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

I'm Lovin' It!

Browsing over my post-vacation to-do list, I realized that the one chore I was dreading the most was menu planning and grocery shopping. I don’t know what it is about the “food” part of my life that feels like drudgery to me. I don’t necessarily mind the cooking--but the shopping and price checking and meal planning just wears me out.

Instant Menu
So when I logged onto MyRecipes.com after not visiting the site for several months, I was intrigued to see a “Week 9” menu plan. I clicked on the tab and my whole day instantly improved. Not only did the kind people at MyRecipes.com create a fabulous, healthy menu, but they made me a downloadable shopping list!

Good Eatin'
I know from experience that the recipes on this site are almost universally good. Even better, my husband loves them so I know I won’t get any wining out of him. Needless to say, I copied the list, hit the store, and now can kick back with a week’s worth of healthy, tasty meals ahead of me. Suddenly the worst chore on the list was the easiest.

Happily for me, they also have Weeks 1-8 online too, so you can pretty much guess what we'll be eating for the next couple of months.

To visit this menu-planning-wonder for yourself, click here. Or share your food tips by posting a comment here.

Previous Related Posts:
Back to Basics Project #1: Meal Planning
Leftover Challenge
Cooking Mania, and why it's helping me be more intentional
Cooking Extravaganza: the details

The Food You Crave

I was recently introduced to The Food You Crave, a cookbook by Ellie Krieger.  Maybe you are familiar with her--Ellie has a show on the Food Network, and a website called Healthy Living with Ellie.  

Now, I am not a cooking afficianado.  Most of Martha Stewart's recipes are too fancy for me.  But every now and then I'll stumble upon a book that I like, and I like Krieger's.  First, her recipes seem simple enough.  Second, they are tasty.  And third, she is a dietician, so she talks a lot about healthy eating, and her recipes are well balanced.  

Since this is a blog about being domesticated, I thought I would pass along her name in case you might be looking for some new ideas.  I'm personally in a bit of a cooking rut (it happens to me quite frequently...), and could definitely use the inspiration.  

In addition to her cookbook, she does offer a membership program for a minimal monthly fee.  To be a member, you get pre-planned menus (which can be a godsend if you don't like to plan yourself), calorie counting tools, recipes, shopping lists, motivational encouragement, and the like.  I don't think I'll join, but it's worth checking into if you like a little more accountability in your quest for health. 

This post is part of August's Summer Squeeze series.  

Any good tips, services or products you're enjoying during these last days of summer?  Please share by emailing me at shillberry@comcast.net!

Recipe Resource

Since writing about wellness yesterday, I thought I would give some kudos to a great recipe site that I discovered earlier this year, myrecipes.com.  

This site has not only helped me to organize weekly menus and shopping lists, but the recipes are tasty.  It is easy to search for healthy fare, and most of the ingredients are simple and easily located in the aisles of your average grocer.  And it's free!

Last week I blogged about my growing conviction about food waste.  Incidentally, after exploring some of the ideas on www.wastedfood.com, I was not surprised to see that menu planning is one of the easiest ways to prevent loss.  Fortunately, websites like myrecipes.com make menu planning easy.

All of this highlights an important theme that I keep pondering as I post: intentionality.  The lifestyle of a modern housewife is an intentional one.  And the fruits of this intention are (you guessed it) greater wellness, less waste, more creativity, more resourcefulness, more relationships, and apparently better food.  Cheers to that!