Category Archives: Chicken

April 15, 2012 · 5:36 pm

Simple Asian Lettuce Wraps

You doubted me, didn’t you?  You thought maybe after moving, having a baby, and then going back to work that I just might forget about this little old blog.  Have a little faith, people!  Sure, it’s taken me a few weeks to get back into the saddle in the kitchen, and then a few more to make anything even worth sharing with you.  But, here I am. 

Granted, for a while, the recipes you see here might all fall into the category of “things you can cook with only one free hand.”  Or, “things you can eat hot… or cold, hours later, after the baby has finally gone to sleep.”  And the ever popular, “things you probably don’t even need a recipe for because they are so simple.”  If you hang in there with me for long enough, I’m sure at some point I’ll work my way back to the layer cakes of yesteryear, but for now, I’m all about simplicity. Continue reading →

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August 6, 2011 · 12:52 pm

Baked Chicken Meatballs with Peperonata

I’ve never really felt compelled to make meatballs.  Or even order them at a restaurant for that matter.  So many times, meatballs are just that: ground meat, with little else mixed in, shaped into balls and plopped in an only slightly more interesting sauce.  Before the protestations start, I’m sure that your Italian grandmother makes the best meatballs in the world and they are nothing like what I’m describing, but… I don’t have an Italian grandmother, ok?  I get a little jealous when one of my good friends talks about going over to her grandma’s to make Sunday dinner with meatballs and gnocchi and cannolis and all those other magical-sounding things.  So, suffice it to say, my experience with meatballs has been limited, and less-than-stellar.

That is, until I met these.  They’re made of ground chicken, of all things, which was one of the things that I never gave a second glance to at the grocery store.  I’ve tried it with turkey, too, and the results are just as good.  The great thing about these meatballs is that they aren’t heavy or dense- they’re packed with flavor, sure, but they don’t sit at the bottom of your stomach like a tomato sauce-covered rock.  They’re good served with a side of pasta, but kind of even better, somehow, on their own, with the peperonata.  I’ll admit that the first time I made these, I skipped the peperonata.  Ok, maybe the first two times I made them.  It kind of sounded like it wasn’t really my thing, and the meatballs are so good on their own, I didn’t see the point. Continue reading →

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July 17, 2011 · 3:13 pm

Lemon Roasted Chicken with Croutons

So I know that roasted chicken probably isn’t the first thing that comes to your mind when you’re thinking of an easy summer dinner.  But right around mid-summer, when I’m getting (only slightly) weary of grilled meats and salads and appetizer dinners, I started wanting something that more closely resembles a normal meal.  The only caveat here is that I still don’t necessarily want to stand around a thousand degree kitchen preparing said meal.  These are the conundrums of summer living in an old house. 
But the other day it came to me.  It’s not necessarily about not turning on your oven.  It’s just about not being in the kitchen when the oven’s on.  So it naturally follows that if you can come up with something that you can throw together, pop in the oven, and get out of dodge for an hour or so (my choice was the patio with a cool drink), you have a perfectly acceptable summer dinner option. And for those of you who have no idea what I’m rambling on about, because you have a blissfully air-conditioned, cool kitchen, then you’re probably already making roasted chicken at least once a week in the summer, right?  No?  Well then do I have a great recipe for you. Continue reading →

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May 28, 2011 · 9:40 am

Chicken Marbella

After a week of cooking things that left me feeling a little bit… dissatisfied, I think maybe I just need to go back to the basics.  Something that time after time, turns out well and makes me think that maybe I’m not a complete cooking failure.  Experimentation is all well and good, and admittedly, how I’ve come upon some of my all-time favorite recipes, but sometimes I need to take a step back and make something that won’t frustrate me, that won’t betray my hopes and dreams for it, and that won’t taste like a waste of time. 

Enter Chicken Marbella.  Is there anyone out there who hasn’t made this?  I hope not.  It’s one of those things that while somewhat impressive, is simple to make and really delivers in the flavor department.  Also, for some reason, it always makes me feel vaguely nostalgic.  I don’t really know why; I don’t remember eating this as a kid.  Actually, I’m positive I didn’t eat this as a kid, because there would have been no way that I would have eaten something with both olives AND prunes in it when I was a child.  I think it’s because it’s from the Silver Palate Cookbook, which was always on my mom’s kitchen counter.  Just the site of the book, with all its gorgeous pictures, brings me back to the house where I grew up.  Isn’t that strange?  They say that smell is most closely tied to memory, but I guess cookbooks do it for me, too. Continue reading →

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