WFD: 1. Chicken Cacciatore. Shades of 1948. Whole chicken legs separated into thighs and drums, S & P, EVOO, chopped onion, sliced hot cherry peppers, mixed mushrooms, garlic, red wine, tinned whole tomatoes plus their juice, homemade chicken stock.
2. Buttered egg noodles.
3. Tossed mixed greens salad w basic red wine vinegar dressing.
The first time I saw my paternal Grandmother cooking she was making chicken cacciatore in her old cast iron skillet. I have that skillet now and cook tomatoes and wine, etc. in that skillet all the time because it’s extremely well seasoned by now. For all I know it was her Mother’s pan. Nice to have such a venerable piece of family history. Grandma D. died when she was 96.
I was lucky enough to have a short slump at work around 10ish, so stopped in at home for a traveling mug of my man’s delightful chili. Besides the usual suspects, he’d also apparently added beer, coffee, cinnamon & cocoa to the pot. It was very flavorful and had a good kick to it from a ghost pepper hot sauce and a habanero hot sauce; the jalapeños cooked in the chili had pretty much chil-led out '-)
Polished off what was in the mug and had a bowl ‘for the road’ before I finished my shift.
We have plenty of chili leftover, so that’s WFD again tonight. Don’t mind if I do. It’s bitching cold out today & will be worse later (of course). Brrrr.
Hopefully the roads will be less soapy/not too icy today – almost wiped out on a right turn onto a shitty road last night…
Yeah, I’m not usually up for breakfast at dinner, but this fit the occasion. The pan is quite good, a Zwilling Motion, (completely nonstick in t’s first use) but we’ll see if I can avoid destroying it by overheating or stacking it with other heavy pans. My track record isn’t good!
Pretty yellow yokes from local eggs! I’m not sure I could really taste the difference in a blind taste test, but they are pretty. My son’s camera skills with his iPhone help.
Thanks, NotJr. Sorry, I’m notoriously bad about not following recipes and just winging things.
I made a white sauce using 5 T. flour and 5 T. butter and added a bit of minced garlic and fresh thyme while the roux was cooking. 4 cups of milk were gradually added, and when the sauce was thickened about 5 oz. mascarpone was mixed in and salt and pepper were added to taste. In the meantime, about 24 oz. of button mushrooms were browned in evoo, and then removed from the pan. In the same pan, a small clove of garlic and two medium shallots along with some minced thyme were sautéed with a bit more oil, and then the pan was deglazed with a bit of dry sherry and the mushrooms were added back in. A pint of dry ricotta was mixed with 2 eggs, a very small clove of garlic, salt and about 1/2 cup of parm. The lasagna was then assembled in a 13"x9" pan with a bit of white sauce on the bottom, a layer of no-boil egg noodles, dollops of ricotta, mushrooms, white sauce, more parm and shredded whole milk mozzarella. There were 4 layers total of noodles, and I ended with a bit of white sauce, parm and mozz, and some mushrooms. The whole thing was covered in foil and baked for about 45 minutes at 350, and then uncovered and baked until the top was brown and the dish was bubbly, about 15 minutes more.
Tonight’s dinner is something easy. And I’m still having problems eating it.
The World’s Best Office Dog in the World, Tony the Big Black Dog, and I got a little too rambunctious while I was waiting for lunch to reheat in the kitchen at work. In one of his “Ooh, we’re PLAYING!” jumps, his rock-hard noggin connected with my chin, which then closed my jaw rather quickly - on the left side of my tongue. Moments later, that salty taste of blood in my mouth told me he had definitely connected. There is now what looks like a monster blood blister on my tongue. Ouchie. It will be very tender for several days.
So an easy-peasy-to-cook dinner was in order when I got home late. BJ’s Wholesale Club Mandarin Orange Chicken, augmenting the sauce packet with hoisin, grated ginger, and some white wine (didn’t have any orange juice), served over leftover basmati rice with peas on top.
There is definitely some wine with dinner tonight. And who can be mad at this handsome boy? He’s my work boyfriend, despite only loving me for the natural dog biscuits I have in my office…which he knows about - I get about 4 visits a day, and he’ll come in and stare at where the dog biscuits are situated on a back table until I melt. He knows how to tweak my heartstrings.
Ha, I did read that and had to reluctantly agree. For me, the color of the yokes and label do influence how I experience the egg, and I still love a well-cooked supermarket egg if I’m honest.
By the way, Cathy, I think I still need to thank you for the tip on chowhound to use the food ricer to squeeze liquid from veggies like spinach rather than using a dish towel or salad spinner. It works really well! I’m pretty sure it was you.
Oh, Boyzoma, I’d love the recipe! And thanks for the omelet praise, but I must defer to my son. His omelet skills far surpass mine, but isn’t that the goal of parenting?
aubergine caviar with lemon zest, lemon juice, sesame oil, green chill, zucchini, celery on blini (quite good, to my surprise)
sicilian salade (got inspired by @HolyTerroir mentioning it that in another post, so thank you!) - fennel, red onion, orange with some parsley and some cilantro with lemon juice dressing
veal liver with a reduced raspberry vinegar and shallot sauce
Here you go. I give all the credit to Steve h. But I did add a few notes of my own.
Chicken Fricassee with
Wild Mushrooms
I believe the recipe was clipped from an old copy of
Bon Appetit. The recipe serves two. Add 4 boneless
chick breast halves and keep everything else the
same if you want to serve four or more.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup unsalted butter
4 boneless chicken thighs
6 ounces fresh wild mushrooms
4 green onions, chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup beef stock
2 large tomatoes, peeled, cubed
1/3 cup whipping cream
INSTRUCTIONS
Melt the butter in a heavy skillet. Add the chicken in batches and cook both sides
until golden brown and cooked through. Transfer chicken to a plate. Add
mushrooms and green onions to the skillet and sauté for three minutes or so until
soft. Transfer the mushrooms to a small bowl. Add wine, both stocks, tomatoes
and any accumulated chicken juices to the skillet and bring to a boil. Reduce things
to about 3/4 cup, maybe 20 minutes or so. Add cream and boil a minute more.
Return chicken and mushroom mixture to the skillet and stir to heat things through.
Season with salt and pepper.
Your kitchen will smell great.
I used white mushrooms, because that is what I could get.
For the wine, I used a chablis (because that is what was open)
I also added about 1/2 tsp of fresh tarragon.
Oh, LW, I’m so sorry about your tongue. But he is a pretty beautiful BF. So I’m sure he is sorry for your boo boo. Hope you can eat something. Luckily, the mouth heals fairly fast. The wine should help. Take care.
Oh, thanks so much, Boyzoma. It sounds like it’s doable on a weeknight since I usually have more than an hour to get dinner together. I also happen to have some lavender that needs using up, so thanks for that tip.
Ouch, LW! I can feel the ache. He is a gorgeous puppy, though. Here’s to raising a few glasses of fermented grapes to a speedy healing. A clear liquid diet can be a good thing.
When the yolk is bright orange and ‘perky’ I just love it.
