Archives for January 19, 2010

a Real Simple dinner.

Decided to make a chicken stroganoff recipe from Real Simple last night. It was really simple, and it was really tasty too!


There are a lot of ingredients, but most I already had lying around. Went to Whole Foods to pick up some fresh veggies and had some chicken in my freezer I laid out in the am to defrost. I followed the recipe pretty accurately (not super confident with my cooking skills yet), and the dish came out great and is definitely something I will make again.


Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced into rings

1 green pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

8 ounces (15 medium) button mushrooms, thinly sliced

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch-thick strips

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons barbecue sauce

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon hot sauce

1/2 cup sour cream

Served over: egg noodles


Here’s the easy-peasy recipe:

To start, gather your ingredients for a group picture

Chop the onions into rings

Get the green pepper ready

Chop those into small strips

The chicken also gets cut into small strips

Cook the onions for about 8 minutes in a tablespoon of olive oil (until softened)

Add peppers and mushrooms
(and 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. of pepper)
Cook approx 6 minutes, until mushrooms give up liquid and are tender

Remove veggies and place in collander (save the liquid)
Cook chicken (seasoned w/ 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper)
Pour the wine, chicken broth and veggie liquid into pan and bring to a boil

Add the BBQ sauce, mustard, Worcestershire, and hot sauce
Whisk until smooth
Bring to a boil and let the liquid reduce by half

Reduce heat and whisk in the sour cream

Return chicken and veggie to pan
Simmer until heated through

I put this dish over egg noodles
(but you can choose any type of pasta or rice)
YUM!

The Help

It seems appropriate I finished this book on Martin Luther King Day. It’s an absolutely wonderful story about 3 women in Jackson, Mississippi during the civil rights movement. I fell in love with each of the characters, so much that I didn’t ever want the book to end. Miss Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny: Beautiful woman who pull at your heart on every page. It’s a long book, but worth every minute you spend reading. I promise you, you will love this book– It’s brilliant.

ridiculously delicious chocolate chip cookies

Introducing: The world’s most delicious cookies! Zan’s mom’s specialty. These are not your average tollhouse cookies, although that’s the recipe Sue uses. There is something about the way she makes them that’s different than any other tollhouse cookies I’ve ever eaten. I’ve tried to replicate it, with no luck at all. They are so SO soft in the middle, almost as if they’re not cooked all the way through. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. They are amazing. And no, you can’t have any.

This weekend we took a trip down to New Haven to visit John and Hillary. The cookies came with us and by the end only crumbs remained. Cookies for breakfast. Cookies for lunch. Cookies for dinner. Just the way I like it.

We did do other fun things besides eating cookies. I swear.

We took a tour of Yale

Saw some secret societies

Looked at old books

LOTS of old books.

Ate homemade Thai food

Cheered on Yale Hockey

And played a whooole lotta Wii
(that’s Zan in the front… and I’m to his left.)

Rhythm Kung Fu… I own you.