slammin' shepherds pie

I love Sundays because I have plenty of time to cook something from scratch. None of this tired or rushed throwing a meal together stuff - that's the rest of the week for me, haha. Nope. Sundays I happily "slave" over a hot stove taking the time to season and taste and really enjoy the process of creating something delicious. Like this shepherds pie:

When I think of shepherds pie, this is EXACTLY how I imagine it should taste. It's meaty and has just enough gravy. Being a potato lover, I went slightly overboard with the mashed potato topping... although, really, is there such thing as too much mashed potatoes? It's hearty comfort in a pie dish, the kind of meal that makes a man go back for seconds, thirds, and probably fourths, depending on how much you scooped out each time. And IF there are leftovers, it reheats wonderfully to make a perfect Monday night leftovers dinner :-)

Shepherds Pie
adapted from allrecipes

Meat Filling
1 lb ground beef (I used 80/20, but I'd go up to but no more than 90/10)
1 medium sweet onion, diced
1 C chopped baby carrots (cut them into thirds, so they're about 1/2")
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 dried rosemary, then crush between your fingers
2 tsp dried parsley
1 1/2 C reduced sodium beef broth
3 Tbsp tomato puree (because I had some leftover, better than having to open a new can of paste)
1 C frozen peas
salt and pepper to taste

Potato Topping
4-5 yukon gold potatoes, peeled
4-5 tbsp butter, cubed
1/2 C milk
1/2 C heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
handful or two of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Special equipment: 9" pie or tart dish, and optionally an ice cream scoop

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and then start the potatoes because you can make the meat filling while you're waiting for the taters to come to a boil and cook: Cut potatoes in half lengthwise, then cut each half into even quarters. Put in a large pot or stock pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a rolling boil. Cook about 10-15 minutes or until fork tender.

Heat a large pan (10"-12" and deep enough to fit the meat filling) over medium heat, and add the meat. Break up with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle a light layer of salt. (You may want to spoon off some of the fat that releases. Or not!) Add in onion and carrots and cook, stirring regularly, until meat is brown and onions are just starting to turn brown. Stir in frozen peas.

Stir in the flour, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, and parsley. Evenly combine broth and tomato puree in a bowl, then pour into the meat mixture. Add a little bit more salt and a few grinds of pepper and stir. (Don't add too much salt and pepper yet because the gravy will reduce, concentrating the flavors.) Simmer, reducing the liquid until you get to the gravy consistency you want (mine took about 15-20 min). Taste and season with more salt/pepper to your liking.

Let's not forget about the taters! While the meat is simmering, keep an eye on the potatoes. Drain them after they are fork tender, then return to the pot. Mash lightly, then add in butter, milk, and cream. Mash and whip until fluffy. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the meat filling into the pie dish. Use the ice cream scoop to plop out an even layer of the potatoes over the meat. (You don't have to use a scoop - it's just a fast way to create a layer that'll be easy to spread evenly.) Spread out the potatoes to create an even layer, or get all artsy and make a design or something. Sprinkle with cheese. Put onto a baking sheet (to catch anything that drips) and put into the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and the cheese is melted. You can also add the step of turning on the broiler for a few minutes to get a browned crispy top... I plan to do that next time.

It's going to be ridiculously hot, so give it a while to cool down before you chow down!

French Dip Sandwiches

Perfeclty rare meat + buttered crusty bread dunked in jus = comfort and joy.

My brother introduced me to the french dip au jus (with juice) sandwich in LA around 10 years ago. I thought it was ridiculous he'd pay nearly $20 for a meat sandwich. But oh my, was it so worth it! Every GOOD french dip I've had has been that pricey, presumably because of the pile of thin slices of quality roasted beef, so that became my goal for making my own. While I saw different seasoning recipes all over the webs, it was on an episode of Diners, Drive Ins and Dives that I saw someone use Montreal steak seasoning before roasting. That's one of the few spice blends I use regularly because it's well balanced. That plus some extra thyme, garlic, and salt made for an exceptionally crusted and flavored meat that I roasted rare - we could eat the meat all by itself...and we did!

But it is a sandwich after all, so it was better on a fresh, buttered, toasted crisp french roll. Want to kick up the flavor and some extra texture? Add a slice of provolone, too, and broil until melted. Soak each bite in that jus and try not to dribble all over yourself while eating it!

Slow Roasted Beef
adapted from Teri's Kitchen

2.5 to 3 lb sirloin roast, brought to room temperature
Montreal steak seasoning
dried thyme
garlic powder
salt
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp butter
Special equipment: probe thermometer, dutch oven

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Heat a dutch oven (large enough to fit roast) over medium high heat.

Season all sides of roast with an even layer of steak seasoning, thyme, and an extra dusting of garlic powder and salt. Pat down so the herbs stick.

Make sure the oil is really hot and add the roast. Sear - about 2 minutes each side - until browned. Insert a probe thermometer about halfway into roast. Put roast, uncovered, into oven and cook until it reaches 130 degrees for rare (around 2 hours).

Take off the heat and allow to rest. When ready to eat, slice into thin slices -- thinner than these in this pic. Mmm look how perfectly rare and juicy!

Au Jus
pan drippings from the roast beef
1/2 carton of reduced sodium beef broth
1 to 1-1/2 C water
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1-2 Tbsp butter


Put the dutch oven with all the beef drippings on the stove over medium heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer about 15 minutes, or until it reaches the flavor you like. Pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove the chunky parts. Serve hot with the sandwiches.

And now I can knock off the first item on my 2012 Hit List, hooray!

Lime-y Shrimp Tacos

Day after the earthquake dinner: shrimp tacos!

I can't believe we had an earthquake here in VA. I've spent a lot of time in LA and never once felt one. I read that Santorini is accustomed to feeling earthquakes, too, but I didn't feel one while I was there either. My mom just told me she grew up with them in the Philippines, but I had no idea there were quakes there. So when everything started shaking like a freight train was coming at us... very surreal! To be honest, one of the first things I thought was What happened in DC that we can feel it here? Oh these times we live in. *shakes head* Anyways, we got evacuated and had to head outside. Thankfully it was wasn't raining, so we got to all freak out in nice weather :-)

It was that nice weather that made me think of grilling. Today was pretty much glorious, and I wanted to take advantage of that before Hurricane Irene makes it up the coast this weekend. I originally thought of getting a steak, but then I remembered the leftover black bean salsa from this weekend. And the lone avocado begging to be made into guacamole. So THEN I thought I'd grill up some fish for tacos. But hey why buy fish when I have frozen shrimp, thus how I came to these awesome flavored shrimp tacos.

The lime and garlic make the flavor pop, with just a hint of heat so it paired nicely with the slightly thicker flour tortillas and salsa. I would have loved some cabbage slaw on it for more texture, but Alan broke up some tortilla chips for the crunch and that worked just fine! This was enough for 3 or 4 tacos, so scale as necessary. BTW I never did end up grilling these, haha, I just sauteed them, but I have no doubt they'd be better actually grilled.

Shrimp Tacos 
adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/grilled-shrimp-tacos/detail.aspx

1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
juice of 3/4 lime (or 1 lime)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced (about 1/2 tbsp)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp red chili flakes
a few grinds of white pepper

Combine lime juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin, chili flakes, and white pepper. Add the shrimp and marinate for about 5-10 minutes. The shrimp will start turning pink because the citrus is "cooking it". Add them to a skillet on medium high heat and toss until they are pink and form an almost closed C.

Serve on tortillas. I recommend The Farm at Red Hill black bean salsa with it, which is spicy and bold - it's what I'm trying to duplicate, so whenever I get it just right I'll add that recipe to the blog, too. I also topped with guac and chips a la Alan.

another easy weeknight dinner

Being Filipina, I love me some rice. But, like most food, it's really hard to cook exactly one serving of rice when I'm making myself dinner. Even the frozen rice packets at Trader Joes serves 2. I'm really bad about eating leftovers, so having foods that I can make exactly one meal at a time is ideal. This is one reason I often go to pasta as my starch of choice. Measure out 1/2 C of dry pasta, boil, add seasonal veggies and some kind of sauce... golden.

This dinner took me all of 12 minutes to make, which is the amount of time it took the pasta to boil. While the pasta was boiling, I sauteed some minced garlic in olive oil just long enough to take the bite off of the garlic. Burnt garlic is terrible. I sliced up some heirloom cherry tomatoes, both I got from the farmers market over the weekend. Drain the pasta, toss it all together, top with parmesan cheese, and viola! Dinner for one. No waste. Oh yeah. 

Simple Summer Pasta Dinner for 1

1/2 C pasta  

1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1 small garlic clove, minced

3-4 leaves basil, rolled then sliced (chiffonade)

1 C cherry tomatoes, halved

parmesan cheese, to taste

salt and pepper, to taste

Bring water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add pasta and cook according to package directions.

In the mean time, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and sautee for a minute or two, or until it starts to get soft. Take off heat. Slice tomatoes. 

Drain the pasta. Add olive oil, basil, and tomatoes. Toss. Season with salt and pepper. Toss together and taste. Add as much parmesan as you like. Eat!

You can, of course, customize the heck out of this. I've made pasta with sauteed zucchini and squash. I've added frozen peas and corn. I've added shrimp or diced chicken. Pasta is a fantastic blank canvas that you can play around to your heart's content.  

Carne Machaca in taquitos and nachos

This month's Girls Potluck theme made up for the Cinco de Mayo celebration we didn't have last month, lol. Thus, it was Mexican Month! There were berry mojitos and carne asada (thanks Julia!) and shrimp veracruz (thanks Ang.!) and plaintain chips and watermelon margaritas (thanks Jenn!) I wanted to make tamales, per my 2011 hit list which I am horribly behind on, but I realized I don't have a steamer. So what're my other favorite Mexican restaurant meals? Easy: the carne machaca from The Torilla Factory, and my take on machaca is what I brought to the table.

What is machaca, you ask? In a couple words: spiced, shredded beef. It's full of flavor thanks to overnight marination, then cooking with onions and peppers for hours (translation: plan ahead, this recipe takes time!)... then it's shredded and cooked down even longer. It makes an excellent filling for burritos, tacos, or enchiladas, or you can eat it with eggs and/or potatoes for breakfast. I didn't use it in any of those ways today, though... today I used them to make oven taquitos and nachos, and they were AWESOME.

Machaca 
adapted from David Bulla


Marinade:
1/4 C Worcestershire sauce
juice of 2 limes
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 C canola oil

Machaca:
3 lbs chuck roast (or skirt steak), fat and silver skin trimmed, cut into 3/4 - 1 lb pieces
2 tbsp oil
1 large Spanish or Vidalia (or other sweet yellow) onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded then diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, deveined and diced
1 serrano pepper*, seeded, deveined and diced
1 10oz can original Rotel tomatoes with green chiles
1 or 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/4 C beef broth
1 Tbsp dried Mexican oregano
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp tabasco sauce
few grinds of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

Prepare the marinade - combine all ingredients and whisk to form an emulsion. Pour into a 1 gallon zipper bag, and add meat. Massage so meat is evenly coated. Put bag in a bowl or baking dish in case it leaks. Refrigerate overnight.

Make the machaca - Take meat out of the fridge and leave out for about 30 minutes to come to room temperature. Remove from marinade, pat dry, and discard the marinade. Prepare all your veggies.

In large pot (I used my 6 qt. dutch oven), heat oil over medium high heat until hot. Add meat and sear - you want each side to be a rich caramelized brown. You may have to cook in batches if there's not enough space in the pot for all pieces. Set aside on a plate.

Add the onions and peppers to the same pot and saute for about 3 minutes, scraping all the brown bits from the bottom. Add the garlic and saute another 2 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Add the meat back into the pot. Bring to a simmer then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 2 to 2.5 hours.

(mmm look how brown the meat got)

Remove beef to a cutting board and shred with 2 forks. It should be tender and pull apart easily. Add back to the pot, then simmer, uncovered, until there's almost no liquid left. This took almost an hour for me., and I had it on low heat.

Taste again and add any additional seasoning/heat to your liking. (*This recipe is pretty mild with just a hint of heat from the peppers. It's a friendly recipe for people who don't like spicy stuff. Personally, the next time I make this I'm adding at least 1 more serrano pepper.)

One note - this makes a LOT of machaca, about 8 cups worth. I used half between the taquitos and nachos, then packed and froze the rest for future use.

Oven Baked Taquitos:
machaca
6" flour tortillas
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with foil for easy clean up later.

Spread 2-3 tbsp of machaca in a line about 1/4 the way up the tortilla, then roll. Repeat with as many taquitos as you want to make. Spray with cooking spray. Place on baking sheet seam side down. Bake 10 minutes. Take out of the oven, turn them so the other side browns, and bake another 5 minutes until golden brown.

Take out of oven, cut in half on the diagonal. Serve with guacamole, sour cream, and/or salsa.

Machaca Nachos
machaca
tortilla chips
cheddar jack cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread tortilla chips across a baking sheet. Add a spoonful of machaca to each chip. Sprinkle cheese over each chip. Bake until cheese is melted - about 5 minutes. Serve with sour cream and/or guacamole.

(not pretty, but pretty delicious)

REEdiculous: shrimp caprese pasta

I spent Valentine's day with my bestest friend and we each decided to make something off our 2011 Hit List. It was my turn to do the main course, thus I recreated my favorite Olive Garden meal: Shrimp Caprese Pasta. Think cheesy cream sauce, tomatoes, basil, garlic, cheese, spaghetti, shrimp, and more cheese. It was absurd! Like you should probably only eat salad and fruit on the day you consume this to average it out :-)

Definitely calling this one a success. Unlike Olive Garden, my pasta wasn't overcooked, hehe. Salad would have gone nicely with this, but didn't want to distract from the cheese, lol. Mmmm cheeeeese.... That's a whole lot of melted mozz on top. Yep, I put the before picture after. Deal. :)

Shrimp Caprese Pasta

adapted from whatscookingamerica

1 lb roma tomatoes, cored and cut into 1" pieces
15 basil leaves, torn into 1" pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 large pinch salt
2/3 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 box thin spaghetti
2 tbsp butter
1/2 C white wine
1 C heavy cream
1/2 C milk (I used 1%)
1 C freshly grated parmesan
1 C freshly grated mozzarella

Combine tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil, italian seasoning, and salt and mix well. Cover and allow to marinate for 1 hour.

Cook pasta according to the directions. Drain and put back in pot and cover while you make the sauce.

Preheat oven to 450. Melt butter over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet. Add wine and simmer for 1 minute. Add cream, milk, and cheese. Bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring reguarly, until it reduces to the thickness you want. (I should now note that while I made half the pasta from the original recipe, I made the regular amount of sauce and reduced it down about 1/3-1/2 so it was a thick cheesy sauce.) Remove from heat. Add spaghetti and tomato mix. Combine well so pasta is evenly coated. Transfer to an oven safe dish (I used a pie plate).

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and drizzle with a little olive oil. Spread the shrimp in an even layer. Roast about 3-5 minutes or until shrimp are pink and just slightly curled.

Turn oven to broil. Sprinkle mozzarella over the pasta. Broil until cheese is melted. Take out of oven and top with shrimp.

casserole time: turkey tetrazzini

I have a really bad habit about leftovers: I almost never eat them. I'll keep them with the best intentions, but probably 99% of the time I totally forget until I notice something green and moving in the back of my fridge. Yeah, ew. Sometimes, though, I'm smart and put them into the freezer. I often still forget about them til they're totally iced over, which is why I'm glad I found this chart. I froze some turkey from Thanksgiving, and that's within the 4 month limit for cooked frozen poultry, so I actually used it to make turkey tetrazzini. This is really easy to make, so hooray me for not wasting for once, lol!

Turkey Tetrazzini
adapted from Turkey Tetrazzini II at allrecipes.com

1/2 box (8oz) thin spaghetti
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
1 1/2 C chicken broth
1 C milk
a bit more than 3/4 C grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
ground black pepper
2 C chopped cooked turkey
1 C frozen swet peas
1/2 C panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350. Cook spaghetti according to box instructions to al dente. Drain and put into a pie plate or similar sized baking dish.

Melt butter in a small pot over medium heat. Add flour and whisk until well combined. Add chicken broth and milk, stir, allow to come to a boil, and stir until slightly thickened. Add 2/3 of the parmesan cheese and mix until melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour over spaghetti. Add turkey and peas, and mix until evenly combined. Top with the remaining parmesan and then with the panko. Bake for 40 minutes.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

It's getting kinda chilly, which means it's a good time for soup! This hearty chicken tortilla soup is very easy to make using a bunch of canned ingredients and a rotisserie chicken, so it makes for a simple, any time meal. Also, this makes a lot - like half a stock potful - so you can freeze it and have some later, or just eat for a week, hehe.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 tbsp canola oil

1 small onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can black beans

1 can corn

1 jar salsa OR 1 can diced onions with jalapeno

1 box reduced sodium chicken stock

water, if you want it more liquidy (fill half of the stock box, shake, then dump into the pot)

1 rotisserie chicken, without skin, and shredded

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

freshly ground black pepper

shredded mexican cheese

tortilla chips

Heat oil in a stock pot over medium high heat. Add onion and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened. Add garlic and sautee another minute. Add the black beans, corn, salsa, stock and water and chicken. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Add spices. Drop down to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20-30 minutes.

When serving, sprinkle with some cheese (which I didn't here, but it's much better if you do) and crushed tortilla chips.

Christmas Eve dinner recipes

Merry Christmas! Maligayang Pasko! My gift to you: recipes from last night's killer meal :)

Since I wouldn't get to spend Christmas dinner with my dad and little brother, I made dinner for us for Christmas Eve.I went with something not so traditional and knocked off another Hit List item at the same time: pastitsio. Almost didn't happen, though -- I may have almost burned down my kitchen, haha. That's an exaggeration, sorta... Instead of turning on the burner to boil water, I ended up charring the bottom of the box of pasta sitting on the other burner, lol. By the time it stopped smoking and, um, glowing, half of the bottom was gone, lol. Don't worry, I saved the pasta and was able to make this!

So pastitsio... Never heard of it? It's a Greek casserole, kinda like lasagna: you layer pasta (in this case, tubular noodles), meat sauce, and bechamel, then bake.  It's not the same in flavor, given you use cinnamon and nutmeg in the meat sauce. The only change is that next time I'll double the bechamel (and go to the gym for twice as long, lol) cuz I LOVE that stuff.  I wish I could explain it better, but you'll just have to try it: it's definitely delicious!

Pastitsio
Adapted from food.com

For the pasta:
1 box ziti (since I couldn't find bucatini or the traditional No. 2 pasta)
4 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 C parmesan cheese, grated
1/3 C milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

For the meat sauce:
1 lb ground lamb (or ground beef*)
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 8-oz can of tomato sauce
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper

For the bechamel:
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 C milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 C parmesan cheese

Make the pasta according to the box al dente instructions. Drain, then return to the pot. Mix in the milk, butter, cheese and egg then set aside. Preheat oven to 350.

Make the meat sauce: In a large sautee pan, heat the oil over medium and add onions. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the lamb. Cook until the lamb is no longer pink and the onions are translucent. Drain off the fat. Add the tomato sauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Set aside.
(*Note: if using ground beef, the 2 tsp salt should be good... If using lamb, make sure to taste it and add salt as necessary.)

Make the bechamel: In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Mix in the flour and salt. Slowly stir in the milk, whisking constantly so there are no lumps. Cook, stirring, on medium high heat until sauce thickens (thicker than gravy, not as thick as sour cream) then take off heat. Mix in the egg, stirring well. Mix in the cheese.

Spread half the noodles into an 11x7 or a 9x9 baking dish. Spoon on all the meat sauce and spread so it's even. Top with the remaining pasta. Pour the bechamel over so everything's covered. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes or until top browns. (I shoulda baked mine a bit longer to have it brown all over but we were impatient, lol.) Allow to stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Delish!

Okay and for those green beans:
These are SUPER simple and absolutely awesome. I think I actually ate MORE of them than of the pastitsio, lol. (I heard a radio commercial say that the average american gains 10 lbs during Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays... not for me, thank you very much.) So. I got 2 bags of the prewashed, steam in the bag green beans (from Wegmans, though I'm sure most grocery stores have something similar). I microwaved it for 30 seconds shorter than the instructions said. Drained them, then put into a bowl. Drizzled some olive oil and lemon juice from half a lemon, sprinkled with salt, ground some red pepper flakes and viola! Absolutely perfect green beans! I will make those over and over again!

hit list challenge item: Risotto

You'd think I'd be blowing up the blog with Christmas cookie recipes. Well, I wish I had been, but not so much, lol. Wll, since I'm not playing any sports (shocker) and I dropped choir, I had a lot of free time so I picked up a seasonal job. So, there goes my free time to bake, lol.

BUT, I did make time for Friendsmas* at Ang.'s. It was a perfect time to try out a new recipe and to knock out one of my Hit List items. There are only a few things left, so I went with the risotto. Since she was making the pot roast, I opted for a side dish version. It was yummy! The addition of meyer lemon zest really made the flavor sing. Or as Danielle said, "what is that extra something... it tastes... zesty..." Lol.

I was actually quite surprised at how easy risotto is. It's not HARD to make per se, since it's mostly just stirring. It is just time consuming. Patience is definitely your friend here... Like the original recipe said it'd take some 18 minutes for it to cook, mine probably took closer to 25-30. Be patient, taste it along the way, and enjoy.

*Friendsmas = the Christmas version of Friendsgiving, of course!

Asparagus Risotto
adapted from Gourmet

4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
1 lb asparagus
3/4 sweet onion, chopped small
4 tbsp butter, divided
1 1/4 C arborio rice
1/4 C white wine
lemon zest from 1/2 lemon
1/2 C parmesan, (freshly grated, may want to use less if using the plastic jar kind)

Snap the ends of the asparagus then cut into 1" pieces. Bring the broth and water to a boil. Add the asparagus, reduce the heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes until tender. Use a slotted spoon to remove the asparagus and put in an ice bath to stop the cooking, then drain. Keep the broth/water mix on the stove.

In a large pan, melt 2 tbsp butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender - about 5-6 minutes. Add the rice, stir constantly, and cook for about a minute.

This is where the patience begins :-)

Add 1/2 C of the broth mix to the risotto and mix until absorbed. When it's absorbed, add another 1/2 C of the broth and mix until absorbed. Keep repeating - adding 1/2 C at a time and allowing to absorbe before adding more - until the rice is al dente. (Note: it should be simmering, and mine wasn't, which is probably why mine took so long to cook,)

Stir in the asparagus, remaining 2 tbsp butter, parmesan, and lemon zest. Serve hot.

This can easily be made into a main course by adding shrimp, but otherwise this works as a lovely vegetarian side.

Friendsgiving Turkey

Thanksgiving is 4 days away, and Friendsgiving was just last week. Neither would be complete without TURKEY!

The Friendsgiving invite put full disclosure out there: I had never made a turkey before, so I promised to have some deli turkey and sandwich bread just in case, haha! I lied, though - I had no back up plan that day! I basically obsessed over how to roast a turkey for the week before Friendsgiving and gave it my best go. I came across 2 different recipes/methods for making the turkey: the first that involves refrigerating the bird overnight w/o it's wrapping found at Simple Bites, and the other where you roast the bird breast side down so the juices all drip into the breast while cooking - I can't find the link to the site right now, but when I do, I'll edit this post. It was basically a 24 hour process - I started to prep the night before. Actual cooking day, took about 15-20 minutes to prep, and then roast away. Between the two, I totally NAILED it! My house semlled delicious, the turkey was moist and seasoned just right. AND it was gorgeous. Recipe WIN.

This is what I did. I was cooking for 14. Combined with the apps and all the delicious side dishes everyone brought, there was plenty of food to stuff us that night AND have enough leftovers to bring home a full meal each!

Roast Turkey

15 lb fresh turkey
1 stick butter, room temp
salt
large yellow onion, quartered
2 large carrots, snapped into pieces
2-3 ribs celery, snapped into pieces
1 lemon, quartered
fresh rosemary
fresh thyme
fresh parsley (I got both curly and flat leaf, mostly for decoration purposes)
Special equipment: roasting pan, meat thermometer (preferably the probe kind like this)

The night before: Make space in your oven for the bird! Remove the giblets (keep in a ziplock bag - use to make the gravy). Rinse the turkey very well inside and out. Pat dry with a paper towel. Lightly salt the inside of the turkey. Lightly salt the outside of the turkey. Spread an entire stick of butter around the entire outside of the bird. Put bird breast side down onto the rack in the roasting pan. Put back into the fridge overnight. No, don't cover it with anything - just put it on the rack and throw in the fridge. The point is to dry out the bird a bit.

(See : it's breast side down)

The day of: Take the bird out of the fridge and bring up to room temperature (took me about 2 hours). Drain/wipe up the liquid that's in the pan.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly salt the inside of the bird again. Shove the inside of both cavities with a couple sprigs of parsley, then an equalish amount of the onion, carrots, and celery, and the lemon. You'll probably use about half of what's in the ingredient list. Shove a handful of parsley and 2 sprigs each of thyme and rosemary into any leftover space between all those veggies. Try to make it kind of even. Lightly salt the outside of the bird again. Toss the leftover onion, carrot, celery and lemon into the bottom of the pan.

Stick the probe part of the thermometer into the thickest part of the bird (into the inner thigh near the breast), but don't allow it to touch the bone. (If you're using an instant read thermometer instead of the probe, first, don't leave it in the bird while cooking --  insert and check the temp when it comes out of the oven.) Roast at 400 for 30 minutes. Drop the temperature to 350 and roast for approximately 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until the internal temperature reaches 155 degrees.

(OMG look how golden!)

Take the turkey out of the oven. Flip the breast to right side up. Be very careful and use your oven mitts - sure they'll get a bit dirty, but much better than burning yourself!

(Someone needs a tan!) 

  

Put back into the oven and roast until the breast is golden - about 15-30 minutes - and the temperature reads 165 degrees. Take out of oven.

Tent with foil. Allow to rest for at least 30 minutes. I'll say it again - let it rest! Two things happen while it rests: The turkey will continue to cook up to about 170-175 degrees, which is safe eating temps, and it allows time for the juices to redistribute throughout the bird.

To decorate (see first picture): Line plate with the parsley, and a few sprigs of the thyme and rosemary if you like. Put bird on it. I added these mini pears I found because one of the desserts was a pear and blueberry crisp. You can also use crabapples, slices of lemon, mini pumpkins, or anything really!

To carve the bird: I should have cut the legs and thigh off first, but I forgot, lol. Instead, I cut the the entire breasts free from the bird, then cut slices so everyone got the same amount of skin. My cutting was very messy, but everyone got plenty to eat.

This bird had flavor! It wasn't too salty, wasn't dry, the skin was golden and delicious... Total success! If I can do it, so can you!

One pretty important note: This recipe is for a 15 lb bird. Cooking times obviously vary according to the size. Use the Simple Bites link for a good idea of how long to roast different size birds.

let soup season commence

Today was a soup day - tons of rain, looked like it was night time at high noon, cold, and straight up dreary. I had pho for lunch and STILL wanted soup for dinner, lol. All that rain closed the softball fields tonight, giving me my first free night in a week. Don't get me wrong... I like being busy, but a night of down time is way underrated so I was going to take full advantage. Go fig the rain stopped, blue skies came out, and suddenly it was quite lovely. Quite a lovely evening, indeed, to stick to the plan and make some soup :-)

I got the original recipe off the Eating Well website and it had this long name basically telling you what's in it - chicken, spinach, pesto. Yep, it's all that and some carrots, beans, and broth and little pasta to give it extra bite. That's about it. Deceptively simple and even pretty healthy... and totally awesome. Took me all of 15 minutes to put together plus the boiling time. It's like the fresher version of the hearty chicken soups you'd eat on a snowy (ack, too soon for!) winter day. It's a nice transitional soup, comforting and light.

Chicken Soup for Fall
adapted from EatingWell.com

1 tbsp olive oil
1 C chopped carrots
8-12 oz boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped into bite size pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 C chicken broth
2-4 C water (depending on how liquidy you like it, I just refilled both broth cans ~ 4c)
6 oz baby spinach, chopped
1 15-oz can cannellini beans, rinsed
1 C little pasta (I used stelline, but you can use orzo or something similar)
salt
freshly ground black pepper
5-6 Tbsp store bought pesto (recipe from scratch in the source recipe)

Heat olive oil in a medium pot or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add carrots and sautee for a couple minutes. Lightly salt the chicken, then add to the pot and allow to brown lightly on all sides. Add garlic and sautee until it's soft. Add the broth and water and bring to a boil.
 
Once the soup is boiling, add the pasta and spinach. Boil according to the pasta directions. Add the beans with 2 minutes to go to heat them through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Take off the heat when the pasta is cooked al dente. Stir in the pesto.
 
Enjoy!

crab cakes for Chesapeake eggs benedict

This baby is one of my favorite special breakfast ot brunch (or in crab fest's case, dinner) items.

Crab cakes by themselves are a treat, but top them with a runny poached egg and some hollandaise? Taking them to the next level. They're not terribly hard to make (assuming you know how to poach an egg, and if you want a good idea - google how Alton Brown does it cuz he's the man) but they do take some time and good timing to have everything come out at the same time. We cheated and used a hollandaise mix, thus the recipe for only the crab cakes here, since that's the only recipe we really used, hehe. But basically, if you have 2 people, great - one can poach the eggs while the other fries the crab cakes. OR if its just you, make the hollandaise first, then poach the eggs while the crabcakes are being broiled and muffins being toasted. By the way, split an English muffin with a fork, please! Nooks and crannies, folks... you don't get them if you use a knife, mmkay! 

Besides these crab cakes, you'll need English muffins, eggs to poach, and some hollandaise. Oh, and butter for the muffins. To make the eggs benedict: buttered muffin topped with crabcake topped with the egg topped with hollandaise. Serve with some homefries for breakfast. Mmmm. Or with salad for dinner. Mmmm.

Crab Cakes

adapted from allrecipes.com

1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp dry mustard
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper (1/2 if you don't like a little kick of heat)
1 1/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp old bay powder
1/2 C crushed buttery round crackers
16 oz crab meat
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp mayonaisse
squeeze of half a lemon (no seeds!)
salt and pepper to taste
1 C panko
more oil for frying

Sautee green onion and garlic in the 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil. Set aside and allow to cool while you combine the next five ingredients (from the dry mustard to the buttery round crackers) in a small bowl. Put crab meat into a large bowl. Add egg and mayonaisse to it then give a gentle toss. Add the spice mix, cooled onion/garlic, and lemon juice. Toss gently until combined well -- but be gentle so you keep the chunks of crab. Form into patties. This will make 12 small patties, or 8 larger ones. Use the english muffins as a size guide. Refrigerate until ready to use.

If you're going to fry these: heat up some olive oil over medium high heat. Coat each patty with panko, then fry until each side is golden brown.

If you're going to broil them, set oven to broil. Coat each patty with panko. If they're small, broil for about 6 min a side. If they're larger, about 8 minutes per side.

jambalaya rice

Egads time flies! I had one recipe left to share from Fathers Day dinner, and this is it. Cajun food has always been kind of mystifying to me - something I'd always bought but never attempted to make on my own because it seemed a bit labor intensive. I mean, there are a lot of ingredients in this! But in reality - I was pleasantly surprised at how simple and quick it was to make this. Basically you dump everything into a pot and cook. This is easy enough to make on a weeknight, and pretty enough to dress up for a special occasion.

Since my awesome shrimp and andouille skewers had the meat/seafood components of a jambalaya, I just made this a rice side dish. To retain the smokiness the ham would have supplied in Ellie's original recipe and to mimic the skewers, I swapped smoked paprika for the regular. I also threw in my leftover tomatoes. This puppy is chock full of veggies and has very little oil - thanks Ellie for making this healthy and tasty! You can, of course, just follow her recipe and add the meat into it and you have yourself a stellar one pot meal, too.

Jambalaya Rice

adapted from Ellie Krieger

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp crushed red chili peppers

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

3/4 tsp salt

ground black pepper to taste

1 can reduced sodium chicken broth

dash of hot sauce

water (about 2/3 of the chicken broth can)

handful or more of chopped cherry tomatoes (optional - these were leftover from the skewers)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 1/2 C long grain white rice

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat and sautee the onion, garlic, and pepper until soft. Add in the rest of the ingedients except the rice. Stir and bring to a boil. Add in the rice, cover, reduce heat to low, and cook about 25 minutes. Most of the liquid should be absorbed, and rice should be soft. If adding shrimp, add it now, cover, and cook for 5 more minutes.

shrimp and andouille skewers

This little skewer rocked my taste buds. And it kind of looks like a cheerful cyclops, doesn't it!It's a bit naked in this picture, since these skewers get slathered with a spicy, smoky sauce. Say that five times fast :)

I find most of my recipes via the internet, so it's not often that a magazine cover grabs my attention... but Bon Appetit's June issue did just that. They looked delicious and simple, and they were exactly that. Prep took all of 10 minutes, and the skewers were on the table in under 20. Even if they were naked, I bet they'd taste great because shrimp + andouille = winning combination. But the sauce... oh the sauce! It's smoky and spicy at the same time, perfectly suited for the shrimp and a great accent to the andouille. For Fathers Day I served this over some jambalaya style rice, and like I said before - it rocked my taste buds!

Shrimp and Andouille Skewers with Spicy Smoky Sauce

adapted from Bon Appetit

Sauce:

3/4 C olive oil

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp dried thyme, chopped

5 tsp smoked paprika

4 tsp red wine vinegar

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

freshly ground black pepper

Skewers:

12 6" bamboo skewers

12 extra large shrimp (16-20 count), peeled and deveined

12 slices andouille sausage, sliced about the same thickness as the shrimp

12 grape tomatoes

12 2-layer sections of red onion, cut about the same thickness as shrimp/sausage

To make the sauce: Combine all the ingredients. Divide into 2 bowls - one to glaze before grilling, one to serve with the cooked skewers.

Soak the skewers for at least 30-60 minutes so they don't burn when grilled. Thread each skewer with a piece each of shrimp, sausage, tomato and onion (any order will do).

Heat the grill (or grill pan) to medium high. Brush skewers with the glaze (from the glazing bowl... don't cross contaminate with the serving bowl!). Grill, turning and brushing occasionally with more sauce, and cook for 6-8 minutes.

Transfer to a platter and serve with the second bowl of sauce. Mmmm smoky.

spaghetti casserole

I have a go-to baked pasta recipe that is affectionately called Death by Cheesy Goodness - one serving nearly puts me in a coma. A delicious coma. It's awesome, but let me say it again - coma. So the other night I had a craving for it but didn't want to pass out, so I came up with this "lighter" recipe. Basically it's spaghetti layered with mozzarella so the cheese gets all melty in the middle, but it's not so much that I go catatonic. The good thing about this is that it can easily be adapted - use ground turkey, italian sausage, or no meat at all. Not that I'd ever got that last route since I'm a carnivore, but I suppose chopped up portabellas could work as a meaty veggie substitute. This makes a full 9x13 dish - so easily 12 servings. Enjoy!

Spaghetti Casserole

olive oil

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb ground beef (I used 90/10)

salt, pepper, dried basil, dried oregano

1 jar/can spaghetti sauce (I used Hunt's meat flavor)

1 can diced tomatoes (with basil and oregano if you like)

16 oz part skim mozzarella, grated

grated parmesan cheese

1 box thin spaghetti

Bring a big pot of water to a boil and toss in about 2 tsp or a tbsp of salt. Drizzle oil into bottom of a large pan put over medium heat and sautee onions until soft. Add garlic and ground beef. Season with salt, pepper, basil, and oregano. Cook, breaking up the meat into small pieces, until done - taste and add seasoning as necessary. Add the spaghetti sauce and diced tomatoes to the meat, and stir to combine and allow to simmer to heat through.

Preheat oven to 350 and take out a 9x13 baking dish. When the water comes to a full rolling boil, add the spaghetti. Cook for 7-8 minutes - most boxes say 9-11 min so you want to undercook it so it comes out of the oven al dente. Turn off heat and strain the pasta then put back into pot. Add about 3/4 the sauce to the spaghetti and mix.

To assemble: Spoon a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Spread half the pasta into the dish. Layer half the shredded mozzarella and enough parmesan to cover it. Add the rest of the pasta, the rest of the mozzarella, and the rest of the sauce. Grate some more paremsan on top. Bake for 30 minutes or until the edges are bubbly and cheese is melted.

Easter dinner recipe overload

Since I'm working backwards with my Easter dinner recipes, next up is the main course. Don't really need to explain it, just show a pretty picture and the recipes for the lamb with asparagus and roasted smashed potatoes. This is not only a great holiday meal, you can impress a date with it, too. This is me, looking out for you. Oh yeah.

Timing wise, roast the lamb first. While it's roasting, boil the potatoes. While it's resting, roast the potatoes and sautee the asparagus. Boom, you'll have a complete meal done at the same time. Booyah.

Roast Leg of Lamb

3-4 lb boneless leg of lamb, rolled and tied

2 heads garlic, of which 4 cloves pulled off and minced finely

1 tbsp lemon zest (about 1 large lemon)

2 tbsp fresh thyme, minced

1/2 tsp dried rosemary, minced

1 1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 375. Combine the 4 minced cloves, zest, thyme, rosemary and olive oil and rub all over lamb. Place on roasting pan. Chop about 1/4" off the tops of the garlic heads and rub with oil and place next to the lamb. Roast for 70-80 minutes, or until meat temperature reaches 130 for medium rare. (For a chart of meat doneness, check this out. Shout out to the Reluctant Gourmet, too, for answering one of my questions about how long to put a rub on meat.)

When it reaches your desired doneness, take out and allow to rest while you roast the potatoes.

Roasted Smashed Potatoes

adapted from The Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes

2 or 3 small round potatoes per person

same herbs used in the lamb for a "cohesive meal, lol" to taste

salt and pepper to taste

oil

Boil the potatoes until you can easily stick a fork into the middle (fork tender). After you take the lamb out, turn the oven up to 450. Spread the potatoes out on a baking sheet and use a masher to smash down (you can see pics on the above link). Season with salt, pepper and herbs. Generously drizzle olive oil. Shake the pan a bit just to distribute the oil evenly on the bottom. Roast for 20 minutes or until the edges are browned and crisped.

Lemony Asparagus Tips

1 lemon, half zested and cut in half

as much asparagus as you want to eat - about 1/2 lb per person

kosher salt

olive oil

Cut asparagus tips into about 5" stalks. Heat olive oil to medium high heat. Cook until the thick end is soft enough for a fork to easily poke, but the stalk has some snap to it. Take off heat. Toss with a pinch of salt, lemon zest, and the juice of 1/2 of the lemon. Serve hot.

A taste of Jamaica

Actually, I have little experience (read: never even tried cooking it until tonight) with Caribbean food. Never been Jamaica, and no clue what "the real stuff" tastes like. All that being said, you know what, this slow cooker Jamaican jerk inspired pork tenderloin (see why I didn't make that the title?) is fall-apart soft, moist, and perfectly seasoned. Translation: awesome. I coupled it with roasted sweet potatoes that were the perfect combination of sweet, salty, and spicy. This is so easy you can eat it on any given weeknight (where you can go home for lunch to set the slow cooker), or dress it up and serve to company.

And, before I forget, shout out to Brandt for trying this recipe first, giving me a sample of it, and essentially inspiring me to make it myself.

I woulda taken prettier pictures, but I was hungry. Look how moist. I was just pulling pieces off with my fork. And all those red pepper flakes. Mmm spicy.

Slow Cooker Jamaican Jerk Pork Tenderloin

inspired from The Examiner

2 C 99% fat free beef broth

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried thyme

1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp cloves

1 lb pork tenderloin

Special equipment: slow cooker, meat thermometer

Put the broth into the slow cooker tub. Combine all the spices into a small bowl (yay you've just prepped your dry rub!). Evenly coat/rub the entire ternderloin with the spice mix. Place in the slow cooker. Cook for 5-7 hours (mine took 5), or until the meat thermometer reads 170 degrees. Eat.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1" pieces

olive oil for drizzling

1 tsp kosher salt

ground red pepper flakes - I used about 7-8 grinds and didn't think it was hot enough, but I like it spicy

Preheat oven to 450. Arrange the potato chunks in an even layer and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and grind the red pepper flakes. Bake for 30 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes so it cooks evenly. It's the best if the edges get all crispy.

Oh and one more thing. Apparently leftovers are awesome on a sandwich, which reminds me of the Best Sandwich I Ever Had down in Peru. I would make my leftover sandwich like this: Crusty kaiser roll-ish bread, slices of pork (reheated), thin slices of fried sweet potato, mashed avocado with a bit of salt. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

super easy pizza dough

We decided to have a make your own pizza girls night. Any time I've made pizza before, I just bought some premade dough from the grocery, but this time I wanted to give it a go myself. Turned out it's really easy to make! The original recipe says you can let it rise for only 30 min, so you'd be able to eat in about an hour, but I let mine rise over an hour just because I had that much time before going over to Melissa's house. Turned out light and the bottom was nice and crisp.

I actually made 2 doughs - a plain one and one with 1/2 tsp each of garlic powder and oregano. Once we covered the 2 half pizzas with some mushrooms, tomatoes, diced onions, and over a pound of cheese (seriously - 1 lb mozz and maybe a quarter cup of grated parm), you couldn't tell the difference in doughs. But I think the garlic/oregano one would be awesome on a white pizza or as breadsticks.

Super Easy Pizza Dough
adapted from allrecipes.com

1 packet active dry yeast
1 C warm water (around 110 degrees, if you have a thermometer)

2 tsp white sugar, divided

2 1/2 C bread flour

1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil

cornmeal for dusting (optional)

In a small bowl, dissolve the dry yeast into the water, and sprinkle 1 tsp white sugar on top. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes, or until foamy.

In a large bowl, combine the other tsp sugar, flour, salt, and olive oil. Pour in the yeast mixture and beat until a stiff dough has formed. I used my kitchen aid hand mixer with the dough attachments to make it super quick, then knead it 4 or 5 times until it was a soft, supple ball.

Take it out of the bowl long enough to coat the bowl with cooking spray, then drop the ball back in and turn to coat with the oil. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for about an hour until doubled in size.

To make the pizza:

Preheat oven to 400. If using a baking stone, put into oven to heat up for 15 min, too. Roll out dough into pizza shape of your choice. (I did this on granite and it didn't actually stick, but if you have a stickier dough just lightly flour the surface first.) Sprinkle some cornmeal on the surface to coat the bottom of the rolled out dough.

If using a cookie sheet, place on sheet. If using a baking stone, either use a pizza peel to slide the dough ontot it, or carefully take it out of oven and place the dough on it, then put back in. Don't burn yourself! Make sure to kind of press little dents all over the dough so the middle doesn't rise so much.

Prebake for about 10 min, then take out and top with your favorite toppings and continue to bake until cheese is bubbly and edges are golden, about 15-20 min.

Pollo al Mattone, aka brick (sorta) chicken

One time in college I made dinner for me, my roomie, and a boy. The boy said to me, "Cornish hen? Oooh fancy. That's, like, stuff they serve at weddings." I remember being kind of amused and confused at the same time because I grew up eating it as a quick weeknight meal. And the idea of eating one per person? Absurd. We had one hen for 3 people, with some veggies and rice or Stovetop on the side.

My usual cornish hen preparation involves butter, salt, pepper, and an oven. Sometimes I'll shove sliced lemon up it's butt, too. Sometimes it's some smashed garlic cloves. Roast in the oven until done. But this time... I caught crazy-haired Anne Burrell's show on Food Network and saw this. First, the spices are some of my favorite. Second, it looked so easy! Therefore, I had to try it, and yay! I slightly burnt it (I've been burning a lot lately, ugh), but it's not good to eat the skin anyways right, so I just went for the meat, which was perfectly moist and tasty!

Pollo al Mattone

adapted from Anne Burrell

4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 lemon, zested and juiced

3/4 tsp paprika (I used a mix of 1/2 tsp regular and 1/4 tsp Hungarian)

1 tsp cumin

olive oil

1 cornish hen, backbone removed and butterflied (recipe calls for 2)

kosher salt and ground black pepper

Special equipment: 2 pans that can be put into the oven. I used my 2 cast iron pans.

Combine the garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon zest and juice, paprika, and cumin. Drizzle in olive oil until it makes a paste. Put hen into a big bowl, massage it with the the paste. Cover and refrigerate/marinated overnight or up to 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 400. Coat the bottom of the other pan with some oil and heat over high. Season the hen generously with salt and pepper. Make sure hen is open, legs tucked under, and lay into pan skin side down. Spray the bottom of another pan with oil - since I used cast iron I wrapped it in foil first then sprayed. Place that pan on top to weigh down the chicken. (This one is called brick chicken because you could wrap a brick in foil and put in the pan to weigh it down. The cast iron was heavy enough for me. ) Cook til the skin just starts to brown, about 5 minutes. (This is also the part I lost track of time, thus slightly charring it, whoops.)

Put the entire thing - chicken sandwiched between pans - into the oven and cook for about 15 minutes. Check to make sure it's done (juice runs clear). Remove chicken from pans. Now. This is where I stopped. I didn't make the sauce - I was lazy, not gonna lie. But just in case you want some, click the link above for her full recipe.

I ate the chicken as is. There was just the right amount of heat from the red pepper, and neither the paparika or cumin was too overpowering. Delightful. Roasted potatoes or cauliflower go well with it. I imagine some couscous and sliced almonds would be a great side, too.