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!

Citygirl Bites: Milagro Modern Mexican

After falling my ass down our basement stairs last Friday and spending some time at our friendly neighborhood urgent care, I was sore, traumatized and tired. I needed a treat. And, thanks to my fairly new job we had enough cash to go out to lunch at a place that didn't reek of fryer grease and stale buns: Milagro Modern Mexican.

The food was so good that after one meal there, it's already become our new favorite Mexican restaurant.



We had a good portion of their thick, non-greasy complimentary chips and smoky/sweet salsa, and then dug into our appetizer: Carne Asada Fries.



Oh! The toasty carne asada. The seasoned fries. The well-distributed cheese so that every bite has some. The mounds of guac, sour cream and pico. Perfect and very difficult to stop eating.



HUBS feels the need to order chili whenever he has the opportunity, so we got a cup of their Statesmen Chili to share. I simply am not exaggerating when I say that this was THE BEST RESTAURANT CHILI WE'VE EVER HAD. Upon finishing one bite I declared that the next time we're there I'll be ordering a full sized bowl of it for my ownself, and if he wants some he'll have to get his own. I mean, my God, they put chunks of steak in it!



My main course was the Tacos al Pastor, featuring chile marinated pork and grilled pineapple in a soft shell. When it first came to the table I thought the tacos were a bit small, but they turned out to be the right size considering how much pre-food I'd already eaten. Plus, they really mounded up the side orders of Cilantro Rice Pilaf and Jicama Slaw (not shown). It was all so good I die a little thinking about the fact that it's not in front of me RIGHT NOW.



HUBS fell for the Cochinita Pibil Street Tacos. Yucatan style pulled pork, orange habanero salsa and hibiscus pickled onion. What is that, even? Doesn't matter if it's good! I was so full I didn't try his tacos, but I did try his side of Charro Beans. If you've had Southern style beans, these were basically that...but smokier and somehow more Mexican. Amazing!

I really can't rave about the food - all reasonably priced, by the way - enough. If I could eat there every day without feeling bad about not cooking any of my own food, I WOULD TOTALLY DO IT.

What cool places have you eaten at lately?

Citygirl Bites: Taqueria Durango

Oh. My. Lord. Do you see that? It's a sandwich. That's right, a sandwich the size of a smallish plate. This, friends, is your intro to Taqueria Durango.

On a cold and snowy night near the end of December, HUBS and I ventured out to one of St. Louis Magazine's best cheap restaurants in the area. We'd never been before, but we'll definitely be back. Everything was amazingly good and plentiful. Let's talk details.

It took a while for our waitress to get to use once we sat down, but she brought us lovely homemade chips and three different house salsas, so all was forgiven pretty quickly. We ordered the above appetizer because it was something different. These are the $9 Papa Nachos. They are, hold your breath people, nachos made of crinkle cut fries instead of chips. HOLY GOD. Chicken, fries, cheese dip, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream. It was...AHMAAAAAZINNNGGGG. I was fully planning to nibble a little and then leave it alone so I'd have room for my entree. I couldn't. Neither could HUBS. We ate all of it and I was tempted to lick a plate in public. Yes I was.

We'll start with this, the Torta Ahogada, which is what I ate. The above photo is a closeup of the giant sandwich in the first pic. It's pork tips and grilled onions on a bun that's covered with a spicy sauce. I know, sauce on top of a bun sounds like a bad idea. Trust me, it. Is. NOT. This was sooooo gooooood. The meat and onions were crispy. The bun was a bit sweet and tender. And, there was just the right amount of sauce on top to make it different but in no way soggy. Awesome! You should also know that there was enough food here for three meals. I literally ate off of this $7 sandwich for three days.

HUBS got their Burrito Majado. Meat, rice, beans and lettuce wrapped in a massive tortilla smothered in red sauce and cheese. I don't remember what type of meat HUBS got, but I remember that it was GOOD.

You know how you find the perfect meal and you're eating your face off and then you start to get full, but the food is so good that getting full makes you sad because you know it means you have to stop eating. That's what eating at Taqueria Durango is like. If you like Mexican food and you ever hit St. Louis, don't hesitate, just go.

What was the last really good thing you ate?

5 Foods I'm Clearly Addicted To

I like to eat. It's that simple. As much as I know I need to watch what I eat (and I try to), I just really, really love me some F.O.O.D.

Whenever I'm trying not to eat like a pig, these are the foods that can seriously trip me up.

5 Foods I'm Clearly Addicted To

1) Potatoes. My initial instinct is to blame my mom for this one. Apparently, while PT was preggers with me, there was a period of time where she could only eat potatoes without getting sick. Of course, I realize that means it was my fault she could only ingest potatoes and not her fault that I'm addicted to potatoes. Really, any form of tater is good for me. Fries, baked, gratin, mashed...Fried. I had a lightening bolt moment a couple of weeks ago. HUBS makes this thing he calls Crazy Potatoes; he nukes about 6 or 7 of them, mashes them up and adds a shit load of butter and sour cream. As you can imagine, they are really good. One night I was eating these taters off the communal plate and it hit me that I'd probably had 4 whole potatoes. No one needs that many in one sitting as a side dish to dinner! What was I doing?! So, I've stopped eating the Crazy Potatoes. Luckily, it's not as hard as I thought it was going to be.

2) Bread. My God. This is really all I need. Some veggies and a crapper load of bread and I've got myself a meal. I'm open to any variety except rye and black. And, because of that, I had to reign myself in several years ago. I try to stick to 4 pieces of bread a day or less. That includes bagels, cornbread, rolls, crackers, pitas, and flatbreads. Keeping my bread desires tamped down is a lot harder than my need for potatoes, but we all have our crosses to bear.

3) Cheese. I used to stick with American, mozzarella and cheddar. Then I discovered Colby, Monterey jack and pepper jack. Now I also eat provolone, gouda, fontina and specialty cheeses mixed with berries or rosemary or nuts. God! The shit is just good. It literally makes everything better. My hips are probably made of 50 percent cheese. And, honestly? I'm OK with that.

4) Chocolate. This must be an age thing. I was fine with chocolate when I was young, but I wasn't crazy for it. When I was a teen I craved sweets but never chocolate specifically. Then I moved out of my mom's place after college and discovered chocolate chips melted with peanut butter. That was all it took for me to have occasional moments where I space out and daydream of eating my way out of a vat of warm, melted chocolate with a box of vanilla wafers to scoop the sweet stuff up. This is the number one reason I started exercising again; so I can continue eating this insane level of chocolate without getting diabetes. Oh, yes.

5) Dessert. Speaking of sweets...Know what I used to do? As a kid, I'd wait until my dad was at work and my mom was asleep. I'd sneak into the kitchen, get the cream cheese out of the fridge, set myself up next to the sugar bowl on the table and stick thinly sliced bits of cheese into the sugar and eat them. That, my friends, is a dangerous sweet tooth. Let's understand, I don't consider fruit dessert. I can eat fruit for an after dinner snack, but it's not the same. Dessert must be ooey, gooey and bad for me in order for me to consider it true dessert. Give me your cakes and pies, your muffins and scones, your donuts and cookies. I will eat them and have fruit some other time.

What foods are you addicted to?

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!

Citygirl Bites! Dave & Tony's Premium Burger Joint

I've been so obsessed with pre-vacation planning and post vacation settling in and talking about what we ate in Philly that I completely forgot to let you guys in on Dave & Tony's. HUBS and I went there a couple weeks before we headed out to Pennsylvania.



It's located in a Creve Coeur strip mall store front and had only been open a few days when we went, so it still had that new restaurant aura around it. We got there a few minutes before close, so there was only one other couple there and it was nice and quiet except for the piped-in tunes over the speakers.

What you see above is my Hawaiian Burger with cole slaw. There was a crispy steakburger, ham, grilled pineapple, caramelized onions, BBQ sauce and sharp cheddar on a pretzel bun. As someone who's religiously avoided Auntie Ann's (despite many I can eat that! No, I'll feel too guilty. moments) since 2003, I'm not ashamed to tell you I got this burger mostly for the pretzel bun. It was awesome. Moving on.

And, man. It was good! I ended up taking my ham off, because it felt like overkill, but the combo of salty and sweet is almost always a winner. The cole slaw was nicely creamy and a bit sweet, but I seem to remember that the veggies felt a bit too crunchy. I know, everything's raw in cole slaw. It's supposed to be crunchy. Still...



This is HUBS' Steakhouse Burger and the chili cheese fries we shared. Let me start with those, because, do you see how there's a cup of fries, a cup of cheese and a cup of chili? I'm divided about this. On one hand, the fries stay crisp until you're ready to smother them. On the other hand, you have to assemble your side item. Don't we go to restaurants in order to get away from food assembly?

Well, at any rate the fries were good, the cheese was good and the chili was so thick you could barely scoop it up with a cluster of fries, we needed utensils. I wish there had been more chili and cheese, but I suppose a little forced portion control isn't a bad thing sometimes.

HUBS loved his burger. It was covered in Gorgonzola blue cheese, iceberg lettuce, onion rings, steak butter (which is something like this, I guess) and steak sauce, plus it was on a rye bun.

Now, if none of that sounds good, just take a look at the menu. They've got seven signature burgers, a ton of salads and a gazillion toppings so you can craft your own burger creation.

Final verdict? I'd be willing to go back, especially since HUBS feels the need to eat burgers all the time. The only thing is that they are a couple bucks more expensive than, say, the most expensive McDonald's fare and since the only location is in Creve Coeur, it's a bit out of the way for us. But, as soon as we are more financially stable, we'll be back.

Citygirl Bites! Philly Road Trip Edition, #3

Well, we are finally at the end of our Philly food adventure, and the end of our trip all together. Sad, isn't it? Our Thursday was rounded out with a trip to The Franklin Fountain. Look at that photo up there. The staff all wear early 1900s soda fountain/ice cream shop uniforms, and the whole place is set up like a classic ice cream place. They even have a vintage cash register.



I don't remember what I got and I don't remember what HUBS ate. But! They were both amazing and refreshing and sweet and yummy! All their ice cream is made in-house, how can you beat that? Plus, our dishes were filled to the absolute brim. Don't you love getting your money's worth?



Our last stop, on Friday, was technically in Gettysburg. We'd visited the battleground and extremely thorough museum and after a few hours needed dinner. HUBS had pre-scoped a restaurant located in a building built in 1776, The Dobbin House Tavern.



We shared a bowl of revelatory French Onion Soup. I capitalized each word there because this was the best FOS I've ever had. Ever. EVER, PEOPLE!! I generally avoid such soups because they tend to be hellishly salty, to the point where it feels like my throat is going to close up. This? This was perfectly seasoned, cheesy, with bits of tooth tender beef and onion floating in there. Oh. My. God. So gooooooood.



In addition to the soup (which immediately made me want more when we finished the bowl), I got a club sandwich and HUBS got a burger smothered in mushrooms and onions. Everything was amazing. These folks know food! And, again, all the servers are in period costumes. This means the ladies are dressed like old tyme serving wenches. I know what you're thinking, cleavage and good soup? That's right, people. Everything you could ever want in one spot!



Now I'm starving! That's what I get for talking about food for three days straight, huh? Before I go stuff my face, here's a Friday Funny for you:



Happy Friday, friends!

Citygirl Bites! Philly Road Trip Edition, #2

When we hit Cape May on Tuesday, our first stop was The Sea Shanty, a tiny spot in a strip mall-esq spot right across from the beach. The food was simply amazing. We actually had so much that it was hard for either of us to finish. I barely managed to eat all my lobster roll, while HUBS had to donate some of his fried clams to the seagulls. We did box up our mountain of fries, though, and luckily they held up well as we explored Cape May and Atlantic City.





Our big meal on Wednesday took us to the corner of two rival Philly cheesesteak behemoths: Pat's King of Steaks on one side and Geno's Steaks on the other.





Geno's wins in the cheese sweeps; it was loaded to dripping wit whiz. But HUBS and I both thought Pat's had slightly better meat. Plus, the sweet peppers on his were the bomb (yeah, I know nobody says that anymore...). I apologize, but for the second time in just a few days my ravenous hunger prevented me from thinking clearly and snapping shots of the sandwiches. Suffice it to say, they both looked roughly like this:


Photo

Now, here comes something truly special. On Thursday we were determined to get up early and get some major museum-going out of the way. As a reward for getting our asses out of the hotel pre-noon, we picked a spot for a nice breakfast out. We decided on Honey's Sit-n-Eat.



I don't even know how to describe the amazing-fantabulousness of this food. It's so good that I immediately knew I needed more of it after taking one bite of my challah French toast. It's so good that we went back again on Friday, our last day in Philly. It's so good, people, that about two weeks after getting home I yelled out I WANT HONEY'S SIT-N-EAT!! one night when we were debating dinner options. It's so good that you'll have sweet, maple syrup scented dreams after seeing what we ate:











See? Awe inspiring! Tomorrow? Part 3 of our Philly food adventure and some Friday goodies. Yea!

Citygirl Bites! Philly Road Trip Edition, #1

I haven't done a Citygirl Bites in ages, so, what better way to wrap up our Philly road trip story than to spotlight all the straight-awesome food we had while we were away. Mmmmm...Food porn!



On our way into Philly we stopped in Pittsburgh to eat dinner at Primanti Bros. Restaurant. They're known for their huge sandwiches with fries and cole slaw on the sandwiches. This is my fish sandwich. HUBS got a root beer float and some giant red meat sammy, plus we shared an amazing order of chili cheese fries. (That's right, we got fries even though each sandwich had fries on it. We are special.) If you're ever in the area you need to eat this food. Really.

Our next meal was a hotel-delivered one from Romano's on Sunday (our travel recovery day). Of course, I forgot to photograph a single item we ordered, but everything was good. We ordered a pizza (great crust, sauce and toppings), chili (filled with sweet peppers and meat and giant beans), a crab cake sandwich (yum) and a stromboli (HUBS ate this one by himself, but he loved it.) There were a ton of leftovers. Thank God we got a kitchenette in our room!



On Monday we stopped at Moshulu. It's an early 1900's sailing ship that's been turned into a restaurant. HUBS and I had been walking around all day and were tired, sweaty and sticky. We were also starving and my feet were aching. I was so glad that this place didn't have a dress code, we would not have gotten in with our tennis shoes and shorts otherwise.



This is my pulled pork sandwich. Um...You will not have a better pulled pork sammy, people. I swear. It was served with homemade chips and a little salad. Both very, very good as well.



HUBS ordered this. I think it's pork with some rice. Now, it was really tasty. But, you see how little is on that plate, right? Does anyone think that HUBS, who routinely eats two Bic Mac's, fries and a giant soda in one sitting, could be even close to full by eating this? No? Wow, you guys get smarter every day. Again, glad we had those leftovers!



We also shared dessert. Do you see this beauty? It's the Mosulu Coupe and it includes: banana fritters, dulche de leche ice cream, caramel peanuts, flourless chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, fresh chantilly cream, chocolate sauce and wet pecans. Dammit! It was good! God!

I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of our eats. But, in the meantime, I'm working on ideas for my Tuesday Tipday series. I need to know: What kind of tips would be helpful to you? Let me know in the comments!