When you’re roasting a chicken breast, skin and bones yield the very best flavor.  It’s also very important to have your split breasts closer to room temperature before throwing in the hot oven.  I drizzled and seasoned these about an hour before they went into the oven creating an optimally tender result.  I’ve cooked them straight out of the fridge lots of times.  Fear not, in a time crunch this won’t wreck your dinner.  You simply won’t have *ideal* results.  I’m led to wonder if this is what went wrong with my bone in ribeye at Wolfgang Puck’s CUT in Las Vegas – surely they couldn’t be aiming for mediocre?

As a photography aside, I am dutifully working through a Publix (grocery store generic) paprika that I picked up this summer in Rosemary Beach, FL.  I kind of hate it.  The flavor is fine but the color is WAY TOO ORANGE!  I’ll probably throw it out soon, but take note if you use a different brand your chicken will have a slightly different color.  As my mother taught me, the purpose of  paprika is for coloring – not for flavor.  So if it’s not serving it’s purpose, I guess I should throw it out.

Roasted Chicken Breasts with Whiskey Portabella Mushroom Pan Sauce

serves 2

2 medium chicken split breasts (out of the fridge an hour before cooking if you can!)

olive oil

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

paprika

1 and 1/2 tbsp butter

2 large portabella mushroom caps, chopped

pan drippings 2 roast split breasts

1 c. hot water

1/3 c. Makers Mark Bourbon Whiskey

1 tsp corn starch and 2 tbsp water mixed together

Preheat your oven to 425.  Place chicken breasts in a heavy bottomed saute pan.  Drizzle chicken breasts with olive oil, then generously sprinkle with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and paprika.  Roast chicken in oven for about 45 minutes to an hour – until they have an internal temperature of 165.  Remove to a cutting board to rest.

Warm a separate saute pan over medium high heat.  Add butter after two minutes to melt, then add chopped portabella mushrooms.  Sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, then brown thoroughly until mushroom water has been released and evaporated.  Set aside.

Spoon off any oil gathered in your pan drippings, then add hot water to pan over medium high heat.  Use a wooden spatula to scrape up the brown bits, cook until volume is reduced by half.  Add whiskey, then cornstarch and water mixture.  Stir continuously with spatula.  Stir until slightly thickened, then add mushrooms, stir and serve immediately.

The proper name for the tiny french green beans is haricots verts (ah-ree-ko v-eh-rr).  That’s my personal pronunciation guide, so your mileage may vary.  As other children hustled off to Camp Longhorn or Mystic or Birch Knoll, I begged to go to French camp at Concordia Language Villages in central Minnesota.  Instead of soundly declaring me completely dorky, I prefer to think this an example of my endearingly bizarre nature.  Unfortunately, I can offer no tips on Spanish pronunciation, my husband declared me useless there years ago.  (I do think I’m improving with my Pimsler’s Spanish Audio Cds.)  In retrospect, I also went to computer engineering camp before my junior year in high school.  Only student not to get my 2 bit by 2 bit multiplier to work.  Yep, I think I’ve confirmed myself totally dorky.

Anyhow, these haricots verts are a super fast, healthy side, perfect for a weeknight.  I hope you enjoy them as much as my children and I do.  If you enjoy your shallots more caramelized – cook longer right after you add them.  Bon appetit!

Haricots Verts with Almonds Recipe

serves 5 adults

1 lb haricots verts, cleaned and ends trimmed

1 and 1/2 tbsp butter

2 large shallots, sliced into thin rings

1/2 c. blanched, slivered almonds

1/2 tsp kosher salt

12 turns fresh ground pepper

1/4 tsp dried oregano

Place a steamer basket or a colander over a pan of boiling water.  Place haricots verts in steamer basket and cover with a lid.  Steam for about 2 minutes then, taste to check tenderness.  When bright green, softened, but still crunchy – remove from heat and plunge into an ice bath to stop cooking.  This batch took approximately 2 minutes and 45 seconds.  They need to be *vibrant* green!

Drain haricots verts and pat dry with a towel.  Heat a saute pan over medium heat for three minutes.  Add butter, let melt, then add shallots.  Cook two minute, then add haricots verts and almonds.  Season with salt, pepper, and oregano.  Cook two more minutes, then serve.

I made only minor changes to the original recipe based on what ingredients I had on hand.  Never be afraid to make little changes!  If you wait to have everything on hand, you can never be spontaneous.  Though, I just realized my math was off when I was adjusting quantities so I halved all the seasonings.  Anyhow, this is how I prepared it, and we thought it was great.  If you’re cooking for children or my mother, you should probably half the amount of crushed red pepper shown below.  Otherwise when eaten with rice, I would call it only mildly spicy.  L.E. loved it, but Q was wary (spicy), so use your best judgement.

Spiced Flank Steak and Stir Fry with Celery Recipe

serves 2

2/3 lb flank steak

2 and 1/2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp cornstarch

kosher salt

2 tbsp sake (extra dry Ginjo Hananomai – you could also use dry sherry, dry vermouth, or Chinese rice wine)

2 tbsp grapeseed oil

ground ginger

3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced

1/8 tsp cumin seeds

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

3 stalks celery, sliced diagonally 1/2 inch thick

Slice the flank steak in half following the grain.  Slice flank steak against the grain into slices about 1/8th of an inch thick.  Place beef slices in a bowl and stir with 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce, 1/4 tsp cornstarch, and a pinch (really just a pinch – this will be plenty salty!) of kosher salt.  In a separate bowl combine remaining 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch, and sake.

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet over high heat until it is very hot.  Add 1 tbsp of grapeseed oil, then swirl to coat skillet evenly.  Cook half of the beef slices – making sure to lay slices flat in only one layer.  Test one slice after about 30 seconds and flip if browned.  Transfer to a plate when browned – flank steak slices will cook for a total of just about 1 minute.  Add remaining teaspoon of grapeseed oil and repeat with second batch. Set cooked flank steak aside.

Turn off the heat on the skillet.  Add 3-4 heavy shakes of the ground ginger.  This will smell very pungent – to the point where you’ll wonder if you’ve over done it, but fear not.  Add garlic, cumin, and red pepper flakes, then return heat to almost high and stir fry for about 15 seconds.  Add the celery and stir fry for 1 minute.  Add back reserved beef and and accumulated juices; stir.  Stir reserved soy/sake mixture, then add to skillet and stir.  Stir-fry all together about a minute longer, then serve.

As for grill lighting, I’m becoming the master. After a tragic winter of failed attempts at chiminea lighting, I simply won’t be outdone by my grill. Incidentally, I can not believe I haven’t blogged about my awesome new grill/smoker combo. Mr. Richard bought this mammoth grill then only used it three times, at the end of the day, realized his vision was merely a pipe dream and lovingly passed the grill to me. Because of course I want/need a way to cook for a small army at one time. Back to the point, if you’ve been thwarted when lighting a charcoal grill, look no further. This method is absolutely fool proof. First, you need a chimney starter.  Next, you need lighter cubes.  You can light it using newspaper coiled into tubes in the bottom of the chimney starter, but if you live with someone like me, all newspaper is instantly recycled upon delivery.

To start, open the grate, pour in most of your charcoal into a small group, but no more than to about two briquettes deep.  My grill has two grates, if yours only has one, hopefully it will swing open halfway, otherwise, I don’t know what to tell you.  Place two lighter cubes on the remaining grate, then place the chimney starter on top.  Pour a small bunch (15? briquettes) onto the top grate of the chimney starter.  Light the cubes and then wait about 10 minutes until the large flames begin to die down.  Use a heavy potholder glove to dump the freshly lit coals onto the waiting pile in grill.  Wait about 20 minutes and you will have a piping hot fire, that’s hot, but not too hot.

If you’re a boy scout reading this, you’re surely laughing at my step-by-step breakdown of charcoal kindling.  And embarrassed by my necessity of gear and equipment.  But I’m neither a boy nor a scout (I don’t think that brief stint in Brownies counts) and even though I’ve done this a bunch of times, I still have to look up directions from Google.  Heaven help me, I could have never made it before the Internet, I’m certain I would have simply starved on the spot.

Beer Can Chicken on the Grill

serves 4

1 whole roasting chicken, giblets removed, rinsed, and patted dry

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp cayenne

12 turns fresh ground pepper

1 beer in can

2 wedges lemon

3 cloves garlic, chopped

Prepare a grill.  Use the instructions above to light charcoal grill until coals are nearly completely white or turn a gas grill on medium high.  Open beer, I of course, prefer Bud Light, but please use your beer of choice.  Drink half the can.

Mix together all the spices in a small bowl, then rub all over the skin.  Squeeze the lemon juices into remaining beer and add chopped garlic.  Place beer on grill, then lower the chicken onto the beer can so the bottom of the drumsticks are standing tripod fashion on the the grill.  That’s it!  This will need to cook for about an hour on the grill, check for an internal temperature of 165, being sure not to press the thermometer to the beer can.  When you’ve reached this temperature, we use a combo of turkey forks to remove chicken and tongs to slide out the beer can and leave it on the grill.  Be gentle!  The chicken is unbelievably tender and the bones will pop right out!

Enjoy!

As for peeling tomatoes, cook books generally advise scoring one end with an X, then blanching and peeling.  I find the process significantly easier with my OXO vegetable peeler.  I core the tomato, then peel from the cut down the length of the tomato using a slight wrist jiggling to gently ease the peel right off the surface of the tomato, no large pots of boiling water required!  As for the seeding, I gently scrape the seeds from the flesh with my paring knife.

I think this sauce would be excellent paired with a bucatini pasta.  Does anyone remember eating that kind of pasta more than 5 years ago?  I don’t, but perhaps I wasn’t paying attention.  In any case, it seems to be one of the more recent food trends.

Pasta with Fresh Tomato, Red Onion, Bacon, and Crushed Red Pepper Sauce

serves 4

6 slices center-cut, thick sliced bacon

2 lbs roma tomatoes on the vine

2 small red onions

1 tsp kosher salt

12 turns fresh ground pepper

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

spaghetti, capellini, or bucatini pasta

Prepare the bacon in a wide skillet over medium heat.  When crisp, remove to a plate covered with paper towels.  Drain all the fat except for about 1 teaspoon to a coffee cup and reserve for later use.  Slice the ends off of onions, then peel.  With a cut side facing down, slice into half, then half again then into wedges to create little crescent moons of red onion.  Cook onion in remaining bacon drippings for about 4 minutes.  Peel tomatoes, seed, give a rough chop and add to the onion.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, reduce heat to low, then cook for 10 minutes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Cook pasta of choice to package instructions for al dente.  Add crushed red pepper and 1 ladle of pasta water to tomato sauce, then cook for 5 more minutes.  Crumble reserved bacon, then add to tomato sauce.  Add drained pasta to sauce, toss, then serve.

Turkey Tenderloins

1 lb turkey tenderloins

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

paprika

Old Bay seasoning

1 tbsp olive oil

1 and 1/2 c. chicken broth

Preheat oven to 375.  Sprinkle the entire surface of tenderloins with salt, pepper, paprika, and a smidge of Old Bay, ensuring you coat all sides.  Heat a braising pan over medium heat for 3 minutes, add olive oil, swirl for 30 seconds then brown turkey tenderloins on all sides.  Add chicken broth, then cover and move to oven.  Cook for 35-40 minutes then check with a meat thermometer.  Ensure an internal temperature of 170 in the thickest part, return to oven if necessary.

Slice at into 1/2 an inch rounds,then top with Chimichurri.  Enjoy!

Roasting the cherry tomatoes allows them to absorb the heat from the chili flakes and the flavor from the garlic an the herbs.  The resulting pan sauce is delicious mopped up with a crusty french bread, but I’d love it served over a garlic mashed potatoes as well.  I served the dish with lentils and a spinach salad, it made a colorful presentation and was all completely finished in 45 minutes with a lot of idle time!  Enjoy!

Spicy Chicken with Tomatoes, Garlic, and Oregano Recipe

serves 4

4 bone in split breasts

2 bags cherry tomatoes (next time I’ll try grape tomatoes!), whole, washed, and stemmed

5 garlic cloves, chopped

1 and 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 and 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp kosher salt

6 turns fresh ground pepper

1/4 c. olive oil

Preheat oven to 450.  In a 9 x 13 glass casserole dish, place the four split breasts evenly spaced.  In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, garlic, red pepper flakes, oregano, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  Season the chicken breasts with a sprinkling of kosher salt and pepper, then pour tomato mixture over the top.  Roast in oven for about 40 minutes, until an internal temperature of 170.

Enjoy!

The problem is, I’m guilty of overcomplicating things.  And home preparing lunch meat, just really should not be high on my priority list.  I’ve already had to remind myself that kindergarten lunchboxes are not a competition, and even though I’m trying to love the earth and all, a pre-packaged yogurt won’t single-handedly destroy the environment.  Plus if I die, killing myself over preparing beautiful, green lunches, where does that get us?  In a burst of inspiration after making the Chicken Stuffed with Spinach, Mozzarella, and Pine Nuts, I realized I already had the perfect easy lunch meat recipe in my repertoire.  This is super easy, and nearly impossible to mess up.  Braising the chicken in a bit of chicken broth leaves the chicken tender – even after refrigeration.  The other great use for this style chicken is dinner for the children. So much healthier than a chicken nugget, yet just as fast from the fridge.  Last night our grownup dinner wasn’t ready until 7:15, so the kids had dinner at the kid table.  These sliced up braised chicken breasts, grapes, and a brownie for dessert.  Done, done, and off to bed with you!

So my new plan?  Make several of these up each week, throw them in the refrigerator, then use them as needed.  This is my husband’s sandwich, you can tell because of the mayonnaise.  If you’re using tomatoes, don’t forget to lightly sprinkle them with sea salt!  It makes such a difference.  Mandy Looney once told me, “When you’re making a sandwich for your husband, you have to make an effort to make it look pretty.  Use the curly green leaf lettuce.”  Of course Mandy also told me to always put lipstick on before my husband came home from work, which I promptly ignored ; )  I’m currently having a torrid love affair with coarse ground dijon mustard.  I highly recommend it on everything straight down to hot dogs.  It just adds a little something extra, don’t you think?

Braised Chicken Breasts Recipe

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

paprika

olive oil

3/4 c. chicken broth

Preheat oven to 350.  Trim any fat or tough parts from the chicken breasts, then sprinkle them with kosher salt, pepper, and paprika, always in that order.  In a heavy-bottomed braising dish or saute pan, add just a drizzle of olive oil then heat over medium high.  Add chicken breasts, browning on the first side for 5 minutes, turn then the second side about 4 minutes.  Add chicken broth, then cover with a tight fitting lid or aluminum foil.  Bake in oven 15 minutes, then remove to a cutting board to rest.  Slice at an angle and serve!

Happy Eating!

Don’t worry, I’m not having a life crisis.  This pot roast was prepared simply to signify the impending change of the seasons and provide a key one pot meal that could be made in advance (Soccer season has started!) then served again -even more deliciously in leftover form.  I never eat leftovers.  Ever.  Luckily my husband does without the slightest complaint, I think he enjoys them actually.  But soups – that is a different story – soups are designed to get better with age and therefore provide none of the diminished quality and disappointment I find in traditional leftover dinners.

This method was taught to me by mother, she made it for us and now we all make it for each other and our families.  I’ve never been fond of the word stew – it sounds like something you eat when you don’t have enough money to buy something better.  Kind of like porridge or spam.  But I know that’s ridiculous, so I looked up the definition of stew and it turns out – pot roast is exactly this.  I was going to refer to this as Braised chuck roast, but braising refers to a small amount of cooking liquid – as I would with artichokes.  Stewing means liquid almost covering the meat.  The easiest place to go wrong with this recipe is by not browning your meat long enough – truly you want to brown it until you’re almost afraid of burning the roast.  The second word of caution – though I’ve made this type of meat THOUSANDS of times and only run into the issue once, but I feel compelled to relate – involves frozen chuck roast.  Should you be using a previously frozen chuck roast – PLEASE be sure your roast is completely thawed before you begin browning.  I ran into this problem in haste in July and blistered my face terribly when the hot oil popped up at me.  Don’t worry – it’s healed quite nicely and you can barely tell now.

As for the onions in the recipe – they are crucial – albeit hard to find.  What you want are small onions in a glass jar like this.  You don’t need this Aunt Nellie’s brand, that just seems to be the only kind I see in Texas.  In the Midwest they were called something different.  They’re generally in the canned vegetable aisle along the top row somewhere – possibly near beets.  You drain them, then pour right on in.  For some reason, they are really hard to find so I may have to start ordering them by the case like I do with my pickles.  In a pinch, like this week, I went with the small bags of white boiler onions found in the produce section.  This works fine but is so much more labor intensive, involving boiling quickly, about a minute, then peeling each one before adding to the stew.  Frankly, I just don’t have that kind of patience.  Not to mention they are so much more expensive this way, I think the package of approx 10 onions costs $3.95.

Thanks to my mother for teaching me this staple recipe, I don’t think I could possibly function without it.  Next time you want to send extra support to a loved one – you’ll know what to make.

Pot Roast Recipe makes about 6 quarts

2 beef chuck roasts – do not buy one that says shoulder – approx 6.5 lbs total weight

kosher salt

fresh ground black pepper

paprika

all-purpose flour

olive oil

8-9 carrots, peeled

8-9 medium size new potatoes

2 jars white onions

Season all sides of roasts with kosher salt, pepper, and paprika.  Pour flour into a small bowl, then coat all sides of roast with a layer of flour, shaking off the excess.  Heat a large – heavy bottom required – stock pot on medium high heat on the stove.  Add about 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil, then brown one roast at a time on all sides.

Continue to move roast around about every five minutes.  Keep your eye on the flour mixture, as this will be the base of your gravy, if it looks like it’s starting to burn reduce your heat a bit.  Let first roast rest on a plate and brown the other piece.

When meat is completely browned, add reserved roast and any accumulated juices back to pan.  The entire browning process should take you about 40 minutes.  Cover with water almost, but not quite, covering the roasts completely.  Add 2 teaspoons salt and 16 turns ground pepper.  Cover stock pot with a lid, and reduce heat to medium.  Check after 1 hour, reduce heat by about 25% then cover and cook another hour.

Chop carrots in half lengthwise, then into 2 inch segments.  Chop potatoes in half lengthwise, then into thirds.  Add both to to stew.  Drain onions, then add.  Cover stock pot with lid and cook another hour and a half.  Use tongs to remove chuck roast to a bowl.  Use two forks to remove just the meat portion to a separate bowl then shred.  Discard fat and other parts. Then return shredded beef to stew, stir and season to taste.  Serve with a crunchy garlic french bread.  Happy eating!

I also browned the chicken longer than in the magazine recipe.  Perhaps this is due to variations in my stove, but it brings up one of the most fundamental bricks of cooking.  Whenever you’re cooking, you have to look, feel, smell, and most importantly pay attention in order to adjust cooking times or temps.  If that doesn’t sound fun to you, you better stick to the crock pot and order meal delivery service.  I’m not talking major adjustments, just little ones, like inching your heat up a bit, or deciding something is browning quicker than expected or more slowly.  And for heaven’s sake, if your going to cook meat, get a good, digital, instant read meat thermometer.  I truly don’t know how people function without them.

If you come across any other recipes using pine nuts outside of this one, salads, or pesto, send me a note.  I went a little crazy in the bulk section and may be working through $30 of pine nuts until Christmas ; ) If you’re purchasing fresh mozzarella for this recipe, it only takes about an ounce and a half for four servings.  Since it’s hard to purchase only an ounce and a half, hear are another few ideas to utilise your remaining cheese:  Caprese Salad Crostini, Roasted Chicken, Mozzarella, Tomato, Onion, and Pesto Panini, Mediterranean Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes, Kalamatas, Capers, and Fresh Mozzarella, or my favorite, eaten straight as a snack.

Dinnerandconversation.com Meal Delivery Service now has expanded facilities!  Weekly Menus will no longer be one option per day, but 4 options per week, available any day of the week.  Email orders to lane@dinnerandconversation.com

Aug 30 Menu

Tortilla Soup – Made from scratch broth based soup with shredded chicken, yummy vegetables, the perfect level of spice, and everyone’s favorite, freshly fried tortilla strips

Pulled Pork Sandwiches – Slow cooked pulled pork, piled onto bread and topped with thinly sliced red onions, L.E. and Quentin love this meal!

Lane’s Chicken Salad – no nuts and lots of hand shredded chicken with a touch of fresh herbs and a sprinkling of oregano, I’ve been told the flavor only improves in the fridge over a couple of days

Fish Tacos – Spicy Tilapia or shredded chicken for non-seafood eaters topped with a light and colorful vinaigrette coleslaw

Sides and Desserts available off meal delivery service menu.

Happy Eating!

Chicken Stuffed with Spinach, Fresh Mozzarella, and Pine Nuts

adapted from Cooking Light Sept 2010, serves 4

2 tbsp pine nuts

5 oz fresh baby spinach

2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 and 1/2 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into a 1/4 inch dice

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

3/4 c. chicken broth

In a braising pan with a tight fitting lid, toast pine nuts in dry pan over medium high heat uncovered.  Shake every 20 seconds to rotate nuts, then remove to a bowl after about a minute and a half.  In same pan, gently cook spinach until it just begins to wilt, also uncovered.  Continuously rotate leaves with tongs, then remove to a strainer.  Use a paper towel to gently press spinach to strainer removing as much water as you can.  Add spinach to bowl with pine nuts.  Use a fork to combine with lemon juice, garlic, and mozzarella cubes.

Preheat oven to 350.  Rinse chicken, trim, and pat dry.  Starting from the top of the chicken breast at the thickest part, use a knife to slit lengthwise just as you would to butterfly the breast.  Make a pouch three quarters of the way through the breast.  Stuff each breast with a little of the spinach filling , then seal with wooden picks.  Season both sides of chicken with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Wipe pan down with a paper towel and return it to medium high heat.  After 1 minute, add the olive oil, after 1 more minute, swirl oil to coat pan, then add chicken breasts.  Cook on first side for 5 minutes or until browned, then turn and repeat.  When nicely browned on both sides, add chicken broth to pan, cover and bake in oven for 15 minutes.