Sunday Dinner: Chicken & Dumplings

As someone who cooks, it's nice when I try out a recipe for a second time and finally get it really, really right.

That's what happened a couple of weeks ago when I took my second stab at Chicken & Dumplings. The first time I made it, the chicken soup-like part of the dish turned out fine. But, I failed my dumplings. Instead of puffing up into nicely poached biscuits, they fell apart in the stew.

So, this time, I changed some things and finally got it right!

Chicken & Dumplings (adapted from Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn)

1 Cornish Hen
1 Onion, roughly chopped
Several Large Carrots, roughly chopped
1 bag Frozen Corn
2-4 Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut in fourths
2 Bay Leaves
Parsley (I almost never measure seasoning. Start with a teaspoon for each and add more later if you need to.)
Sage
Salt
Pepper

Dumplings

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Coarse Salt
Milk
Dill or Parsley
Garlic Powder
Tarragon

Put your chicken, onion, carrots, bay leaves, parsley, sage, salt and pepper into a large pot with a tight fitting lid, add enough water to cover everything and bring to a boil on high heat.

Reduce to a simmer, partially cover (or cover completely if the lid is vented) and simmer for 50 minutes. Take out the chicken and use a couple of forks to take off the skin and shred the meat as the broth and veggies continue to simmer. Add the corn and potatoes to the pot. Fish out your bay leaves. Add the meat back to the pot, taste to see if the soup needs more seasoning and add as necessary. Keep everything simmering.

In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients, including seasoning and mix well. Add milk until mixture is moist but still thick. Drop the dough by spoon fulls onto the simmering broth around the pot. Cover and simmer until dumplings have cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes.

Once you get everything into bowls, you can spice things up with some hot sauce and/or add some Parmesan or other grated/shredded cheese. Enjoy!

Sunday Dinner: Multi Use Steak

Fall is prime comfort food time. Everything warm and gooey is good to eat when the weather gets chilly.

Last week I made steak. It's so easy to cook things exactly the same way, but a tiny bit of effort will usually get you something you want to eat again and again that's also different enough to keep you interested.

My easy-way steak includes a simple salt and peppering, maybe some onions and a good stint in the oven. But, I found an easy recipe in Real Simple that I was able to turn into something that I think was even better.

Multi Use Steak

1 steak
pineapple juice
low sodium soy sauce
salt & pepper
1 medium onion, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 pound or more baby carrots, halved lengthwise
about a 1/4 cup butter or margarine
about a 1/4 cup whole wheat or regular flour
rice or pasta

Salt and pepper your steak and marinate it in equal parts soy sauce and pineapple juice, enough to at least cover the sides of the steak. Marinate for at least two hours, turning over half way through.

Bake, with juices, covered with foil on 350 degrees until done. For my medium sized steak it took 40 minutes.

Drain juices into sauce pan, add butter and heat on medium until melted. Stir in flour until you get a thick gravy. Cover and take off heat.

This can be eaten by itself with mashed potatoes, but you can get more creative. I sliced onion and green pepper and sauteed them with a bit of cooking spray until they began to caramalize. While that was cooking I roasted some baby carrots with olive oil, salt and pepper. Slice the steak thinly, add it to the skillet and you can pour this, with the gravy and carrots over cooked rice or pasta.

Or, (and this is how my husband ate it) you can add cheese sauce to the pepper/onion/steak mixture, put it on some hearty bread and have cheese steak sandwiches.

See? One steak easily gives us three different meal options. Not bad, huh?

What foods do you cook and reuse in different ways for multiple meals?

Sunday Dinner: Veggie Chowder

Sometimes procrastination and avoidance really work in my favor. I was passing time one night, and found a couple of episodes of The Barefoot Contessa on Hulu. Seeing as how I was taken with her show back in March while stuck in a hospital bed, I started watching. And, wouldn't you know it, I immediately saw something I wanted to make. Her East Hampton Clam Chowder looked divine. There was one problem, though. I detest the idea of clams and clam juice. Obviously, those are two main components of the dish. So, what did I do? I improvised.

Not to brag, but I grew all of these onions and some of the carrots I used. I rock! OK, that sounds like bragging, doesn't it?

Take out the icky clam stuff, add more veggies and you've got my all-new Veggie Chowder. It turned out really good; and I was able to get rid of some veggies that were starting to go south due to my lack of desire to turn on the stove or oven when it's hot outside. Try it, I think you'll like it.

Don't lie. You can tell these are homegrown. Look at that mutant carrot on the left!

Veggie Chowder

2 tablespoons butter
2 cups onion
2 cups mixed sweet peppers
2 cups carrot
4 cups potato
1 1/2 teaspoons thyme or Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cracked pepper
1 quart chicken stock, homemade if possible
1/2 cup flour, whole wheat if possible
1 stick melted butter
1 can of Mexicorn
1/2 cup sour cream
shredded cheese

First off, you melt the two tablespoons of butter in a big pot, add the onion and cook for 10 minutes. Add the carrot, potato, thyme/Italian seasoning, salt and pepper and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add your chicken stock and sweet peppers and let things heat and mingle as you prepare your thickening agent. Melt a stick of butter and whisk in the flour. Add a cup of hot soup to that and stir it until all the flour and butter is incorporated. Put that whole gravy-like glob into the larger pot of veggies and stock, stir it up and get your chowder thick.

Put your corn in with the sour cream, let it heat and add some shredded cheese of your choosing. If you like, the cheese can be added to the bowls when you serve it instead of the larger pot. You could also add in chunks of ham or shredded chicken if you need some meat, but I like it just the way it is. Feel free to serve this lukewarm if the idea of piping hot soup on a 105 degree day drives you batty. Or, just set your A/C on 60.

Dig in!

What have you cooked lately that you loved?

Sunday Dinner: Roasted Potato Leek Soup

A few weeks ago we went from being able to bank on 75 or 80 degree days to plunging back into what felt like winter weather. And in the weeks since then we've gone from one extreme to the other seemingly every day.

After watching a Ina Garten work her magic while waiting for my final late March medical guinea pig work to be done, I decided to make her Roasted Potato Leek Soup. Of course, since this is me we're talking about, I made some changes. This recipe is adapted from hers, though.

Roasted Potato Leek Soup

1 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 3/4 slices, unpeeled
1 lb red potatoes, prepared as above
4 leeks, well cleaned, chop white and light green parts only
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and cracked pepper
3 cups arugula/spinach
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken stock, homemade if possible
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
8 oz light sour cream
McCormick Hot Madras Curry Powder, optional
1 11 oz can Green Giant Southwestern Style Corn, optional
1/4 cup Parmesan

Get your oven to 400 degrees and arrange your leeks and potatoes in a single layer on a cookie sheet that's got some olive oil (or cooking spray) on it. Salt and pepper everything, drizzle some more oil on top and roast for 40 to 45 minutes. Throw your arugula/spinach in there and roast it all long enough for them to wilt, about 4 to 6 minutes. When that's done, pour your wine right onto the pan and scrape up any crispy bits. If things are still stuck, you can use some of the stock to help.

Now, pour all that into a big old pot. Add the rest of your chicken stock, the milk, sour cream and canned corn if using. Using an immersion blender, get everything all ground up to your desired chunkiness (of course, if you don't have an immersion blender you can instead dump the veggies into a food processor). Get the pot set over medium heat, add your seasonings to taste and get it hot. Pour into bowls, top with cheese and enjoy.

This was so good! Perfect for a chilly night. And if you're only feeding a couple of people, it will last at least a week for leftovers. I'll definetly make this again. Thanks, Ina!

Fall Will Not Be Denied

It may be 72 degrees in St. Louis today, but the multicolored leaves decorating the ground and the crisp nights tell a very different story. It's November, y'all! We are fully into fall with its jackets, bonfires, short days and invigoratingly cool nights.

A huge part of fall for me, and many of you I imagine, is the accompanying big ol' pots of warm and gooey comfort food. Thanks to HUBS' folks I got the chance to cook something new on Sunday. They have a rather large garden, and brought over several things when they visited the day before, including a butternut squash and some spinach fettuccine that they had tried but weren't crazy about (for some reason).



I adapted this recipe from Redbook where it was only meant for roasted butternut squash. I increased the recipe a bit to accommodate the greater number of veggies I used.

Balsamic Honey Roasted Veggies

1 medium Butternut Squash, peeled and cut in chunks
5 Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut in chunks
8 ounces Baby Carrots, cut in half lengthwise
1 medium Onion, sliced
3 to 4 tablespoons each Balsamic Vinegar, Honey and Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Get your oven to 425 degrees. Spray a roasting dish with cooking spray and start tossing veggies in. Once you get a full layer of mixed veggies, drizzle them with 1 tablespoon each of balsamic, honey and olive oil then sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Keep layering until you get all your veggies in the pan and stir things up a bit to make sure everything gets covered in the goodness.

This will take about 40 minutes in the oven to get good and done. If you take the pan out and the juices got stuck to the bottom, never fear, my friends! Add water to the pan (with the veggies still in there) swirl it around and in a few minutes the heat and water will loosen all that flavor and create a nice sauce for the veggies. We poured the result over the spinach fettuccine and sprinkled on a little grated Parmesan/Asiago/Romano blended cheese.



HUBS' mom also brought us a portion of a homemade chocolate cake on Saturday, which we promptly finished in two days. Since I am dessert's bitch, I needed something else sweet on Monday, and made the easiest peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I've ever seen. They also turned out incredibly flaky, moist and delicious.

Don't you love cooking and baking and the St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series against all odds? Don't you?

Music Monday: Ahh...Fall!

Unless you slept through the weekend you know that we've hit October. That's right, friends! Now is the season of changing leaf colors, warm and gooey comfort foods, and holiday planning. We've only got about a month until we turn the clocks back one hour and night falls when most of us are heading home from work for the day.



HUBS and I had yet another EXPANSION weekend. I actually cooked our big weekend meal on Saturday morning, something I'd never, ever done before. Usually I wait until the last possible moment of Sunday evening to do any major cooking. This time, though, I'd been putting off the prep work of chicken and dumplings for about four days. I like cooking, but honestly? Whenever it involves a lot of cleaning and chopping of veggies or the handling of massive amounts of raw meat I always hesitate.



When I woke up Saturday I had the distinct feeling that if I waited any longer to make this dish, I'd end up not doing it until all the veggies I'd bought for it had gone south. And who wants to waste food? So I bit that bullet, scrubbed, chopped and boiled my little heart out. Our Sunday dinner was done by 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

I got the recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Mad Hungry, and it's really rather simple:

Chicken & Dumplings (adapted from Mad Hungry)

1 3 to 4 lb whole chicken (neck and giblets removed)
Half bag Baby Carrots
3 Small/Medium Turnips
2 stalks Celery
1 half Onion
3 Green Onions
3 Parsnips
5 or 6 springs fresh Parsley
Salt, Pepper & Sage

Dumplings
1 cup Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Coarse Salt
3/4 cup Milk
2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Chop the veggies coarsely, except for the baby carrots which you leave whole, then put the first set of ingredients in a big pot and barely cover with water. Bring it to boiling and turn it down to a simmer and cover. The recipe said to leave it for 50 minutes, but I cooked mine for about two hours to make sure and it still turned out juicy.

Take out the chicken and veggies and when the chicken has cooled enough, take the meat off the bone and shred it.

To make the dumplings combine the dry ingredients and add the wet ones. Drop the dough by tablespoons into the simmering broth, cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. When the dumplings are done, put the veggies and shredded chicken back in and viola! You've got chicken and dumplings.

I made the mistake of stirring the pot after putting my veggies/chicken back in and the dumplings, though done, all fell apart except for one. It just served to thicken the broth and was still tasty. Serve with your shredded cheese of choice and either hot sauce or soy sauce (really, HUBS liked the soy).



We also we to church for the first time in about a year and a half on Sunday. HUBS and I have been looking for a church that's modern, but doesn't try too hard to be hip. This church has only been open since August, but the group seems nice and the only knock against the minister is that he said (I kid not) "Peace Out!" when he wrapped up the service. I can still see myself going back, but HUBS isn't sure yet.

Now, enjoy some churchy, comfort foodie sounds!

Sunday Dinner: Brown Sugar Dijon Grilled Chicken & Spinach Garlic Noodles

I made this a couple of nights ago and really loved the way it turned out. The chicken was from a recipe I found online and played with a little bit.

Brown Sugar Dijon Grilled Chicken

1 to 2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders (If you buy breasts cut them into smaller pieces or that shit will never get done)
3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Juice from 1 can pineapple tidbits or chunks
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and cracked pepper to taste

Combine everything except the chicken in a dish deep enough to hold all the liquid. Stir it all together to get the brown sugar dissolved, and taste for salt and pepper. Add your chicken and marinate at least a half hour.

Heat up your grill or grill pan and cook away. I made mine in two batches; each batch took around 15 minutes and I flipped the pieces once about half way through the cooking time. I suppose you could combine more mustard, sugar and juice to use for a dip, but I didn't and it was still Hella good.

Now, the pasta was something I made up on the spot. It tasted awesome! I love it when that happens!

Spinach Garlic Noodles

4 cups cooked whole wheat (or regular) noodles
2 Tbsp garlic butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 handfuls spinach, cut or torn into strips
1/4 to 1/2 cup Hunt's Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes with Garlic, juice reserved
feta cheese, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste

Put your butter and olive oil in a pot and heat it up. Add your pasta and get it coated in the grease. Put in the spinach and let it wilt, then add the feta, tomatoes, Italian seasoning and pepper. Let everything heat up for a bit and give it a good couple of stirs.

If you need your pasta juicier, add the reserved juice from the tomatoes. Taste it to see if it's salty enough, if not add a tiny bit at a time until you get it where you like it (I hardly put any additional salt in mine at all).

This was so good! I plan to eat the last of the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. And really? I'm very excited about it!

Sunday Dinner: Braised Short Ribs

My open cookbook plus the newly cleaned, chopped leeks and celery.

Seeing as how I've been doing gobs of cooking lately, I really had planned to start this new feature several weeks ago (since around October), but since I'm sorta slow to get things done we'll be starting my Sunday Dinner posts now.

And, now is a great time. Why? Because on Wednesday night I made the most awesome thing ever, and for the first time.

Remember how I raved about Mad Hungry, the cookbook I've been pouring over since December? Well I made the short ribs recipe this week and Oh. My. Good. GOD! It is literally one of the best things I've eaten/cooked/seen in the entirety of my life.

This would be especially good for a weekend meal, because you need to let the meat marinate for at least six hours and then cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The result is so tempting, though, that when I finished cooking this at 1 a.m. Thursday morning (after we'd finished dinner several hours before) I immediately knew I had to have some. HUBS and I then proceeded to share two bowls of the stuff over whole wheat linguine.

*mouth waters*

If you like to cook, like meat or like yourself, you will need to make this dish. Here we go:

Recipe via Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn

thinly slice 1 onion
smash 4 garlic cloves (Or, sprinkle on garlic powder, which is what I did when I thought I was out of garlic)
thinly chop 1 carrot
thinly chop 1 cleaned leek (I'd never cooked one of these before. That bastard was super dirty! I cleaned each leaf twice, washing my hands in between cleanings.)
thinly chop 1 celery stalk
4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup red wine (I've heard that the general rule is if you'd drink it, you can cook with it.)
1/2 cup soy sauce/tamari
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper (Or good cracked pepper; I used that.)
3 1/2 pounds short ribs
2 to 3 Idaho potatoes, quartered (optional) (I used 1 Yukon Gold and 2 Sweet potatoes. Her recipe says to peel them, but I didn't.)


All the veggies in the pan! The foil after a few hours cooking. I like that it looks like a fairy tale crime scene...Don't judge me.

Now, after you get everything cleaned, chopped and poured, mix all the ingredients except the meat and potatoes in a roughly 9 x 15 roasting pan. Mine is actually a baking pan shaped like a gingerbread man, yours need not be.

Add the meat in one layer and make sure the marinade gets all over the pieces. Cover and let it sit in the fridge for at least six hours, up to overnight. Turn the meat once or twice during that time so that each side gets the marinade goodness. Take the pan out 30 minutes before you plan to cook it.

Put your oven on 400 degrees and cook for one hour. Then, turn the heat down to 350 degrees and cook for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If you want potatoes, add those 40 minutes before you finish cooking. I kept mine covered in foil the whole time and it never dried out, but if yours does, feel free to add some water while it's still cooking.

Finished dish? Glorious! Rich! Tasty! Probably shouldn't be eaten at one in the morning! But, oh well!