I wasn’t in the mood tonight for any of my tried-and-true recipes.  But I also wasn’t in the mood to buy expensive ingredients or make anything too involved.  Which means it was the perfect time to look through my 1970’s Betty Crocker cookbook.  I found a recipe called “Tomato-Pepper Chicken” which was exactly the sort of thing I wanted to make.

Chicken ready to simmer in tomato sauce

Basically, you bread the chicken, brown it in shortening (so 70’s!),  cook up the peppers and onions, add tomatoes, mushrooms, and tomato sauce, then simmer the chicken until it’s cooked.  It turned out great, but here are some changes I’ll make next time.  1) Use less shortening. Maybe even replace it with olive oil. 2) Use chicken thigh fillets instead of leg pieces to cut down on the fat from the skin, and to make it easier to eat.

Dinner is served! Mixed greens and fresh mozzarella on the side.

While I was making this and while I ate it, I listened to Ella Fitzgerald on Spotify.  It was a pretty perfect night!

Taquitos and other stuff

I made them for new years.  It was pretty awesome.  But… I changed them up a bit, I did.  I took the ideas behind some of my other recipes, and made them ten times more awesome.  I made them more like that pasta I made once.

Sneaky Vegetables Pasta

And a little more like that soup I made on Halloween.

Cauliflower soup

And even more like those empanadas.  Remember the empanadas?  Mm… empanadas.

Empanadas

So how’d I do it?

I took the zucchini, shredded in my Lola, and dumped it in with the chicken.  It went something like this:

• 1 cup chicken, shredded
• 2 zucchinis, grated
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 small can enchilada sauce
• 2 cups cheese
• ~25 corn tortillas

Cook the zucchini and onion in a bit of olive oil until onion is translucent.  Mix with chicken, enchilada sauce, and cheese.  Set aside.

Fry corn tortillas briefly on each side.  Just enough to make tender.  Place on paper towel lined plate to cool enough to work with.  As tortillas cool, place a smidgen of the filling in them.  Roll those babies up.  Then place in a greased baking dish.  When you’re finished rolling, bake the taquitos at 350 until crispy and golden brown.

This baby was 12.7 lbs. of tasty goodness.  I’ve heard a lot about how to cook it, some advice more helpful than others.  The most interesting was about how you can flip the bird upside down so that the juices drip down into the “pretty breast skin”.  That phrase was literally used.  In my office.  By a man.  I felt so uncomfortable.

Upside down is the way to go!

I mentioned this to my mother.  Leaving out the word “pretty”, to be sure.  And I might have just called it “white meat” instead of using words that typically make boys in grade school giggle uncontrollably.  My mom had heard something similar, but what she had read suggested that you flip it right side up for the last hour so that it still looks nice in the end.  We did this with amazing success.

Look at my beautiful turkey!

Cooked for 5ish hours at 300 in a convection oven.  Stuffed with my cornbread stuffing.  Topped with gravy.  So let’s talk about these two.

The stuffing went like this:

• 1 recipe of cornbread (12 corn muffins), recipe to follow
• 1 small onion
• 3 stalks celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 lb. sage sausage
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups chicken broth

Saute the veggies with salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from pan and transfer to large bowl (really large, trust me).  Now use the same pan to cook the sausage.  Brown that beautiful sausage.  Meanwhile, crumble the cornbread into the veggies.  Add the sausage to the cornbread/veg mixture.  Add eggs and chicken broth.  Don’t be a wimp.  Mix with your hands.  Then stuff it into that beautiful bird you’ve got waiting for you.

Now for the gravy:

• 2 Tablespoons of the turkey drippings
• 3 Tablespoons flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon sage
• salt and pepper to taste

Over medium heat, mix the drippings and the flour until smooth.  Whisk in the broth.  Add the seasoning.  Stir carefully until the gravy thickens.

So what about that cornbread?

I got this recipe from my mother, who got it from her grandmother.  I cannot claim it, nor can I tell you its original source.

• 1 cup flour (if you wanted to go gluten free or just a heartier cornbread, you can replace this with cornmeal)
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup sugar (we like sweet cornbread, but feel free to skimp, if you’d rather)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 cup milk

Mix the dry with the wet, then pour into a greased baking dish (or muffin tins).  Bake at 350 for approximately 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

So let’s talk about stuffing vs. dressing.  Dressing being the stuff that doesn’t get stuffed, while stuffing is, by very definition, stuffed in something.  So this is my first year with real, actual stuffing.  It’s no joke.  Stuff that bird.  There’s no reason not to.  And every reason to.  The stuffing gets all that yummy bird fat flavor throughout.  I had no idea what I was missing.

So what’s a girl to do when she’s dreaming up grilled chicken with mango salsa?  Two things.  1) Talk your roommate into grilling the chicken.  Working inside and outside all at once is just not worth it.  Get some help!  2) Also, buy the mango canned.

The first is pretty self-explanatory.  If you don’t get it, I’m not explaining.

The second is a really important lesson.  Canned mango makes mango a feasible option for weeknights as it cuts out all the nasty pealing and pitting you have to do with fresh mango.  No, it does not taste as good.  How could it?  But it tastes delicious.  Trust me.

I like to put it on quesadillas, in salsas, etc.  See?

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

I promise you.  This meal couldn’t be easier.  Or more impressive if you were, say, trying to impress a boy you had over for dinner.  Hypothetically speaking.

The chicken was thrown into some store-bought marinade.  Then grilled half an hour later by the same Nathan Clendenin.  The beans?  Opened can, dumped in bowl, microwaved until warm.  The guacamole and mango salsa were essentially the same with a different base.  Avocados + red onion + jalepeno + cilantro + lime.  Mango + red onion + jalepeno + cilantro + lime.  Rice… dumped in rice cooker with chicken broth.  Delicious!

You should listen to Grace Potter & The Nocturnals while reading the remainder of this post.  Why?  Because it’s so very good.</unrelated>

I’ve hated birthday cards pretty much my entire life.  The mushy ones aren’t mushy the way I want them to be.  The funny ones aren’t funny.  And the ones in between have no personality at all.  I tend to write birthday notes instead, but I feel lame using plain stationary for such a momentous occasion.  … so when dearest, loveliest Elizabeth’s birthday rolled around, I got her a card with style.  So what if it didn’t say happy birthday?

For those of you who don’t know me, this is exactly my sense of humor.  And although few people really understand my humor, Elizabeth has always been a kindred in this way.  Naturally, then, when Nate pointed me to his friend’s blog, I enjoyed it immensely.  In particular, her stir-fry recipe caught my eye.

I’ve been feeling pretty overwhelmed by life lately, and by Thursday of this past week, I had begun canceling plans.  After 6 days of non-stop “fun”, I couldn’t take it anymore, and the thought of getting drinks with friends that night was more than I could handle.  So I just didn’t.  Saturday rolled around, and I didn’t go canoeing with coworkers but opted for a quiet lunch with my mom and sister instead.  I spent the rest of the day napping, watching Monarch of the Glen, reading The Catcher in the Rye, and cooking.  The day was rainy, and it reminded me of the snowy weekend we enjoyed this past winter, where everything was necessarily canceled, and I watched tv and cooked all weekend.

Maybe the time indoors made me want stir fry.  Maybe it was the stay-at-home babe.  I don’t know.  … but I was hesitant to make her recipe when I’ve had such good reviews on my own.  So I stuck to the classic.  “You know, it sounds boring, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t spectacular either. It was just good. But really good.*”

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

My recipe goes something like this…

• 1-2 lbs. chicken (I used drumsticks because they were on sale)
• Broccoli crowns
• Mushrooms, sliced
• Bell pepper, sliced
• Carrots, sliced
• Onion, cut in half and sliced
• 1/2 c. soy sauce
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 Tablespoon corn starch
• 1 Tablespoon sesame oil (optional, but encouraged)
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• dash of red pepper flakes
• minced garlic (or I use garlic powder far too often)

Brown the chicken in a couple tablespoons of oil.  Bake at 350 until cooked through (varies based on cut of chicken).  Throw the veggies in the frying pan with the leftover oil.  Saute.  Whisk together remaining ingredients.  Pour over veggies.  Add cooked chicken.  Serve with noodles or rice.  We did rice the first time, noodles with the leftovers.  Delish!

* High Fidelity, which was on hulu awhile back, thus the multiple quotes.  Interestingly, hulu also has a bunch of Grace Potter & The Nocturnals clips which you should check out as well.  Only slightly related is the fact that this band always makes me think of Courtney Potter, which makes me smile for multiple reasons.

P.S.  I feel like a name-dropped a lot in this post.  For that, I apologize.  Except not really.  Because all of the names that were dropped were so totally deserving.

<side note>Ladies, am I making too broad a generalization in saying that we don’t like our boyfriends to ask us that question?  Gay, female roommates, perhaps (…but that’s another story for another time).  Boyfriends, no.  For the record, despite my recent liberation, I have still never been to a topless bar, and I intend to keep it that way.  As a point of clarification, this conversation has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he is my TB and not my B, F, or H.</side note>

Awkward silence ensued, and eventually, TB understood my mistake.  He explained that he had said “tapas”, not “topless”.  As it turned out, I’ve never been to a tapas bar either.  Later, I was chatting with the friend in Virginia who asked me the same question.  I made the same mistake for a solid minute before I realized it.  I suppose I have a dirty mind.

… so when I decided we would have a sampler of appetizers for dinner one night and Nate and Bec called this “tapas night”, I was a little too embarrassed to adopt their name.  Still, it’s more efficient than any other name I’ve got, so I’ll go with it.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Interestingly, the cheese stuffed sweet peppers were made that same weekend with that same group of friends.  The taquitos are a recipe made for me by TB.  And the sweet potato cheese fries?  They just sounded good.

Chicken Taquitos:

• shredded chicken
• enchilada sauce
• cheese
• corn tortillas
• oil

Mix the first three ingredients together.  Fry the tortillas in hot oil a minute or two on each side.  Roll the filling in the fried tortilla.  At this point, you can either fry them the rest of the way or bake them at 350 until golden brown.

Cheese-stuffed Sweet Peppers:

• feta cheese
• cream cheese
• sweet peppers

Cut the tops of the peppers.  Remove the pepper’s innards while laughing maniacally*.  Mix the feta and cream cheese.  Stuff the cheese into the pepper, and place the top delicately back on the pepper.  Bake at 350 until browned, about 15 minutes, flipping the peppers once.

Sweet Potato Cheese Fries:

• Sweet potatoes
• Cheese

Chop the sweet potatoes into fry** shapes.  Coat with oil and place in greased pan***.  Bake at 425 until just barely golden brown.  Top with cheese and bake at 500 for 5ish minutes.

*Contrary to popular belief, this step is actually required.  If skipped, the peppers will make you feel guilty, old, and grumpy.  You have been warned.

** I have absolutely no idea how one spells the singular of fries, but I’m fairly certain I did it wrong.

*** It is extremely important that you not use a cookie sheet.  Doing so can make for terrible neighbor relations in your dorm when the smoke detector goes off.  … but, of course, this was years ago…

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Ingredients:

• 4 frozen chicken breast
• 1/3 c. vegetable oil
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1/2 c. lime juice
• 1/2 T. dried cilantro
• 1/2 T. chili powder
• rice (I prefer brown, basmati)
• black beans

Procedures:

Place chicken in baking dish.  Whisk together oil, honey, lime juice, cilantro, and chili powder.  Pour over chicken.  Bake at 350 for about half an hour.  Cook rice in rice cooker.  Microwave beans.  When chicken is done, I like to shred it up so there’s more chicken surface to hold the juice.  Serve.

P.S.  I ran out of honey and used pancake syrup instead.  … pretty darn good…

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Naturally, I spent the entire time reading, watching movies, or cooking; and I couldn’t have been happier.  The menu consisted of chocolate scones, chicken teriyaki, potato soup, and I just spent the past hour planning more.  The chicken teriyaki didn’t turn out at all as I had planned, neither did it the last time I made this recipe.  I have since decided that the meat can be cooked virtually anyway you please, and the trick is in the sauce.  Here’s a modified version of the recipe from America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook:

Teriyaki Chicken

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. soy sauce
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 t. ground ginger
• 1 t. black pepper
• 1 T. corn starch
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 dash red pepper flakes

Procedures:

Stir ingredients together.  Cook over medium heat with chicken (and vegetables) until thickened.  Serve with rice.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Ingredients:

• 1-2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (depends on your preference for spiciness), minced
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 medium onion, sliced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 lb. ground turkey (you could easily use beef here)
• 1 15-oz. can black beans, drained
• 2 cups cooked rice
• cheese
• tortillas
• salsa and sour cream (optional)

Procedures:

1. Cook the ground beef in a greased frying pan.  Add spices, onions, ad bell pepper as it cooks.  If necessary, add 1/4 c. water to keep the meat moist.
2. Stir in beans, rice, and cheese.
3. Roll in flour tortilla.
4. (optional step) Top with additional cheese and place in oven set to broil for a few minutes.
5. Add salsa and/or sour cream as desired.

Notes:

• One trick to delicious rice: cook in chicken broth.  It’s pricey, but it sure does add to the flavor.  What I normally do to accommodate the flavor without the price is add a chicken bouillon cube as it cooks in the rice cooker.  Small cost, little effort, nearly as good results.
• Things to consider adding:
  • Mashed sweet potatoes make a great bean-like addition.  Be aware of the fact that you made need to add more spices to accommodate for the blandness of their flavor.
  • Chopped eggplant can “beef” up the filling without all the fat and calories of meat.  An excellent healthy alternative.
• Where to shop: while none of the ingredients I used are particularly obscure, they’re not necessarily ingredients regularly used by white, middle-class Americans.  I’ve found Harris Teeter to be the worst possible place to find good selection in canned Mexican food products, with Kroger not too far behind.  A better alternative: consider tracking down a more authentic Mexican grocery.  In Durham, my favorite is La Superior.  They’ve got excellent produce, a large selection of canned chiles and sauces, fresh corn tortillas, and, of course, meat. If that’s a bit too out of the way for you, I’ve found Food Lion to have a large selection of Mexican food products, most of which are not made by Ortega.  :)

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

The recipe is as easy as can be:

• 3 potatoes, coarsely chopped
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 carrots, coarsely chopped
• 3 split chicken breasts
• 1 Tablespoon(ish) poultry seasoning
• 1 cup water
• salt and pepper to taste

Put vegetables in the bottom of the crockpot.  Place chicken breasts on top.  Sprinkle poultry seasoning over top.  Add the water and salt and pepper.  Put the lid on.  8(ish) hours on low.

For the gravy: wisk in a few tablespoons of flour to the liquid and cook until thick.

I served with cornbread, which turned out to be an excellent combo.  And for under a dollar and an extra 3 minutes thanks to Jiffy, I don’t think you can really beat them with homemade.  At the very least, I know I can’t.