Lost Mojo

I cooked dinner last night and it was horrible.  Nothing was hard, I had no problem prepping the food.  It was the outcome.  I'm a big Emeril fan so when I saw a recipe for Braised Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms it sounded like something I might really enjoy.  It also has great reviews. The outcome for me was greasy sauce, undercooked chicken (that could have just been my paranoia), and the white rice I made was terrible.


Final Product:

Even if my rice had been good, I think the sauce is just way too greasy.  Anytime you cook chicken with skin on and bone in, in a sauce that already has oil and butter in it, you are going to get a mess.  I was so excited to try this recipe too.  Chicken thighs are much cheaper than chicken breasts and I need a new thigh recipe.  Sadly this one will not be sticking around.  You can try the recipe if you dare, maybe you will have a better outcome than I did and you can tell me where I went wrong.  I hate to even admit what happened to the leftovers...they were trashed.  Neither of us finished our dinner and neither of us would have wanted the leftovers.  So sad. 


The biggest problem I'm having is cooking rice.  I can cook basmati rice pretty well. Put white rice in front of me and I am sure to ruin it.  What am I doing wrong?! Does anyone have any tips?  The rice last night ended up mushy and crunchy!  How is that even possible?!  We will either only be eating basmati rice or boxed rice until I can figure out how to cook rice.

Oh and somehow I managed to move our chicken spoon rest into the flame that was cooking the rice and it cracked and broke.  I love that chicken spoon rest and now it's damaged goods.  I forgot to take a picture.  I'll take one and post it tonight.  I almost cried.  Only I could manage to break a spoon rest this way. 

Chicken Tikka Masala and Minestrone Soup...Not on the Same Day!

I'm positive I've mentioned my love of Indian food numerous times now. Nothing I make at home ever tastes as good as what I get here. Of course I can't always afford to eat out every time I'm craving some Indian flavors. Chicken Tikka Masala is one of the ways that I appease my craving. It's a simple dish to make and if you are not sure about Indian food this is probably one of the more tame dishes to try.

I'm getting much better when prepping my food. I've found a comfortable way to chop onions and you will need one onion chopped for this recipe. For the rest of the prep you will need to crush 1 clove of garlic, grate 2 teaspoons of ginger, and cut 1 1/4 lbs of chicken breast into 1 inch chunks. Nothing too difficult or time consuming.

Your first cooking step is to get your basmati rice started. You have to use basmati rice when making Indian food it's so much better then the normal white rice. If you don't have a cinnamon stick to add to the water, you can add some ground cinnamon like we did this night. Heat oil in a skillet and add the onion and cook for about 6 minutes. Next add the ginger, garlic, and curry paste (I also added a little Tikka Masala Paste too; not necessary I just wanted to finish the jar), cook for 3 minutes. Add the chicken, some salt, and black pepper and cook until chicken in not pink on the outside. Then add 1 can of crushed tomatoes, cover the skillet and cook for 5-6 minutes more. Once the chicken is cooked uncover the skillet and stir in 1/2 cup of half-and-half and the cilantro if you can eat it. That's it. Simple, easy, tasty and cheaper then take out!

Tasty, tasty!! We enjoy this dish a lot. I recommend it to any of you!

On to the Minestrone Soup. I'm constantly looking for ways to exclude meat from our diet. It much healthier to eat meatless a few times a week. I'm not saying you should cut out meat from your diet every day, but a couple times a week is definitely heart healthy! Soup is also something I'm a big believer in making because it's normally quite easy to make and you usually have leftovers for lunch the next day.

This soup was great. I'm really glad I found this recipe in Food Network Magazine. So as not to bore you with all the details of how to make this recipe I'll just let you know what's in it. The main ingredients are onion, garlic, celery, carrot, green beans, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, elbow pasta, and parmesan cheese. There are a few other basic ingredients, but if you like all of the items I just listed you will like this soup. Now start cooking! This will be great leftover! Next time I make it I'm going to double the recipe and freeze what we don't eat. Super yummy and basically healthy. I love soup! Have I told you guys that yet! Delicious!

Final Product:

My next two posts will be the beer brewing process and the results of the tuna noodle casserole. Let's just say I didn't hate it.

Tandoori Chicken Skewers

Day 4-Have I told you how much I hate cooking? Today after work, I had to make four stops at varies places. By the time that I arrived home, not only was I ravenous (I hadn’t eaten enough during the day), but I was exhausted. The last thing I wanted to do was cook, but the first thing I wanted to do was eat! Now! Pronto! I suggested to Anthony that we do a joined effort (well first I called it a conjoined effort, I think I was mixing up the words combined and joined). At first he was having none of it. He asked me what I needed help with, so I pointed to the recipe and said that. Then he proceeds to tell me how to cut the onion for this recipe, which is not what I wanted from him. Remember people I was starving and tired, never a good combination. So I left the room. Next thing I know there he was ready to help cook. Yay!

We have made these Tandoori Chicken Skewers/Kabobs before, but we don’t do it often enough to not use the recipe. Anthony got busy chopping veggies, he decided to make his own rice and not use the box rice I had bought (yes I bought Rice-a-Roni, what are you going to do about it?!) We cooked up basmati rice with carrots and peas. This takes awhile about 30 minutes, so prepare for that. I personally think basmati rice tastes much better then that regular old white rice.

Meanwhile we (okay Anthony) had chopped up the onion and chicken. The chicken has to sit in a marinade of yogurt, lemon juice, cilantro (we used parsley, Anthony doesn’t eat cilantro. Crazy, I know!), salt, pepper, garlic and tandoori paste (you can find this in the ethnic foods section of your grocery store) for 15 minutes. Tandoori is mild (even though it has cayenne pepper in it) and has a smoky taste to it. If you are just introducing yourself to Indian flavors, it’s a good choice to start with tandoori. Here’s the kind I used: Tandoori Paste

Next, we built the skewers: onion, chicken, onion, chicken, etc. We made nine skewers from three boneless chicken breasts. The recipe calls for the chicken skewers to be broiled, but this is the summer and there is nothing better then using the grill. Well there is nothing better then Anthony using the grill; I’m clueless when it comes to grilling. If you are going to grill the skewers, give yourself more time. It takes longer to grill them, then to broil them. Once your chicken is just about done throw your naan bread (you can buy this at Wegmans, I’m not sure about other grocery stores) onto the grill for a little bit.

Final Product:

I don’t even have to tell you I would make this again. I love this recipe every time we have it. It’s so delicious. Indian food is one of my favorites; I can’t get enough of it!

Totals: 20 minutes prep time, 30 minutes cooking time, 1 pot, 1 grill, 1 bowl.

This recipe is from: Cook’s Encyclopedia of 30 Minute Cooking

If you want this or any other recipe that I’ve made, please contact me. I’m still trying to figure out if there is a place on the blog where I can include a catalog of the recipes. If anyone has any ideas let me know. I think it’s too much to put the recipe into the actual post.

Sausage and Zucchini Rice

Day 3-The mood in the kitchen was not a good one. I was frustrated almost from the start. As I was taking out the ingredients, I was getting mad at them. Some examples of my anger: pine nuts (why do I have to toast you? why can’t I buy you already toasted?), zucchini (how the heck do I cut zucchini? why did I pick a recipe with a vegetable in it?), parmesan (I wish I didn’t feel that buying the already grated was a such waste of money!), and onion (AGAIN!!!! WHY?!!!). Am I the only person that feels like this?

I guess 3 days of having to cook is 1 too many for me. The pine nuts ended up a little too toasty. I chopped the onion and decided to call Anthony (my husband, he is allowing me to us his name) in and have him show me how to cut the zucchini. I was a bit spastic (by spastic I mean mad and lacking patience) and ended up having to cut the second one on my own (I couldn’t quite grasp how to make zucchini square, but does it really matter what it looks like? Isn’t taste the important factor?). After butchering the second zucchini and grating the dang parmesan, I was ready to cook.

The recipe originally calls for white rice and hot Italian sausage, but I like to make things a little healthier and more nutritious. So, I substituted the white rice for brown and the Italian sausage for poultry sausage. Once I got the rice started, I moved on to the sausage. The sausage out of the casing felt and looked icky. Trying to crumble it into the pan was useless; all I ended up doing was squashing it a bit. As it was cooking I tried to break the sausage up like ground beef, but it wasn’t as easy. I finally accomplished it. Next it was time to take the sausage out and throw the zucchini in. Now I’ve eaten zucchini plenty of times, but never cooked it. So I know basically what it should feel like when it’s done. This was only supposed to take 4 minutes (are they crazy?!), it ended up taking around 10 minutes. Maybe it was my terrible cutting of the zucchini, but I still don’t think it would only take 4 minutes to get it tender.

Then the recipe gets even screwier. The sausage needs to go back into the pan (with the zucchini) with 1 cup of chicken broth and ½ cup of water. After pouring in the chicken broth, there was no way I was adding the water. It would have been a watery mess. I thought 1 cup of broth might have been overkill. Once that is heated through you add the rice (the rice also took longer to cook then what the recipe said). Maybe that’s why you need the chicken broth, but definitely DO NOT use the water. It would end up too wet.

Final Product:

Overall thoughts about the recipe: The brown rice and poultry sausage were great changes to the recipe. Who cares how the zucchini is cut as long as it’s all roughly the same size. DO NOT use the water. Buying Parmesan cheese already grated is still a waste of money. And give yourself more time then what the recipe says, in case your rice and zucchini do not cook as fast as the recipe says.

I would definitely cook this again. I loved how it tasted. Yum! It felt pretty healthy too, minus the butter. Although I think the butter is part of the reason it tasted really good.

Totals: 25-30 minutes prep time, 30-40 minutes cooking time, 2 pots.

I’m giving myself a break tonight and not cooking. We will be having frozen pizza. Rochester pizza and people from New Jersey do not mix. It’s been decided in our household that we would much rather eat frozen pizza, than have any pizza in the area delivered to us. The crust is way too thick and the sauce is too sweet. There will be more on the pizza topic later.

Where to find the Sausage and Zucchini Rice Recipe-

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-index/dinner-recipes/Sausage-and-Zucchini-Rice