Monday, October 25, 2010

Bring You Back from the Dead Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup

So I have a dentist appointment tomorrow and I started thinking of what to make that would work on some sore teeth.  So I figured I'd make some of my chicken soup tomorrow, and then Caitlin said she wanted soup tonight, completely separately from my desire to make it tomorrow.  Weird huh?  Well, my chicken soup recipe makes enough to last a week, so making it tonight is as good as making it tomorrow, and she gets to take it for lunch, so double bonus!

Of course, it does take a little while to make, so Caitlin's been bouncing off the walls waiting to get her mitts on a fresh bowl (or two. . . ).  This is a good recipe for this week though: the weather's starting to change and get colder (which I love), we're both sore as crap from soccer (which isn't so great) and I've got the dentist, so I'll need something soft to slurp down with my numbed butter teeth.  I suppose it's only a matter of time until one of us gets sick again too, so hopefully the soup will ward off disease as long as possible.

Here's what you'll need:

Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup

128 oz Chicken Stock
4 or 5 Carrots cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 Medium (baseball sized) Red Onion, diced
1 Package of Celery Hearts chopped into 1/2 inch slices
2 Boneless Chicken Breasts, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2-3 tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Crushed Rosemary
2 Tbsp Dried Thyme
2 Tbsp Diced Garlic
Handful Fresh Parsley finely chopped
1/2 Cup White Wine
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
12 to 16 oz Package Egg Noodles

Start off by pouring all the chicken stock and the kosher salt into a large (8qt or bigger) stock pot on the stove on medium-high heat.  Start a saucepan on high with a steamer insert and while the water is heating up peel and chop the carrots and add to the steamer and cover.  Add the wine to a large saute pan and heat on medium-high heat.  While the wine is heating up, quickly dice the red onion and add to the saute pan.  While the onions are cooking, chop the celery and add to the chicken stock, then chop the chicken.  Stir the onions and let the wine reduce by about one half and then dump the onions and wine into the stock.

Return the saute pan to heat and add the oil and the chicken and stir constantly.  Sprinkle on some salt and pepper onto the chicken, enough to evenly cover all the pieces and then add in the garlic, thyme and rosemary and continue stirring for another minute or two to evenly brown the chicken and coat the pieces with spice, then add to the stock pot.  Take the carrots out of the teamer and add them to the stock pot as well and lower the heat to medium-low.  In a large saucepan (or a small stock pot) boil water and add in the noodles.  Let the noodles cook until soft, about 5 or 6 minutes and then drain and rinse and add to the stock pot.

It's a good tip when making soup with egg noodles to boil them in water separately from the soup, because when you boil the noodles, they soak up a little of the liquid, but also sometimes release a little bit of the flour, so if you boil them in your soup stock, you'll lose some stock softening the noodles, and possibly get a bunch of flour that will ruin your soup's stock with a cloudy, nasty noodle funk.

So, boil them separately, drain and rinse the noodles and add to the stock pot and let the whole thing simmer covered together for 5 or 10 minutes at least and then serve!  It tastes great with some crusty french bread or dinner rolls and they'll help you sop up the delicious broth.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Spicy Garlic Teriyaki Lo Mein

Okay peeps, so we're on day 5 of pantry clearing, and I did some inventory and found a package of Lo Mein noodles.  Now with the weather all cool and our nightly exercise complete, it was time to make some greasy chinese takeout at home and I know how Caitlin loves some shrimp lo mein!  Well, stir fry, if done right, is a delicious, healthy and quick meal that has endless possibilities for different combinations of sauce and ingredients.  I was craving something a little spicy too, so I thought I'd kick it up an extra notch.  Here's what you'll need:

1 Package Lo Mein Noodles
1 or 2 Chicken Breasts
2 Tbsp Ginger Paste
2 Tbsp Cilantro Paste
1/4 C diced Red Onion
1-2 Tbsp Crushed Red Pepper (depending on your desired spice level)
1/4 C Garlic Teriyaki Sauce
1/4 C Hoisin Sauce
2 Tbsp Mirin (Japanese Rice Wine)
2 Tbsp Corn Starch
3 Large/4 Medium Carrots
1 or 2 Cups Cooked Frozen Shrimp (more shrimp with less chicken or vice versa)
1/4 C Peanut Oil

Okay, now, the first time you make this, it might not be that quick of a meal.  But with some practice at real stir fry cooking, you can really get in there and get it all chopped, cooked and in the bowl in about 20 minutes.  Of course it really helps if you're making noodles or using the microwaveable uncle ben's rice pouches, otherwise you have to plan ahead, because it takes awhile to cook rice.  Also, the real key to making good (and fast) stir fry is to make sure that all the pieces are cut to to the same size, which helps them to cook at the same rate.

For this recipe, I'll try to explain my methodology for speed while stir-frying.  First, set up your steamer insert in a saucepan with water up to the bottom of the steamer insert and put on the stove on high.  Then, peel and chop the carrots into 1/2 inch pieces and add them to the steamer and cover.  In a large sauce pan, put water on the stove on high to boil for the noodles.  Put the frozen shrimp into a measuring cup and fill with hot water to thaw.  Cut the chicken in half horizontally to make 2 thin filets and then cut into 1/2 inch pieces and add to a bowl.  Drain the shrimp and cut the tails off the shrimp and then cut each shrimp into 1/2 in pieces and return to the measuring cup.  Add in the teriyaki, hoisin, mirin, and corn starch to the chicken and stir and fold to mix the sauces and make sure the chicken is covered evenly.

Clean off the cutting board (or pull out a second one) and dice the onions.  Pull out your Wok (or saute pan if you don't have one) and pour in the peanut oil and place on the burner on med-high heat.  By now the water should be boiling so add in a little oil to the water (so the noodles won't stick together) and dump in the lo mein noodles.  Let the oil in the wok heat up and when you see the surface of the oil shimmering, add in the red onion, ginger and cilantro and stir with a spatula slowly for about a minute or two to cook the onions.  Add in the chicken and stir constantly with a sweeping motion to keep the chicken turning and cooking without letting it sit for more than 10 or 15 seconds.  After the chicken starts to look browned (maybe 4 or 5 minutes), add in the shrimp, carrots and red pepper and continue stirring for another 2 or 3 minutes and then remove from heat.

While the wok is off the heat, drain the noodles and add to the wok and return to heat.  Continue stirring and folding it all together for another minute or two, or until the noodles start to absorb some of the sauce and brown up a little.  After that, remove from heat and serve!  Mmmmm, mmm, greasy delicious Chicken and Shrimp spicy Lo Mein at home in less time than it would take to drive for takeout or have it delivered!

Shish-ka-Scott

Okay, so we're on day 2 of spelunking in our overcrowded pantry. So, for some insight into how these dinners get made and decided on, here's Caitlin and my planning conversation over IM:

Scott: What do you want for dinner?
Caitlin: I don't know, something that won't make me feel gross. . .
Scott: hmmmmm
Caitlin: and not Mexican, I had that for lunch.
Caitlin: How about something grilled?!
Caitlin: shish kabob!
Caitlin: YES
Caitlin: with chicken
Caitlin: and tomatoes
Caitlin: and potatoes
Caitlin: and poblano
Caitlin: and green onions
Caitlin: and whatever else we have in the fridge
Scott: ok, I guess I'll look in the fridge

Okay, so it looks like the plan is set. I'll grab everything in our fridge veggie drawer that's not apples and some chicken and we'll grill the crap out of it! Eureka! Well, that's how you end up with Shish-ka-Scott (since I'm not named Bob, get it?!), though we didn't have any green onions or potatoes. So I thawed some chicken, and checked the veggie drawer and found some red onion, poblano peppers and roma tomatoes. Here's what you'll need:

2 Boneless Chicken Breasts
1/2 Red Onion, cut into 1 inch slices
1 or 2 Large Poblano or Green Peppers cut into 1 inch squares
2 Roma Tomatoes
1/4 Cup Hoisin Sauce
1/4 Cup Teriyaki Sauce
1/4 Cup Lime Juice

So, first thing you'll need to do is cut the chicken into roughly one inch cubes and then place in a bowl. Add in the hoisin, teriyaki and lime juice and stir and let marinade while you cut the veggies. Cut the ends off the roma tomatoes and then cut them in half so you have 4 tomato cylinders. Cut the pepper(s) in half and remove the seeds in the center. Wash them off so all the seeds are gone and then cut the halves in half and then into 1 in squares. Take the onion and cut it in half and then cut off the top and bottom of one half to remove both cores at each end. Take the center piece and cut into quarters and then pull the layers apart and you have a bunch of onion squares.

Take some skewers (these are really handy for this) and thread on a tomato and then layer it with a pepper square, a chicken piece and an onion square until you get to the other end, and then put on another tomato. Keep threading until you run out of pieces and then place in a shallow dish and pour the marinade on top. While the skewers are marinading, go turn on the grill to medium-high. Let it heat up for a few minutes to get the grill grates nice and hot and then go throw the skewers on. Grill on each side for about 8 or 10 minutes or until the chicken starts to get grill marks seared in. Flip them over and finish the other side, and then serve with a little rice or some salad. It's delish and it clears out the veggie drawer!

Tandoori Chicken Curry with Potatoes


So it's getting to the point where our pantry and fridge are just packed with stuff that I've bought and we've never made. We eat indian food all the time, yet apparently I buy stuff for it way more often than I make it. I guess that trip to Lotte Plaza (the Asian food market) was maybe a bad idea. Anyway, so in an effort to clean out the backup, I envisioned making some delicious indian food and using some of the stuff we had sitting around before it all goes bad.

So one of my Lotte Plaza purchases was a number of indian pastes for marinades and sauces: Tandoori, Tikka, Curry, Vindaloo and Korma. I like the prepared indian bags of veggies with the Tandoori sauce, so I thought I'd combine a couple of them and make my own simmer sauce. Here's what you'll need:

2 Boneless Chicken Breasts
1/4 Cup Tandoori Paste
6 oz Plain Greek Yogurt/Heavy Cream/Coconut Milk
2 Tbsp Oil
3 Carrots cut into 1/2" cubes
5 or 6 Red Skin Potatoes
Salt and Pepper to taste

Okay, first thing you need to do is boil about 2 cups of water in a medium sauce pan with a steamer. While the water comes to a boil, peel and chop the carrots and then dump them into the steamer. Make sure the water doesn't come above the bottom of the steamer insert. Let the carrots steam until they start to soften, about 8 minutes. While the carrots are steaming, cut the chicken into about 1/2 inch pieces and put in a large saute pan with the oil on medium-high heat. While the chicken cooks, quickly wash and cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch size pieces. Remove the carrots from heat if they're softened and ready to go.

Cook the chicken until the pieces start to brown slightly and none of the sides are raw. Remove the chicken to the side and add the potatoes to the pan. If the pan is dry, put in a little more oil to help them cook up. Stir the potato pieces until they start to soften, then add back in the chicken and the carrots and turn the heat down to medium low. Combine in a bowl or measuring cup the tandoori paste and the yogurt/cream/coconut milk and add to the pan and stir everything together. Let simmer covered for 5 or 10 minutes to let all the sauces and spices marry together and then serve with jasmine or basmati rice and/or some toasted naan.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Don't forget the milk...

Often when I'm rattling off what I want for dinner to Scott, he'll head out to the store. That's right ladies, not only does he cook, he shops for groceries too (in record time). I'll rent him out for an hourly rate...
Anyway, this is often how I feel when he dashes out the door to the store:

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Potato Gnocchi with Shrimp and Homemade Pesto Sauce

So I had to go to the dentist and Caitlin's stomach was feeling a little weird today, so I thought I'd make something comfortable, delicious and not too spicy (since I've been making a lot of spicy Mexican and Indian food lately). Also, our Basil plant in our garden is HUGE and since it's starting to get cold at night, well, it's probably going to die soon, so it needed to get eaten.

This is a real quick meal to make (even more so if you have a food processor), so here's what you'll need:

Semi-Homemade Pesto Sauce:

1 Cup Alfredo Sauce
1 Cup White Wine
2 Cups Loosely Packed Basil Leaves
1/2 Cup (or a big handful) Sage Leaves
1 Cup (or 2 big handfuls) Baby Spinach
1/2 Cup Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Minced Garlic
1 Tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 Tsp Salt

For the Pasta:

16 oz Package of Fresh Gnocchi
8-10 Frozen Cooked Shrimp (per person)
Fresh Shredded Parmesan Cheese
Sundried Tomatoes, Julienne Cut
Pine Nuts

First thing you'll need to do is thaw the shrimp in a bowl filled with some warm water for about 5 to 10 minutes. Then, fill a pot with water with a pinch of salt and a little olive oil and place on the stove on high to boil for the gnocchi. To start off the sauce, combine the alfredo sauce and white wine and whisk together in a medium saucepan on medium heat while you gather the pesto ingredients.

Next you'll need to make the homemade pesto portion. Combine the basil, spinach, sage, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a food processor and pulse for 5 or 10 seconds until well mixed and chopped and then add into the saucepan. Heat up a frying pan on medium high with a little olive oil and throw the shrimp in with some salt and pepper. Toss the shrimp around to heat up for a few minutes. Once the water is boiling, add in the gnocchi and boil for 3 or 4 minutes or until they start to float. Strain the gnocchi and serve in a shallow bowl or plate and spoon on some sauce and then top with some shredded Parmesan, pine nuts, and sundried tomatoes and enjoy!

Kitchen Bear - Now with 50% more pictures!

Scott has put me in charge of taking the pictures for this blog. It's no easy task; I have to remember to snap some pics before shoving my face full of food....

When I forget to take a picture, I'll just draw one!

I have no drawing skills...but that won't stop me!

BEAR GRILLS
(or BEAR-B-QUE)

~Caitlin

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Chicken Prosciutto Cutlets

So the other night for dinner I wanted to make something with Sage. For my birthday, Caitlin took me to Amalfi Ristorante in Rockville. It's not much to look at from the street (or even from inside I suppose) but the food is phenomenal, and definitely moderately priced. Anyway, I had their Chicken Saltimbocca that was smothered in Sage, and it really made me realize a few things. One, sage is freaking delicious! Two, I almost never use it in anything! So I thought I'd make something similar to their dish and I picked up my items at the store to make a good dinner for me and Caitlin. Here's what I came up with:

Chicken Prosciutto Cutlets

2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 Jar Alfredo Sauce (I use Classico Four Cheese Alfredo Sauce because it's a lot lower in fat than others)
1 C White Wine
Handful of Fresh Sage leaves
2 Tsp Diced Garlic
4 oz Proscuitto, thinly sliced
4 oz Crumbled Goat Cheese
1/4 C Olive Oil
1/2 C Sliced Mushrooms
Salt and Pepper to taste
Angel Hair pasta

Okay, to start off with, you're going to want to trim the fat off the chicken and lay them flat on a cutting board. With your hand laid flat on top, you'll want to cut horizontally through the chicken breasts in the middle to separate each into 2 filets. Lay the 4 filets next to each other on the cutting board and cover with plastic wrap. With the heel of your hand or a fist, work your way up to pounding the chicken until they're soft and flattened.

Once you've got them flattened, pre-heat your saute/frying pan to medium-high and add the oil. While that's heating up, start boiling water with a little olive oil in it in another large saucepan for the pasta and start heating the whole bottle of alfredo sauce on high in another saucepan. Once the oil is heated up, swish the pan around gently so the oil covers as much of the bottom of the pan as possible and add in the chicken cutlets and sprinkle each one with salt and pepper. Saute 3 or 4 minutes or until they begin to brown up slightly and then flip them and sprinkle more salt and pepper on them. While the second side is cooking, the pasta sauce should be warmed up by now so you can add in the wine (which should be room temperature) and stir every few minutes with a whisk.

Once the second side of the chicken is finished sauteing, remove it from the pan onto a cutting board or plate to let them rest. If the water is boiling, add in your pasta (you'll want about half to two-thirds of a box of angel hair pasta). With the chicken removed, make sure there is enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, if not, add a little more and let it warm up (or you can add some butter if you want that flavor), then add in the mushrooms and diced garlic and stir/saute until the mushrooms have softened, about 3 minutes. Once that's done, pour the alfredo/wine sauce from the saucepan into the saute pan and reduce heat to medium, stirring occasionally. Let the pasta sauce simmer for a few minutes and stir gently to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan.

With the chicken on the plate or cutting board, cover each chicken with sage by laying whole sage leaves across the top of the chicken cutlets, then cover each with a slice of the proscuitto (or however much it takes to cover it if the cutlets are large). Once you have them all arranged, gently place back into the saute pan and lightly spoon a little of the sauce on top of each cutlet, then cover the pan and let simmer for about 10 minutes. When the pasta has reached al dente (usually about 9-13 minutes depending on brand), remove it from heat and strain the water out and plate the pasta on shallow bowls or plates. After the chicken is done simmering, place a cutlet next to the pasta and spoon some sauce onto the pasta and the chicken and then sprinkle on the goat cheese crumbles and serve!

Rework

So I read the book Rework and it's really got me thinking about starting my own business, even if it's just on the side as a hobby of sorts.  However, I'm not quite sure of the right way to go about it.  I thought at first that I could come up with some kind of small business web-design company with some of my friends, but I don't really think that's going to work.  For one, I don't think, when I really got down to talking about it, that that task seems really all that interesting or challenging or at the very least rewarding, and I guess that's kind of the idea behind going off on your own.

Then I thought I'd be able to make some kind of snazzy application that would save the world, or like some Android app that would set the world on fire, but you know, I don't know any of those coding languages (yet?) so that's kind of a speed bump.  So I guess until I come up with a better idea that involves things I do know how to do, I'm back to my old fall back: food.  Caitlin thinks I should buy a food truck and sit outside her work at breakfast and lunch and apparently I'd make a ton of money because their cafeteria sucks.  I've also always wanted to open my own restaurant, even something as simple as a little diner or cafe.  But of course, either of those two things require some serious up front money (or at the very least good credit to take out a loan) which I don't really have or want to use if I did.

Maybe I can somehow get work as a shopping helper, since I seem to be plenty good at that (right Gina and Angelina?).  I can listen to what people want, do research for an hour and come back with one or two things at the right price that're going to be the best product for them.  However, I suppose it's hard to get paid for that.  What do I post craigslist ads?  Go work at Best Buy again? Simply wait for word of mouth from my Mom to all her friends who don't understand technology enough to figure it out on their own?  Even I have to admit it's pretty crappy to charge them for that.  I guess I'm back to the drawing board.  I mean I love my job, but everyone wants to have a job that they really enjoy, that is challenging and/or interesting, and being your own boss would really be nice.  Hopefully inspiration will strike me and I'll come up with some great thing. . . who knows, maybe it's this blog?

Time to show off the house! Part One

Okay, so I'm starting to fall behind on these things, man, for someone who talks so much when given the chance, it's really hard to sit down and write something every day (or even every couple days). So the weekend before last, we finally had our house mostly finished with everything, cleaned up, and ready to go for some guests. Since we were having a cookout/housewarming bash last weekend, we had Caitlin's parents, her mom's parents, and her mom's BFF Aunt Ra (who was our Realtor and saw the house in it's 'Before' state) over for dinner. Now, that's a diverse group, and frankly, not one dish would feed them all, so I whipped up a couple different dishes and let everyone go to town. I made smoked chipotle-lime tilapia filets and smoked chicken leg quarters with my spice rub along with some tomato-basil-mozzarella-balsamic salad, some baked spiced red skin potato wedges and chocolate mousse for dessert.

It seemed like everyone had a good time. The In-laws were impressed with our deck and master bedroom now that we're finished, and Aunt Ra raved about the changes we implemented in the house since we bought it. Also, the Seahawks won at home against the Chargers and I actually got to watch some of it thanks to the magic of NFL Sunday Ticket online streaming and my brother having to work overtime (sorry dude!). So, all in all, a fine day with no complaints. On to the recipes:

Chipotle-Lime Smoked Fish

4 or 5 pieces of Fish (I used Tilapia, but swordfish, or just about any other white fish would do)
1/2 Cup Chipotle Mayo (Recipe Below)
1/4 Cup Lime Juice
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
Spice Rub for crust

In a small bowl, mix together the Chipotle Mayo, Lime Juice and Oil and brush on the fish. Shake or sprinkle with spice rub to give a nice crust while cooking. Smoke fish at 200 to 220 degrees for 60 to 90 minutes and remove from smoker. Once removed from the smoker, brush on more of the sauce mixture and sprinkle with another coating of spice rub. Then cook on either the grill or the oven broiler for 5 or 6 minutes to crisp up the fish. The sauce mixture should keep the fish hydrated while forming a nice crust on the top.

Smoked Chicken Leg Quarters

The smoked chicken leg quarters are quickly becoming a favorite in my kitchen. First of all, the chicken leg quarters (ie a leg and a thigh still connected) are extremely cheap compared to other more "desirable" chicken cuts (namely boneless skinless chicken breasts) at a regular price of about $1.29/lb. Second of all, they're also perfect because they'll smoke in about 2 hours (so I can make them for dinner on a week night) and for most people it's just the right portion, and for those that it's too much, they can just cut the leg or the thigh off.

So, if you have a smoker, it's pretty easy to make these. First thing you do, is mix about 1/3 C of vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar because it's a little sweeter, but you can use whatever kind you want) and 1/3 C olive/peanut/avocado oil together and then brush liberally onto the room temperature leg quarters. Then shake on as much spice rub as you can get to stick and let that sit for about 20 minutes so the spices can soak into the chicken and skin a bit. If you are making these by themselves, or with other high-temperature items in the smoker, you'll want to smoke them at 275 degrees for about 2 hours (until their internal temperature is at least 165 degrees).

However, if you're going to make them with the fish, as I did above, well, you have to make them a little differently. In that case, you'll smoke them with the fish at 200 degrees for about an hour and then remove them from the smoker and place them in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. In addition, while they're baking, put in a 13x9 pan (preferably glass/pyrex so it won't warp) on the bottom shelf half full of water. That will help keep the chicken moist and mimic the water bowl most smokers use. Just check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer and make sure they're 160 or higher and you're good to go!