Daring Kitchen

Remember a post or two ago how I was telling you that I joined a couple of blogging groups? Remember how I said I'd be posting another one of those blogging challenges soon? Well here it is! Apologies to everyone reading. I  honestly had no intention of having two posts with challenge recipes in a row. Today was tax day which means this past week has been nothing short of crazy. All back to normal thought his weekend.

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club. I went with the latter of the two recipes because it was a much quicker and simpler method. If I make it again, I'll certainly try the first one since it involves making your own stock.

 
I'm going to be completely frank with you. I was extremely hesitant to make this. I kept putting it off and waited to make it until the night before I was supposed to post it. It wasn't because I was afraid of my very first Daring Cooks challenge, oh no. It's because I have this serious obsession with corn being mixed into things. I used to never be this way, but now, just the thought of corn being mixed with stuff makes me shudder. Corn and I used to be the best of friends. Now it's all I can do to even eat it (sorry, mom, I'm not sure where it came from or when, I just don't like corn anymore). Anyway, I'm glad I did make the stew though. Even though I wasn't crazy about it, hubby went back for not one but two more bowls of the stuff. Said something like, "This is my ratatouille, takes me back to my childhood." He started to get up for a fourth bowl, but then I mentioned wanting ice cream and he backed away from the stock pot and grabbed the keys. Needless to say, he's pretty excited about having all of the leftovers to himself, and I'm pretty excited that something I wasn't too happy to make was such a big hit. Enjoy!

Brunswick Stew
Recipe by Virginia Ruritan Club

2 ½ lb TOTAL diced stewed chicken, turkey, and ham, with broth - yes, all three meats (we were told that we could make any changes such as vegetables we didn't like or switching out meats if we couldn't eat them; all I did was halved the recipe)

3 medium diced potatoes
2 medium ripe crushed tomatoes
2 medium diced onions
3 cups/ 689.76 grams / 24.228oz frozen corn
1 ½ cups / 344.88 grams / 12.114oz frozen lima beans (I also did not use the lima beans because neither of us would touch them)
4-5 strips crumbled bacon
½ stick / 4 tablespoons / ¼ cup / 56.94 grams / 2oz of butter
1 Tablespoon / 14.235 grams / .5 oz sugar
1 Tablespoon / 14.235 grams / .5 oz ‘Poultry Seasoning’
Dash of red pepper
2 diced carrots (optional)
Tomato juice

1. In large stock pot or Dutch Oven, mix all ingredients, heat until bubbly and hot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add tomato juice as desired. Cook until all vegetables are tender. Serve hot.

"Anyone Can Cook"

This past Sunday, I spent the day with one of my favorite little people in the entire world, my hubby's youngest sister B. B is nine years old, loves the color purple, and has a knack for making me laugh at some of the silliest things. We always play games, we always tell each other stories, and we always have fun together (I've been in her life since she was almost a year old). She's a more shy, younger version of me!

When I first got to B's house, she decided that she wanted to play Monopoly. Now this wasn't just any Monopoly, this was the Disney-Pixar Monopoly! The gamepieces were Nemo, Buzz Lightyear, that red car from that car movie I didn't like, Mike & Sully, and Mr. Incredible! You can't go wrong witha  cast like that! But the best one of all (and the one I got to play as) was Remy from Ratatouille. There's just something about a movie that has the message "Anyone can cook" that just tugs at my little heart.

I can't tell you what initially made me fall in love with the movie. We all know that the thought of a rat preparing a meal would make even the strongest stomach gurgle in protest. I can tell you that now that my favorite part of the movie, and why I watch it over and over again and get a tear in my eye (hey don't judge me!), is near the end when the food critic takes his first bite of Remy's ratatouille and is transported back to his childhood. The feelings of comfort and home overwhelms the great Anton Ego into waiting hours to meet the chef who is from very humble origins himself.

Ratatouille is a comfort food, and lucky for me and my goal of trying to eat healthier, is fairly healthy. Of course because the hubby and I are meatatarians we did have some grilled chicken along with it. To round out our healthy dinner we had a small salad and a chunk of fresh bread with some goat cheese. I borrowed this lovely recipe from Deb over at Smitten Kitchen and for once did not feel the need to do a thing to to it. Enjoy!

Ratatouille's Ratatouille
Recipe by Smitten Kitchen

1/2 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1 cup tomato puree
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small eggplant
1 smallish zucchini
1 smallish yellow squash
1 longish red bell pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Few tablespoons soft goat cheese, for serving

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.
3. Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.
4. On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.
5. Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.
6. Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.
7. Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. (Tricky, I know, but the hardest thing about this.)
8. Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.
9. Serve with a dab of soft goat cheese on top, alone, or with some crusty French bread, atop polenta, couscous, or your choice of grain

Something Healthy

"Hey, Sunshine, what's for dinner?"

"Quin...what?!?"

Quinoa, pronounced keenwa, is a grain that becomes light and fluffy when cooked. With a slightly nutty flavor, it is usually used as a replacement for rice (thank you, Wiki). I got this cool recipe from my godmother and decided to give it a try. Since quinoa is kind of different, I had to make a special trip to Whole Foods to get it (this trip resulted in a large purchase of cheese too).

This recipe is a healthier alternative to fried rice, although I didn't help matters by adding chicken to it. I just couldn't figure out what to serve with it so I thought I'd turn it into an entree and serve it with a salad. I even went so far as to make a ginger dressing that was pretty similar to the kind you get at Japanese steakhouses. It was yummy!

Feel free to play around. If you're on the vegetarian train, you could always use tofu if you're wanting to make an entree out of it. I added extra vegetables to mine to make it heartier. Of course I had to finish off such a healthy meal in an unhealthy manner: vanilla cupcake with a glass of milk. Still, it was a good meal. Enjoy!

Chicken Fried Quinoa

Recipe by my godmother, adapted by me

1/4 c quinoa

1/2+ c water (next time, I'll use chicken broth)

1 lb chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces

1/4 large zucchini

1/4 yellow squash

1/4 lb broccoli florets (about 1-2 heads)

1 carrot

1/2 onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp peanut and/or sesame oil, (I used sesame)

1 extra large egg (I used 2 medium sized ones)

1. In saucepan prepare 1/4 cup quinoa according to package (I used my rice cooker which worked out pretty well especially since I had to buy the quinoa loose instead of in a package).
2. While quinoa is simmering, quarter the 1/4 large zucchini, 1/4 yellow squash, 1/2 onion, and the carrot (my godmother adds some fresh peas if she has them).
3. Place oil in a large pan or wok and add chicken. Cook until no longer pink. Add vegetables and garlic and stir until warm.
4. Add cooked quinoa and stir. Push mixture to the sides of the pan leaving a hole in the middle. Crack the egg into the center and allow to cook slightly before scrambling. Fold into the vegetable mixture until fully distributed and cooked. Serve with soy sauce or additional sesame oil (I topped mine with sesame seeds).