Superfood

Since everyone does it, I did too.
Way too much food, all of which can be eaten with one's fingers, lots of grease, and plenty of spice.

Superbowl food.

First Half:
Steak Bites (I deglazed my pan with a glug of beer)
Guacamole and chips
Bacon-wrapped grilled leeks
Garlic-bacon potato skins

Second Half:
Italian Drumettes (I used the Ro-Tel tomatoes with chiles, to add a kick)
Veggies and dip

It was a little bit tricky timing it all so that I could actually watch the game (strange, football-loving woman that I am,) but it worked out pretty well. And with food for both halves, we were able to munch without stuffing ourselves.

Secret Ingredient: Chicken Thighs

Tonight was almost an Iron Chef night. It was nights like this that inspired me to do Iron Chef Mom... last-minute dinner ideas based on what's on hand and needs to be eaten.

We got back from our Thanksgiving trip late Sunday... and it was a doozy of a trip. Monday was spent doing mountains of laundry after spending half the day at the doctor, confirming a miscarriage. Tuesday was more laundry, and lots of cat hair removal. Apparently they molt when the humans are away. Yesterday the Grill Geek flew out to be the grand marshal of his hometown parade. To summarize, I haven't been at the top of my menu-planning game.

I grabbed several things out of the deep freeze, to keep us fed, and left it at that.

Tonight the chicken thighs were due for a turn... but I thought I wasn't in the mood to get creative. I googled recipes, and came across this one. But what to feed the child who hates chicken? Hmmm... perhaps pasta. Perhaps pasta tossed in the extra saucy bits from the chicken! Only 4 chicken thighs, but do the full recipe of sauce, so there's extra.

And maybe add half a sliced onion... red...

And maybe a few sliced mushrooms...

Cooked up in a little of that melted garlic butter.

Mmmmmm...

The picture to the right is the Fairy Child's debut into blog photography. My hands were all chickeny before I realized I wanted a picture of the veggies. So she took this shot for me!

And here it all is, before it went in the oven. I poured the saucey stuff on top... baked it at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Probably should have done 45. Hope I don't die.

Next time I would cut the butter by half (yikes, am I really saying that?)

I cooked up some rice pasta and tossed a salad while the chicken baked. Once it was done, I poured some of the saucey stuff with some of the noodles. Next time I would toss them with about a tablespoon of soy sauce (tamari) first, so they could suck up that flavor before being coated in greasy goodness. And goodness, there was a lot of grease. That's why I recommend reducing the amount of butter. But it really needed a LOT more garlic, especially to earn the right to have "garlic" in the recipe name. Some green onions at the end would have been nice, too.


And, yeah... that was a rather epic mound of pasta. And really teeny chicken thighs.

Everything Awesome

... roasted together in one pan. That's what I had for dinner tonight. What'd you have? Frozen pizza? Mac-and-cheez? I'm sorry for your loss. Oh, did I mention that the active time it took to prepare dinner was less than 15 minutes? I'm just rubbing grease in your wounds now, aren't I?

I apologize for the snarkiness above. It would seem I have a taunting reaction to meals loaded with yumminess.

I will have to wait to upload the photo evidence of tonight's ambrosia, as I am away from home and without my camera cable. (I actually thought to myself, while packing, "no, there's no reason I'd need that.") Little did I know that I would soon be seized once again with the urge to blog.

Without further nonsense... tonight's dinner. As usual, I don't know what to call it. It's based on a Nigella Lawson recipe (love her!) simply named One Pan Sage and Onion Chicken and Sausage. That's a heck of a name. Accurate. But long.
And I need to make it even longer, because I tweaked it. I added to it. I am pathologically incapable of following directions, it would seem. But I can't name it One Pan Garlic and Onion Chicken and Sausage with Potatoes and Tomatoes. That'd just be wrong.

So, in lieu of that, I'm considering Everything Awesome. Because that's what's in it. Take a look... I think you'll agree. Leave a comment and let me know.

Ingredients:
1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges
6-10 (or more) peeled garlic cloves, whole but smashed a bit
3-4 tablespoons bacon fat (was out of olive oil, this was definitely a yummy substitution)
1tablespoon mustard- Nigella calls for English, of course, I used spicy brown, because that's what was available
1 tablespoon dried sage or herby blend
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins is gluten-free)
Freshly-ground black pepper
4-6 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
About 1 pound sausage, cut into 3-inch lengths, if necessary
Some small red potatoes, cut into fourths (wedges)
A couple handfuls of fresh-picked homegrown cherry tomatoes (yeah, now I'm just bragging)

Mix all the seasonings and grease and onions and garlic in a ziploc, squishing it around. Add the chicken, squish some more, and refrigerate overnight, or at least a little while if this is a last-minute thing.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Plop the ziploc ingredients into a big baking dish (I think I used a 9x13 Pyrex), nestle the sausage pieces in, and add the potato wedges. Try to coat the potatoes with a bit of the saucy goodness, or at least stick them next to sausages, to share the fatty love. Bake/roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes, turning the sausages over halfway through. If the potato wedges look woefully dry, add some juice from the pan, or drizzle a bit of bacon grease over them. (Tip: if you keep your bacon fat near the back of the stove it'll be liquid after 45 minutes of the oven being on. Easy to drizzle that way.)
Add the tomatoes, whole, near the end, with 15-20 minutes left.

Dig in. Serve with a salad, if you feel guilty.

Food Porn

This is heaven. The pinnacle. Nirvana. The best of foods. And yet... due to the illicit saturated fat content... somehow dirty and forbidden. I love being a nutrition rebel. A food pirate.

Baked chicken, simply basted in it's own fat, sprinkled with sea salt, cracked pepper, and paprika. Not just any chicken, though... a truly pastured chicken. A chicken that actually ran around outside. Not just "free-range" which means essentially nothing. Nope, I saw this chicken's pecking grounds. Collected a fresh egg from one of it's cousins. This was a wonderfully-healthy, bug-eating, sunshine-soaking, clucking-at-the-nearby-cows chicken. And it was delicious.

Then there are the mashed potatoes... locally-grown red taters, with the skin on, mashed with grass-fed cow butter and a bit of chicken stock. The collards are cooked, as all collards should be, with onions that were softened in bacon fat, then simmered in chicken stock until tender. Top with a bit of garlic Tabasco and vinegar... unbelievably delicious, nutrient-dense, good-for-you real food.

Life is good.

Oven Carolina Chicken

We really ought to name this chicken dish after our friend Heidi, as it was accidentally-created because she was coming over for dinner. I was planning to "do something with" a recipe called Crockpot Thai Chicken, or something like that. But... having a needy baby all over me... had failed to figure out exactly what. And then it was too-late for the crockpot and Heidi was coming over. The Grill Geek offered to step in, and this is what he created. We named it Oven Carolina Chicken because... well... it was cooked in the oven and we lived in South Carolina.

INGREDIENTS:

6 skinless chicken thighs*
½ cup regular salsa
¼ cup salsa verde
1 T soy sauce
2 tsp crushed garlic
2 T lime juice
¼ tsp ground ginger
4 tsp cilantro
1 tsp parsley
some white wine

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put chicken in a casserole dish and mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over chicken. Cover with foil and poke some holes with a fork. Bake for about an hour, if bone-in.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS: Serve with steamed broccoli and rice- pour saucy stuff over rice.

* Recipe note... I almost-never advocate skinless chicken, but in this case... if you are a "texture person" you'll really not like the steamed/boiled skin, and removing it afterward would remove some of the sauce, so... just take it off before baking.

We had roasted beets with it, instead of rice, and I really missed the extra saucy stuff.

Last night we had grilled half-ceviche salmon...


The slab of salmon I had to work with on ceviche night was more than we could possibly eat. And I wasn't sure how long ceviche stays fresh in the fridge or if it's maybe not so great leftover. So... I pulled half of it out of the cevichey-juice after just an hour and set it aside for another night. Had the Grill Geek slap it on the grill, skin-side-only (I put it flesh-side down in the ceviche). More bacon-wrapped leeks were attempted (there's a learning-curve here), and we had some asparagus, so that got grilled, too. I swear I can't eat asparagus cooked indoors anymore. It just... pales in comparison. Maybe if it were broiled...

And recently we had this: grilled flank steak and stir-fried veggies. But I forgot to blog about it. It was really, really tasty, and I didn't want it's feelings to get hurt. So, here it is.


I simply marinated the steak in a bit of olive oil, lime juice, tamari, ginger, and garlic. Then the Grill Geek slapped it on the grill, saving (and boiling) the marinade. I stir-fried some veggies, made rice, and poured the marinade-now-sauce over everything.

Simple Chicken

Lunch today was baked chicken, and I think I'm not going to bother with roasting whole chickens anymore. This was fabulous and much faster. I didn't bother with the gravy, partly because I'm just not a gravy girl (strange, I know, since I love slathering fat on everything) and partly because it was a conventional chicken... so... most of the icky stuff (hormones, whatever) are in the fat.

Along with the chicken was a quick green salad with lemon vinaigrette, leftover roast beets, and fresh Noah's bread rolls.

Chicken Concoction

Tonight was another night featuring mainly leftovers. We had a lot of leftover chicken, thanks to roasting a "roaster" instead of a skinny "fryer." I thought I knew what I'd be doing with it... a recipe from a menu-mailer that I used years ago, called Low Carb King Ranch Chicken. I'm not sure what real King Ranch Chicken is, but always liked this handy recipe that uses leftover chook.
So, it was dinner time, I whipped out my cookbook binder, flipped to the recipe, and... uh, oh... I don't have half those ingredients.

Hmmm.

Time to get creative.

It worked out well, and was even quite pretty to look at. Many a famous chef has implored the masses to remember that "we eat first with our eyes" so I'm glad it was pretty. I spend at least 10 seconds actually giving a crap about what dinner looks like (before sibling squabbling, growling guts, and setting the table take precedence)... so those were 10 happy seconds tonight.


Vaguely Mexican Chicken Skillet

Ingredients:

1-2 tablespoons bacon fat
1/2 onion, sliced thin
2 strips already-cooked bacon, chopped
about 1/2 cup canned roasted red bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
about 1/2 cup salsa
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon spicy smoked paprika (or regular, but smoky is goooood)
1/2 cup or so chicken broth
1 - 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped or shredded
about half a jar marinated artichoke hearts
1/3 cup frozen corn kernels
2 handfuls baby spinach

If you want to serve it atop pasta (I'm thinking shells or rotini... to help grab the sauce), start the water boiling.
Cook the onion and bacon in bacon fat until the onion is very soft. Toss in the garlic, peppers, salsa, spices... stir. Add some chicken broth until it looks a bit saucy. Toss in the chicken and artichoke hearts. Put a lid on and reduce the heat a bit.
When the pasta is almost done, throw in the corn and stir. Add the spinach and DON'T stir... it'll steam on top of the other stuff, if you put the lid on. So... um... put the lid on. Dinner will be ready in just 2 or 3 minutes.

Oh, and in case you clicked on the menu mailer link above and thought "hey, that's a great idea, I want to get that"... don't. Well, it's your life, do whatever you want. But I highly recommend getting this one instead. It has much healthier food. And, no, I don't mean low-fat, low-flavor. I mean healthy.

Mystery Greens

One of the unexpected parts of getting a weekly box of local produce is... sometimes I have no idea what things are. We get to play Guess That Vegetable. Sometimes it's a question of whether some little red thing is a baby beet or a radish... or perhaps a baby turnip or a radish. After all, many of the veggies aren't grocery-store varieties. They are, perhaps, heirloom versions, or simply varieties chosen for their ability to grow well in South Texas.
The most-perplexing for me is the Guess That Green Thing. Sometimes I can't even tell whether something should be served as a salad or braised like collards. So... I nibble it. If it's bitter, braise it. If it's bitter and tough, braise it a long time. Bitter and tender? Braise it quick.

So, here I had salad-looking greens that were INCREDIBLY sour/bitter. I had no idea what they were, but... thanks to kids being kids... no time to try to figure it out. I braised. They were still bitter, but strangely were improved by some lemon juice. You'd think MORE bitter/sour wouldn't help. Well, that's what I thought anyway. But I was wrong!

Yesterday I was confronted with more mysterious greens... they looked like a combination between bok choy and collards. Strange... decided to cook them like collards, after consulting this handy site and deciding they were probably just a variation of collard greens. From that same site I deduced that last night's mystery was sorrel. That explains the sourness. After these been cooking a while I gave 'em a taste.

Spinach.

The mysterious greens... that finally prompted me to search online for a Guide to Greens were plain ol' boring spinach.

And I don't like spinach. I confirmed that last night. The rest of dinner made up for it- roasted turnips and crispy-salty-skinned chicken. The chicken caused a lot of frustration by not cooking fast enough, so I completely forgot to take pictures. Sorry.

Roast turnips are very easy, by the way... cut up somewhat small and toss with oil and salt. Then, depending on what else you've got in the oven, roast at 375 to 450 degrees for 15-30 minutes. It's hard to mess 'em up.

Iron Chef... baby chicken?

It took me a long time to finally post this one, as I had mixed feelings about it. Poor baby chickens... yes, that's what my darling, politically-incorrect husband brought home for me. And right after I'd read about boiled ducklings in my favorite kids' series.

It was... just too much. But they were tasty. I think I prefer older birds, though, like roasting hens. The hazelnut sauce thingy wasn't very good. Then again, as usual I took some ideas and did my own thing with them, so, I'm sure the fault is mine. It did remind me why I don't generally bother with sauces.

Roasted Poussin

Ingredients:
3 small poussin

White wine for the pan...
¼ cup pistachio nuts

½ cup toasted hazelnuts
1 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

2 tablespoons orange juice
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped cipollini or pearl onion
1 cup rich chicken stock

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Rinse the chickens inside and out and pat dry. Trim off any extra fat.
Season each bird generously inside and out with salt and pepper, coat with oil, stuff slices of orange inside, tuck the wings under the back and tie the legs together.

Oil a roasting pan just large enough to hold the birds comfortably. Put them in the pan, breast side down. Roast for 15 minutes. Turn the chickens over (breast side up) and roast 20 minutes longer. Collect about 1 cup pan juices. Increase the heat to 425°F. and roast for about 10 minutes, or until skin is nicely browned and the juices run clear when thickest part of a thigh is pierced with a small knife.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the onion, pan juices, orange juice, stock, the nuts, and the thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Transfer to a blender or food processor and purée until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. There should be about 1 1/2 cups the consistency of a thick cream sauce. Serve the chickens with the sauce on the side.

Chicks

Collards

Rice (wild rice?)

Sautéed diced maroon carrots

Order of Events:

Start rice cooker (broth, rice water)

Slice onion for collards

Wash, de-rib, and slice collards

Cut orange(s) for stuffing

Take pearl onions out to thaw

Dice carrots

Flip the chickens

Start sauce simmering

Toast hazelnuts (+ extra)

Shell pistachios (and toast?)

Add pan juices to sauce

Make the Butter-Toasted Hazelnuts

Blender the sauce

Serve: chicks atop rice, collards to the side, wedge of carrots, hazelnuts scattered

Roast Chicken

I'm late posting again... and hopefully there will be more today, since it's Mardi Gras. I'm not Catholic, so I have no reason to feast-before-famine today. But I won't let that little fact get in my way!

Last night I roasted a proper roasting chicken. Finally. I couldn't find real roasting chickens "down here" in my somewhat-new-still city. The little bitty birds at the grocery store were no more than 4 pounds... skinny little things that barely stretched for two meals. Today's chicken, from Whole Foods, was over 6 pounds. And that really makes a difference! The addition of age... the chicken simply being alive longer, in order to grow larger... gives a depth of flavor as well.

I attempted to butterfly it, to reduce the cooking time, since I started on dinner late.

I don't have kitchen shears (yet), so this didn't work well. And it still took forever to roast. But it was worth it, when it was finally done. We had braised winter greens (delivered by that Greenling service) and dinner rolls (using the famous GF Noah's bread mix that really is a great all-purpose recipe) for appetizers while we waited for the chicken to be done. The bones then spent the night simmering in my stock pot.

Sick food

Stir-fry. It's easy. It's what's for dinner.
I've got a really bad cold... and had a head (? Bunch? Glob? What's it called?) of bok choy to use, thanks to the Greenling delivery yesterday. So... I sliced up some chicken breast earlier in the day (while it was still partially-frozen, which makes it much easier to cut) and tossed some stuff into the ziploc bag it was already in. Voila... a marinade. Tamari sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, and cayenne. Then at dinner time I sliced up the bok choy, an onion, and 4 cloves of garlic... stir-fried everything in coconut oil, added some chicken broth and more ginger. Then thickened the sauce a bit with cornstarch. It's kinda like stir-fried chicken soup... which is just what I need right now.

Gettin' Cheffy

That's home food, hopefully fitting for my husband's birthday Eve. The Grill Master/Uber Geek had a rough year. From start to finish his 3_ th year of existence was shitty. We're doing everything we can, at every possible New Year demarcation, to ensure the next one is better. So, the eve of his new year was this lovely roast chicken, potatoes, and collards. But not quite that simple. I've really been feeling creative and daring lately, so I kicked it up a notch. (Not really meaning to quote the great Emeril, as his way of cooking is MUCH too futzy for me.)

I also learned something important tonight... why it can be dangerous to branch off on one's own in the kitchen. See... I got this idea for a balsamic glaze on the chicken. But, I didn't get it until after I'd already started melting the butter. I don't know if butter is usually part of a glaze... like I said, I was enthusiastically making things up. Well, now, those of you who aren't lost in the throes of butter might be able to tell me WHY that didn't work. The idea behind the balsamic glaze thing is, after all, to reduce the vinegar to a ruby syrup. That means evaporating out the water. But if there's half a stick of butter in the pan, it creates an oily seal over the top of the vinegar.
Which then gets broken when you stir... so what looked like an innocent, placid pool is indeed a seething volcano, set to erupt the moment your spoon/whisk breaks the surface.
Yikes.

So anyway... I managed to keep stirring it often enough to let some of the whole evaporation thing occur. Still not really glazy, but I basted the chicken with it.

The potatoes were done in what I've heard is sort of the French style. Under the roasting chicken. So they get all sizzly-crispy-fried-yummy. I tossed them in a balsamic dressing first, and threw in some frozen pearl onions. They were heavenly.

Iron Chef Mom!

That's what I am... I am Iron Chef Mom. "Mom" counts as a cuisine, I think. It summates what I do better than any other single word I can come up with at the moment. I dare any professional chef to create healthy, tasty meals from Whatever's In The Fridge while mediating sibling disputes, holding a crying (angry, not limply hugging) preschooler, stepping around half-melted ice cubes, and (oftentimes) watching a really interesting football game.

Tonight's secret ingredient was Leftover Roast Chicken with Paprika. Bonus points for also using up the leftover snack-tray veggies from New Year's Eve. I also had a lot of hummus left from New Year's Eve. I wielded my google-fu and found that there are such dishes as Chicken and Hummus, so my gears began to crank.

Ingredients:
3-4 tablespoons fat of your choice (bacon, coconut, AND butter this time)
about 1 carrot, cut into sticks, and then into dices
about 1 celery stalk, done the same
1/2 an onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 handfuls fresh raw broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces
leftover chicken (in our case it was the breasts and wings)
about 1/4 cup prepared hummus
about 1/4 cup white wine or vermouth
about 3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cilantro
2 shakes red pepper flakes (one pinch)
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat the oil/butter in a large skillet (with a lid) over medium heat. Add carrot, celery, onion, and pepper, and cook until starting to soften. Add garlic and cook another minute or two. Toss in the chicken (in bite-size pieces). Add seasonings to hummus, and stir in the wine and broth. Pour into skillet and stir to coat. Add broccoli on top (to steam a bit). When "sauce" begins to boil, reduce heat to lowish, smack on the lid, and simmer for about 20-30 minutes.


Serve over rice, garnished with more hummus, paprika, and parsley. Really... ok, you don't have to get fancy schmancy with it, but... more hummus and paprika really make it taste goooood.

Roast Chicken

"Tastes like Fall" my hubby said. I had just said that it tasted like "solid chicken soup." I meant it in a good way. I don't think it actually IS fall here, and I doubt we even get fall in San Antonio. I haven't lived here long enough to know. But, since we are at about the same latitude as Orlando, I'm guessing we have two seasons. Summer and Not Summer. We're almost to Not Summer now... we had a week of chilly nights... but we're warming up again. After all, it is San Antonio. Christmas just won't be Christmas without steaks on the grill and cocktails on the patio.

But, I digress. Roast chicken is what I'm supposed to be talking about. I get a newsletter from the French Food section of About.com. There was a featured recipe for Roasted Lemon Rosemary Chicken. Yumm-o, thought I. I was planning a roasted chicken tonight, anyway. How serendipitous. As usual, I didn't follow the recipe 100%. A recipe is more a set of guidelines, anyway (say I in me best imitation of Captain Barbosa.) I used fewer veggies (just feeding two adults), didn't bother salting and peppering during the browning, and didn't really get the chicken all that brown. Oh, and I used vermouth instead of Chardonnay. Because Julia Child told me it's ok. (Chardonnay never lasts 'round here... someone just keeps drinking it...)

I also didn't use fresh herbs... which I'm sure Julia would not ok, but I haven't started growing any and they're too darn expensive. So there.

It still smelled divine while it was cooking, and tasted even better. I tore up some red leaf lettuce and topped it with lemon-garlic vinaigrette... perfect meal. Well, almost. Next time I will make these adjustments: quartered baby potatoes, lots more garlic (the whole cloves, steeped in chicken broth and vermouth, were ambrosia), and I'll just skip the silly browning of the chicken. Instead I'll remove the cover with about 20 minutes left.

Um, I have a confession...

I bought and ate rice cakes.

Anyone who knows me will think the real Bekki was abducted by aliens.

But it's true. I, Bekki Blahblah, being in sound mind (somewhat), did on this very day, around noon, place in my cart with the intention to purchase one bag of Lundberg Farms brown rice cakes. I then proceeded to the check-out (after piling other items in as well) and did authorize the transfer of funds from my bank to theirs, so that I could take all the items home.

I have rice cakes in my kitchen.

I ate two for dinner. Well, not FOR dinner... with dinner. Basically as an edible plate. Tasted a bit better than stoneware, I'm guessing. I've never eaten stoneware. But... after the events of the day, I won't rule it out entirely.

What led me to take such drastic action? The ingredient list. Rice, salt. That's all. No preservatives, no funky "ose" things that I have to remember what they're derived from... rice and salt. I can eat that. And they're much cheaper than the everything-free toast that I have for breakfast, and would feel guilty about eating too much of.

So, tonight's dinner:















That's it. No, I swear I am not on a diet. I put it on a wild plate, to make it look better... and all that green looks kind of like vegetables.

I'm in a bit of a vegetable rut, as I suddenly can't have green beans. Didn't realize how often I ate green beans before... but I guess they were my crutch veggie. I love broccoli and cauliflower, but being brassicas (I think, cabbage family anyway), they can suppress the thyroid a bit if eaten too much. So, I try to keep them to just twice a week... and I don't know what else to make. I like to just pop something in the steamer pan while I give my full attention to the other parts of dinner.

Today was a major football day, (with Kentucky BEATING #1 LSU!!!! in triple overtime) so I planned a simple dinner. Tuna salad. On salad. Then I didn't feel like salad. So... I, um... had rice cakes. The tuna salad was just a can of tuna (hunted down at the health food store, so as to not have weird ingredients), some mayo and dijon mustard, white pepper, dill, and cayenne.

Lunch was really good, so I feel like I can get by with a bad dinner. I was starving, though, so didn't remember to take pictures. It was Spicy Apricot Chicken, rice, and... um... green beans. For the last time. A goodbye to beans, I suppose.

Spicy Apricot Chicken, my personal adaptation


INGREDIENTS: (Serves 2)

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 tsp dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, pressed
1 Tblspn apricot preserves

several splashes Tabasco sauce (to your heat preference)
3 Tblspns chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup chicken broth

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

Place the chicken thighs in a casserole or small baking dish, skin side up. Put next 5 ingredients in a small bowl, stir together. Pour broth over chicken, then baste or smear the other ingredients on top of the chicken. Cover and bake for 45-60 minutes at 375 degrees, removing lid for last 10-15 minutes. (Makes the glaze get nice and brown.)

This was dinner last night:

Ok, I was nice and didn't eat those all by myself. I just had to share the pic of the mountain of grilled hamburgers. Such a lovely sight.

I only ate one, despite being constantly hungry these days. We also had Sidedish, which is our official thing to have with most grilled meat. The basic elements are potatoes, garlic, and onions, with olive oil or butter, and salt. Wrap that up in heavy duty foil and cook while the grill heats up for the main course. Other delightful add-ins include mushrooms, peppers, and squash.

The charred bits are the best.

So, this was actually dinner:

Both pickles and sauerkraut was probably overkill, but I have the tendency to eat anything I can eat, whether or not I actually want it. Must be one of the stages of food allergies, like the stages of grief.

And, that would explain why I bought rice cakes.

By the way, I didn't actually post this until Saturday, the date says Friday (making me a football psychic) because I opened the window to type my post on Friday night, and then didn't get to it.

I'm late, I'm late

Sheesh, the pressure of blog upkeep. I probably would have quit already, if hubby wasn't obsessively taking pictures of everything I heat up.

Last night's dinner was so good I had to go sit on the couch for a while afterward. So... I never got around to posting. I watched the Bills vs Cowboys game, which was supposed to be a lopsided beat-down. It turned out to be a crazy game with trick plays, false hope, and finally a last-minute game-winning field goal. Two last-minute game-winning field goals, actually, but only one counted.

But this isn't a blog about football. I don't eat football.

Last night's dinner: the smoked pork butt (it's so hard to figure out how to slice stuff like that), storebought oven-roasted rosemary potatoes, and steamed broccoli and green beans (the end of two bags.) Simple and delicious.

Now, for the stock. It actually came first, but... the pictures aren't as pretty. Stock/broth/whatever is so easy, I don't know what took me so long to finally make it. Now I make it a lot and feel guilty whenever I buy it from the store. Canned and boxed just can't compare. The gelatin in stock (and natural glucosamine and chondroitin, for those with achy joints) is the secret to it's magic. And the best gelatin comes from the feet (and heads, if you can get 'em.) Chicken feet don't look like good eats, but they make a much better stock.

So, you start with the bones of a chicken you've roasted, smoked, whatever. (Some people start with the whole chicken, but I don't like boiled meat, and it's the bones that give up the goodie.) Or you can save the bones from whatever chicken you eat for a while- stick them in a bag in the freezer. Also stick onion peels, carrot butts, and chopped bits of whatever veggies you go through into that bag.

When it's full, plop it in a big pot, cover with water, add a splash of vinegar, and let it sit for an hour (longer if the stuff is still frozen.) The vinegar pulls minerals out of the bones. Add a couple stalks of fresh celery, a carrot or two, a smashed garlic clove, and a parsnip, if you've got it. An onion, chopped in fourths is nice, as well.

Then, bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer... that means the water is barely moving, no constant bubbling. Simmer for a long time. Overnight. Less than two days.

If you've got some softer stuff in there, like I sometimes do, (mushroom stems, pepper tops, collard stems) take that stuff out a bit sooner.

The leftover stuff looks kinda gross, huh?


Then you can either turn the heat up a little on the chicken stock, to reduce it down, or just let it cool and be done. Almost done, anyway. Some people like to put it in the fridge and skim the fat off the next day. I am not a fat-skimmer. I do like to put it in the fridge for a day, though. Because that's how I find out if it gelled. I used to get really good "chicken jell-o," but now I don't. Same chickens, same feet, no idea why.

Now I'm out of those good pastured chickens. But not the feet- I bought extra!

Speaking of the feet... when I first managed to find some in a store I was perplexed. How many feet go into a pot of stock? My recipes don't say. They just say to use feet, if you've got 'em. I spent a good deal of time thinking about it. I mentioned it to my hubby. We puzzled.

Until finally, one day, as I was pulling my stock bag out of the freezer, the idiocy of my wonderment hit me.

How many feet go into a stock pot?

Um, duh... probably two per chicken.

Unless it was some sort of mutant chicken... or had a run-in with a fox.

Yeah.

I'd like to point out that this was way before I gave up gluten and dairy, so my brain didn't work very well.