Skillet Chicken Francese

Chicken Francese is one of my favorite chicken dishes, but the recipe I was using called for a saute-then-bake progression that just left me with extra pans to wash. I reworked the process a bit so that no baking was necessary; the results were just what I was looking for!

This is a bit messy as you get it into the pan, but it's definitely worth getting your hands dirty.

SKILLET CHICKEN FRANCESE
(4 servings)

Get the recipe and nutrition information for this dish at Cook and Count!

Gnocchi e Fagioli

Here's a meatless dish that comes together in about 20 minutes! It's easy to make and very heart-healthy. You won't even miss the meat in this simple meal. Add other quick-cooking fresh vegetables to change up the flavor.

GNOCCHI E FAGIOLI
(4 servings)

Visit Cook and Count to get the recipe and nutrition information for this dish!

Sweet and Spicy Asian Chicken

We seem to be on a chili-and-honey kick right now. Let's see how many ways we can use those ingredients on chicken! Tonight's dinner was a variation on a theme:  it's what happens when you realize you were supposed to marinate something just as you get ready to cook it. (Oops.) I think I liked this dish better than the original that inspired it:  Chili Honey Chicken. It cooks quickly; start the rice before you start the chicken!

Visit my new blog, Cook and Count, for this recipe and nutrition information!

Spicy Honey Chicken

Last night we tried a quick-cooking grilled chicken recipe. With the weather as hot as it was, no one wanted to stand outside near a hot grill for very long, and boneless, skinless chicken breasts cook fast.

The recipe came from Once a Month Mom, a freezer-cooking site. You can season this chicken, freeze it for another day, then thaw, grill and glaze.

I adjusted the quantities of some ingredients, as we ran out of the spice rub before we ran out of chicken, and there was more glaze than we needed. Below is the recipe as I made it.

SPICY HONEY CHICKEN

Get this recipe (with photos and nutrition info) at Cook and Count!

Chesapeake Bay Shrimp

A shrimp dinner is definitely an extravagance, so I only buy shrimp when it's on sale. I also make the meal stretch by serving lots of vegetables or pasta with it so that no one's tempted to inhale an entire pound of shrimp. If you're buying medium shrimp (51/60 per pound) then a dozen shrimp per person is a good rule of thumb.

One of the standbys in my freezer is a bag or two of individually quick-frozen shrimp. I like to keep both raw and cooked shrimp around for quick dinners. When you use precooked shrimp, as in this recipe, you only need to thaw it, then warm it up. I started the rice, then cut and steamed the broccoli, then got to work on the shrimp--and was still waiting a couple of minutes for the rice to be done.

This was fairly spicy, so if that's a deal-breaker, skip the crushed red pepper.

Get the recipe with photo and nutrition facts at Cook and Count!

Oh, SNAP!

I heard about the SNAP challenge on Twitter. Basically, you try to live for a week on a food-stamp budget ($4.50 per person per day.) I'm a bit late to the party, since the national challenge was held between June 13 and 19, but it's interesting to think about. Can you feed a family well on $4.50 per person per day?

That's pretty much what I spend now, though I do have a well-stocked pantry and freezer. I buy groceries on sale, and I don't buy too many prepared foods (except for breakfast cereals, frozen pizza and granola bars.)

That's also pretty much what Big Brother spends on groceries during the school year, when he lives in a college apartment and cooks for himself. Believe me, he eats well:  jambalaya is regularly on the menu--made from scratch. The spice collection he brought home from school this summer is too large for a shoebox that used to hold men's sneakers.

In a Twitter discussion, I was criticized for claiming that the reason I can live on (or close to) a SNAP budget is that I buy ingredients, not prepared foods.

Maya Rupert, a policy director at NCLR, claimed, "but cooking takes much more time & isn't always practical for many low-income families."

My response:  "Understood. But don't sell people short by assuming all they can handle is nutritionally empty prepared foods."

She didn't answer me.

Cooking does take time, but it's faster to cook burgers on your own stove than it is to go to a drive-through, order them, and bring them home. Rice cooks in 20 to 25 minutes. It costs me under $15 to make enough homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs to feed a family of 5 for 8 dinners. That's less than 40 cents per person per serving. That spaghetti sauce needs to cook a minimum of 4 hours, one time. After that, the sauce and meatballs heat up in the same amount of time as it takes to cook the pasta.

Big Brother learned that staying on a food budget is easier if you plan ahead, eat what's on sale, and shop at Bottom Dollar and ALDI. He doesn't use coupons.

Ingredients are cheaper and healthier than prepared foods, on the whole. Earlier this year I read Kathleen Flinn's The Kitchen Counter Cooking School. The author helped nine "culinary novices" reshape the way they cook and feed their families. The students learned how to prepare foods with fresh ingredients and how to use planned leftovers.

Change doesn't happen overnight, but there's no reason that anyone with even the most basic kitchen equipment (sink, stove, fridge, skillet, 2 saucepans and a colander) couldn't learn to make some homemade, nutritious food rather than reaching for the (high in sodium and sugar) Ragu on pasta night.

Chicken with Tomatoes, Fennel and Basil

This dinner tasted (and smelled) restaurant-quality. It is based on Amanda's Spiced Chicken and Mezzi Rigatoni, with a few changes. Total cook time is 35 to 40 minutes, unless you have an enormous pan to cook the chicken. I had to do the cooking in batches so the chicken would saute instead of steaming.

CHICKEN WITH TOMATOES, FENNEL AND BASIL
Serves 6

Get the recipe and nutrition facts at Cook and Count!

Fiesta Chicken Chili: a Blueprint Recipe

I always loved Michele Urvater's "blueprint recipe" concept, in which the basic idea of a recipe is laid out, with variations and suggestions for making it your own. Her Monday to Friday Cookbook inspired me to cook in a more adventurous manner and I eventually gained confidence in creating recipes of my own.

I "invented" this chili as a way to use up some leftover chicken taco meat from a school event. I had about 10 cups of leftover chicken, and I turned it into 10 quarts of chicken chili. I've scaled the recipe down so that it can be made with as little as 2 cups of chicken. It's easy to increase it from there.

Fiesta Chicken Chili

2 cups Fiesta Taco Chicken
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can (14 ounces) small red beans, drained and rinsed--or any kind of beans you like
1 cup chicken broth
3/4 cups water
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 chipotle in adobo, chopped OR 1 tsp chipotle chili seasoning
1 clove garlic, minced

Combine all ingredients in saucepan and simmer, covered, a few hours to allow flavors to mingle. Stir occasionally. I cooked mine in a Nesco roaster at 200 for 5 hours. Cook time is flexible on this recipe, as the chicken is already cooked.

Cooking by the Numbers

There's an awesome kitchen cheat sheet set to download! It's an excellent resource to keep handy when you're measuring and cooking. Yes, it's in "British" measurement, but so are many recipes! The printable version is available here. I had a picture up before, but it turned my blog all ka-flooey. So we'll stick with just sharing the link. Go get it! Print it! Hang it up in your kitchen!

Chicken & Onion Paprika

This recipe does not pretend to be authentic in any way, but it was pretty tasty and paired well with the Lithuanian rye bread my husband brought home from the bakery today.

I made it up as I went along; no actual measuring took place--generally I eyeball stuff like this.

Next time I'm adding more onion to this--it was the best part!

CHICKEN & ONION PAPRIKA

1 TBL olive oil
6 chicken thighs, skin-on, bone-in
1 onion, sliced thin
1 heaping TBL minced garlic
1 cup chicken broth
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes, or 2 to 3 diced plum tomatoes
1 TBL Hungarian sweet paprika
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Heat olive oil in a large heavy skillet. Brown chicken on both sides, then remove from pan and cook onions on high heat until they begin to brown. Lower the heat and add garlic to the pan. Cook 2 minutes, then return chicken to pan and add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook 30 minutes or until chicken is done.

Serve over noodles.

Science-Fair Success!

Although our first shot at a science-fair experiment was by no means a waste, we did have to redo the recipe with the correct proportions of ingredients. That meant we'd have to make more chocolate-chip cookies. (It's a tough job...)

The original cookie recipe came from My Kitchen Escapades. I cut the recipe in half, and we used baking powder in one batch and baking soda in the other. We used the same size cookie scoop, baked for the same amount of time, and measured the cookies after they baked and cooled.

Here's the recipe as Little Brother made it. Today, he had help from a friend who was visiting. I supervised and underwrote the cost of the ingredients. And I'm not letting him know that I'm reporting on his science-fair project here! He has to write his OWN report for school.

SAUCEPAN CHOCOLATE-CHIP COOKIES
(makes about 2 1/2 dozen)

1 stick butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp (baking soda OR baking powder)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Melt butter in saucepan.
2. Stir in both kinds of sugar.
3. Let cool 5 minutes.
4. Stir in egg and vanilla.
5. Stir in flour, baking soda OR baking powder, and salt.
6. Make sure dough is cool.
7. Stir in chocolate chips.

8. Measure scoops of dough onto baking sheet.
9. Bake 9 minutes at 350.
10. Allow to cool on pan at least 5 minutes before removing to rack.

The hypothesis was correct! The baking-powder cookies remained tall and puffy, while the baking-soda cookies spread a little more, so they were wider and flatter. Both cookies were delicious; it's just a question of the shape and texture you prefer.

Little Brother measured the cookies after they baked and cooled. The baking-powder cookies averaged 1 inch tall and 1 3/4 inches wide. The baking-soda cookies averaged 1/2-inch tall and 2 1/2 inches wide.

Personally, I preferred the cookies with baking soda. I like a cookie with a crispy outside and chewy inside. The baking-powder cookies were softer and puffier.

The proof is in the cookie!

Kitchen Experiments: Brownie-Chip Cookie Bars

This recipe was born of a science-fair experiment gone wrong, plus a taste-test of a "make-your-own" brownie mix. Put it all together and you get one delicious treat for the chocoholic in your household.

Here's the story behind the mistake:  Little Brother and I were making cookies for his science-fair project. Yes, his science-fair project involves baking cookies! He is testing to see the difference in the finished product when using baking powder versus baking soda. I have him using the Saucepan M&M Cookies from My Kitchen Escapades because the batter is mixed in a saucepan and is very easy to work with. Plus, the cookies come out really good. We think that using baking soda in these cookies instead of the baking powder called for in the recipe will result in a flatter, wider cookie. But that's a story for another day.

I helped Little Brother get all set up in the kitchen, and I was guiding him through the recipe. But it had been a busy day, and I was really tired, and I just wasn't thinking about the fact that 1 stick butter is NOT equal to 1 cup butter. No wonder the batter was a little dry, and hard to mix. The cookies tasted good, though, and I thought they'd be a great base for a combination dessert. The recipe below contains the amount of butter I used in this dessert. If you want the original recipe for cookie-making purposes (and I highly recommend that you try these) then visit My Kitchen Escapades.

COOKIE BASE:

1/2 stick butter, cut into 4 pieces

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and add both sugars. Stir until smooth and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Mix in the eggs and vanilla, then add dry ingredients and stir until blended. Wait until batter is completely cool before adding in the chocolate chips.

BROWNIE MIX from Lindsey's Kitchen (this is a great recipe to substitute for boxed brownie mix.)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Add eggs, oil and vanilla and stir until just blended.

MAKE THE BARS:

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 9-inch square baking pan (I lined it with Reynolds Release foil.) Pat cookie batter into bottom of pan until the entire bottom of the pan is lined in cookie batter. Pour brownie batter over the top.

Cover the entire cookie layer with brownie batter.

Bake between 28 and 30 minutes. Allow to cool completely, then lift the foil from the pan and place on a cutting board. Cut into squares.

For St. Patrick's Day: Irish Tea Brack

I like Irish soda bread as much as the next Irish girl, but the recipe I use makes a LOT of soda bread. I tried this recipe today, since I wanted to bake in a smaller quantity. It's based on a recipe from Georgina Campbell's book Classic Irish Recipes (Sterling Publishing, 1992). It is a "soda bread" but unlike the traditional soda bread, the liquid in the recipe comes from tea. Here's the recipe as I made it.

IRISH TEA BRACK

1/2 cup strong black tea
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup raisins
1 TBL orange zest
1 TBL lemon zest
4 TBL butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I used Penzey's Baking Spice instead)
pinch of salt

Mix tea, sugar and raisins in small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool. This can be done well in advance.
Grease a 2-quart round glass baking dish and line the bottom with waxed paper. Preheat oven to 350.
In a mixing bowl, combine tea mixture with citrus zest, butter and egg. Add dry ingredients and stir until mixed. Turn into prepared pan.
Bake 50 minutes or until firm to the touch. A cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle will come out clean.
Cool in the pan at least 10 minutes before turning it out onto a rack.

Winter Winner: Dutch-Oven Pot Roast

My mom always tells me that she cooks pot roast in beer, but I hadn't tried that myself. And she wasn't home when I was getting ready to start dinner today--so I "winged it." I like how this turned out, and with the onions and braising liquid, you don't need to make gravy.

DUTCH-OVEN POT ROAST with Sweet Onions, Garlic and Yeungling

1 2 1/2- to 3-lb bottom round roast
1 tbl olive oil
3 medium sweet onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled
pepper
1 bottle (12 oz) Yeungling lager

Use a cast-iron Dutch oven for this dish.
Heat olive oil in Dutch oven and brown roast on all sides. Remove to plate. Add onions and cook a few minutes on high heat. Season roast with pepper and return to Dutch oven. Add garlic and beer. Cover and bake at 350 for 2 hours. Allow to rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Gnocchi with Cabbage and Shallots: 52 in 52

I'm taste-testing 52 new-to-me fruits and vegetables this year!

5.  Shallots. Every time I'd come across "shallots" as an ingredient in a recipe, I'd substitute onion. But I decided to try shallots instead, as part of this year's 52 in 52. I discovered that onion isn't really a great substitute; shallot has a distinct flavor all its own. It was a little harder to peel than an onion, but the flat side made it easier to chop.

6. Temple Oranges. It's a good time of year for citrus, so I tried Temples. They're deliciously sweet, but annoyingly full of pits. I guess that's why they were labeled "juice" oranges at the store. I saved the zest as well, and froze it to use in a recipe later.

GNOCCHI WITH CABBAGE AND SHALLOTS

This recipe is based on my "Polish" Gnocchi dish, but with more vegetables. This makes 2 to 3 servings.

1 bag (10 ounces) frozen gnocchi
1 1/2 cups cole-slaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)
2 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 to 2 TBL olive oil
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp freshly-ground pepper
2 TBL Parmesan cheese
1 tsp butter

Prepare gnocchi according to package directions. Drain.
Saute shallots and garlic in olive oil 2 minutes. Add cole-slaw mix and toss to coat. Cover pan and cook 5 minutes until cabbage wilts. Stir in remaining ingredients, tossing until well mixed and butter is melted. Serve immediately.

This makes a great meatless meal if you serve it alongside a green salad.

52 in 52: Black-Eyed Peas and Serrano Peppers

During my second week of "52 in 52," I tried two new vegetables in the same dish! I'm counting them separately because it's my meme, so I get to make the rules here.

3. Black-Eyed Peas. Yummy!
4. Serrano Peppers. I used these in place of the jalapenos in the original recipe. They have similar heat to jalapenos and must be handled in the same way:  wear gloves, discard seeds and don't touch your eyes when working with them!

I loved the recipe I tried; it makes a great lunchtime side dish and will be terrific for picnics. The original recipe is a Paula Deen healthy recipe--that's right, a Paula Deen recipe that contains no butter! I discovered that the vinaigrette is delicious over a green salad as well, and it was really easy to make.

I cut the recipe in half, substituted a serrano pepper for jalapeno, added some red onion and used grape tomatoes because they looked nicer than the sad plum tomatoes at ShopRite. Here it is as I made it:

BLACK-EYED PEA SALAD WITH TOMATOES AND PEPPERS
Makes 3 servings

Vinaigrette:
3 TBL olive oil
2 TBL balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Use a whisk or immersion blender to mix the vinaigrette. Use half for this recipe and the other half for an individual green salad.

Salad:
1 can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 handful grape tomatoes, cut in quarters
1/2 small red bell pepper, diced
1/2 serrano pepper, seeds removed, chopped finely
1/4 cup red onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Mix all salad ingredients except parsley in a large bowl. Toss with vinaigrette and top with fresh parsley. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

52 in 52: Apples and Squash

My New Year's Resolution this year is to try to eat more fruits and vegetables. To make it a little more interesting, I thought I'd mix in trying some new-to-me fruits and vegetables. So the goal is to taste-test 52 new varieties of produce by the end of the year--one for each week.

I'll probably be spending a lot of time at Wegman's this year, and I'm posting here for accountability.

I've already gotten in two new ones, and it's only January 3:  Macoun apples and butternut squash.

Both of them get only 2 stars in the All-Star Produce Lineup. Here's why:

Macoun apples are probably better for baking than eating out-of-hand. They are like a Macintosh apple, with very white flesh, but are kind of sweet and the flesh is not very firm and crunchy. (I prefer Winesap and Granny Smith apples for eating).

Butternut squash deserves another trial, perhaps with a different recipe. I tried it spiced, with garlic, cumin, cinnamon, pepper, brown sugar and olive oil, and roasted. I think there was too much going on in that recipe. Next time I will just roast it with a little butter and a little olive oil and let it caramelize a bit more.

I'm open to suggestions for that butternut squash.

Here's to 52 in 52 and a healthier 2013! (And if I manage to lose 25 pounds this year, so much the better!)

Would you like to join me in this venture? Let's make it a recipe party!

Dark-Chocolate Cupcakes

I found this cupcake recipe in the Wall Street Journal just after Hostess closed down. I'm not a fan of Twinkies, but those cupcakes are another story. My daughter likes them too, and requested them for her birthday--without the filling.

Below is the recipe as I made it. The original is linked above, if you want to know how to make the white-chocolate mousse filling. We thought these were rich enough all on their own.

The original recipe called for preparing "a 12-cup muffin pan." That made me think that the recipe would yield 12 cupcakes. The amounts of ingredients seemed awfully high for only a dozen cupcakes, so I wasn't too surprised when I had to pull out extra muffins pans--not once, but twice. I got 3 dozen cupcakes from this recipe, and since I'd accidentally overfilled some of the muffin cups, the yield would probably be closer to 3 1/2 dozen.

DARK CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
(makes about 3 dozen cupcakes)

CAKE:
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TBL baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
4 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups strong brewed coffee, warm
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 TBL butter, melted

GLAZE:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp butter

Preheat oven to 325. Whisk together sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & cocoa into a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together eggs & egg yolks, buttermilk, coffee and vanilla. Slowly add egg mixture to dry ingredients, whisking together. Add butter and stir until just combined.

Prepare muffin tins with liners or grease muffin cups. Fill each cup halfway with batter. Do not fill more than halfway or things will get messy. Bake until cooked through, 18 to 20 minutes. (Mine took 22.)

Allow to cool to room temperature before glazing.

In a small pot, bring cream to a simmer. Place chocolate, salt and butter in a bowl. Pour in simmering cream and allow to sit 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. (I had to microwave the mixture for 20 seconds to melt the last of the chocolate bits.)

Dip tops of cupcakes in glaze and place on tray. Top as desired.

Chicken Fettuccine

Get this recipe with nutrition information at Cook and Count!

Corn Chowder

I'm a big fan of soup, though most of my family could take or leave it. That's why I don't have too many soup recipes here. But corn chowder is definitely one of my favorites; I often order it at restaurants and I figured there's really no good reason that I can't make it at home. There was a recipe at Sarcastic Cooking that I used as the basis for this soup. The changes I made reflected what was available in my pantry at the time; I was also using up some leftover cooked (boiled) potatoes and roasted chicken. Here's the recipe as I made it today:

CORN CHOWDER (printable version)
Serves 6

3 TBL butter
1/2 medium onion, chopped fine
2 ribs celery, sliced
12 baby carrots, sliced
1 heaping TBL minced garlic
4 TBL flour
3 cups chicken stock
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
2 TBL dried parsley flakes
1/2 cup cooked chicken, diced
1/2 cup cooked shrimp, diced
4 boiled potatoes, cooled, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups whole milk

Saute onion in melted butter until translucent. Add celery, carrots and garlic and cook until the vegetables begin to soften. Stir in flour until all liquid has been absorbed. Pour in chicken stock and add corn and seasonings. Cover and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in chicken, shrimp and potatoes and simmer 5 more minutes. Slowly stir in milk and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Allow to cool a few minutes before serving.

You could substitute more shrimp or other seafood for the chicken for a delicious meatless meal!