Chicken times Two

With finals closing in on me, Meredith and I are getting a few meals in before things get out of control. Wouldn’t you believe that chicken, of all things, was the star of both. Now, these were done about a week apart, so we aren’t on this poultry binge. We get our fair share of fish and red meat, don’t you worry. Anyway, about a week ago we went after the quintessential Chicken Pot Pie, finally using some puff pastry we had in the freezer for the flaky top. It turned out great and was a pretty good looking dish…cookbook image type stuff. Plus, it had been a while since we had a veggie heavy dish, so that was nice. While that was good, tonight’s meal was even better.

This dish came from our Pampered Chef cookbook that has been good to us. It was chicken dijon vin blanc. Now, a vin blanc white sauce is a creamy sauce made from shallots, white wine, chicken broth, and a touch of cream and dijon mustard (notice how I casually knew what that was before tonight). Anyway, it was reduced down and poured over a beautifully butterflied chicken breast and put together with some broccoli. Of course Meredith threw together some sweet potato fries that were great with the rest of the meal. All this happened while our apartment rang with the wonder of christmas….by that I mean our apartment was a wreck cause we have stuff everywhere. But that story is for another post…

Meals that warm our hearts…

As the temperature drops, our excitement for holidays, family and great recipes steadily rises. Brett and I both love everything about fall and winter foods and cannot wait to fill our tiny kitchen with yummy spices and smells. The two main men in my life have an ultimate love for chille, and although I cannot come close to replicating their chilles, I tried a new twist on this favorite winter dish. From our old friend, Chicken and the Egg,  I made the red lentil chille with chicken. Cumin, cinnamon, and red pepper warm your insides and surprisingly it wasn’t overbearing. We both loved it and munched on it for days. Like all chilles it seemed to get better and better each day.

The next dish we made was our very first bread pudding. This seems to be a very popular dessert right now because every chef on Food Network is making their own versions of this extremely old recipe ( you know we love Food Network :)). Seeing as the main ingredient is egg, I checked in The Chicken and the Egg and sure enough there was a pear and craisin bread pudding (YUM!). We couldn’t find an egg bread (Brioche) anywhere so Brett decided crescent rolls would be good. Well….it wasn’t the best but Brett still ate two bowl fulls of it :). So we learned our lesson on that and I learned I don’t really like bread pudding that much. Here are some pics for ya!

Love,

Mere

Pasta and Pumpkins

 

 

 

Well, it has been a while. Life has surely picked up around here, but we are enjoying it. We have had some visits from family and spent time with friends over the last few weeks, all of those being such a blessing. We are very thankful to be in Springfield and a part of the things going on in this place.

As far as our kitchen is concerned, we haven’t been cooking as much, but when we do it’s always an adventure. Our most recent venture stemmed from Meredith’s hankering for a GOOD cream-based pasta. So that gave us this little number. Full of cream, shrimp, garlic, white wine, and the endless amount of spaghetti pasta we have (thank you Sam’s), along with other herbs and spices, she came up with quite the meal. It was absolutely incredible, so much so that we recreated it when Janet and Aubree were here for a few days.

In classic newlywed Fall fashion, we had to carve ourselves some pumpkins. We picked them up at Wickman’s, a little nursery and garden store about a half mile walk from our place. It was an adventure but armed with Cutco, we could not fail. Naturally (pun intended), I carved an Arkansas Razorback into my pumpkin. It took some detail to get it right but it shaped up ok, especially considering my artistic gifts. Meredith did an “F est 2011” and a heart on the opposite side.

School is busy as usual and Meredith just went back on shift, so things are picking up as the always do! Hopefully we are more on top of things as we move into the cooler weather of Fall and Winter, because as far as we are concerned those are the best culinary seasons!

 

 

 

 

Recycle and Grow

 Brett and I  just placed membership at a good ole place named Sam’s Club. Buying in bulk is so interesting and helpful, and thanks to my mom we now know that buying fruit and veggies at Sam’s is so much cheaper! However sometimes one runs out of time to eat those 8 bananas in a bundle…so to take care of those last three bananas that we just could not handle eating, we made our first loaf of banana bread. The great things about desert breads such as this is that there really isn’t anything easier and it is a great way to outsmart your over ripening fruit. No technique is needed, and when you are in a rush it is a great desert to just throw together. Plus we made it uniquely ours by putting Brett’s new favorite secret ingredient for the topper-Pumpkin Pie spice and sugar…shhh don’t tell anyone!

 

We also found a fantastic way to recycle over ripe tomatoes- homemade basil tomato sauce. We always thought of homemade sauce as using tomato paste and seasoning it yourself instead of buying the canned Prego. However it literally took ten minutes to make an outstanding sauce with our tomatoes that were getting a little too mushy to put in salads or sandwiches. It also helped with minimizing the size of our giant basil plant…I am a tiny bit afraid it might take over our porch.

Speaking of plants, here are some pictures of our new additions. We live right next to the most precious plant nursery, so for entertainment one night we set off on a walk and came back with cucumber, lavender, and Zinnia seeds and a wee little rosemary plant. It is such a joy to watch things grow, and Brett and I have fallen in love with planting, watering, and loving these tiny little seeds and our every growing basil and mint. Not to mention how much money having herbs right outside your door saves you! We hope to continue widening our variety of plants and one day have a huge garden and orchard like my parents and grandparents 🙂 Until that next pay check though, these guys will have to get us through.

Basil Egg Salad and Focaccia

 

 

Well well, we aren’t the most avid bloggers quite yet but we are working on getting back on the horse and keeping things up to date. We have been busy recently (both of us securing jobs, which is great news!) but we have continued to keep up with our culinary efforts. As noted, we love to work out of our Chicken and Egg cookbook but, I must be honest, are rooted in randomly searching the internet for recipes and working off of those. SO, with that being said, not all of our recipes will be directly from Chicken and Egg but yada, yada, yada, food, food, food. We have also gone after many types of bread making with our bread maker and dough from scratch. Here below is one of our recent attempts at bread without the bread maker. It is called ‘Focaccia” bread, an Italian bread that is used for panini. We threw in a bunch of dried herbs (basil, parsley, thyme, maybe more) and it turned out great. We made sandwiches with it and also used it in the ever popular Panzanella Salad.

As for our Chicken and Egg efforts, this time around we went with the ‘Basil Egg Salad.’ If we consume three things in this apartment, they are basil, eggs, and cucumbers. So, naturally this recipe was perfect and it required no extra trip to the store. It’s basically hard-boiled eggs, tossed with the other two staples and some mayonnaise. Very simple recipe, this is actually one of the few works we have worked on for lunch. It was very refreshing and better than the usual sandwich.

Bread continues to bake and Food Network continues to run, fueling the little fire that is our desire to cook. Being theSpringfielders, it would be an injustice to not include notes about our little life in this town found in the Midwest (no, not the South :(…). Hence, the Bistro Market which is located downtown. It’s actually a branch of Price Cutter which is the local, cheap grocery store but this place is loaded. It is a great little store that offers many of the unique things that you would find on the food network that you could basically on find in Chelsea Market. So, tonight we purchased some chorizo…look forward to our experimental dish featuring this Latin American pork…

 

The Art of the Tart

Hello, the other half here 🙂

It has always been a dream of mine to own a bakery. Olive’s is the name and here is my game: feed the homeless with my sumptuous treats, build a community with my bakery, and make everyone’s hearts smile with the compound of sugar, flour, and eggs in their bellies. I know, right now it doesn’t seem too attainable, but while waiting I start my repertoire with a wonderful blueberry tart from our very own Chicken and Egg treasure chest.

After last weeks  “oops” with the soupy carrot cake (I am still a little upset- never substitute apple sauce for pineapple…what? I didn’t want to run to the grocery…who really does…) I was a little afraid to take that kitchen aid down from its resting place. But with a loving and encouraging husband, one can accomplish anything :). Being a tart newbie, it can be a little overwhelming. However, I had a great time with this adventure, and let’s just say somebody (BGF) didn’t let the fridge keep a hold of this light desert very long.

The crust is wonderful! It is not too sweet, not full of shortening (goodbye newlywed 20!), and uniquely wonderful with a hint of nutmeg. The custard filing is light (sour cream! who knew!), not too sweet, and with its 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest makes for a perfect refreshment for this hot summer! After cooling completely, two cups of succulent blueberries from the lovely Springfield farmers market were layered on top of the custard and smothered with warmed red cherry jelly.

Let me just say that this was the most delicious and decadent baked good I have ever made, and with more practice like this, the bakery might not be too far away after all ;).

On another note, we have fallen in love with another cook book. Yes, a love affair (We are so sorry C&E!). The Pampered Chef: Cooking for Two cook book has been another gift for our time in the kitchen together. It has so many colorful and flavorful recipes we just couldn’t resist it! More to come later!

Taste Bud Hanger!

Which came first…

…the chicken or the egg? Regardless, a cookbook inspired by this long debated conundrum found its way into the hands of my lovely wife and I. Thus, we embarked on a (culinary) adventure, one of many to come. This book is a memoir by Janice Cole, taking the reader through different seasons of the year. She shares personal stories of growing chickens and harvesting eggs, while logging recipes that coincide with the season and have either the chicken or the egg as the main ingredient.

SO…we find ourselves at our one week anniversary of moving into our home in Springfield and its time for our first attempt from the cookbook. We began in the “Glorious Summer” section of the book because with temperatures over 100 degrees “Autumn Harvest” just didn’t seem to fit. We also invested in a basil plant and a mint plant, mostly due to at least one of the two showing up in just about every recipe. In this case, both were big players (along with the eggs, of course). The recipe we chose was Baked Eggs with Basil-Mint Pesto. We sliced up some baguettes and covered the bottom of a pan, covered those with goat cheese, our basil-mint pesto, and then the eggs, topped off with walnuts. They went in the oven for about 18-20 minutes at 350.

For those familiar with Little Rock’s ZaZa’s, we also crafted our own style of the ZaZa Salad which includes mixed greens, strawberries, goat cheese, walnuts and a balsamic vinaigrette. BUT, we couldn’t just copy it in full, we had to have our own spin on it. Enter: Dove Chocolate Balsamic Fig Vinaigrette dressing to cap it all off.