the Mighty Spud

Many of you read about my domestic backsliding from Friday's post. For the record, the scissors did make it off my floor and onto the table, but the bathrooms still have yet to be cleaned (ah...there's always tomorrow).

But since I started the conversation about trying just a little harder around home, I thought I would show you some shots from one of my favorite go-to meals when I'm really not in the mood to cook: the mighty spud.

Now, I rarely remember to actually put the potato in the oven when I'm supposed to, so I've developed a handy little procrastinator's trick to making a fluffy, crispy baked potato in a fraction of the time. Here's the trick:

:: take one or two potatoes (forked, of course, lest they explode) and put them in the microwave on high for at least 5 minutes. Conveniently my microwave has a "potato" setting so I just put the spuds in and hit Go.

As you might have learned, however, nuked potatoes are neither fluffy nor crinkled, so after the microwave is finished, I move on to step two: the toaster oven.

:: place the potatoes in the toaster oven on 400 degrees and bake (unfoiled) until the skins are wrinkled (about 10-15 minutes). They turn out just the way a baked potato should, minus all the waiting.

Then come the toppings. Judging by my photo above, you can see that I like cheese, carmelized onions (red is the best!), fresh chives and a little protein. I most frequently use chicken, but this time I sauteed up some deli ham (I was truthfully craving bacon but we didn't have any...).

Aren't they pretty all piled up like that?

For a final and NECESSARY touch I definitely don't forget the dollop of sour cream. I LOVE sour cream. A potato isn't a potato without it.

And yes, I do eat the skins.

Down to the last bite. Extra fiber, you know.

What are you eating this week?

Hearty, Healthy Winter Meal

After last Friday's post about cookies, I didn't want you all to think that I only eat sugar during the holiday season. Because although I have been enjoying more than my fair share of holiday treats, I have also been cooking up a few winter-worthy dishes.
Like this hearty braised-chicken stew that we had for dinner earlier this week. It is a favorite at the Hillberry house, partly because it tastes SOOO good, and also because it is one of the easiest one-pot meals to whip up any night of the week.
First you start with root veggies. Incidentally, due to my veggie share at a local farm, I have a lot of these stashed around. Too many, really. So many, in fact, that I have been desperately searching for ways to cook them up, thus clearing space for my cookies.
And this dish is one of my favorite ways to use up carrots, onion and potatos. With chicken thighs. Allow me to just declare for a moment that chicken thighs are my favorite of all the chicken cuts. They are so tender and flavorful and easy to cook.

I would eat them every day if I weren't already committed to that strategy with the cookies.
After the chicken is floured and herbed (as seen in the ziploc bag above), it is browned. As an aside, I am very excited for a new braising pot that I ordered recently, soon to arrive at my house. It will make this browning process oh-so-much fun. I'll probably feel compelled to blog about it, so be forewarned.
Once the chicken is browned, the carrots and onion are added. Do you notice the vibrant color of those veggies!? That, my friends, is the difference between locally-grown-from-the-farm and commercially shipped from who-knows-where. It is so pretty. Probably healthy too, but you all know how I'm more concerned with the "pretty factor."
Then comes the potatoes. I was a teensy bit alarmed when I cut into the spuds on the left and discovered their purple insides. But after determining that they were, in fact, perfectly fresh and not harboring some kind of fungus, I concluded that they must grow that way naturally.

Of course if I'm wrong and I die unexpectedly this week, you'll know why.
The chicken and veggies now simmer for half-an-hour or so on the burner with some chicken stock and white wine.

It doesn't even need stirring. In fact, I went upstairs during this step and worked the whole time it was cooking--that's how low-maintenance this dish is.
The final result is a hearty stew with a ton of flavor and the recommended quotient of healthy vegetables.

Which is almost as important as the recommended quotient of holiday cookies.

Almost.

To make this hearty dish for yourself this season, click here for the free recipe from Cooking Light!

Enjoy your weekend!

Day 4: a Cooking Student

Have I mentioned that I was a bit of a school nerd growing up? As in I always did my homework and never missed an assignment? And was a tiny bit obsessed with getting A's?

So naturally when Mrs. Marple instructed us to start in the kitchen on our quest for fine living, I took her seriously. True to form, I wanted to impress her with my scholarly diligence.

So I made chicken parmesan for dinner.

First I chopped up these lovely tomatoes, home grown from my friend who felt sorry for me after reading my "runt" post last week (thanks Sharry!), for the sauce.

And I blended them in my handy little hand chopper. It's probably one of my favorite appliances. But that's not surprising because I think smaller versions of big things (like food processors) are always adorable.

I like a little flavor and texture in my sauce, so I sauteed some onion and garlic....

And then added the tomato, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. On occasion I've also been known to thrown in a little chipotle for heat, but my little tryst with heartburn of late shut that idea down immediately.

Chicken parmesan is breaded, so I dutifully dredged my chicken breasts in egg and then seasoned bread crumbs. Then I cooked them in 1 tbs. of butter in the skillet until done, giving them a nice, crispy brown coat.


The final ta-da is to dump the cooked pasta (I used about 1/3 of a spaghetti package) into an oven-proof skillet, place the cooked chicken on top, sprinkle (or dump, as in my case) the parmesan cheese, and then pour the sauce over the whole thing. I broiled mine for 5 minutes or so until the cheese melted and everything looked all bubbly and delicious.

Then I served it with salad greens tossed in vinaigrette.

Of course cooking dinner wasn't exactly the point of Mrs. Marple's lesson. What she wants is a menu plan. So, again true to form, I did that too. I'll let you copy mine if you want--just email me at shillberry@stephaniehillberry.com for the pdf. Mrs. Marple probably won't notice.

She also gave us a hint about the next assignment--something about doubling up recipes to make life easier. I guess we'll learn more about that tomorrow.

Hope you have a great day!

Previous Days at the Institute:
Day 1: Acceptance
Day 2: the Secret to Fine Living
Day 3: Starting in the Kitchen

Day 3: Starting in the Kitchen

Mrs. Marple taught this morning that a good place to begin fine living is in the kitchen. Though this seemed a little archaic to us post-feminist types, she made some good points. Like how preparing fresh food is good for our health, and saves money, and provides opportunities for creativity. And how the kitchen is often the primary place for caring for friends and family.

Now I have to confess that I'm kind of hit-or-miss with cooking & meal planning, so I suppose that spending the next few days on the subject would be good for me.

Take for instance the dinner I made last night (thanks to Marple's encouragement). I've had these yellow "green" beans and zucchini in the fridge for awhile.

My ambition was to cook them days ago as part of a healthy, well-balanced dinner. But did I do it? No. Instead we've been eating tortillas with cheese and turkey sandwiches (in other words--foods that require no cooking).

I so often do this: stock up on good food with good intentions...and then end up passing over it in favor of convenience.

I'm not sure why this pattern is so tempting, though. It's not like cooking is so difficult, as Mrs. Marple reminded us. It just takes a little planning. Like with this cedar-planked salmon. It's a simple cedar board soaked in water with salmon placed on top--not difficult at all.


While I was preparing the salmon (with pepper...lots and lots of pepper), I thought about Mrs. Marple's comments about meal planning, and how important it is to at least make an effort at it.

And while the salmon was cooking on the grill, all cozied up in a foil blanket, I thought about how I know the importance of meal planning, but have a hard time disciplining myself to do it.

Frankly it often feels like a chore, and I get tired of the same repetitious recipes. But then I smelled the smoky, cedar goodness of this salmon, hot off the grill, and I considered that even hit-or-miss planning is WAY better than lunchmeat sandwiches and tortillas with cheese.

I mean, in less time than it takes to watch a sitcom I had made a well-balanced meal for just a few dollars.


And it tasted great!

So when Mrs. Marple assigned us a menu planning template as homework, I rolled my eyes at first. There are probably a million things I'd rather do than plan next week's meals. But after enjoying this salmon dinner, and how it beat the pants off of my previous weekly menu of handy convenience food, my attitude improved a bit. I guess you know what I'll be doing tonight...



How about you? What are your cooking/planning secrets? Share them by posting your comment here!

Previous Related Posts:
Project #1: Meal Planning
Flunking Homework
Food for Thought
Leftover Challenge

Coq au Vin

Okay, so I admit that part of the reason I decided to try coq au vin for dinner this weekend was because I like the name. "Coq au Vin." It sounds so French and fancy--I figured it must be tasty.


And the other reason I decided to try was that The Pioneer Woman posted her account of the dish and it looked so lovely on her blog. I swear I could hear the crackle of the bacon in the skillet, and smell the simmering wine sauce. (her photos, by the way, admittedly look much prettier than mine...)


First you have to cook the bacon. Personally I love bacon. I can hardly think of a dish that couldn't be improved with just a little hint of bacon. Okay--maybe ice cream...but that's about it.


Then you brown the chicken. At this point I was quite envious of the Pioneer Woman's large skillet. My smaller, non stick variety was certainly a tight squeeze for the whole chicken and it took FOREVER to brown.

See--this is why cooking is dangerous. Suddenly you start wanting to buy more skillets and fancy kitchen doo-dads. I don't have any more room for skillets and doo-dads!


Then you saute the carrots, onion, garlic and mushrooms* (*in a separate skillet). For the record, I HATE chopping carrots. I think they're my all time least favorite thing to chop. Always little orange pieces are bouncing off my cutting board and rolling onto the floor. And I can never get my knife to center on them just right. I'm carrot-chopping-challenged.


Then you dump it all--veggies, chicken and bacon--into a baking dish and prepare the wine sauce. My sauce, I confess, was a sad combination of a variety of red wines I had stashed around, including a "cooking wine" that I'm pretty sure contained no alcohol whatsoever and smelled like grape juice. I'll try to do better next time...


Finally, after one-and-a-half hours spent in the oven, the coq au vin is ready to pull out and serve over pasta. By this point it really does smell divine. I couldn't wait to dig in.


And of course it passed the most important test for food: it looks so pretty all dished out on the plate, don't you think?

And for a "fancy French dinner that would impress guests," it's actually quite affordable and would feed a roomful (we'll be eating leftovers for days!).

Try coq au vin for yourself (click here for the recipe from Pioneer Woman) and email me (shillberry@stephaniehillberry.com) to tell me how it went...or post a comment here about your recent cooking venture! I'd love to hear!

Previous Related Posts:
Peach Cobbler
What a Tart!
Pizza on the Grill

What a Tart

I promise this really isn't a cooking blog. Because honestly--there are a ton of those out there that are Way better than this! But since meal planning and cooking is a Huge part of everyday domestic life (and this is a blog about domesticity, after all), and I'm a bit camera happy when I cook, I thought I'd share about last night's dinner.

The meal: veggie & sausage tart with salad greens
The recipe: modified from September 09's issue of Real Simple magazine (I'd share the link but they don't have it up yet...)

I saw this dish over the weekend and knew immediately that I wanted to try it out. The basic filler consisted of zucchini (which we've been getting weekly from our local CSA), red potatoes and leeks (I substituted shallots) sauteed in olive oil.

Then I modified this meatless dish by adding one link of very tasty chicken sausage. It definitely boosted the flavor up a notch! I also substituted crumbled goat's cheese for the original feta the recipe called for, and loved the mild, salty flavor.

Then I made the pie crust using my handy dandy food processor.

Here's the tart before the oven...

And after... Ummm...look at that golden brown goodness.

I dished it up in wedges...

And served it with salad greens with vinaigrette.

It was a perfect summery dinner, and considerably healthier than the weekend's peach cobbler binge...

Have you tried any good recipes lately? Share them by posting your comment here!

Previous Related Posts:
Peach Cobbler
Feeding the Naysayers
Summer Weekends: Smores