There’s Always Time for Chicken

Sorry for such a long break between posts. Things have been a bit hectic lately. I just started a brand new job and have been super busy catching myself up to speed on everything. Overall it’s been great so far and I’m much happier. Hooray for positive life changes!

My final two weeks at my old job corresponded with the Boston Marathon bombings and ensuing search and capture of the suspects. So needless to say it was a stressful period. And then I immediately started my new job…so I got a little overwhelmed and my time in the kitchen dropped significantly. I did make one interesting thing during that period that I wanted to share with you all. Better late than never I guess.

I was feeling broke and lazy so I was particularly interested in finding a crockpot creation. When in doubt I always turn to chicken…its pretty hard to screw up chicken. I did a quick search and settled on a recipe. Garlic and Brown Sugar Chicken.

As a note: I didn’t turn to my trusty pals over at Google this time…I went directly to a great crockpot site called Get Crocked. I discovered this site a while back and it has HUNDREDS of amazing crockpot recipes.

I realized that I already had most of the ingredients so I figured it would be a smart try. Here’s what you need:

Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

• ~5-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 c brown sugar (packed)
• 2/3 c vinegar
• 1/4 c Sprite (or other similar soda would work too)
• 2 -3 Tbs garlic
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 tsp pepper

Add the chicken to the bottom of the crockpot. Add everything else together, and pour over chicken. Now, I didn’t really pay attention to the directions (whoopsies) and I added everything separate…I don’t think it makes much difference but it may help to mix it first. Cook for 6-8 hours on high.

I cut my chicken breasts in half…I fit 5.

After 8 hours I had a lot of sauce…Corn starch thickened it a little.

So I have some mixed feelings about this recipe to be honest. A few things concerned me…such as the fact that mine looked very different from the recipe photo (take a peek here). The photo shows a piece of chicken with a sort of sauce coating. Mine was VERY liquid. I read through the comments (which is SOOO helpful sometimes) and realized that others had this problem too. I added some cornstarch to the sauce at the end to thicken it up. (add a few tbs of cornstarch mixed in water FIRST, then add it to the sauce).

It tasted okay. Its not a recipe I will likely rush to make again, but it wasn’t bad either. Next time I will definitely decrease the liquid ingredients. I served it over rice.

If at first you don’t succeed, keep tryin’ until you make that biz your b****

So I have some mild-to-severe perfectionist tendencies. Nothing like crippling or anything….but enough that I find things massively frustrating if they don’t come out right. It can be SUPER annoying because for the most part other people’s reactions tend to be things like “it still tastes good” “shake it off” “don’t worry about it.” My brain does not work that way.

I have gotten better at hiding my crazy in most aspects of my life though. But I’ve found it harder to master that crucial brain control in the kitchen and in craft-type settings because, unlike most areas of life, they are soooo controllable. So when small setbacks happen I have to fight my instincts…you know…the urge to throw a 4-year level tantrum or just chuck the whole lot into the trash can because the cake is uneven (or it tipped over) or the onions burned. (CONFESSION: I did chuck out an entire meal in front of my BF not too long ago because I thought it was a disaster…but that hardly ever happens anymore lol).

I’m telling you this as sort of a background into my motives for this post. I’ve mentioned it before, but one of my signature dishes is homemade mac and cheese. I’ve been making it since I was like 10 and its one of those recipes that is burned into your brain so you never even have to look it at. For some mystery reason, lately I kept screwing it up (like this time). It was making me CRAZY…just ask my mom who received all my “AHHHHHHH WHAT THE HECK?!?!?” phone calls.

Normal people can shake this stuff off. But it’s been nagging at me for WEEKS. So finally I decided to just beast this thing out. And prove to myself that I’m not a total idiot who has forgotten how to cook (see how my brain makes me treat me?)

I recently discovered how AMAZING caramelized onions are. Shortly after that I discovered that I am not great at making them WOMP WOMP. I kept burning them. I’m telling you this because I had had the genius idea to add caramelized onion to my mac and cheese….so the fact that I messed BOTH of them up at the same time was driving me insane.

But I figured it out (for the most part) and BOOM I made that biz my b****.

FINALLY got it right!

Here’s what you’ll need to make your very own Swiss/NY Sharp Cheddar Caramelized Onion Mac and Cheese:

-box of noodles (elbow, penne, or the spirals work best)
-1 block swiss cheese
-1 block NY Sharp Cheddar (or Vermont, or regular Sharp Cheddar)
-2 cups milk (1% at the LOWEST, cream tastes best but is fattier)
-2 Tbsp butter (or butter like spread)
-2 Tbsp flour
-spices (salt and pepper etc)
-breadcrumbs (optional but nice…especially Italian spiced)

Add your spices after the cheese is melted.

Ok so if you’ve never made a cream-type sauce before I’m going to explain it. Read this BEFORE you start so you’ll know what to do because you have to move a little fast in the beginning. On MEDIUM HEAT Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add the flour. Start whisking it immediately with a fork or whisk…slowly add some milk (room temp if possible) and KEEP STIRRING. It’ll be sort of paste like with some clumps…you want to get’em all. Add the rest of the milk and stir. DON’T LET THE MILK BOIL. It will ruin your sauce by causing the cheese to separate. When the clumps are gone and the sauce starts to thicken a little add the cheese and spices. Once the cheese is melted you should have a nice thickish cheese sauce.  Add caramelized onions (which I’ll tell you how to make in a minute).

Look at those tasty golden onions in that yummy cheese….

Cook the pasta regular. Add cheese sauce. Top with breadcrumbs and bake at 350 until top is browned.  EAT UP.

Caramelized Onions:
-1 large onion
-2 Tbsp-ish better
-1 Tbsp oil
-dash of salt

Cut onions. Melt butter in a skillet…add the oil. Add the onions and coat in the butter/oil and turn burner down to low heat. Stir occasionally, if you stir too much they won’t brown. Add salt after like 5 mins. Honestly I got that from a website…I’m not 100% certain what it does but I guess it helps. The onions will reduce down and eventually turn a lovely golden/brown color.  Mine cooked for like EVER…like over and hour… but again, I’m new to this and haven’t gotten it perfect yet. I’m certain it doesn’t have to actually take that long.

Cut even slices of the onion

 

Coat onions in the butter/oil

 

Nice golden color… cooked mine a little longer after this to deepen the color a bit

In the end I had a lovely meal to last the week. Also it made me feel soooo much better to have figured out what I was doing wrong with my mac and cheese so that I will never screw it up again!

Sometimes I Can’t Afford Groceries…

Except seriously.

Sometimes being in your mid-20s can be rough. And sometimes between paying your heating bill (because winter refuses to end), rent, and student loans (cough Sallie Mae sucks cough cough) you just come up short and sacrifices have to be made. Like groceries.

This is one of those moments for me. And I imagine that many of you out there have been in the same position. So I figured I’d share my go to recipe for when your pantry is as empty as your checking account.

This recipe is a simple dish that is perfect when your pantry is particularly low. I call it Fake Mac and Cheese…so called because in reality there is hardly any cheese in it, it just tastes like homemade mac and cheese.

This is really all you need…plus parmesan cheese

Here’s what you’ll need:

-Pasta (any kind will do)
-bread crumbs (italian seasoned work best)
-flavored  bouillon cubes (chicken or veggie work well)
-Parmesan cheese

Simple Cook the Pasta with the bouillon cubes

All you do is add the cubes to the water you boil for the pasta. Cooking the pasta in broth adds such a good flavor. When the pasta is drained you add some breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese (almost equal parts). And BOOM. DONE. It tastes almost the same as homemade mac and cheese and involves practically nothing.

Just add the bread crumbs and cheese

Its a step up from just pasta and cheese…especially when you’re like me and ran out of butter…

Boom. You got yourself some fancy poor kid food.

And the fact that it tastes great distracts you just a bit from the fact that you’re poor lol.

Sometimes I make my own English Muffins

what can I say?…I’m a boss.

Here’s the thing; I almost never have bread products in my house. I’m not super into sandwiches so I don’t have a real need for bread…and english muffins are a rarity. BUT…this past Sunday I really wanted an omelette. And, this may sound weird, but I don’t really like eating eggs without some form of toast. It just doesn’t feel right to me. So I decided to just whip some up myself.

Now I’m not super new to this. While I was in Peace Corps I used to make them a lot. So I figured now was the time to give it another go. They’re not technically English Muffins…they actually a tradition bread from Lesotho. But they’re basically the same thing.

Here’s how the magic happens:

English Muffins

-~4 cups flour
-1 package instant yeast
-dash of salt
-1 Tbsp sugar
-1 cup warm water

In a bowl put the flour, sugar, and salt and mix it up. Then add the packet of yeast. NOW this is different from normal yeast use…I don’t dissolve it in water first I just put it in. Add warm water (don’t make it too hot or it will wreck the yeast). Mix it up…you’re gonna have to get all up in it with your hands.

Now, set it aside to rise a bit. HINT: I put my bowl into a bigger bowl of hot water (not boiling, but hot from the tap) and cover with a wet towel or cloth. It doesn’t take all the at long.

then separate the dough into balls the side you want your muffins to be.

To cook them you set them in a DRY skillet on high. It helps to cover the pan (helps cook the inside). When brown, flip and cook other side.

set them in the pan and cover

Over all it’s pretty fast.

Flip them over and cook other side….You can tell done-ness by the browning

Final Product

 

Then eat up. BOOM…done and done.

Take your chicken and STUFF IT…with pesto and cheese…

I feel like I eat a lot of chicken….its pretty versatile and super available (also its frequently on sale). But, if you’re like me, you can get BORED as all get out with it. So I decided to try something a little different to zazz it up.

I modified a recipe I found on Pinterest to suit my lazy level. And it worked pretty well. Also it was really easy.

Cheese and Pesto Stuffed Chicken served with a steaming side of garlic mashed cauliflower

So it’s really easy to make this…you need 3 things: chicken breasts, pesto, and cheese (this girl used mozzarella string cheese).

You start by slicing your chicken in the middle (I didn’t cut all the way through…I left one side connected). Open that guy up and spread on about 1-2 Tbs pesto and then layer on some cheese. Close it up and bake for about 45 mins on 350. NOM NOM.

The side dish is super easy as well…are you sensing a theme here?

Garlic Mashed Cauliflower

-Small to Medium head of Cauliflower
-garlic
-butter
-1 Tbs cream cheese
-spices (I use Montreal Chicken Spice and salt and pepper)

Start by chopping your cauliflower into small pieces. Boil them until soft. While hot, add the rest of the ingredients and mash/blend (a food processor/immersion blender work great). Then BOOM you’re done.

It’s not very much work and it makes for a tasty meal!

That Time I Did A Cake Decorating Class

So I like to bake. I frequently stress bake (see proof here and here). So when I saw this deal on LivingSocial back in like November for a cake decorating class I jumped at it. (By jumped at it I mean I told my mom I really wanted to do it so she bought it for me for Christmas).

It was 50% off a class at Amanda Oakleaf Cakes. (check out their website here!). They seem super awesome. They were on the Food Network Cake Challenge and everything…so they’re totes legit.

I was really excited about. Unfortunately, the deal sold out before my lady pals could grab one too…so I had to go it alone. But that’s cool. New adventure time.

There was a hitch though….the bakery is in Winthrop….blerg. My city friends are probably just as horrified as I was when I google mapped it. But whatever, I made it work.

I signed up for the class Buttercream Basics. I figured I could pick up some tricks on how to frost a bitchin’ cake.

And I totally did. Things I learned:

-How to ‘crumb coat’ a cake (turns out…that does  not mean coat the cake in crumbs like I thought)
-How to evenly cut a cake into layers
-How to evenly frost a cake without getting crumbs all up in that biz
-How to use different decorating tips (turns out I mostly suck at that part)
-What tools I need to buy to make some baller cakes

I totally Iced this Beast.

This was my finished product. I was pretty proud of it. I’m a bit of a perfectionist so parts of it annoyed the crap out of me…like sucking at decorating.

The class was 3 hours and it was totally cool. Shout out to Krystal and Tim for teaching some awesome skills.

However…my cake decorating night ended in a bit of a tragedy. I had to take public transportation back home (about an hour of T traveling) and this is what I found when I opened the box when I got home.

WOMPWOMP. Way to Kill My Dreams MBTA

WOMPWOMPWOMP. Sad Face. Oh well….it still tasted delicious.

 

And I’m Back! with new treats and everything

So it’s been about a month since my last post. Sorry about that folks…that was lame of me. I had a bit of a hectic month in February. But fear not…I’m back. And I have sooooo much to tell you!

First off….the winter has been so blah. Not so much blah as in boring (which is also true) but more like BLAH why-is-it-still-winter-I-forget-what-warmth-feels-like. I was EXTRA feeling it in early February….so my best gal and I decided to take a super spontaneous weekend trip to Cancun Mexico. Long story short…it was AMAZING and totally worth it. As it happens, we timed it PERFECTLY so we were lounging in the sun doing some restful day-drinking while back home they were getting blasted by the biggest snowstorm we’ve had in like 50 years. So win-win.

Paradise

Livin’ the Life

But I won’t rub my awesome vaca in your face. Moving on.

February also contains some other landmark occasions: Valentine’s Day and MY BIRTHDAY (which, as it happens, is the day before Valentine’s lol).

I won’t bore you with tails of my Birthday…it was a bit of a mess this year. But my Valentine’s Day was pretty rad. To start I got a beautiful bouquet of tulips from the BF with a adorable teddy bear and box o’chocolates (that came with a picture guide so you don’t accidently bite into that nasty raspberry that is ALWAYS there waiting for you to mistake it for a caramel).

Valentine’s Day Surprise for Me

So I wanted a fairly low-key Valentine’s Day, so the BF and I decided to just make dinner and hang out. So we decided to make a steak dinner. BOOM. Cause that’s what winners do. (ALSO this presented the PERFECT opportunity for me to finally buy a cast iron skillet…thanks Amazon!).

Cast Iron Beast…LOVE IT

So the steak was actually SUPER SUPER Easy…You start by heating the skillet in the over set to 500 degrees. While that guy is heating up, you can coat your steak with a little oil and season it up with salt and pepper (or any other spices you’re in the mood for). When the pan is ready (probs like 10 mins later) then immediately move it to your stove top set on high. Place the steak in the pan and let sear for about 30 seconds. Then flip that guy over (tongs work best for this, but I’m certain you can improvise…I certainly did) and sear for another 30 seconds on the other side.

To finish it up, pop the WHOLE PAN back into the oven for 3 mins….flip it over…3 mins. Then BOOM you’re done! You’ve successfully cooked yourself a nice steak (cooked medium).  Stupid easy right?

Look at this guy…

So nice and pink!

You can adjust the time in the oven to suit how you like your steak…less time for more rare…more time for less pink. The cast iron allows you to get that yummy searing outside and allow it to cook inside as well. NOM NOM.

Steak, Corn, Mashed Potatoes, and Champagne. Feast of Champions.

I whipped us up some mashed potatoes and opened up a can of corn to go with the steak. We popped some bubbly and had a tasty feast.