Lemon Roasted Chicken with Salad & Dilled Orzo

Is it just me or did anybody else not know that Orzo is actually a variety of pasta and not rice? For some reason or another (hmm... maybe because it looks a whole heck of a lot like rice), I was always under the impression that orzo was one of those hipster, upper-class kinda rices. Like say, arborio... or, I don't know ... risotto :) 

While shopping with a lovely colleague of mine in the Byward Market last week, we popped in to the ever-so-wonderful La Bottega (I just love the guy with the huge pipes cutting that massive block of cheese ...). She was looking for dried spanish sausage for one of her famous Philippino dishes and I just wanted to go for a walk and get out of the hospital for a few minutes. Needless to say, lo and behold, there it was in there - smiling back at us from the pastas from around the world aisle. Only 2.00$.  I thought to myself, "I'm going for it." And so did my friend. She too had never dived in to the exciting world of Orzo.  I managed to scrounge my delightful neighbour Karen`s last dregs of her fresh dill before she tore up her garden for the summer. We frequently share veggies and herbs over our fence - it`s a great system we`ve got going! 


The end result: This recipe was pretty yummy. The dill in the Orzo was a really different, kind of zingy taste that went along pretty well with the lemon. I have to say though that the two of us enjoyed the lemon chicken a whole lot more than the orzo and dill. Jeremy thinks that it might have been better if maybe if there was a `garlic infused` oil or something to spice up the orzo a bit more. That or you could just serve up the chicken with a nice veggie side dish. Up to you. It`s still very good, just maybe lacking a little something in the orzo. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Bon appétite!



Ingredients (to serve 4):
- chicken (about 6 1/2 pounds), cut into 10 pieces
- 4 garlic cloves, smashed
- 2 lemon, quartered
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 3 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 1 cup orzo
- 1/2 teaspoon dried dill
- 2 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
- greens for your salad


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Set a large saucepan of water to boil.
2. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss together chicken, garlic, lemons, oregano, and 1 teaspoon oil; season with salt and pepper. Roast chicken, skin side up, until golden and cooked through, 25 to 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, generously salt boiling water. Add orzo, and cook until al dente; drain well, and return to saucepan. Add dill and 1 tablespoon oil; season with salt and pepper, and mix gently to combine.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar and remaining 2 tablespoons oil; season with salt and pepper. When chicken and orzo are ready, add arugula to bowl; toss to coat. Drizzle chicken with pan juices, and serve with lemon wedges, orzo, and your salad.

Caraotas Negras (Venezuelan Black Beans)

Kavi, this recipe goes out to you. Little TJ sure did seem to enjoy these beans on Jeremy`s Venezuelan birthday dinner night :) 

When I first laid eyes on my husband to be, little did I know what yummy culinary dishes his family would introduce me to. 
For those who didn't know, Jeremy grew up in Venezuela. Right downtown in Caracas. His parents had moved there to start a new church. Jeremy recounts fond memories of freshly-squeezed orange juice from an abundance of inexpensive oranges, delicious fruits we`ve never heard of here and of course, as is the custom in most South-American food repertoires, bundles and bundles of BEANS. The beans, or, `caraotas,` that were an all-time favourite were made up in a special black bean dish that was an essential part of "Pabellon Criollo", Venezuela`s national dish (pictured above). When Jeremy & his family moved back to Canada, they were confronted with a very scary fact: nobody knew how to make the infamous caraotas negras!!   Apparently, in Venezuela, you can just buy a 'package' of caraotas negras seasoning at the 'marcado'. I don't know what this would be like here... sloppy joe sauce? taco seasoning? ... Needless to say, it took a long time and lots of trials to get this family recipe right. These beans are really, really yummy and a good dish to make at the beginning of the week for lunches. They work well as a topper for arépas as well, which I`m sure I will blog about at some point soon (the arépas are the little corn cakes in the upper right corner of the picture). I also think that it`s a good thing to eat more beans. Beans are so good for you and we hardly eat enough of them.  A cup of beans goes a very long way. Do enjoy & bon appétit! 


ps - a little tidbit from the Jerms: if you`re going to do your beans in a pressure cooker to speed things up a bit, don`t pressure cook the onion. It will completely spoil your meal. Also, WATCH THE SALT. This dish is also easily spoiled by adding too much salt. 


Ingredients:
- 2 cups black beans, dried 
- pork (hock, ribs, riblettes etc.)
- 2 chopped onions
- 4 cloves of crushed garlic
- 1 tbs. cumin
- 2-3 tsp. salt
- 4 tbs. freshly chopped cilantro
- 1 chopped green pepper


Directions:
1. Soak your beans overnight. Rinse them out in the morning and put them in the slow cooker with the meat.
2. Add water to cover the beans and cook on high all morning.
3. In the early afternoon, add the chopped onions, garlic, cumin and salt. 
4. Before serving in the evening, remove the bones from the meat and shred the meat. 
5. Make a pot of rice...
6. Add the fresh cilantro and green pepper to your beans. Serve hot on a bed of rice.  

Puff Pastry Chicken Pot Pie. Oh baby, oh baby.

I still remember my dad buying dozens upon dozens of chicken, beef and turkey pot pies from the little old ladies at our first church in Corunna. They would bake up hundreds of these little guys over a weekend and sell them as a fundraiser. You could tell what kind of pie it was by the C, B or T marked-out on to the top of the pie by the prongs of a fork. For years we had oodles of little pies in our downstairs freezer. My dad just loved em'. Absolutely loved em'. So here's to you daddio, have mum make you a yummy puff pastry version! 

I adapted this following recipe from Ms.Martha into something that makes just a bit more sense for me. It’s quicker (it should only take about an hour, rather than all day, and even less time if you have a rotisserie chicken or chicken left overs instead of poaching your own - turkey of course is another great option), and I don’t mind saying the finished product doesn’t suffer one bit. This version is also simpler to serve and to save, as long as you have a few little oven-safe bowls. Heats up great the next day.


A little forewarning, this recipe is still a little involved, but not too crazy. The ingredient list is a mile long but most of these items you should have already. I didn't have a couple of things on the recipe but my little guys turned out great, so don't worry about the wine or freshly chopped parsley if you don`t have the on hand ... you get the idea! Bon appétit! 

Ingredients (to make 4 generous servings in 16-oz oven-safe dishes)
- 1/3 pound frozen puff pastry (that is to say half a box)
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 medium-large onion, chopped
- 2 medium potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 medium peeled carrots (about 8 ounces), cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 large cloves fresh garlic, diced
 - 1/3 cup white wine (I used about a 1/4 cup lemon juice)
- 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup milk
- About a pound and a half boneless skinless chicken breasts, poached and cut into small bite-size cubes
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (or about 2 teaspoons dried parsley)
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon water
- A sprinkle of garlic powder

Directions:

1. Prepare pastry. Thaw puff pastry according to package directions and roll it out on the counter to about 1/4″. Place all four of your dishes upside-down directly onto the puff pastry, with about 2″ space in between. With a knife, cut a circle around each bowl, leaving about 1″ of pastry visible around the edge. Place the dough circles on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and stick it in the fridge.

2. Place a rack in lower two-thirds portion of the oven. Preheat your oven to 425 (375 if it’s a convection).

3. Make filling. In a large heavy-bottom pot, melt 3 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Add onion, potatoes, garlic and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes and carrots are fork-tender, 10 to 12 minutes. (It’s gonna smell like delicious home fries this whole time. Do your best not to eat it right out of the pan.)  Add wine and cook for 30 seconds. Add flour, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Pour in chicken stock and milk. Bring to a simmer; cook until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in chicken, peas, parsley, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to your four dishes and let them cool on a rack for about 5 minutes.

4. Make egg wash. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, extra egg yolk, some garlic powder, and 1 teaspoon water.

5. Assemble pies. Remove dough circles from refrigerator, and brush surface evenly with egg wash. Place each circle egg-wash-side-down over a bowl, pressing lightly to seal overhanging crust to the side of the dish. Brush top surface of each pie with egg wash. Cut a little X in the middle of each pie to allow the steam to vent.

6. Bake. Transfer pies to a parchment- or foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes; cover loosely with aluminum foil to prevent crust from burning, and continue baking for 25 minutes more.

7. Serve hot, but not too hot. Give it a minute. A chicken pot pie will just as soon burn you as look at you, so either make sure these little suckers don’t see you coming, or go do something else for ten minutes before you dig in.

Quiche Lorraine

So I've been wanting to make a Quiche for a long time. A very, very long time. Problem is, my husband doesn't like 'eggy' dishes. No frittatas, no omelettes, and, of course, no quiches. I think that, deep down, we all really want our husbands, children, mothers in law et al. to enjoy what we cook for them. Given that my man doesn't like eggy dishes, I decided to pack this particularly eggy dish with lots and lots of meat. And CREAM. Delicious, yummy, real cream. The cream that he's been anxiously awaiting for me to open so that he can enjoy some super rich, creamy coffee.  As a little aside, I agree that the bacon, cheese and cream do not make this a particularly LOW FAT recipe, but we`re just eating a wedge right? ... Right?
So after the initial, "Oh No! Not Quiche...", I'm delighted to report that the non-eggy (neggy?) guy really enjoyed this quiche-extraordinaire. While I must admit that I was lazy, and, as usual, bought my pie crust, it really didn't matter. I got a big smile and an empty plate and isn't that all that really matters? Bon appétit!  

Ingredients:

- 6 slices bacon cut into 1/2" pieces
- 1/2 cup onions, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup Swiss/Gruyere cheese, diced or grated

- 1/2 cup chopped ham (optional)

- 1/2 cup chopped, steamed broccoli
- 9" partially baked pie shell
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 cups cream
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- white pepper (go with black if that is all you have)

Directions:

1. Cook bacon until almost crisp. Remove it from the pan and drain on paper towels. Sauté onion in 2 tablespoons of bacon drippings until tender.

2. Preheat oven to 450ºF. Bake the pie shell for just a few minutes. Cover the bottom of the partially baked pie shell with onions, bacon and cheese. Beat eggs and cream together with the salt, nutmeg and white pepper. Pour all into the pie shell.

3. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 350ºF and bake another 15 minutes.

Squish Squish Squash

I love butternut squash. Just love it. I thought that I'd share this yummy post from ... Martha ... with 31 different recipes to try with butternut squash. Every now and then she posts "Seasonal Produce Recipe Guides" that are fantastic. If you're keen, you may enjoy her sweet potato version as well. Bon Appétit! 

Walnut Crusted Chicken & Salad

I have a most wonderful, caring and very detailed-oriented family doctor. I believe that I'm one of his most frequent flyers with all of the visits I have to see him for with my back. I know most of the nurses by name and vice versa. A couple of years ago for my yearly physical, my doctor sat me down and wanted to know all about how much I was exercising, was I getting enough sun and, subsequently, vitamin D, how was my Calcium and Iron levels, and finally, how many nuts was I eating a day? This last question took me completely by surprise. Never before had I had a doctor ask me about my nut-intake. Like I said though, he's VERY detail oriented. After he popped the 'nut' question, I had a momentary flicker of panic as I realized that I barely ate ANY nuts. That day I decided to change my foolish ways and stock up on nuts. Lots and lots of NUTS. Thank you Dr. Eveleigh for swaying me from the error of my ways :)


This recipe is another high one on the yum, yum, yum, yum, yum factor. As you can see, I've been trying out different kinds of chicken crusts lately (see peanut crusted chicken a couple of weeks ago) to try to a) use up the unbelievable amount of nuts I have in my baking cupboard and b) not let my doctor down. This recipe is pretty easy and you're baking your chicken, which is nice. The recipe calls for an 'oven proof' skillet, which, of course, we didn't have, so I just lightly fried them and then popped them on to a PAM'ed baking sheet. Bon Appétit! 


Ingredients:

- 2 slices whole-wheat bread, dried 

- 1/3 cup walnuts (toasted)

- 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, freshly grated 

- Coarse salt and ground pepper

- 1 large egg white 

- 4 chicken breast halves, boneless and skinless (6 to 8 ounces each) 

- 1 tablespoon oil 

- Lemon slices, for serving 

- Seasonal green salad
Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a food processor, combine bread, walnuts, and Parmesan; season with salt and pepper. Process until fine breadcrumbs form. Transfer to a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl, beat egg white until frothy.
2. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dip each breast into egg white, letting excess drip off, and then into crumb mixture, pressing to adhere.
3. In a large nonstick ovenproof skillet heat oil over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until lightly browned, 1 to 3 minutes. Carefully turn chicken over and put skillet in oven. Bake until chicken is golden brown and cooked through, 8 to 12 minutes.
4. Serve chicken with lemon slices and green salad.


ps - apologies for the stock photo this time :( 

Tortilla Cups with Yogurt & Fresh Fruit

This month in Everyday Food, Martha had a series on anything and everything "muffin-cup" that wasn't, well, muffins (I'm sure that in the weeks to come you'll see 'Muffin-Cup Mini Pizzas" or "Eggplant Feta Phyllo Muffin-Cup Pies"...). I have to hand it to that lady and her team of incredibly creative culinary ... cookers. They really are quite ingenious with their endless string of new recipes. I had a lot of fun making these guys up for a dessert this week. The only thing I'd recommend is actually BRUSHING the butter on because I just dribbled and rubbed the butter in with my hands and got many a butter-burn. In the end though, they look gorgeous and can be made with pretty much any kind of fruit you have hanging around your kitchen whispering, hey, I'd look so darn good in a  sugar-dusted tortilla cup... 


In the picture, these guys look quite well cooked because we made ours with whole wheat tortillas. The original recipe called for white tortillas but hey, go with what you've got. Use whatever kind of yogurt you'd like too. Bon appétit! 


Ingredients (for 6):
- 6 flour tortillas (the small 6`` kind)
- 2 tbs. unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tbs. granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
- 3 tbs. brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups fruit like berries, peaches, plums, nectarines etc. etc.
- 1 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with melted butter and sprinkle both sides with granulated sugar. Lay tortillas over 6 jumbo muffin cups (tortillas will overlap). Bake until tortillas are soft and pliable, 3 minutes. Remove from oven and, with the bottom of a glass, gently press each tortilla into a muffin cup so it folds up and forms a cup shape. Bake until tortillas are crisp and golden at edges, about 12 minutes. Immediately remove tortillas from cups and let cool completely on a wire rack, 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together yogurt and 2 tablespoons brown sugar. In another small bowl, toss together fruit, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and lemon juice. To serve, divide yogurt mixture among cooled tortilla cups and top with fruit.

Chicken & Sweet Potato Puff Pastry Hand Pies

All I can say about this next post is that I had been awaiting this day my entire cooking life. I had always wanted to work with puff pastry, but, as I believe most of us do, always assumed that it was incredibly difficult. Reserved for the kitchens of the Cordon Bleu. Unreachable. I so desired  to take that culinary leap of faith. To just go for it. To reach for the PUFF. The buttery, flaky, melt in your mouth PUFF. When I saw this recipe in, once again, Everyday Food, I knew that my time had come. I`ve included some step-by-step pictures of these little guys in case anyone of you goes astray. It really was a miracle in the oven, watching these little guys, well, PUFF up. I have to say too that my husband just LOVED me when I made these pies. He absolutely loved me. Who doesn`t love to be loved? 


The possibilities of different dishes with puff pastry really are endless - just check out Pepperidge Farm's Puff Pastry recipe webpage (most appropriately located at puffpastry.com) which my mum and I have been gigglingly exploring this past week. We served up our pies with some broccoli baked up with some yummy swiss cheese. YUM. Bon appétit!


Ingredients:
- 1 cup roasted sweet potatoes, mashed
- 1/2 cup heavy cream 
- 1/4 tsp. ground coriander
- 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
- coarse salt and pepper
- all purpose flour, for rolling
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (thawed) 
- cooked chicken, cut into bite-size pieces (approx. 1 cup) 
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- greens for the side (beans, broccoli, brussel sprouts?)


Directions:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 400F. Peel your sweet potato and slice into 1/2" circles; align on a lightly oiled baking sheet and drizzle with a small amount of olive oil. Bake for about 20 minutes until the potatoes are tender through. You can do this a day or two ahead of time to save time if you want.
2. In a medium bowl, mash your sweet potatoes with a potato masher. Add the cream (we just used light cream), coriander and cumin; stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Cook your chicken....slice in to teeny tiny pieces.
4. On a floured work surface, roll out puff pastry to a 12-inch square and cut into 4 squares. Divide your sweet-potato mixture among the bottom halves of the squares, leaving a good 1/2" border. Top each with 1/4 of your chicken and then brush your edges of the pastry with some egg. Fold top halves of squares over filling to make a triangle, then crimp edges with a fork. With a sharp knife, cut vents in pastry and brush with remaining egg.
5. Transfer to a parchment lined rimmed baking sheet and bake until golden and crisp, about 30 minutes, rotating your sheet half way through. 
6. In the meantime, make up whatever veggie it is that you're going to be serving as your side dish. For our broccoli, we blanched some fleurets, tossed them in the oven with some swiss cheese on top and just let the cheese melt. YUM. 


Here's the step by step instructions: 

This is HALF of the puff pastry sheet. It took 2 hours to thaw or you can pop it in the microwave on LOW for 2-5 minutes in its cellophane wrapper.

Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin to 12 inches... this was surprisingly easy!

After cutting your pastry in to 4 pieces, plop in your filling! Make sure that you leave about 1/2 an inch from the outside edges so that you can get a good clean seal. 

This is what your finished product should look like before putting it in the oven with the crimps and slits cut in and then covered with egg. Be proud, be very, very proud :)

Puff pastry ... to come.

I am in the process of developing my food menu for the week and am super keen because I plan on finally breaking forth into a new and unexplored frontier in Giles cooking - the much sought after, most delectable hero of all pastries: the PUFF. My newest edition of Everyday Food magazine arrived in the mail this week and I am super keen to try their chicken & sweet potato hand pies.


This coming week is going to be a little sad - we`ll be eating at home only THREE of the seven days. One of those days will be a birthday meal out though and we`re going to try out a seasonal kitchen a couple of doors down from us called the `Fraser Café' . It`s come highly recommended by anyone I know who`s been there, so maybe I can shoot a couple of pictures for the blog.


Until then... bon appétit!

Peanut-Crusted Chicken with Corn on the Cob

This post is a big koodos to my most wonderful and very talented husband, Mr. Jeremy Giles. While I worked away on my endless stream of OT-related paperwork, he made dinner. What a lovely gift for a tired girl. Given that he laboured away in the kitchen, I think that it's only fair that he be featured on the blog - I love you honey! 


I decided to try this recipe on a whim when I saw peanut-bits at the bulk-barn. I'd remembered seeing this recipe from, guess guess, Everyday Food, and thought we'd give it a try. In this recipe, the peanuts lend a really nice, golden and crispy crust to the chicken (we used 'chicken tenders' instead of full breasts to save some $) - and, because the dish is baked, there's no need for a frying pan which is always nice. Other nuts, such as pecans or walnuts, can be used instead. For my 50$ a week frugalista food budget though, peanuts it is! Corn on the cob was a really nice side dish. I have yet to figure out a way of eating corn without it getting all smashed up in my teeth though. Bon appétit! 


Ingredients (for 4):
- 1 tbs. olive oil, plus more for baking sheet
- 3/4 cups roasted unsalted peanuts
- 3 slices white sandwich bread, torn into small pieces
- coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 large eggs
- 4 pieces of boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 1/2 to 2 pounds)


Serve with:
- side salad & corn on the cob


Directions for the chicken:
1. Preheat oven to 475F. Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet. In a food processor, pulse peanuts and bead until coarsely ground. Transfer to a shallow bowl; whisk in the oil, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper
2. In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs; season generously with salt and pepper. Add chicken and turn to coat. Working with one piece at a time, lift chicken and let excess egg mixture drip back into bowl; dredge in peanut mixture to coat completely, gently pressing to adhere. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake (without turning) until crust is browned and chicken is just cooked through 10-15 minutes.

* Sunshine Salad *

Today I felt like living vicariously through my dinner. This Saturday in Ottawa has been nothing been dark clouds, rain and all-around gloom that I'm not even sure a care-bear stare could break though, but at least dinner is nice and cheery :) Okay, so the name's a little cheesy, I know... but look at how beautiful it is! This is a fun and simple meal to make. If anything, I am happy for yet another outlet for my oodles and oodles of tomatoes. It's hard to tell in the picture, but there's sliced avocado under all of that mess. I took a picture of my husband with an avocado mustache and am debating if I should post it on the blog. Giles' have fun at dinner, what can we say? While I have your ear, I`d like to put a word in about avocado safety. How dangerous can that cute little green vegetable be you may ask? Well, let me tell you. While I was an OT student at a Hand & Upper Limb clinic here in Ottawa, avocado was the only full hand piercing vegetable-related injury I saw over my 6 week rotation. And not only did I see it once, or twice, but THREE times. You'd be surprised at the number of people who use a ridiculously smart knife to try to pry the avocado pit open and end up stabbing themselves through the hand. So, beware. Cut and pit smartly. 


I thought that I'd mention as well that oddly enough, I noticed that I'm posting 2 "toasted nut" variety dishes in a row. Once again, you really shouldn't skip the step of toasting the almonds in this salad. It makes a huge difference in their taste and texture. To make it easy, I just throw in a handful of them into the same pan as the chicken when the later is cooked through. I'm not a huge fan of salad dressing, but you can top this salad off when your favourite. I'm thinking a fruity raspberry or poppyseed might be nice. Bon appétit! 


Ingredients:
Really... this is quite `loose`, you can add anything you want, but, to be specific..


- green leaf lettuce
- cherry tomatoes 
- orange, sliced and peeled
- toasted almonds
- avocado, halved and then sliced thinly
- mango, sliced 
- chicken, diced and pan-fried
- 1 greek-style pita 


Directions:
1. Prepare your chicken by cubing it and then pan frying it with a small amount of olive oil.
2. Prepare your salad fixings... arrange on the middle of the plate
3. Lightly brush both sides of your pita with olive oil. Toast it in your toaster oven or broil it in the oven. Slice in to triangles and arrange around the edge of your dish.
4. When chicken is cooked,  add almonds to frying pan and toast for about 3-5 minutes on medium heat. 
5. Top the salad with the cooked chicken and almonds. Enjoy!


Teehee... here's the picture of Jeremy's avocado mustache .... Shhhhh. Don't tell :)

Linguine with Creamy Walnut Sauce

I've decided that I'm going to dedicate this post to my dear friends Simon and Jenna. Before they moved to far-far away land, we would often get together and try really yummy dishes. I really, really miss those days. Simon and Jenna, you guys need to try this recipe. It's delicious, incredibly flavourful and can be made vegetarian. We decided to add some chicken for fun but this meal would pack lots of protein from the nuts. I was delighted to be able to use some fresh red and green onions from our garden for this meal. I have to say that the 1 cup of cream this recipe calls for doesn`t exactly make it a `fat free` or even a `light` dish, so, that said, indulge and enjoy a heavier meal for once. To really enjoy this meal, don't skip the step of toasting the walnuts. It really does make a big difference! The salad is from my first and presently only Kitchen Musings` correspondent, the most lovely Laura Stouffer. Once again, koodos goes to Martha and her Everyday Food crew. Bon Appétit!


Ingredients:
- 2 cups toasted walnuts
- 1 clove garlic (I did 2 1/2 and it was very garlicky... good, but very garlicky so go with what you like :)
- linguine for 4 (spinach linguine would be good!)
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1-2 pieces boneless skinless chicken, cubed and pan fried with a bit of olive oil (optional)
- 1/2 a red onion, chopped
- 1/2 a red pepper, thinly sliced length-wise
- approx. 1 tbs. olive oil


Directions:
1. If you're making this meal with chicken, start by browning your chicken. 
2. Prepare your pasta according to the package's directions until al dente. 
3. Toast your walnuts - if you have a toaster oven, lay your walnuts out on the tray and toast for 3-4 minutes until they smell nice and walnutty. If you don't have a toaster oven, you can toast them either in a frying pan by turning every 30 seconds or so on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes or on 375F in the oven about 7-10 minutes. Just watch the little guys carefully because I ended up with a lot of burnt walnuts because I felt like I needed to toast mine again. Needless to say the fire alarm went off just as our guests were arriving!
4. When chicken is fully cooked, add chopped red onion, cook until fragrant approx. 3-4 minutes, then add your red pepper and cook another 3-4 minutes until tender. You may need to add a little bit more olive oil to keep everything from sticking.
5. Make your sauce: in a food processor, combine 1 cup of walnuts, the garlic and the 1 cup of heavy cream. Blend! You could probably do this with a hand-blender or one of those magic-bullet thingamagiggies. 
6. Your pasta should be ready by now - strain well and return to the pot. Pour a small amount of sauce on the chicken mixture and the rest on to the pasta. Add your additional 1 cup of walnuts to the chicken mixture.
7. Serve by placing the chicken mixture on top of the pasta (don't mix it in as it usually all goes to the bottom... trust me!). Enjoy!


Salad recipe to follow :)

Cornmeal Muffins

Yesterday I was in full baking mode. And when I say full baking mode, I really mean full baking mode. I made blueberry muffins, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, Turtle brownies and then, to top it off, these yummy corn bread muffins (or 'moofons' as my sister and I call them). I brought them along to a Birthday/House Warming  Party of a dear friend of mine. Chili was on the menu and these guys go along very nicely with the spice. I was rather pleased with myself I have to say, when I received the compliment not once, but twice (!), that mine was the best corn bread these two different  individuals had ever tried. Jeremy had to burst my bubble by biting in to his own bubble, a baking powder bubble that is, and exclaiming that this was by far not the best cornbread he'd ever had. That said, when you're making these muffins, just make sure that your baking powder is well sifted :) Bon appétit!


Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup corn meal
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/3 cup softened butter


Directions:
1. Set oven to 375F, grease your muffin tin. Mix all of your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle.
2. Mix the eggs, butter and milk in a bowl until well blended. Pour the wet mixture in to the well of the dry ingredients.
3. Mix until just moistened (batter may still be lumpy) for about 10-15 minutes or until your muffins look golden brown along the edges. Again, be careful not to over cook them. This time is pretty loose as my original recipe includes neither time, directions or temperature. 
4. Serve warm! Enjoy :)

Chicken Quesadillas ... Olé!

Tonight for dinner we had super easy, super yummy chicken quesadillas.  I was a little sad that we didn't have any sour cream or yogurt to accompany them, but hey, what can you do. Quesadillas are also pretty tasty with salsa, pico de galo or guacamolé. We like to make our quesadillas on our griddler which is a super handy little appliance that cooks both sides at once (a la George Forman) and means that you don`t have to master the slightly tricky quesadilla hand flip. You can also serve up your quesadillas as appetizers if you`re feeling keen. I hope that the proportions for the spices are right because this is a hand-made Giles` recipe and I`m more of a `dash of this` and a `dash of that` kind of cook. Bon appétit!


Ingredients (makes 4):
- 1 piece of boneless skinless chicken
- 4 large whole wheat tortillas 
- pepper (either red or green), chopped
- green onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup lentils
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1 tbs. cumin (to taste... not exactly sure on this one)
- 1 tbs. chili  (again, to taste... )
- plain yogurt or sour cream 
- 1 tbs. olive oil


Directions:
1. Boil lentils until soft and tender, rinse clean.
2. While lentils are boiling, boil your chicken. When cooked through, shred with 2 forks.
3. Combine all of your ingredients (save the tortillas and yogurt/sour cream) in a large bowl. Toss to coat with the spices. 
4. Brush one side of the tortillas with olive oil. Fill one 1/2 of the non-oiled side with approx. 1/2 cup of filling, sprinkle with cheese. 
5. Either cook on a grill or in a frying pan with a light coat of olive oil. If cooking in a frying pan, cook on medium heat and cook each side until golden brown.

Shiitake Fried Rice

I found out today that Jeremy now has classes Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night. I wasn't too happy to hear this. When I'm home alone, I'm very tempted not to cook. I'll either not eat or I'll make myself a bagel or just eat a bowl of cereal. Needless to say, the box of Mini-Wheats still on the table from breakfast this morning was looking pretty darn good. Then I remembered that I'd bought all the ingredients for this yummy dish and told myself that I don't need a husband to eat good, healthy food. Plus he was pretty excited to come home to some yummy fried rice. This homemade version of the Chinese stanby is a great way to use up leftover rice. This recipe is a little different in that, instead of cooking the egg directly with the rice, you prepare it like an omelet and then slice it up and fold it in with the rice. Lots of fresh, clean ingredients in this dish - the vinegar and freshly peeled ginger give it some nice zingy flavours. Happy cooking and bon appétit!


Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups water
- coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1 tbs. oil 
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced diagonally
- 10 oz. shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps thinly sliced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tsp. minced peeled fresh ginger
- 6 oz. snow peas, stem ends and any strings removed
- 2-3 tbs. soy sauce
- 2 tbs. rice vinegar
- chicken if so desired, diced


Directions:
1. Make your rice.
2. While rice is cooking, heat 1 tsp. oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add eggs; swirl to coat bottom of pan. Cook, without stirring, until set, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, thinly slice into strips.
3. Pan fry chicken with small serving olive oil, add onion and cook until soft and fragrant. Add carrots; cook, stirring until beginning to brown (4-6 minutes). Add mushrooms; cook, stirring until tender (3-5 minutes). Stir in garlic, ginger and snow peas; cook until the peas are bright green and crisp-tender, about 2-3 minutes.
4. Add cooked rice rice, soy sauce and vinegar; toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Fold in the sliced egg and serve.