....no matter what you call it, it's pretty tasty. Another new recipe from my Joy of Cooking cookbook. I swear, this book has never steered me wrong! Easily the best money I've ever spent on a cookbook. It really seems like no matter what I try from its pages, it is guaranteed to be delicious.
The chicken was not as tender as I would have liked it, and I'm not sure if it was just a tough piece of chicken to begin with or if I overcooked it. Chances are, it's because I overcooked it. I tend to do that... probably because, quite frankly, chicken scares the crap out of me! All the reports I read about salmonella - not just regular-make-you-sick-for-a-couple-of-days salmonella, but antibiotic-resistant salmonella that will absolutely tear you inside out and wring out your guts for you... Too graphic? Maybe. But that's what I think about when I consider eating undercooked chicken. So I guess I can gladly deal with tough meat now and again...
I've never cooked much with paprika, but I'm really developing a fondness for the smoky spice. It really goes well with rice, infusing it with a lot of flavor and a really gorgeous orange-red color. The frozen peas, thrown in right at the end, add a great splash of color and a nice fresh taste to it as well.
The garlic bread, toasted on a griddle, probably added more starch than what is good for me...but I couldn't help myself. I have a severe weakness for breads and pastas, and I just couldn't let my loaf of bread get stale, could I? Nope, definitely not. :)
We very recently had the incredible pleasure of having house guests from Japan. My husband's cousin Jake, his wife Chie and their daughter Hana came to stay with us for a few weeks to get a much-needed reprieve from the disastrous events in Japan. While the circumstances of their visit were terrible, we were so happy to have them here and to have the opportunity to get to know and fall in love with the three of them. And, just as importantly, learn from them - especially Chie! :) I discovered in our Japanese cousins kindred spirits. I don't know how many times I looked at Ron and then at Jake and said, "You two are just alike!" And the same for Chie and I - we found much in common, especially a love for good food!
For tonight's dinner, I took a lesson from Chie and made korokke, which is the Japanese term for a French dish, the croquette. We decided Mondays from now on would be meatless, or very close to, as often as possible. So I made mashed potatoes, then sauteed carrots, onion and garlic in a drizzle of olive oil and mixed it all together, along with a handful of frozen peas. I made patties of the potato mixture, coated each patty in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, and fried them in canola oil. I tried to copy Chie's sauce, and I know that I didn't get it quite right, but it was good anyway - it is somewhat similar in taste to A1 sauce: ketchup, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and a little sugar. The korokke and a salad made for a really nice, super tasty, light meatless dinner.
Not all of the korokke were quite so well done, but I was nice and let my hubby have the more golden ones. =P
The amazing thing about this dish is that a little goes a long way. I only had six smallish potatoes to make, and I used a small onion and a handful of baby carrots, and we had plenty - PLENTY - of korokke to fill us up! I used about a half cup of flour, two eggs, and only about five slices of bread for the breadcrumbs.
I can't claim that my korokke were as good as Chie's.......but I think they were close :) So thanks again, Chie, for the knowledge and the experience!
..."because I can" is the response I get. My stepson Cameron is on the track team, and I am normally a big supporter of his sports and anything that keeps him active. But today, track fell to the very bottom of my list of favorite activities. Oh yeah, it dropped well below basketball, which was previously my least favorite. =P Aside from having to drive more than an hour to get to our destination by 8:30am, it was just barely above 40 degrees, and worse, it was raining. It rained the entire morning we were there... Fortunately for all of us involved, Cameron only had 3 events, and they went quickly, so we were only there for a few hours. But we were so cold...and wet....and miserable. Our Starbucks treat was not just much desired, but well deserved for our suffering! lol
I had trouble getting warm the rest of the day, though, so I decided soup was on the menu for dinner. Just the thing to get us toasty and full and happy again. And, of course, chicken noodle is the old standby, one of my favorites! Very basic, just carrots, celery, onion and orzo pasta in chicken broth with a sprinkling of thyme and basil. I like orzo better for chicken soup because then you don't have noodles flopping off your spoon as you're trying to take a bite. :) A grilled ham & muenster sandwich rounded it out nicely.
And for dessert... strawberry shortcake. It's still a bit early for fresh strawberries around here, but I happened to stop by the display at the grocery store the other day and I couldn't resist sniffing the big red berries...and they smelled so sweet... I think they may have even called my name...lol. The shortcakes are just a tad overdone, but they had a really nice flavor, and the bit of crispness actually complimented the fluffy-creamy-heaven-that-is-real-whipped-cream and the sweet-tart strawberry slices.
All in all, even though it was a miserable day for a track meet, it turned out to be a decent day! I think the sun even tried to peep out from behind the clouds a few times... :)
I get into terrible food ruts. Sometimes, no matter how hard I think about it, I just cannot come up with any decent meal ideas. So I decided I needed to assign particular types of meals to each day of the week: Monday is ethnic, Tuesday is chicken, Wednesday is pasta, Thursday is soup when it's cold and salad when it's hot and some combination of the two when the weather is in between the extremes. And Friday? Friday....is Pizza. I love pizza. I have always loved pizza, for as long as I can remember. I've had really good pizza and I've had really bad pizza, and I'm pleased that my homemade pizza falls quite solidly on the really good end... :)
Tonight, I cooked for 5 of us. My husband Ron and I live with his parents, and his sister joined us for dinner. Ron and I are Catholic, so we have been following the Lenten rule of no meat on Fridays. I made 2 pizzas - one with meat, and one without.
I've been using Fleischmann's pizza yeast for my crust. It doesn't need time to rise before putting it into the pan. I've been really happy with the results every time I've used it. I even made my own sauce this time! I started with a drizzle of olive oil in a skillet, garlic, basil, oregano and a little crushed red pepper, then added a 28oz. can of diced tomatoes, salt to taste and a dash of sugar to balance the acidity, and let it simmer away until much of the juice was gone. Pepperoni and sausage with onions and mushrooms on just one half of this big pizza. I didn't have any of it, but I'm told it was tasty. =P
The other pizza was topped generously with mozzarella, onions, mushrooms and orange bell pepper strips, and a sprinkle of oregano and grated Parmesan over the top. The crust was chewy and delicious and the veggies were hot but still had a bit of crispness to them. Sooo yummy!! Despite the lightness of the toppings, two slices was just enough to fill me up. :)
For some time now, I've been worried about yogurt. I love the health benefits of yogurt and what it does for a body in terms of digestion. However, I have texture issues with some brands... If it's too grainy, I simply can't eat it. Yoplait Original has a wonderful texture and a wide variety of flavors, which I love. But the amount of sugar.... {sigh} I am trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup wherever possible, and trying to cut back on my sugar intake in general. And I can't stand artificial sweeteners, so going Light was just not an option (besides, they contain HFCS as well). So I stopped eating yogurt altogether for awhile, because I just wasn't sure the calcium and digestive benefits outweighed the heavy sugar content.
But I missed it... a lot. So I started looking again, and I discovered that Yoplait Original no longer has HFCS in it!! This makes me so happy! It still contains 33g of total carbohydrates, 26 of which are from sugars... but it's just sugar, and not HFCS. So maybe I can live with that...
Welcome back to my diet, Yoplait Original yogurt... You, a cup of coffee and a piece of toast with peanut butter are a good way to start my day. :)
