Back to the Pioneer Woman's Recipes!

I saw this recipe a few weeks ago and had it on my "to do " list. It's fairly easy, doesn't take too long and is darn tasty. My choice for a Sunday dinner after working for 5 hours (yeah, I know, not long) was Chicken Parm.

I made a few changes to her recipe - but the heart of it was the same. Namely, I didn't use 1/2 cup olive oil! That's WAY too much. I only used the olive oil when cooking the chicken - instead of butter. I don't need no stinkin' butter (really, I love butter, but I definitely don't need to cook with that AND olive oil). Also, I used one BIG can of plum tomatoes. I got these at Trader Joes - they also had basil in them. They were whole tomatoes, yes, but I took out my immersion blender and pureed those puppies before putting them in the pan. What else... no parsley. Not a big fan. I used some Penzey's Tuscan Sunset in the sauce instead. It was AOK. Finally, last but not least, I didn't serve it with pasta. Don't hate me, I just didn't need to be weighed down with pasta. I just served it with some roasted broccoli (which, by the way, is great! Try roasting your fresh broccoli - a little olive oil, a little salt. Yum.).

I almost forgot my favorite part. Deglazing. I am in love with the smell from wine when deglazing. If I could deglaze every meal I would. Don't know what deglazing is ? It's takinga  liquid -- in this case wine -- and disolving all the lovely carmelized bits off the bottom of the pan to make a sauce. Try it. You'll love it.

Not serving with pasta did leave me with a lot of extra sauce, so I packed it up and put it in the freezer. I couldn't let all that beautiful sauce go to waste.

So, this was a winner. Definitely a future dinner. Both David and I had none left and we could have eaten more. the picture looks like the chicken is huge -- but no -- I serve my meals on small plates. I learned that your brain thinks you eat more when you have a full plate. It didn't work this time.

The Best Grits, er Polenta, I Ever Made.. Y'all

Once upon a time, before I fell in love with New Mexican chiles, Colorado peaches, and Wisconsin beer (and cheese), I grew up in the South. It wasn't really the 'true South' since we lived on the coast with an expanding flux of New Yorkers and New Jersey folks overtaking the beach-side real estate. However, half of my family was fairly southern-like (my Dad's side has a strong accent), and we all certainly loved southern food, fried and fatty. Every week I was fed grits for breakfast, topped with butter, salt and pepper - as any good Southerner should consume grits. I didn't know what decent oatmeal tasted like, or whatever 'cream of wheat' was (sounded disgusting to me at the time).

I never knew what grits were really made of - corn, sure, but the rest was a mystery. It didn't occur to me that grits are the same as cornmeal. NO! Oh yes, it's true. I never realized that corn, ground into different consistencies, becomes cornmeal, grits, and that I'll-never-cook-hominy. My mom, being a good pseudo-Southerner (she's from LonGisland but moved to the South when she was just a wee one), once made the faux-pas mistake of asking for 'grits' in a snooty Colorado health-food store. 'Oh, you mean 'POLENTA' was the storekeeper's response. Needless to say, my mom rolled her eyes and gave him a glare.

Tonight I cooked Creamy Parmesan Polenta (GRITS!) with Sauteed Cherry Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella Topping. It calls for coarse-ground cornmeal (none of that inferior stone or, god-forbid, quick-cooking). This is one of those rare quick-to-make Cooks Illustrated recipes.

This dish was fantastic. Ok, so it passes one of my important criteria: lots of cheese (2 kinds - whoo hoo!), but the sweetness of the tomatoes combined with buttery, cheesy grits was really really good. Really good. The best grits I've ever tasted. Yo. Y'all.

The Soup That Greens Are Made Of

I laughed out loud earlier this week when I discovered that I'd picked yet another Rachel Ray recipe by accident. The accident is due to the Food Network Magazine, which I have been receiving in the mail for the past year or so (since it began). Therefore I'm picking the recipes that look good, completely unaware that many of these are Rachel's. Like I've said before, I don't usually like her recipes. And yet, here I am enjoying the 3rd dish of hers since the beginning of the year. Guess I'm ready to take that original statement back.

Tonight I made Potato, Spinach and Artichoke Soup. It's good, not great. I like it for all the spinach and artichokes (love them both). Oh, and there's cheese (parmesan). I'm fairly sure that no kid would touch this unless they're big fans of green veggies.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce with Pasta

I sat down today to try and find a recipe that perhaps, maybe, possibly by some remote chance EVERYONE would like. I thought this would be the one.

Nope.

But, I tried something new & different and also tried a new skill that I hadn't used before. I did this. On purpose.

I roasted a red pepper. I had never done this before. Basically, I put the peppers under the broiler for about 10-15 mins and turned them every so often until the skin was black. Took them out, let them sit for a min or 2, then placed them in a ziploc bag for about 10 mins and peeled the charred skin right off. Then I threw them in my mini food processor and ended up with this good looking sauce :

 

I was following yet another recipe by Ree Drummond - The Pioneer Woman. She has some of the best recipes - not the healthiest recipes - but the tastiest. And of course her photography rocks. The recipe can be found here. Now, I have to admit that I didn't use cream. Perhaps I should have, but I didn't. It was very light and I think the cream would have made it heavier - you can decide for yourself if this would be a good thing or a bad thing. 

Oh, back to my success/failure rate. My son liked it at first. After eating it for a bit, he said he didn't. I think it's because it got cold. I am frugal and have the house set at low temps during the day (it was set at 65 this afternoon) so it did get a bit cool. I think for him, cream and a warm bowl would have held his interest. He can use the cream though. He's skin and bones. Me, not so much. My daughter.... shot down completely. She got a nice bowl of pasta with olive oil and parm. No extra meals here.

I probably won't make this again until I can get good fresh red peppers. This was good, but not incredible. It lacked that something special I think fresh produce could bring.