.  Place the sheet pan 2-4 inches from the heating element in the oven and broil for 8 minutes, turning the peppers after 6 minutes.  Once done, remove the peppers from the oven, lower the temperature of the oven to 450 degrees, and place the peppers in a large, resealable plastic bag for 15 minutes.  This will help you to skin the peppers later on and also help them continue to cook and soften without being in the oven. 

While the peppers are resting, drain your french fries and place them on some dry cloths and blot them dry.  The fries will need to be completely dry or they will not crisp in the oven.  You'll end up with really soggy fries.  Once complete dry, place them in a clean dry bowl and add the oil, paprika and chili powder.  Toss to coat completely.  Once they fries are completely coated, spread them out on a lightly greased baking sheet, making sure none of the fries are overlapping.  Sprinkle the fries with salt to taste and place in the oven.  Bake, turning occasionally as they brown, until cooked through and crisp, about 35-40 minutes. 

Meanwhile, preheat your grill pan and grill press over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes.  While pan and press are heating and the fries are baking, remove the poblano peppers from the resealable bag.  At this point, the skins of the peppers should be blistering and separating from the peppers.  Remove all of the skin from the peppers and then seed them. Finely chop the poblanos, red onion and cilantro.  Place in a large bowl.  Tear up the additionally half of a hamburger bun that you have into very small pieces and add to the bowl.  Now add in your pressed garlic, cumin, pepper and salt and mix everything together until a smooth paste forms.  Add your bison meat and mix gently until just incorporated.  Now form your bison meat mixture into for 3/4 inch thick patties.

Place the patties in your grill pan and top with your grill press.  Cook 3-4 minutes on each side, until grill marks begin to appear.  For the final minute on the second side, add a slice of pepper-jack cheese to the top of each burger and allow to melt a bit.  Transfer the burgers to a paper towel-lined plate and let rest for 5 minutes to absorb the grease.

For plating this this meal, I used a large square plate, putting a small dish with the french fry dipping sauce in one corner and a second small dish with some of the chipotle sauce and a small spoon in the diagonal corner.  I then place some french fries in the top corner not yet occupied and lastly added the burger sitting on the bottom bun in the last corner.  In my house, burgers are always topped with lettuce, tomato and red onion, so those got rested on the burger with the top half of the bun just leaning on the fries and burger.  Serving the chipotle sauce on the side with a spoon allows each person to decide how much of the sauce they want to spread on the top of half of the bun.

Now, grab a cold beer, kick your feet up and enjoy a nice spring/summer night on the patio or deck with your relatively simple and healthy dinner!

Simple Tuna Salad - Kicked Up a Notch

As usually happens at some point in my afternoon while at work, Shaun called me this past Thursday to ask the question he so often asks: "What's for dinner tonight?"  He unfortunately was met with a barrage of insults and suggestions as to what he could eat, none of which actually being anything appetizing or, in some cases, even edible.  Needless to say, I was tired and cranky and was NOT in any mood to come home and cook him dinner.

Now, I'm not saying I want him to cook for me (I've had his cooking...), but I was in one of those moods where it would have been nice if it wasn't just expected that I was going to make dinner every night.  To be fair, he doesn't expect it, and I have said that cooking relaxes me and that I do enjoy it, but still - he should know me well enough to know when I'm tired and cranky to not ask me to do anything.


That being said, we did need to eat, and we had just talked about how we need to stop spending so much money on eating out.  To try and make me feel less obligated to put something more than simple on the table, he said he didn't care if we just had tuna fish sandwiches for dinner.

Well, this is me, and if there is one thing I don't like to be simple or plain, it is my food.  However, tuna fish was an easy thing to do, and even easier to jazz up beyond your basic tuna sandwich or tuna melt.  My brain got to thinking and soon our "plain old tuna sandwiches" were Tuna Manicotti with Tomato-Caper Relish and Creamy Scallions.

Tuna Cannelloni

• 6 uncooked manicotti pasta shells
• 1 lemon
• 2 - 5oz cans low-sodium solid white albacore tuna in water, drained
• 1/2 cup light mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp capers 
• 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Tomato-Caper Relish

• 2 tbsp capers, drained
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 medium vine-ripened tomatoes, finely diced

Creamy Scallions

• 4 bunches of scallions, trimmed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 heavy cream
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Cook the pasta shells according to the package directions, plus an additional 1-2 minutes, making sure to NOT put any salt or oil in the water. (I know it is common to add one or the other to pasta water to enhance flavor and prevent sticking, but it will affect the taste of the tuna in this case.  Besides, you should NEVER add oil to your pasta water if you ever want a nice hearty marinara to stick to it!  Any good Italian knows that!) Gently transfer the pasta to a colander, making sure not to break any of the shells.  Rinse with cold water and set aside.

Trimming Scallions

Meanwhile, while the pasta is cooking, trim the bottom of the white ends of your scallions off and place the 4 bunches in a small sauce pan with the water.  Bring to a simmer and them cook, covered, for 5-7 minutes.  Add the heavy cream and the garlic to the pot and continue to simmer until the liquid is reduced by half and the cream begins to thicken, about 6-7 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Zest of a Lemon

 Once you have your pasta cooked and set aside and your scallions started, begin on the tuna filling.  Zest the lemon until you have about 1 tbsp of zest.  Then juice the lemon until you have 1 tbsp of lemon juice, which you should set aside for the relish.  In a small bowl, combine your lemon zest, tuna, mayonnaise, 2 tbsp parsley, onion, 1 tbsp capers and black pepper and mix well.  

Resealable Bag as Pastry Bag

Spoon this filling into a small pastry bag (alternatively, if you do not have a pastry bag, as most people don't, use a resealable plastic bag, trying to get it all in one corner of the bag).  Set aside.






Now, at this point, I have to take a break to share with you a short, but amusing scenario that unfolded.  I got to this step of the recipe and went to get my capers out of the refrigerator, but alas... NO CAPERS!  After asking Shaun to ever so kindly go to the ghetto Stop & Shop up the street and grab a jar for me (read: yelling at him and demanding he do so if he wanted to eat that night) and being met with a reply of, "The chances of me doing that for you right now are slim-to-none," I went myself.  Now, this isn't your usual grocery store... things aren't where you would think they would be.  So, being safe, I asked who I was hoping would be a knowledgeable and helpful employee when I arrived where to find the capers.  The response I got back was, "Oh... umm... I'm not really sure what those are.  Are they like a mushroom or something?"  "No... not quite."  After going on a scavenger hunt through the produce section with the young man I've come to refer to as "Crater-face the know-nothing" after my several encounters with him in this store over the last year and NOT finding the capers, as I assumed we wouldn't since they really aren't a mushroom at all (which I very politely explained to him), he said, "I'm sorry, I can't really help you.  Maybe you should try another store."  Needless to say, I went and found them in the Italian food section of the store on my own.  That will teach me to ask for assistance again!  I'll stick with Whole Foods and Dave's Market for the majority of my grocery shopping needs, thank you very much!  If anyone asks why, I'll simply tell them Crater Face told me to.

For the relish, begin by coring and seeding your tomatoes (see image for what they should look like.)  Finely dice the tomatoes and combine them with the lemon juice previously set aside, 2 tbsp parsley, 2 tbsp capers and black pepper and mix well.

Now, to assemble the manicotti, trim the corner of the bag containing your tuna filling or grab your pastry bag and pipe the tuna into each end of your manicotti shells until it is just sticking out the end of each shell.

To plate this simple dish and make it look a lot more elegant than it actually is, put a small spoonful or 1 grab of tongs worth of creamed scallions down in the middle of the plate.  Lay one manicotti horizontally across the scallions, then lay a second perpendicular to the first, resting the end of the second in the center of the first.  Top with the relish, making sure to scatter a bit of extra relish around the plate for garnish.

See!  It doesn't take much to turn that plain old tuna sandwich into something you'd find on the menu at a local tapas bar.  Go ahead, amaze your friends or family with this simple culinary wonder.  You don't have to tell them it only took you 20 minutes!

A Friday... No, Saturday... Scratch That... Sunday Evening Feast

Last Wednesday I went to the market after work, as I so often do, to get the necessary items to make dinner that evening.  As I perused the aisles for my necessary ingredients for my dinner that night, I happened to notice that oven roaster chickens were massively on sale.  Well, not being one to pass up a bargain, I grabbed one.  "This will be a nice dinner on Friday night.  Come home, season it up quick and toss it in the oven for a late dinner," I thought to myself.

Well, that didn't go as planned.  Quick drinks after work on Friday for a friend's birthday turned into several hours at the bar and me hitting the McD's drive-thru up the street from the casa before walking through the front door at about 11.  I certainly wasn't cooking a chicken then.  So, Saturday it was.. but wait!  Friends from Boston were going to be in the Providence area that day and wanted to go to dinner.  How could I say no?  I'd have offered to cook the old bird for them, but alas, she was only big enough to feed 3, at best.

Sunday it was.  The damn bird has been in my fridge since Wednesday, and it was too late to freeze it, and I knew I wouldn't be home on Monday or Tuesday night, so, left with no options other than cooking it or chucking it, I made a chicken.  Sometimes, the best dinners are the ones you didn't want to or plan on making.

So, I had a chicken, but what to do with it?  And better yet, what to serve with it?  It had already been a very long weekend, so going to the grocery just wasn't going to happen.  This is where I get my culinary creativity flowing.  Opening the fridge and the cabinets, assessing what I have at my disposal, I settled on a Lemon Pepper Roast Chicken with Carrots and Celery in Dill Butter and a Lemon Carrot Couscous.

Lemon Pepper Chicken

• 4lb Oven Roaster Chicken
• 4 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1 lemon, halved
• 2 tbsp Lemon Pepper Rub, divided
• Salt and Pepper 
• 2 sprigs of Rosemary
• 2 sprigs of Thyme
• 6 cloves of garlic, peeled

Carrots and Celery with Almonds in Dill Butter 

• 3 cups sliced carrots
• 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 tsp dill weed
• 3 tbsp butter, divided

Lemon Carrot Couscous

• 1 cup uncooked couscous
• 1 cup water
• 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1 lemon
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 large carrots, shredded
• 1 tbsp butter

To get started, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Next, clean out the inside of chicken and rinse the inside cavity out with cold water.  Pat the chicken dry and place it in a roasting pan or deep covered stoneware baker, which will reduce the cooking time and keep the chicken more moist.  Loosen the skin from the breast and thigh portion of the chicken using a spoon or dull butter knife.


Now, prepare your chicken seasoning.  In a small bowl, put 2 tbsp of olive oil, the juice from 1 half of your lemon, the zest of 1 half of your lemon, a tbsp of Lemon Pepper rub and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Combine all of the ingredients.  In a separate small bowl, combine the remaining olive oil, juice and zest of the remaining half of the lemon, another tbsp of the Lemon Pepper rub and another pinch of salt and pepper.  Take of of the bowls and pour the mixture under the skin of the chicken, massaging the skin to spread the seasoning mix all over the breasts and thighs of the chicken.  Next, brush the second bowl of mix all over the skin of the chicken for crisping.  Now, place the two lemon haves from before, the thyme, the rosemary and the garlic cloves into the cavity of the chicken.

Roast the chicken, covered, 65-70 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers at 140 degrees in the center of the thickest part of the breast.  Uncover and roast an additional 8-10 minutes or until the thermometer registers 165 degrees, the juices run clear and the chicken skin in browned.  Remove the roasting pan or stoneware baker from the oven; let stand, covered, 10 minutes.  Remove the lemon, thyme, rosemary and garlic from the chicken, carve and serve.

While the chicken is in the oven, get your carrots and celery sliced.  In a small saucepan, bring the carrots and the water with the salt to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add in the celery and cook an additional 5 minutes, or until tender.  Drain the vegetables and put back in the pot and cover to keep warm.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt 2 tbsp of butter over medium low heat.  Add in the dill weed and almonds and saute for about 8 minutes, until golden brown.  Add to the carrot mixture and throw in the last tbsp of butter.  Stir to coat the carrots and celery and leave covered on the burner on the lowest setting, or a keep warm setting if you have one.

For the couscous,  saute the shredded carrot, zest of 1 lemon and garlic in 1 tbsp of olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes.  While sauteing, bring the water, 2 tbsp olive oil, juice of half of the lemon and a pinch of salt and pepper to a boil in a small saucepan.  Once boiling, remove from heat, stir in the couscous and the carrots and garlic.  Cover and let the couscous absorb the liquid for about 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork before serving.

For plating this dish, I used a large high sided bowl.  First, lay a large spoonful of the couscous in the bottom.  Next, put a spoonful or two of the carrots and celery on top of the couscous in a line down the middle.  Lastly, place one of the whole chicken breasts just behind the line of vegetables, and place a wing and leg on either side.

Now, here comes the confession of the day.  I wasn't overly fond of the couscous on its own.  Don't get me wrong, it was good, but it was a bit bland for me.  That being said, Shaun and I both found that if you take a forkful of the couscous with the carrots and celery, they went GREAT together.  So much so, I may combine them into one dish the next time...

Until then, though... happy eating!

Manly Men Love Meat and Potatoes

Anyone who knows me will say that I am in no way a selfish person.  Those who know me well will tell you that's mostly true.  That being said, I picked up the phone on my desk the other afternoon and called my boyfriend, as I frequently do, to ask him what he wanted for dinner that night.  I prefer to let him pick, although you could argue this is slightly selfish of me, if only because should what I make end up tasting awful, I can blame him for picking it in the first place.  "I don't care," came the response (no one ever accused either of us of being decisive).  So, I offered up a choice, knowing no matter what was chosen I'd have to stop at the market on my way home.

"Do you want steak and smashed fingerling potatoes or pork chops with apples," was the question posed to him, having spent the better part of my lunch break pouting over one of my many cook books.  "Oooh.  Steak.  Definitely steak."  Gay or not, we're still men, and men love their meat and potatoes.  After immediately blocking out the image of the obnoxious bald guy from the "Meat and Potatoes" show on Food Network who makes me want to gauge my ears ("Meat, meat, meaty-dee, meat, meat," in that nasally voice that does nothing but want to induce a Van Gogh moment of cutting my ear off) and eyes (Ugh... that bald head and those glasses!) out, I settle on Broiled Tenderloin Steaks with Ginger-Hoisin Glaze  and Sauteed Mushrooms with Garlic Ranch Smashed Potatoes.  Make sure to read through to the end, though, because this will be my first admittance of room for improvement.

Ginger-Hoisin Glazed Steaks

• 1 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp honey
• 1 1/2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tsp teriyaki sauce
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 4 (4-ounce) beef tenderloins
• Salt (to taste)

 Sauteed Mushrooms

• 1 Package of sliced Cremini Mushrooms
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp Marsala wine
• 1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

Garlic Ranch Smashed Potatoes

• 3 lbs fingerling potatoes
• 1/2 cup light ranch dressing
• 1/4 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• Salt

First, preheat your broiler to high.  Next, place the fingerling potatoes in a pot and fill with cold water until the potatoes are just covered.  Season with salt.  Bring to a boil and then cover and let cook for an additional 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.


While the potatoes are cooking, combine the hoisin sauce, ginger, honey, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and crushed red pepper in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk to combine.


Next, place the steaks on a foil-lined broiler pan coated with cooking spray (trust me on the foil lining whenever broiling - it makes clean up infinitely easier at the end of the evening!); sprinkle with salt.  Broil the steaks about 5 inches from the heat for 2 minutes, and then turn them.  Broil for an additional 2 minutes.  Now, remove the steaks from the oven and flip them again.  Before placing them back in the oven, brush them with half of your hoisin glaze.  Broil for 1 more additional minute.  Remove the steaks and turn them again, brushing the other side with the remaining hoisin glaze; broil for an additional 2 minutes for a nice medium rare steak, or until cooked to your desired temperature.

While the steaks are broiling, add your mushrooms, butter and wine to a medium sized skillet over medium-low heat and saute, stirring frequently, until the juice begins to thicken and the mushrooms are soft, about 5-6 minutes.  Once done, reduce the heat to low to keep warm until steak and potatoes are plated, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.


Once the potatoes are done boiling, drain them and place them in a bowl you don't mind using a potato masher in (if using non-stick pans, you should never use any metal spoon or kitchen utensil in them as they may scratch your non-stick coating, thus defeating the purpose of the pan...).  Alternatively, you can use a KitchenAid mixer (or any stand or hand mixer) if you wish.  I just prefer my handy potato masher since I like to leave lumps in my mashed potatoes.  Once you have them mashed or beaten to the consistency you prefer, stir in your ranch dressing, garlic and Parmesan cheese.

For plating this dish, put a heaping scoop of potato down in the center of your plate and flatten off the top, spreading the potatoes out until the scoop on the plate is roughly a wide as your steak.  Next, place the steak on top of the potatoes.  This will help to keep your potatoes warm and makes the plate look a little less busy.  Lastly, pour some of your mushrooms over the top of your steak.  For garnish, feel free to through a little bit of minced parsley around the edge of one part of your plate.  It adds a fresh earthy tone to the dish as well.

I served this dish with a beer for me, because really, what goes better with meat and potatoes than beer?  You could also serve it with a nice glass of red wine.  Then there is my boyfriend who seems to drink only gin martinis.  They go with everything, apparently!

So, now that you've made dinner, plated it, had a drink or two and eaten, you probably realized the same thing I did.  The potatoes did NOT go with this dish at all!  While I do love them, the flavor did not match the Asian infused glaze on the steaks.  Next time, I will be forgoing the the ranch and Parmesan, opting instead to throw in a little of the Marsala wine, butter and a splash of soy sauce to make them slightly less dense, with some diced and sauteed mushrooms added for texture.  Let me know what you think, or what your suggestions are as well!  Comment on this post and share them with everyone!

Until next time, happy eating!

Spring Outside? Pffft! Spring In My Kitchen? Hell Yes!

Hypothetically, spring has sprung, although if you ask me, it still feels like winter is here given the current weather in the Providence, RI area.  I hardly consider 30’s and 40’s “spring”.  Regardless, I’m doing my efforts to hurry Mother Nature along in bringing in the warmth.  Aside from wearing my polo shirts and a light spring jacket every day, I decided to start making some of my favorite spring time meals.  If it’s not spring-like outside, it can at least be spring-ish in my kitchen!  To that end, I made Penne with Spring Greens in White Wine Cream Sauce with Sundried Tomato Chicken and a Balsamic Glaze the other night.  This was a new recipe for me, and all-in-all, I think it’s a keeper.  I’d make a few edits for next time, though, which you will see noted below.

Chicken

• 2 Chicken Breasts
• 2 tbsp. Sundried Tomato Rub **I find this in with the seasonings in my local grocery store, but Pampered Chef also makes a great one.  You can use whatever flavor rub or seasoning you think goes best with this though!**
• Pinch of Sea Salt
• Pinch of Ground Black Pepper

Penne

• ¾ lb. Asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 tbsp. Butter
• 3 tbsp. Olive Oil
• 3 Bunches Green (spring) Onion or Scallions, white and pale green part only
  **Save the green pieces for garnishing the plate**
• 6 oz. Baby Spinach Leaves, roughly chopped
• ½ lb. Fresh or Frozen Peas
• ½ cup Dry White Wine (I used a dry Riesling)
• ½ cup Heavy Cream 
  **To me, the sauce was a bit thin, so I would use ¾-1 cup cream next time, and perhaps a splash more wine**
  ½ cup Fresh Basil, minced
• 1 lb Penne Pasta
• ½ cup Fresh Grated Parmesan, for topping
  **Instead, I used a few fresh Parmesan peels.  I like the look and taste more.  It adds a heavier cheese flavor to each bite.**

Balsamic Glaze

• 2 cups Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 tsp. cornstarch

First, preheat the oven to 375-degrees.  Lightly spray a baking pan with cooking spray and place your chicken breasts in.  Apply your rub or seasoning to your chicken breasts along with a pinch of salt and pepper (to taste) and bake until moist and cooked through, about 35-40 minutes.

Bring a large pasta pot of water to a boil with a few pinches of salt for blanching the asparagus.  Add the asparagus to the water and cook until tender, about 4-5 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a bowl for later.  Return the water to a boil.  Once boiling, add the pasta and cook following the directions on the box.

Now, to make your balsamic glaze, dissolve the cornstarch in the balsamic vinegar, place in a small sauce pan and heat over medium-high heat until the vinegar has started to thicken and is bubbling gently at the surface, about 15-17 minutes.  This will make a large amount of balsamic glaze.  While you will only use a few spoonfuls in this meal, it stores in an airtight container in your fridge for up to a month and is wonderful on pastas, chickens, salads or anything else you may like the taste of balsamic on!

Next, begin the sauce by placing the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat until the butter has melted.  Add the green onions and sauté until just wilted, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the spinach and peas and sauté until the spinach is wilted, about 3 more minutes.  Toss in the blanched asparagus and stir in the wine, cooking until the alcohol has cooked off, about 1 minute.  Stir in the cream and cook until heated through, about 1-2 additional minutes.  Add the basil and remove from heat.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Once your pasta has cooked, drain it in a colander and then return it to the large empty pasta pot.  Pour the sauce over the pasta and place back on the burner on low heat, stirring occasionally to blend the flavors.

When the chicken is done, remove it from the oven and slice it lengthwise, creating long strips you can lay across the top of the pasta dish.

Last is my favorite part of any meal, the plating and presentation.  There will be a whole post dedicated to this in the near future, but suffice it to say here, presentation is nearly as important as taste to me (hence the photos of food being like porn to me, leading to the name of this blog!)  I am constantly accused of being an “over-plater” due to the large portions I tend to serve, but who cares. I’d rather die fat and happy, full of good food than thin and hungry because people didn’t put enough sustenance on my damn plate!

With that, using a medium sized pasta bowl, put a few heaping scoops of pasta in, until it just creates a mound in the bowl.  Then, lay a few of your chicken strips around the mount, coming to a point at the top.  On top of the dish, place 3-4 Parmesan cheese peels (just run a regular vegetable peeler over a wedge of fresh Parmesan to create these).  Drizzle a spoonful or two of the balsamic over the chicken and cheese for an added burst of flavor.   Lastly, take a few of the greens from your green onions and place them artistically around the outside of your bowl.

Pour yourself a nice glass of that dry white wine you used a bit of in the dish and enjoy this colorful springtime pasta dish.  Hell, you worked hard on dinner tonight, pour yourself two (I know I did!)

Turning Left Over Party Snack Food Into A Festive Fiesta

Saturday night I had a group of friends over to watch the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team take on Kentucky in the Final four of the NCAA tournament.  I kept the gathering simple… picked up a few pizzas, a couple bags of tortilla chips, a few jars of salsa, a block or two of cheese and some crackers – nothing fancy.  Well, I clearly overestimated the eating capacity of my closest friends as I was left with more chips and salsa than I knew what to do with.  So, my dear boyfriend basically challenged me to my own personal version of the Food Network’s “Chopped” in our kitchen.  Now, I freely admit that I did not, in fact, have all of the ingredients used below in my pantry as the rules of “Chopped” state.  A quick run to the market across the street allowed me to finish this dish.

All that being said, my hypothetical basket included:

• Chicken breasts (Shaun found it in the freezer and told me we had to use it before I was allowed to restock with newer meats),
• A jar of tomato salsa,
• A bag of tortilla chips,
• Half  a block of pepper-jack cheese, and
• White rice

Well, this just screamed MEXICAN at me!  While not my usual forte, I accepted this challenge with a sound determination to show these leftover ingredients who was boss, hangover and all!  The menu: Tortilla and Adobo crusted chicken breasts with a mango and peach salsa and “Mexican” rice.  Call it a Mexican version of chicken parmesan!

Chicken: 

• 4 chicken breasts
• ½ cup flour
• 1 egg, light beaten
• 4 cups tortilla chips, crushed
• 2 tbsp of Adobo seasoning (more or less to taste)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• Salsa (see below)
• Shredded pepper-jack cheese

Rice:

• 4 cups cooked rice
• Salsa
• 1 cup shredded pepper-jack cheese
• 1 tbsp fresh cilantro, minced

Salsa:

• 1 jar of tomato salsa
• 1 mango, chopped
• 1 peach, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Combine the jar of salsa, chopped mango, chopped peach and chopped red pepper in a bowl.  Spread ½ cup of the salsa in the bottom of a baking dish.

**As a note, I personally love my stoneware deep covered baking dish from Pampered Chef.  I find baking chicken in stoneware keeps it extra moist and juicy.  Any baking dish will do, though.**

Place the flour and egg each in their own wide, shallow bowl. In a third bowl, add the tortilla chips and the adobo.  Dredge each chicken breast in the flour and then egg, and lastly in the tortilla chips being sure to pat the chips on to the chicken breasts so they stick.  Place each chicken breast in the skillet just long enough to get the coating to crust and stick to the chicken, about 30 seconds per side.  Once done, place the chicken in a baking dish.  Bake until cooked through, approximately 40 minutes.

Once the chicken is done baking, remove from the oven and top each piece with 2-3 generous spoonfuls of the salsa, about ¼ cup on each breast, then sprinkle lightly with shredded cheese.

Stir the remaining salsa and shredded cheese into your rice, along with the cilantro to make a kicked up rice with a Mexican flare.  For garnish, I threw a few fresh steamed green beans and carrots around the plate and drizzled them with a bit of the salsa from the bottom of the pan I baked the chicken in.  It adds color to the plate, extra flavor and healthy serving of vegetables for all you health-nuts out there!  Then, to instantly make it less healthy, grab a nice Pacifico or Corona and enjoy!

Tortilla and Adobo Chicken with "Mexican" Rice

Welcome to A Food Lover's Porn

I love to cook, and to me a good meal is better than sex!  To be honest, I’m not quite sure where my love of cooking came from.  Since a young age, I’ve always loved to eat, even if it was only macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets.  However, with age comes wisdom.  I learned there were more tastes and cuisines out there than my poor deprived taste buds could ever begin to imagine.  As each passing year of life went by, ingredients that were once black listed from any plate put in front of me began to make more and more appearances.  Soon I was craving those mushrooms and asparagus stalks I would have once pushed to the side of the plate, if someone dared to offer them up to begin with. 

Tasting wasn’t enough for me though.  I grew more and more curious about how to make these delicious dishes I would see coming out of restaurant kitchens.  I dabbled with cooking, if you can call it that, in my first apartment as a college student.  Let’s just say my neighbors were lucky the building didn’t burn down!  Yet, as the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect”.  I’ve been practicing for the last 7 years since those days of my college apartment where I would dice up leftover boneless chicken wings from a drunken gathering the night before and stir them into a pot of pasta with garlic and olive oil.  I like to think I’ve come a long way without any training other than my unhealthy addiction to the Food Network and the reading of a lot of cook books. 

This blog is going to be a lot of me trying new recipes (which I warn you now, I don’t always follow too closely) and exploring the endless possibilities that food offers.  Along the way, there will undoubtedly be mistakes and missteps, but hopefully a few successes as well.  I promise to share them both with you, both in words and photos.  Since food is better than sex to me, I guess that makes these pictures of my culinary creations like porn for me… and if I blow up my kitchen, I promise to post pictures of the big bang, too!  With that, bon appétit, buon appetito and happy eating!

My kitchen, where all the magic and mayhem happen.