Chicken Wellington

A recipe passed down from Mom!

This is a kind of time-intensive recipe, but not technically hard to do. Just give yourself plenty of time before you planning on serving, and prep ALL your food before cooking- it makes things 10 times easier.

Ingredients:
1 package Frozen puff pastry sheets
Dried thyme
Salt and Pepper
8 boneless skinless chicken breast cutlets
5 tbs butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/4 lbs mushrooms, finely chopped
Dried parsley (or, if you want to get fancy, 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley)
1 package Cream Cheese
Dijon mustard
Egg wash (an egg and water mixed together- optional)

Prep work: Dice the onion and mushrooms, and put together in a bowl. Take a small bowl and combine the spices. Cut up the chicken, and set out a bowl for the cooked chicken.

1. Set out the frozen pastry sheets to thaw and the cream cheese to soften to room temp. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Cut chicken into smaller pieces, and sprinkle with thyme, pepper, and salt. I combine the thyme, pepper and salt in a small bowl, then roll the pieces of chicken in it to thoroughly coat. You'll end up using a large part of the thyme, but the more spices, the better the flavor!



3. Heat 3 tbs butter in a skillet, add chicken pieces and brown. Remove chicken to a bowl, and add the remaining butter to the same pan. Heat, and saute the onions and mushrooms until tender (you'll see the color change and juices begin to collect). Stir in parsley, turn off heat, and let cool while you prepare the pastry.




4. On a lightly floured surface, roll each puff pastry sheet (it is easiest to do one at a time) to a 14 in. square. Cut each into 6 squares.


5. Mix the cream cheese and dijon together in a bowl. The recipe calls for 3 oz cream cheese and 2 tbs dijon mustard, but I find I usually use about 6 oz (from an 8 oz package). It is best to add in the dijon gradually to taste; I prefer it to taste pretty tangy, so usually end up using more like 4 tbs of mustard, but it is a personal preference.

6. Place chicken and mushroom/onion mix in center of each square of pastry. Add a spoonful of the dijon mix on top. Fold the pastry over and press together. Brush tops with egg wash if desired (it mainly serves to give the pastry a better color when it bakes).


7. Place in a greased baking dish, bake for approximately 30 minutes (until the pastry starts to turn golden).



Best served with broccoli or green beans... Oh yeah, and a ginormous cupcake cake for dessert!

Update on the status of Maddie and her cooking

A direct quote taken from an earlier conversation with Maddie:

Maddie: well i have a challenge for you. Me and jimmy want to make a cute, not expensive, not too hard valentines day lunch. Any ideas?

Now, my first reaction to this was "Oh, that is so cute! They want to cook together and make a nice little romantic meal!" I, of course, am envisioning a little table set with a tablecloth, maybe a candle or two, and some sort of hot food piled artistically on a plate.

This dream, however, was cut short by the next statement:

Maddie: we like buffalo chicken

Oh Maddie. We have so far to go...

This week's favorite kitchen tool

Today I'm going to introduce you to my new favorite kitchen tool. It is entirely possible that you have never heard of nor seen one of these before, or that you think I'm just making this up (ha faked you out!).

But this thing really exists, a fact made more clear by my misuse of said tool that resulted in me having to wear a bandaid for about a week. I do these things to teach by example...

So today, you should get excited about a Mandoline! After reading a recipe that called for the use of one, I obtained mine from Crate and Barrel for a measly $19.95 (Find it here!), and immediately decided this was a nifty instrument despite the potential for chopping off a digit or two.

This thing is perfect for making thin, uniform slices of vegetables, fruits, etc. It's definitely not an essential tool, and you have to be really careful when you are using it, but it is fun and makes me feel totally professional :)

Superbowl Appetizers

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Note: these are decidedly NOT healthy!

I made two appetizers for the Superbowl this weekend- both were big hits, both were very easy, neither were healthy (and, most importantly, neither looked like cat puke).

Buffalo Wings

Ingredients:
2-3 lbs chicken drumettes
1 12 oz bottle Frank's Hot Sauce
2 sticks butter
Canola Oil (err on the side of A LOT, i.e. a 48 oz bottle or so)
Tabasco Sauce

1. Pour the canola oil into a thick skillet or a dutch oven- the depth should be about 1.5-2 inches of oil (hence, erring on the side of a lot of oil). Heat the oil on medium to medium-high heat; keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't overheat, but you need to let it get pretty hot.

2. While the oil is heating, put the drummettes in a colander and rinse with cold water. I've read that this helps them fry... who knows if its true, but its fun!

3. Once oil is hot (it took about 10-15 minutes for mine to get hot), dump in your chicken drummettes, and immediately scrape the bottom with METAL tongs so as to make sure they don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Be careful (its not fun to have hot oil splashed on you). Cover with a splatter guard if you have one. Keep an eye on your chicken- it should take about 25 minutes for them to fry. You want them to be crispy and golden brown on the outside- if they aren't browned, keep them in a while longer. Just watch them to make sure they don't burn.


4. While your chicken is frying, make the buffalo sauce. Melt two sticks of butter in a medium saucepan, then stir in the entire bottle of Frank's. Remove from heat and stir it together with a fork, making sure it is well blended. Add in tabasco sauce to taste.

5. Once the drumettes are done frying, remove them (again, with METAL tongs. As much fun as it is to melt plastic stuff, I don't think that'd be an improvement on this recipe) to a paper towel lined dish. In batches, add the drummettes into your sauce, cover them entirely, then set them on your serving dish.

6. Serve with blue cheese (YOU'RE blue cheese!) or ranch sauce. The go-to celery sticks are a good side, but if you are trying to adhere to the whole not-healthy thing, I feel like that'd be going against that goal.



Jalapeno Treats

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:
About 20 jalapenos (try to find the smaller ones, about 1-2 inches long)
Two packages of cream cheese, softened to room temp
1 package of bacon
Toothpicks!

Note: NEVER, under any circumstances, bring your hands close to your eyes while working with jalapenos. In the interest of helping you out, I am imparting this hard learned wisdom. If you need to, scrub your hands like you are prepping for surgery, cause let me tell you- jalapenos in the eye is NOT a pleasant experience.

1. Slice the jalapenos in half, length-wise. Use a spoon to clean out the seeds and membrane (those are what makes the peppers spicy. If you want to retain some mouth-searing spice, leave a few seeds or some of the membrane in. This may or may not make you wish you were dead, but hey, its a personal choice).

2. Once the peppers are cleaned out, rinse them off to get rid of the extra seeds. Fill the peppers with the softened cream cheese, as full as you'd like. Something I noticed is that if you end up with larger peppers (which I did), if you fill the peppers up, that is a LOT of cream cheese. Again, personal choice.


3. Take the bacon out, and cut it in thirds to wrap around the peppers. If you have large peppers, you might not want to cut it into thirds (it may be too short to get all the way around the peppers). However, if you don't cut it into thirds, you may run into supply problems... it's a dilemma I solved by cutting into thirds, and occasionally doubling the bacon up on the large peppers


4. Heat your oven to 375. A trick for cooking these things- line a cookie tray with foil, and then place a metal cooling rack on top of the tray. Place the peppers on the cooling rack (you may need to cook them in 2 batches), so the bacon grease can drip to the tray below.


5. Cook for 20-25 minutes, and then serve! They go well with the buffalo wings because you can dip them in the blue cheese as well. Nummy.

Mushroom Bourguignon

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

This recipe is an adaptation of Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon. While we all love Julia's original, it is very-time consuming and labor intensive. That being said, once I came across a version of this meal that is quicker, much easier to make, and (allegedly) healthier for you, I was incredibly happy.

While this recipe doesn't call for nearly as much butter or fried meat, it still is rich and arguably better the next day. Because I like my pearl onions close to carmelized and very soft, I decided to rely on Julia's method of brown-braising instead of just tossing the onions in near the end.

Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs butter
2 lbs portobello mushrooms, cut in 1/4 inch slices (you can buy the pre-sliced, bagged portobello mushrooms as I did to cut down on time, or you can buy the mushrooms, cut them up, and save the stems for another use)
1/2 carrot, finely diced
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup full bodied red wine
2 cups beef broth + 1/2 cup for the onions (I sometimes use beef stock- when you buy them pre-made at the grocery store, there isn't much of a difference, but beef stock is traditionally thicker and tends towards a more jelly-like consistency)
2 tbs tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tbs all-purpose flour
1 cup pearl onions, peeled (thaw if frozen, but I have never used frozen)
Egg noodles for serving

Note: I would err on buying too much rather than too little beef stock (1-2 of those big containers at the grocery store ought to do it). If you buy too much, it will refrigerate for a decent amount of time, and they keep unopened for quite a while. You will use the broth for the bourguignon and for the onions, so it is pretty crucial.

Also, I tend to add more mushrooms and onions than called for (i.e. 2 1/4 lbs mushrooms, 2 bags of the mini-onions). They are the best part, and make the leftovers much more substantial.

Pre-peel your onions (it will take you a while, and make a big mess) before you start cooking!

1. Heat the one tablespoon of the olive oil and one tablespoon of butter in a medium Dutch oven or heavy saucepan over high heat. Sear the mushrooms until they begin to darken, but not yet release any liquid — about three or four minutes. Remove them from pan.



2. Lower the heat to medium and add the second tablespoon of olive oil. Toss the carrots, onions, thyme, a few good pinches of salt and a several grinds of black pepper into the pan and cook for 10, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for just one more minute.

3. Add the wine to the pot, scraping any stuck bits off the bottom, then turn the heat all the way up and reduce it by half. (At this point, if you want to make onions the Julia Child way, start the onions. See directions below). Stir in the tomato paste and the broth. Add back the mushrooms with any juices that have collected and once the liquid has boiled, reduce the temperature so it simmers for 20 minutes, or until mushrooms are very tender. Add the pearl onions (if you made the Julia Child version, don't add yet) and simmer for five minutes more.



4. Combine remaining butter and the flour with a fork until combined; stir it into the stew. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 more minutes. If the sauce is too thin, boil it down to reduce to the right consistency (I ended boiling mine down for about 15 minutes to make it much thicker). Once you have boiled down to your preferred consistency, if you made the Julia Child onions, add them now. Season to taste.

5. To serve, spoon the stew over a bowl of egg noodles, and dollop with sour cream (optional) and sprinkle with chives or parsley.



For Julia Child Brown-Braised Onions:
18-24 peeled pearl onions
2 tbs butter
1/2 cup beef broth
Thyme, parsley, and a bay leaf

Heat the butter in a pan; when bubbling, add the pearl onions. Roll them around until browned- they won't be browned consistently on all sides, but you want to see some color on them.

Once browned, add the herbs and the beef broth. Cover, and simmer for 40-50 minutes, until broth is absorbed. If you don't want to wait the full 40-50 minutes, wait until they appear carmelized, and add onions (and I prefer to add the left over liquid as well) into your dish.

An update on Maddie and her kitchen

For any random searchers that have come across this blog, or friends that like to check it out to validate me (hi Tina!! *waves*), I'm going to occasionally update people on the state of Maddie and her kitchen.

Today's update: Maddie's new kitchen pet.

Maddie: "Btw i have a new pet. his name is sparky. hes the baby cockroach that lives in the toaster."

For everyone out there who is new to the cooking world, a little hint- having a pet cockroach is NOT a good sign.

For the meantime, I'm going to come up with some cockroach-friendly, toaster-avoiding recipes. While I do so, I'd like to refer you to exhibit A: http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Roaches

Asparagus, Goat Cheese, and Lemon Pasta

From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 lb spiral-shaped pasta
1 lb slender asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbs finely grated lemon peel
2 tsp chopped fresh tarragon plus some more for garnish (if you don't have or want to buy fresh tarragon, just add dried tarragon to taste)
1 5 to 5 1/2 ounce log of soft goat cheese (not the pre-crumbled stuff)
Fresh lemon juice to taste

Note: don't forget to reserve 1 cup of the pasta water after boiling; it is a step easily forgotten or skipped over.

Cook your pasta in a large pot of well-salted water until it is almost tender, or about 3 minutes shy of what the package suggests. Add asparagus and cook until firm-tender, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain both pasta and asparagus together, reserving one cup of pasta water.

Meanwhile, combine olive oil, lemon peel, tarragon and cheese in a large bowl, breaking up goat cheese as you add it in. Add hot pasta and asparagus to bowl, along with a couple dashes of the reserved pasta water. Toss until smoothly combined, adding more pasta water as needed. Season generously with salt and pepper, and flavor with lemon juice to taste.