Chicken N' Dumplins

So so sorry for my prolonged absence. Not because I haven't been cooking... just because I have been a lazy blogger. Well-- here and now I promise to update at least... hmm... twice a week.

I will make it so.

So, to jump start this back up, I will focus on a few "comfort food" recipes. I have just come down with my seasonal cold/sore throat, and comfort food is always on the brain.

Yesterday, I decided to make a big batch of chicken and dumplings, which-- if you are not from the south-- you may have never heard of. It is just a big pot of big, fat, tender noodles and shredded chicken in a rich thick broth. Yum.

I had to work yesterday morning, so I was dreaming of C&D the whole time. At one point, I had convinced myself that I would go completely from scratch... boil the whole chicken, skin it, bone it, shred it. Make my dough of flour and egg, roll it out, cut out and dry the dumplings....

By the time I got out of work, all I wanted was to EAT those C&D, not slave over them.

So- I called up my chef hotline--Dad-- and asked for his current quick recipe. And here it is (slightly adapted by me):

Chicken and Dumplings

INGREDIENTS

34 oz box of chicken stock
34 oz water

3-4 chicken thighs (skinless, boneless or bone-in)

3-4 chicken breasts (skinless, boneless)

1 cup milk

2 Tbsp butter

10 flour burrito-sized tortillas, halved and cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch strips

seasoned salt (to taste)

dried thyme (to taste)

fresh ground pepper (to taste)

METHOD

Pour chicken stock and water in a big pot and bring to a boil. Add your chicken pieces, reduce heat, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Remove chicken pieces and set aside to cool. Strain any excess fat or chicken "debris" from broth. Add milk, butter, and seasonings and bring to a rolling boil.

Add tortilla strips one by one, pushing gently to the side of the pot with a wooden spoon to make more room, if necessary. Allow to gently boil for 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, de-bone (if necessary) and shred chicken into bite-sized pieces. Add back to pot in small batches, gently folding in to dumplings. Reduce heat to low, and continue to simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes.

Star Wars Birthday Cake Tradition

When Tom and I got married, we joked about his groom's cake being a "German Chocolate Chewie"-- Tom is a big Star Wars fan, for those (few) who don't know.  In the end, we wimped out and just got a basic chocolate cake.

So- a couple months later when Tom's birthday rolled around, I had to try my hand at the german chocolate chewie. (My photos are not digital yet, I will post soon.) It was a success!! Every birthday there after, now 8, I have crafted a different Star Wars character cake.

I don't cook from scratch-- I always use a boxed mix and canned frosting. I try to make the cooking the easy part so that I can focus on the decorating.  I just make a square cake and a round cake, and create the basic shape.  My decorating is never great-- but always free-hand from a photo or action figure.  I think Tom just appreciates the effort.

This year on his birthday, yesterday the 14th, I made C-3PO:

Which-- our dog Patty sneakily ate half of while Tom took a nap. She only made it up to a few bites out of the chin.

Here are a few of the cakes past:

Last year-- Jabba the Hut

2006 -- Tusken Raider

2005 -- Darth Vader

2004 -- Storm Trooper

2003 -- Darth Maul

Photos to come once I scan them:

2002 -- R2-D2

2001 -- Boba Fett

2000 -- Chewie

Fa- Fa-Focaccia!

Long time, no post, eh? I have nothing or no one to blame but my own laziness and inertia.

One thing I've wanted to post for a while is focaccia. I bought this book: Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and I LOVE it. It kind of takes off where No Knead Bread started.  I love that I can just mix it up, let it rise, and worry about all the fussy kneading, punching down, etc. You don't even need all the fancy schmancy tools like a peel or stone. And the breads I have made have been delicious!

Here is my Rosemary, Olive, Onion Focaccia, before baking:

And yummy goodness after baking:

Every time I have made focaccia, it never lasts more than a few hours. Yum Yum.

New Week, New Plan

Well, I haven't posted any pics from last week yet, but here is the plan for this week:

Oven BBQ Beer-Butt Chicken with Broccoli and Corn

Blackened Catfish with Roasted Baby Red Potatoes and Green Beans

Chicken Tetrazzini with a Green Salad

Grilled Teriyaki Pork and Veggie Kabobs with Rice and Grilled Asparagus

The chicken has a beer in its butt and it's in the oven right now.

Also-unrelated, but I have IRISES!! They just came up this year! I guess ole Crazy Shirley (the lady who "flipped" our house) had a little surprise in store for me!

Weekly Meal Plans

So, this is less of a post about a certain dinner, but a sharing of my "dinner planning" I've been trying out for the past few weeks.  

We live about 1 block from our local Kroger, so it has been much to easy to wait until 5 o'clock everyday, and think "Hmmm, what for dinner?" and stop almost everyday on the way home.  Or, worse, the wandering around le supermarche clueless as to what to buy.  This way of shopping inevitably added up to large grocery spending by the end of the month.

For the past few weeks, I have been planning 4 meals on Monday or Tuesday, and only making one trip to the grocery.  I use my seasonal issues of Everyday Food, Cooking Light, and internet sites for inspiration.  Often, I can combine items over 2 different  meals, or plan for leftovers from one to serve later in the week.  I have now done this for 3 or 4 weeks, and the average I have spent on groceries is $55.  Not bad.  That leaves just a little extra for a good bottle of wine, or a pint of jamocha almond fudge.

On the plan for this week:

Chicken Celery Stir-fry and Rice

Marinated Flank Steak with Potatoes and Green Beans

Stuffed Flounder Roll-ups with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Noodles

Roasted Spiced Pork Shoulder with Black Beans and Yellow Rice

Once I have everything in the fridge/freezer, we just pick what sounds best for that night.

How do you guys plan/not plan/shop for your weekly dinners?

Personalized Patchwork Tea Towels

I read a lot of blogs-- about food, crafts, randomness. One that I read is called Craft Leftovers by Kristin Roach (over there on the side bar), where she posts different patterns that are quick, easy, and use up those last bits of fabric and yarn, etc. She decided to start posting guest patterns, and mine was the first one, hurray!

Check out my Personalized Patchwork Tea Towels!


Every good kitchen needs a few good kitchen towels.  I have started an Etsy shop, Marmaladecheeks, where I will soon add finished tea towels and DIY tea towel kits. Just a little taste of my crafty side...

Cinnamon Chicken

Living abroad may be full of challenges, but sometimes, just sometimes, you can have an intercultural culinary success. I am tentatively stepping into my new cooking clogs here in the Netherlands, where I am cooking without the 900 kitchen gadgets that we all take for granted at home. This has been just fine as I use Max as my taster and critic, but I had not yet cooked for others until this weekend. Max and I were invited to the home of one of his colleagues who lives in Amsterdam. It was a potluck, and the logistics were tricky. We had to make something that could be taken by bike to the train station, survive a 25 minute train ride, and a 30 minute walk (because who would not walk through Amsterdam on a rare sunny Saturday evening?). Oh, and the kicker was that the guests were from Italy, France, Spain, New Zealand, Germany, India, and the Netherlands. How was I going to please the tastes of any of these guests whose home countries offer some of the best cuisines? Like Erin, I try to learn from my mistakes, but this was no time for experimentation. I looked over the list of recipes I had recently tried, and asked Max to choose his favorite. It was the Cinnamon Chicken recipe I made a couple of weeks ago. The recipe is from Runners World Magazine

I changed the amount and type of chicken, and made some daring metric conversions. Here is the recipe as I made it (conversions re-converted--if that is possible). I also re-wrote some of the instructions, as I found the original recipe to be a bit jumbled.

The ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. kosher salt (we used Gros Sel de Guérande, a French sea salt)
1tsp. freshly ground black pepper
5 cloves garlic, minced (separate 2 cloves for use later)
1 1/2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
2 coarsely chopped yellow onions
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
1 cup chicken stock
5 oz. tomato paste
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, choppped (dried oregano works just fine)

The steps:

1. Boil water with a pinch of sea salt and set aside. Meanwhile, prepare your chicken stock in another pan and set aside.
2. Mix the cinnamon, kosher salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Pat the chicken breasts with paper towels and then rub the cinnamon mixture on the chicken breasts.
   
3. Heat olive oil in deep skillet, and add chicken, browning for 4-5 minutes on each side. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.
4. Lower heat to medium-high and add 3 of the minced garlic cloves and onions to the skillet. Stir for about 3 minutes, until onions are just beginning to soften.
   
5. Add the wine, and stir occasionally until wine is evaporated.
6. When the wine has evaporated, add the water, chicken stock, tomato paste, remaining 2 minced garlic cloves, and oregano. Stir until well blended.
   
7. Return chicken breasts to the sauce mixture (they should be about 3/4 covered in sauce).
8. Cover the skillet and simmer on low heat for about an hour until chicken is tender.
9. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with rice or pasta.

The first time I made this (pictured below) I served it with rice. For the potluck, I just packaged it and we reheated it at the host's home. I was very pleased when I got a thumbs up from the New Zealander, the Spaniard, the French woman, and the Italian. I hope that it brings happiness to the taste buds of my American friends back home!

Trivia question: This recipe was originally labeled Koto Kapama (Cinnamon Chicken). What language does Koto Kapama come from? I don't have the answer, so I hope someone knows.