Crockpot Chicken Adobo

There is something about fall that makes me want to cook everything in the Crockpot. I think, that to me, fall smells like leaves on the ground, dirt in a pumpkin patch and something slow cooking in the kitchen all day. It's all very Marcel Proust. So in keeping with the idea of food smells bringing back happy memories, I decided to try and make my grandma's adobo in the Crockpot.

Why, why did I not try this earlier? So good and so easy. Seriously, if you eat meat, you must try this. It works with both chicken and pork.

Crockpot Chicken Adobo

3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 Tbs. minced garlic
6 Bay leaves
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. black peppercorns
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
10 Tbs. sugar

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Pour enough oil into your slow cooker to coat the bottom, just a couple of tablespoons. You don't want your meat to stick, but you don't want it greasy either. Pour all the other ingredients into the slow cooker and give it a stir. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve over rice with lots of green vegetables on the side.

Happy Hour at Home: Drunken Gummy Bears

I have a major sweet tooth, so when I saw this "recipe" for vodka infused gummy bears, I knew I had to try it. They were sweet and strong and while I liked the taste, the texture was a little weird. They were still gummy on the outside, but were kind of hard in the middle. Perhaps if I had allowed them to come to room temperature, it would have helped the texture. I've been eating them cold, right out of the fridge.

To make the gummy bears, I poured 1/2 cup of vodka over a 6 oz. package of gummy bears and let them sit  in a covered container in the refrigerator for three days. I stirred the gummy bears once a day so they would evenly absorb the vodka. You'll know they're ready to eat when the vodka has been completely absorbed.

I ate a couple of them plain, but I really loved the gummy bears as a garnish for a Cosmopolitan. I think it would be a great garnish for any kind of specialty martini. I also think if you got creative with the packaging, they would be a really great party favor for a Halloween party.

Peach Crisp for Two

This is a dessert that transitions so well between summer and fall. The peaches are distinctly summer-y, while crisps always feel like fall to me. It's also a great way to use up overripe fruit. The other nice thing is that it's only two servings. Sometimes it's too tempting to have a big pan of dessert sitting around day after day, if you know what I mean.

Remove the skin from two peaches. If they're ripe, this is easy enough to do with your fingers if you cut them in half first, but if your fruit is still hard, you may have to blanch them. Slice the peaches and toss with 2 tsp. white sugar and 1/2 tsp. almond extract. (I love the taste of almond extract with peaches.) I do this right in the baking dish.

Then, in a separate bowl, cut together 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/8 cup flour, 2 Tbs. butter, and a pinch of cinnamon. I think a pastry cutter is easiest for this job, but you could also use a fork or two knives. Sprinkle the crumble mixture evenly over the peaches.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until your kitchen smells really good and the crumble has partially melted away, but the remaining part looks golden.

Italian Recipe from my Syrian Friend

A couple of weeks ago we had a little party at our place to watching the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. It was us and three other couples. We asked everyone to wear the colors of the country they were rooting for (no one did except us though) and to bring a dish to share from a country participating in the Olympics. It was a fun theme for a potluck.

Chuk and I provided chips and salsa (Mexico), dumplings (Korea), and Canada Dry ginger ale (Canada; we crack ourselves up.) Others brought wasabi peas (Japan) and wine (USA and France) and a pasta dish that Chuk flipped out over. He's been wanting to make it ever since. We made it earlier this week and it was so easy.

Here are the directions according to my Syrian neighbor. Use your common sense to figure out the amounts. Boil a package of fettuccine. When it's done, drain it and while it's still hot, throw in a big package of arugula (or you can use fresh spinach) and a lot of olive oil. Mix it up. The idea is you're using the heat of the pasta to wilt the raw greens. Then crack in a lot of black pepper, more than you think you should, and some parmesan cheese, less than you think you should. Mix it up again. That's it. We ate it with a salad and then I felt smug about all the healthy greens I was eating. (Then I ate some oreos. Shhh.)

Restaurant Sweet Tea

It's been 80 degrees in DC all this week. Considering I'm a northern California native (anything over 65 is hot to me), I'm pregnant, and the heat is still on in my building, we're sweltering. We've been mainlining iced tea at our place.

A lot of times when I have others' homemade iced tea it's either too sweet or too bitter or (when my husband makes it) it just tastes like sweet water. Yuck. Here's how I make restaurant quality iced tea. (Taught to me by my mom who grew up in southern Louisiana, where they know their sweet tea.)

Steep six tea bags in four cups of recently boiled water for at least twenty minutes. (You can heat your water in the microwave if it's too hot to turn the stove on for the kettle.) The longer you steep the tea, the better. I think most people don't steep their tea long enough. Pour the four cups of tea into a pitcher with 1/2 cup of sugar (or Splenda, as we've been doing recently) and stir vigorously until sweetener is completely dissolved. Add enough ice to make 2 quarts. Refrigerate and enjoy.

Now, if you're like me, you'll be tempted to use the cheapest store brand tea, but don't do it. Tea quality makes a big difference to your final outcome. My preferred brands are Community (which is hard to find outside of the South), Luzianne, and good ol' Lipton. (Sadly, no one paid me to write my opinion on any of those.)

We've been going through tea so quickly that as soon as I get a pitcher made, I start steeping tea for the next batch, or as in the picture above, the next two batches.

California Club Salad

My favorite sandwich is, and always has been, a club sandwich. I think it's because when I was a kid we weren't allowed to eat white bread and we simply never had bacon; I don't know why. (True story, I think I was in junior high before I ever ate a piece of bacon and I didn't know how to cook it until a few years ago when I moved to DC and had a roommate from South Carolina who literally ate bacon everyday.)

When my parents would ship us kids off to Louisiana to be with our grandparents for six weeks almost every summer, our grandparents allowed us to eat whatever we wanted. Once a week, when my maternal grandpa took us out for lunch, he would get liver and onions; I would get a club sandwich; I have no recollection of what my brother and sister ate. I think that's when I first fell in love with club sandwiches. It was much later when I was introduced to the California club, which is simply a club sandwich with avocado, but I love that too.

When I saw this salad at Real Simple I pinned it right away. Tonight seemed like a salad-for-dinner night* so I used the Real Simple salad as my inspiration and created a salad that mimics so many of the flavors in my believed California club sandwich. Chuk and I both really liked it.

California Club Salad

1 head of romaine lettuce
2 Roma tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
1/2 green bell pepper
some onion (I used green onions because that's what I had but next time I want to try the red onion suggested in the original recipe)
1/2 avocado (Chuk isn't a big avocado fan so I only used it on my salad.)
2 oz. cooked turkey
5 slices of cooked bacon
Balsamic vinaigrette

Chop the first eight ingredients and then toss with the vinaigrette. C'mon, you know how to make a salad.

I will add, if you cook the bacon right before you make the salad, you can use the bacon drippings to make a bacon balsamic dressing. I did it and it made the husband very happy. (It also possibly offset all health benefits of eating salad for dinner.)

*I love salad for dinner night. Not only is it healthy, it's my chance to use up all those odds and ends of veggies that may otherwise be wasted.

Dinner Made Cute

I saw this idea somewhere else, but can't remember where. It's only stuffed peppers, but if you use orange peppers and a paring knife to cut a face, dinner becomes infinitely more fun.

I think I'll need to make these again before Halloween. Even my big, burly husband called it cute and told me to take pictures of them.

Easy Cheesecake Bars

Whenever my father-in-law comes to visit, I make him a cheesecake. I usually make my secret family cheesecake recipe (it's extra super duper creamy), but lately I've been switching it up a little more.

This time I sort of made up my own recipe, which I usually never do with baking, but cheesecake is forgiving. It didn't look gorgeous (that's what happens when I try to get fancy and decorate cakes) but my father-in-law gave it two thumbs up and my sister-in-law, who is on a diet, had seconds. High praise indeed.

Cookie Dough Cheesecake

Chocolate chip cookie dough

2 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs

Press cookie dough into the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. I used a tube of refrigerated dough because I'm a cheater and it was on sale. Obviously, you can use homemade if you are less lazy than me. Bake it at 325 degrees for ten minutes. It won't be cooked all the way, but that's ok.

While the crust is baking, blend the remaining four ingredients until smooth and well incorporated. Try not to beat in too much air. Pour over the cookie dough crust and continue to bake for another 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and let come to room temperature before refrigerating overnight. If you're a dummy like me, open an old jar of hot fudge sauce (for ice cream) and glop it on top hoping it will make some sort of pretty swirl. If I was to do it again, I would warm up the fudge, pour it in a baggie, cut off the corner and then decorate the cake.

Favorite Chicken Salad

I almost never buy cold cuts. Even if you don't buy the free-range organic ones, they're still really expensive--like $6-$8 per pound and the free-range organic cold cuts are even more expensive.

Around here, we mostly stick to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunches, but sometimes I make up a big batch of chicken salad for the week which we can use on sandwiches for lunch or a green salad for dinner. Even using the organic, free-range chicken breasts, it's still cheaper than conventional cold cuts.

My favorite chicken salad "recipe" is:

Poached chicken breast
Dried cranberries
Green onion (Use twice as many as you think you need.)
Chopped pecans or walnuts (I prefer pecans, but walnuts are healthier, so that's what I usually use.)
Mayo or Miracle Whip

I know there are lots of Miracle Whip haters out there, but I say try it in this. We are a divided house; I prefer mayo and husband prefers MW. However, I find that in mayo based salads (like potato salad, macaroni salad, chicken salad, etc.) MW tends to be better than mayo especially if you let it sit in the fridge for a day before serving. It doesn't taste like MW at all. I think the onion mixes with the MW and transforms it. If you do decide to use mayo though, add some lemon juice and salt and pepper to the chicken salad.

A final tip: the smaller you cube your chicken, the longer the chicken salad will last. Cut it into the smallest pieces you can handle without having a nervous breakdown.

Homemade Microwave Popcorn

We don't have an air popcorn popper because we have a teeny little kitchen so I always made us stovetop popcorn. It was sort of a hassle, mostly because I don't like washing pots, but we dealt with it because it was healthier and cheaper than microwave popcorn.

Recently, my husband has been trying to break his addiction to potato chips. They're unhealthy and expensive, but his mom always packed chips in his lunch when he was growing up and he just carried on the habit into adulthood. He likes salty and savory snacks. (I prefer sweets myself, though I do like Doritos every once in awhile.) I suggested he eat popcorn instead of chips because it's high in fiber and low in calories, but it wasn't really practical for him to make stovetop popcorn every morning before work.

Instead, I tried a little experiment to make our own microwave popcorn rather than buying the chemical-laden kind from the grocery store. I simply put 1/2 cup of popcorn (from the bulk section of my favorite natural food store) in a paper lunch bag, folded over the top, and microwaved it. It takes something like two and a half minutes; I just use my microwave's popcorn button. It cooks up perfectly and leaves very few unpopped kernels. We pour it into a bowl before adding toppings so that we can reuse the paper bag. We've been able to reuse our bags 10-20 times, so it's still cost-effective and relatively eco-friendly.

Even with toppings, a large serving of popcorn for my husband's lunch costs just pennies; it's cheaper and healthier than either potato chips or microwave popcorn, and is just as fast as the latter. It certainly works for us.

Simple Blackberry Pie

We have so many blackberries, I made TWO blackberry pies this week. (Yes, I do want you to be impressed.) The first, pictured above, was a little semi-homemade version I made up on the fly. It was sort of a cross between a pie and a cobbler, and though it wasn't the prettiest thing, it was good.

For the crust, I simply pressed refrigerated sugar cookie dough from the grocery store into the pie pan. I didn't even roll it out. Then I mixed about 5-6 cups of whole blackberries with 1 cup of sugar and 4 Tablespoons of cornstarch and dumped it into the bottom crust. For the top crust, I rolled the remaining sugar cookie dough into a thin circle and laid it on top. The top and bottom crust didn't meet, but as the berries cooked down in the oven, they made more of a connection. I baked it at 450F for 15 minutes and then reduced the heat to 350F and cooked it for another 20 minutes.

I made a traditional blackberry pie with a real pie crust and a cooked center for my friend Rebecca's birthday brunch tomorrow. I hope it's tasty...and that she appreciates the monogram.

Pasta Salad

Summer cooking, for me, is mostly about figuring out what we can eat that doesn't actually involve cooking. Virginia is hot as Hades in the summer and I do what I can to avoid turning on the stove, and especially the oven. Pasta salad is a frequent go-to meal for us during the hot months.

Pasta Salad

1 lb. short pasta, cooked and drained
1 bell pepper, diced
1 cup chopped green onions
1 cup of corn
1 can sliced olives, drained
2 6oz. cans of wild Alaskan salmon*
vinaigrette (bottled or homemade)

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and refrigerate for at least four hours before serving, but it tastes better the longer it sits.

Other tasty additions to this salad are grated carrots, hearts of palm, tomatoes, raw baby spinach, and artichoke hearts.

*To make this salad vegan, substitute one can of drained and rinsed chick peas for the canned salmon. It's just as delicious, cheaper, and still a complete meal.

Vegetarian Stroganoff

Just stopping in for a quickie. (Oh la la!) Remember when I guest posted over at Lauren's about how to make beef stroganoff and mushroom stroganoff? Well, I didn't have a picture then, but I made the vegetarian version again last week and took a picture so you can see what it is supposed to look like. See! I eat things besides cheesecake.

Comfort Foods...Still

Our weather is still in the 50s during the day. Not that I'm complaining. I dread DC summers. The heat, the humidity, it's awful. I'm making the best of the weather by keeping up a comfort food diet. In the past week I've tried two new (to me) dishes: brownie bottom peanut butter cheesecake and homemade macaroni and cheese. I just winged the mac and cheese recipe, but I used the recipe below for the cheesecake.

Brownie Bottom Peanut Butter Cheesecake
(adapted from here)

For the Brownie Crust
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
12 mini peanut butter cups, halved
6 Tbsp butter, melted
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a springform pan.
2. Stir together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in large bowl.
3. Stir in flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; blend well.
4.Spread in prepared pan. Sprinkle the top with chocolate chips.
5. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until brownie begins to pull away from side of pan. Meanwhile make cheesecake layer (see below).
6. Immediately after removing brownie from oven, sprinkle halved peanut butter cups over brownie surface. Spoon cheesecake mixture over pieces. Turn down oven to 325°.

For the Cheesecake Filling
2 lbs cream cheese, softened
5 eggs
1-1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
12 mini peanut butter cups

1. Beat cream cheese in bowl of electric mixer until smooth.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Add sugar, peanut butter and milk; mix until smooth.
4. Stir in vanilla.
5. Pour filling into prepared crust
6. Double-wrap springform pan with aluminum foil to prevent water seeping in.
7. Place springform pan into a larger baking pan.
8. Pour hot water into the larger pan so that the water comes 1 inch up the sides of the springform pan.
9. Bake at 325 degrees 1-1/2 hours, or until firm and lightly browned.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for one hour.
11. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (preferably 24 hours) before decorating with the peanut butter cups.

The flavor of the cheesecake was relly good, but I thought it was a little dry. If I make this again (and Chuk would like me to) I will probably only bake it for an hour.

It's My First Time

Hey! I lost my guest posting virginity. Go check out my recipes for beef stroganoff and vegetarian stroganoff at Lauren's blog, Pineapple Pizza.

As a bonus, here's a memory about pineapple pizza. I grew up in California with health nuts for parents. We rarely got pizza, but when we did, my siblings' and my favorite kind of pizza was Hawaiian, which is ham and pineapple.

Once, when we were visiting family in Louisiana, my mom took us kids out for pizza in New Orleans, which was cause for major excitement. When the waiter came by we ordered a Hawaiian pizza.

He said, "Ya'll must be from California," in the thickest southern twang.

We kids all thought he must be a magician or psychic or something. We were amazed that he had guessed right.

My sister asked, "How did you know?"

He said, "Only people from California order pineapple on their pizza."

For the record, I still like pineapple on my pizza, but the husband, weirdo that he is, doesn't, so I hardly ever get it anymore. Hmmm, now I've made myself crave pineapple pizza.

Roasted Chicken

Chuk had been asking for roasted chicken for a week. For whatever reason, I didn't get around to it until last night, the day before we are leaving for vacation. Smart, I know. (After dinner I just stuck it in a gallon Ziploc bag in the freezer. I'll deal with it when we get back.)

The secret to moist roast chicken is to cook it hot, like 400 degrees. Don't baste it; keep the oven closed as much as possible. Also, put pats of butter under the skin of the breast.

Another tip, for those with small kitchens, I don't have a roasting rack. I use vegetables to elevate the chicken from the pan. It works great and makes the drippings richer. If you use a small pan, like I did above, you may have to drain the drippings once during the cooking process to keep from boiling the chicken in it's own juices. (The key is once. See above about not opening the oven a lot.) Use the drippings as a base for stuffing, gravy, or stock.

Soft Frozen Lemonade

Temperatures here are still in the 90s. Yuck. Many moons ago, when I was an undergrad in hot and sticky Connecticut in an un-airconditioned dorm room, I learned that the only thing more refreshing than lemonade was soft frozen lemonade. (It was also delightful with a little vodka mixed in. Yum.)

Now than I'm a little (ok, a lot) older (and wiser?) and don't want to eat all the junk that's in soft frozen lemonade, I tried an experiment to see if I could make my own. Happily, it worked.

The oh-so-complicated instructions are: Pour lemonade into your ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's instructions. When it's soft set, probably in about 20 minutes, transfer to an air-tight container and freeze.

My ice cream maker is an attachment for my kitchen aid mixer. It works wonderfully.

Here's the finished product next to its inspiration. If you want to be fancy, I would call it lemon sorbet or lemon granita.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think there's a scoop of this calling my name.

Resurrection Cake

I realize I am very late in posting this recipe for my family’s traditional Easter cake, but let’s all think of it as being very early rather than several weeks late.

It is an out-of-this-world coconut cake that delivers major impact for minimal effort. I know; it’s right up my alley. In my family we only ever eat this cake at Easter, but I actually think it would be the perfect wedding cake—it’s white; it feeds a crowd; it can be made in advance; and most importantly, it’s delicious.

Resurrection Cake

2 boxes yellow butter cake mix
2 cups of sugar
16 oz. sour cream
2 pkg. frozen fresh grated coconut
Medium container of Cool Whip

Make the cake according to the package instructions for 9” rounds. (Please note that “butter” cake mix is different than “yellow” cake mix. Get the butter version. It makes a huge difference.) Because you’re using two boxes, you should be baking four layers. Once these come out of the oven and cool, split them horizontally, so that you now have eight layers.

In a bowl, beat together sour cream and sugar with an electric mixer until sugar is dissolved, then add coconut. Reserve one cup of this mixture. Spread the remaining between the layers of the cake.

Mix the Cool Whip and the reserved cup of coconut mixture together. Frost the top and sides of the cake with this mixture.

Cover well and refrigerate for three days before cutting and serving.

Serves 24.

Some notes on substitutions: I’m sure you could probably make your own cake from scratch rather than use a box mix and make real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip, but I’ve never actually done this, so I can’t tell you how it would turn out. I think for the holidays, we all tend to do what our mothers did, and my mother always used box cake mix and Cool Whip.

I can now find fresh grated coconut in the Hispanic freezer section of the biggest grocery store in town on the very top shelf, way over in the corner. If you can’t find frozen coconut, you can use sweetened shredded coconut from the bakery aisle. I’ve totally done this before, and while it isn’t quite as good, it absolutely still works. Cut way back on the sugar though.

Healthy Taco Salad

For once this season a blizzard hitting the east coast missed us, but we’re still having wind storms like you wouldn’t believe. Yet again, I’ve turned to colorful, comforting food to cheer us up when the weather is cold and gray.

Taco Salad

For taco meat:
1 lb. lean ground beef or turkey
3 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 small-medium onions or 1 large onion, chopped

For salad:
1 head romaine lettuce, washed and chopped
1 bell pepper, diced
1 can corn, drained
½ can kidney beans or black beans (I used garbanzo because that’s what I had)
4 green onions, diced
½ can black olives (whole, sliced, chopped, it doesn’t matter)
Salsa
Sour cream

Throw all the taco meat ingredients into a pan over medium high heat, breaking up the meat and incorporating the spices. Cook until browned.

Layer salad ingredients on your plates and top with a few spoonfuls of cooked taco mixture. Serves 4 generously.

This is a healthy and filling meal. If you’ve given up meat for Lent, you can still make this by leaving out the meat and adding more beans. Season the beans as you would the taco meat, but only using about half the amount of each spice.

Experimenting with Pennsylvania Dutch BBQ

When I read Margo’s recipe for "barbeque", I too had been snowed in for a week and was in need of comfort food using only ingredients I had on hand. I mean, I couldn’t very well go to the store with an unplowed street and about 3 feet of snow on the ground. As soon as I read her recipe, I knew I would make it. I had a package of ground turkey in the fridge (leftover from our aborted Super Bowl party) and a lot of onions.

She doesn’t lie. The recipe is delicious and comforting and makes your house smell wonderful. I made the recipe as she posted it (except for substituting ground turkey for ground beef) on Thursday and served it with a carrot salad. Then tonight I mixed the leftover meat with some rice (leftover from another meal) and stuffed it into bell peppers and baked them. It was delicious that way too.

If you’re looking for a yummy, homey meal, give Margo’s recipe a try.