Roasted Cauliflower with White Bean Citrus Salad

Here's how this went - I had a head of cauliflower that was begging for attention in my crisper drawer. (I shit you not, every time I opened up the fridge I heard voices ... "Shelley, you need to cook meeeee."  And then I would grab a beer and just shut the door.  Maybe the beer had something to do with this?)

So one morning I was trolling the blogosphere on the interwebs and I found this recipe from Michael @ Herbvoracious.com.  It would fit two needs - 1) It would get rid of the talking, guilt-inducing cauliflower and 2) It looked like it would provide me for a relatively healthy lunch during the work week (and cut down on my Jimmy John's addiction.).

And wow - the finished product? I was not disappointed, in fact, I uttered a spontaneous "holy hell!" when I first bit into a bite of cauliflower that had been slightly flavored by the citrus vinaigrette of the bean salad.  And although Hubby and I had just had a late brunch of gut-busting scrambled eggs, I devoured the plate that I had arranged for purposes of blog photos.  This dish?  A little bit of roasted heaven.

You may find Michael's recipe here.  A couple of notes and alterations.

1) I used Great Northern Beans.  Garbanzos would almost be too dense for this dish.
2) I did not have the orange-infused olive oil mentioned by Michael.  So I zested a lemon (about 1 tsp of zest, maybe more ...) and used regular olive oil.  I also used lemon juice instead of the vinegar mentioned.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Romance starts here.

Or ... erm, well, maybe not, but I have to share the "squee" moment that I had recently when an old colleague of mine wrote me and asked me some menu ideas for the romantic Valentine's dinner that he was cooking his girlfriend.  I had an Ina Garten moment, you know what I'm talking about - she's on her show and she's cooked or concocted something fabulous for one of her equally fabulous friends.  If she's letting her friend do the work, she devises up a recipe, writes it down with her Sharpie and sends it along with her friend - complete with pictures so they know what mashed potatoes should look like.

Well, my friend Chris isn't getting the Ina treatment, per se, but I did spend the past few nights whipping together an entree that is worth a snog or two from his extraordinarily lucky girlfriend.  (My husband told me I couldn't use the term "sex-worthy."  Sigh!)  I remembered an entree that I had made a few years back - stuffed chicken breasts that had featured spinach, mushroom and feta.  Then I thought about a Rachael Ray dish that I made this weekend that featured roasted garlic, mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes.  This dish is a hybrid of both, brought together with a velvety bit of goat cheese.  Because nothing says "I love you" like goat cheese.  At least that's what I think.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts
by ShelleyBakes
(I concocted this dish to serve two, but if you're being generous this Valentine's Day and want to double date, you can easily double this and serve four.)

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts - trimmed of any visible fat
4 oz. button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced fine
1/2 bag of baby spinach
5 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced/chopped (the kind packed in olive oil)
2 oz. goat cheese, cubed
handful of Parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Wash and slice mushrooms, mince garlic.  Heat a skillet over medium high heat with about 2 T. extra virgin olive oil.  Saute mushrooms for about one minute, add garlic (careful not to burn, because that's typically what I do) and saute until golden ... about five minutes. Lower heat and add spinach, stirring the pan to let the leaves wilt down.  Remove from heat, dump into waiting bowl that is holding the tomatoes and goat cheese.  Add about a handful of Parmesan cheese and incorporate all ingredients together.

In the meantime, take your chicken breasts - you can either cut a slit in them for filling or you can flatten them.  I put the chicken breasts individually between sheets of waxed paper and then pounded the hell out of them with my rolling pin.  You're basically aiming for consistency - you want an evenly distributed chicken breast, not with one side heavier than the other.  Place chicken breasts on a baking sheet and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.  Spoon half of the filling in the middle of each of the flattened chicken breasts, bring the ends together and secure with a toothpick.  Brush the outside of the chicken breast with some olive oil and sprinkle with more salt and pepper.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes.  (Or when you take a steak knife and ascertain that the chicken is done by hacking into the poor bird.)  Remove toothpicks.  Serve.

Serving suggestions:  This would be great to serve with some roasted vegetables - baby carrots and baby reds that have been roasted with some olive oil and rosemary.  Baked potatoes could also suffice.  I also told my friend to pair this with a green salad and some good crusty bread.

And for the record, my husband is not getting stuffed chicken breast for Valentine's Day dinner (he had it twice this week, so he's probably thankful to be spared yet another night of chicken ...).  We're ordering in from our favorite pizza joint and I'm going to attempt these Molten Chocolate Cakes. :)

Mushroom Soup

Mushrooms were on sale the other day at Hyvee.  Since I've been on a healthy living kick lately, I was so psyched to use them.  I had major plans for them - they would be sauteed in a light drizzle of heart healthy olive oil and noshed on as a side dish for some wonderfully prepared breast 'o chicken.  Maybe they would be roasted whole with a bit of kosher salt (new favorite condiment, folks ...) and again with a driz of the heart healthy EVOO.

But reality kicked in and kicked me in the ass.  I had a shitty week at work and decided that life would be better lived with some leftover Chinese takeout and copious amounts of Sprite mixed with Seagrams Seven.  By the time I got out of my funk, my brave little mushrooms were about to look funky.  But since I'm convinced that the Pioneer Woman knows my moods, she came in and saved the day with this recipe from her side project, Tasty Kitchen.

Despite some of my blatant failures with this dish (substituted 2% for heavy cream ... FAIL!  Made a slurry out of flour and water instead of using cornstarch ... FAIL!), it was pretty damn passable.  And it included cooked carrots.  I love cooked carrots - this soup is damn near perfection.  You may find the recipe here.

And it gave me an excuse to use my buddy Paul's homemade hooch ... gotta love someone who makes their own wine.  And then shares it with me.

Crockpot Swiss Steak

Among the many things that I'm thankful, every winter I'm reminded how thankful I am that my father, my nephew and my brother like to hunt.  And that they are good hunters.  And as sad as it is that they shoot Bambi's mom or dad, I cannot complain when my father sends me home with about 10 pounds of free meat that he no longer wants cluttering his freezer. 

I've heard people's complaints about vension ... it's very lean, it has a "gamey" taste, etc.  Personally, my husband and I think it smells terrible when it cooks, but I can't look at free steak or ground venison and turn it down - because it's cheap (FREE!), it's very lean and I am one of those odd people who do truly enjoy venison until I have ate it for about three weeks and would rather become a vegetarian until the next hunting season rolls around.

I don't think I have a secret to making venison great, unless I take a page from my aunt Sue's book and fry up a platter of steaks and then bake them off while wrapped in bacon.  But if I had a secret, I think it would be this recipe.  Again, I found it at an odd source - a recipe listed in a debt reduction blog that I subscribe to, but this recipe is so good that I nearly cried.

Crockpot Swiss Steak
adapted from Recipezaar.com

1 1/2 lbs round steak, cut 3/4 inch thick (** you may use venison or beef)

What you are going to do is dredge this in a mixture of seasoned flour - since I doubled this recipe, I took about a cup of all purpose flour and mixed in some seasoned salt, black pepper, some cayenne pepper for kick and garlic powder.  Come to think of it, I used kosher salt too, because that's my new favorite seasoning.

Brown the dredged steaks in a mixture of butter and olive oil (about 1 T. of butter to 1 T. of olive oil.  I have no clue why I did this, it just felt like the right thing to do at the time.)
   
Move the steaks to a plate and add the following ingredients to the pan drippings:

    * 1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes
    * 1 small onion, sliced
    * 1 stalk celery, sliced
    * 2 medium carrots, sliced

Saute until the vegetables are softened - about 5 to 7 minutes.

Put the steak, the vegetables and all the drippings into a large crockpot.  Add:

    * 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
    * 1/4 cup red wine
    * 1/4 cup water

Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.  I came home from work at about hour four to make sure that my massive crock 'o deer was not drying out.  On the contrary, I had some awesome drippings going on in my crockpot.


Finally, when it is time to eat (and weep when you realize that the venison that's been so lovingly neglected in your Crockpot is fork tender), serve with hot noodles, rice or cheat like me and buy some Bob Evans' Cheddar Mashed Potatoes.  Seriously - I think they are laced with crack.  Never mind that I can make perfectly passable mashed potatoes, these are up there with my mom's.

It's all about the chicken gumbo

When I worked as a journalist in Willmar, I got stuck working every other weekend as part of my job as the night reporter/cops and courts reporter.  Looking back, it was kind of a nice arrangement because every other week I would have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off and after a year or so of weekends working together, the weekend crew started to have potlucks on the Sunday evenings that we worked.  I was usually good for a dessert, the sports guys usually contributed chips and my news editor Susan would usually whip up a Crockpot full of Chicken Gumbo Sloppy Joes.

I never realized how much I would miss Susan's sloppy joes until I went about six years without having one, so I sent her a message the other day to ask for the recipe and oh man - it was like eating a little sandwich made from the clouds of Heaven.  Or in our case, some ground venison (love you dad!) and a little can of Campbell's Chicken Gumbo Soup.

This is the first time in my relationship with my husband that I've served French fries.  But they're baked, not fried.  I suck.

Chicken Gumbo Sloppy Joes
from Susan and a zillion other home cooks who got bored or bought the wrong can of Campbell's and decided that meat would make it nifty

Brown 1 pound burger with onion.

Then add 2 T. ketchup, 1 tsp mustard and 1 can Chicken Gumbo soup. Simmer a bit for it all to heat through and thicken.

Holy Accolades, Batman!

Wow - many thanks to my friend Renee at Flamingo Musings for passing me the Honest Scrap award on her blog.  This is the first award I've ever received and I'm just thrilled to my toes.

This award comes with instructions, which are as follows: This award came with some fun instructions:
1. Post the award on your blog. Present this award to seven others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.
2. Tell those seven people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP, inform them of these guidelines, and ask that they link back to you.
3. Share TEN HONEST THINGS about yourself.

Wow ... ten honest things about myself ... well, here goes nothing. :)

1. I was terrified of walking down the aisle on my wedding day because I get really nervous when people look at me and I turn bright red.  So I was convinced that in every picture of me walking down the aisle, I would look like a tomato with hair.  As it turns out, I was so darn excited about getting married to my beloved husband that in every picture taken of me, I am beaming from ear to ear.  I look slightly ridiculous, but unbelievably happy.

2. I think about my Grandpa Stan every day of my life.  He passed on a few years back, but he's very much with me in spirit.

3.  And speaking of spirits, I am convinced that our house is occasionally haunted by the guy who used to own it.  Our spirit is named Vern.  He keeps things together.

4.  Although I like to believe that I'm a cynic, I am pretty gullible at times but have learned to keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself until I know that I'm not getting my leg pulled.

5.  When I was a kid, I couldn't stand my younger cousin Tracy.  But now that we're older, I cannot imagine life without her.

6.  There are days where I am so much like my parents, it scares me.

7.  I talk in my sleep and sometimes I walk in my sleep.  My sleep walking has put me in precarious situations - i.e., waking up at the top of the stairs in my childhood home, almost locked outside a hotel room in Rapid City, South Dakota, etc.

8.  When River Phoenix died, I became a vegetarian for a year.  Considering that my father is a farmer, that did not fly too well in my parents' household, but my folks were amazingly tolerant of my schemes.

9.  I do have a temper and have worked over the years to corral it.  I feel terrible whenever I lose my temper.  One of the worst things I ever did when I lost my temper was I threw a lit and burning candle at my kitchen wall.  As you can imagine, it splattered wax everywhere once it hit its target.  I called my mom later and told her what an idiot I had been.  "Well, what did you expect to happen?" she very sagely asked.

10.  I don't answer my phone very often.  It's one of the worst things about me.  I just really hate talking to people on the phone.  The irony is that when I was younger, I could spend HOURS on the phone with my friends.

I'm passing on the Honest Scrap award back to some of my blogger friends.  I've been doing this for over a year now and I remember how cool it was when I'd get emails back from some of the bloggers I had been following throughout my blogging journey.  I am so appreciated of the support, friendship and inspiration I get from all of you guys ...

Deb at Pladsen Family
Lan at Angry Asian Creations
Paula at Dragon's Kitchen
Katie of Salt and Chocolate
Michelle at Big Black Dog
Jenn at The Unmarried Housewife
Elle at Elle's New England Kitchen

And so many thanks to Renee. :)  I really appreciate it.

Chicken Chickpea Curry Bowls

I think one of the secrets to my marriage is that I make a passable curry recipe.  I'm still afraid of raw ginger (I will conquer this in 2010, I swear), most of the spices that are typically mentioned in "authentic" Indian recipes have me scratching my head, but I'm not afraid to buy curry powder and use it.  And my husband loves curry - he loves curry even when I screw up the recipe, so he was particularly happy one night when I announced I was making Rachael Ray's Chicken Chickpea Curry Bowls.

One of the blog sites that I have bookmarked is Everything Rachael Ray and they've been kind enough to link to me on a couple of occasions.  This recipe was featured and I knew that I had to try it:

Rachael's Chicken Chickpea Curry Bowls
Adapted from Rachael Ray and Everything Rachael Ray

1 T. EVOO - Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 baked chicken breasts, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 large red pepper, sliced
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 cup plain yogurt [I used Greek yogurt - the full fat, thick and wonderful stuff.]
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 14.5-ounce can chick peas, drained and rinsed
Green onions, sliced (optional)
Brown rice to serve

Yields: 4 servings


Editor's Note: In an effort to save time, I cooked up a large batch of rice and kept it in the fridge to use throughout the week.   Dishing out the rice and having to heat it up separately also keeps hubby and I from eating inordinate amounts of rice at dinner (we love us some brown rice - we're slightly addicted to carbs).  But if you need to make rice, here's the recipe:  In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine rice, water and salt. Bring to a boil then reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed.

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat with 1 turn of the pan EVOO and warm the chicken. Add the peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, for 7 minutes.

Sprinkle with the curry powder and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the yogurt and simmer gently for 3 minutes, adding a splash of water if it needs to loosen up a little (I used some of the juice from the diced tomatoes for this.)  Stir in the tomatoes and chickpeas then remove from heat.

When trying this, I felt like there was something missing (something I feel frequently when I'm making my own curry ...), so I added a dash of cinnamon for some warmth and a bit of cayenne for some heat.  And damn - it was good.

Divide the rice and chicken mixture among individual bowls and garnish with the green onion.

A few more notes ... the original recipe called for ground chicken, which I'm sure is really good.  There had been a sale on chicken breasts (bone-in, alas!) but I bought them and baked them at 400 degrees until they were done and then took the meat off the bone, stashed some in the freezer for future dishes and left the rest in the fridge.   I also had the brown rice cooked and on hand.  I do this when I'm working on other stuff in the kitchen, because it saves time later in the week when I'm fracking exhausted and would rather eat cereal than actually cook dinner.