Pizza Bread!

I made Pizza Bread today, and I must say it was delicious. Deep sun-dried tomato flavor, full of herbs with salty parmesan and Asiago cheeses...tender, moist dough...very yummy indeed. To read the recipe, visit my baking blog Mediocre Chocolate.
I also wanted to report on the first harvest of my new zucchini plant, Gadzukes. It's only April and I've already begun to yield beautiful, healthy organic zukes from this guy--and they are so cute! When you slice them, they are shaped like little starbursts. My theory was--despite the fact that I love interesting and unusual veggies--that I could tell my kids they were alien zucchini, and they would at least try them. (The 4 year old did.) I roasted some up tonight with a little salt, pepper and olive oil--I skipped salting them because of the way they were sliced--and tossed it into some leftover pasta with a bit of parmesan. The boys all had chicken quesadillas, so I needed a fast and fresh solution for myself. Normally I prefer a whole-wheat noodle, but I gave in and ate the bowties, being too hungry to wait for water to boil. It's very yummy squash, very sweet, and I'm pleased it's taking up 4 feet of my garden!

Holy Stroganoff

Oh, dinner tonight was amazing. One of my all-time favorites, I must say. And the beauty of it is that the basic recipe works with either chicken or beef, and can be cooked in under 20 minutes on a stovetop or all day in a Crockpot, with some minor adjustments.
It's one of those this-n-that recipes, where the amounts that you put it will change depending on how much food you need, but you can estimate ingredients and still not screw it up.
I found the original beef Stroganoff recipe in an issue of Cook's Illustrated--surprise, right? They are by far my favorite magazine--top three, along with Eating Well and Fine Cooking. It's not so unusual, just one secret ingredient that really makes the dish.
You can do this dish as I did tonight with chicken tenders or breasts, you can use ground turkey or beef, even meatballs...it just doesn't matter!

Chicken Stroganoff
2 lbs chicken tenders
3 tbsp lite olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1/2 cup onion, diced fine
1/2 cup grated carrot
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
1-2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup sauvignon blanc or white wine
1 cup -1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
2 tbsp flour
1/4 cup lite sour cream

Season chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika. Heat oil to shimmering in large stainless steel pan, and cook chicken til almost done and well-browned, about 3 minutes per side. Remove, turn heat to medium.
Add carrots and onions, paste, and white wine--stir to deglaze pan, scraping up any bits with wooden spoon. Cook 5 minutes, til softened. Add stock, worcestershire, and sugar. Stir, bring to simmer, and add chicken back to pan along with any juices. Cook a few minutes, til chicken is cooked through and sauce has reduced a bit.
Remove chicken, chop up, and set aside.
Mix together sour cream and flour in a small bowl til no lumps remain. Whisk by tablespoon into gravy, bringing back up to a boil, until desired thickness is reached (you may not need it all, depending on how much your sauce reduced.) Check for seasoning, and serve over noodles, cous-cous, rice, or anything really--it would make a dirty sock taste good, it's that delicious.

To convert to a slow-cooker recipe, follow all steps except sour cream and flour. Use chicken thighs or lean stew meat, and use enough stock to cover halfway in Crockpot. Cook on Hi 3 hours or Low for 6, always leaving on Hi for the first hour for safety. When ready to eat, remove meat, and thicken sauce as above, separating fat first if desired. Serve with extra sour cream.
(c) copyright 2008 earthwatersunwind@yahoo.com

Lazy Girl

What's for dinner the past few nights has been pitifully mediocre. Boston Market takeout tonight, at my son's request...that's about the only "fast food" I'll do around here, but it's still not exactly a home-cooked meal.
So I bought a large family-size package of chicken tenders at Henry's the other day. We grilled some flank steak the other night, but since it was such a simple preparation (oil + steak seasoning + fire) I didn't bother to write about it. I will recommend the cut of meat, though--very cheap, flavorful, and if you cut it against the grain, very tender. Perfect for fajitas.
I have to ask myself, what have I been craving? After two nights of fending for myself...I am craving veggies. I am trying to train myself to look at dinner from a vegetable stand point, since it is sometimes forgotten. What vegetable should we have tonight? I can always whip up some chicken tenders for the boys if I don't have anything special planned..but I do like to include a veggie. My kids are strange, though. They actually love a lot of vegetables. They eat carrots and ranch dip from Trader Joe's, and their broccoli-carrot slaw mixed with salad dressing (I told them it was special crunchy noodles, hee hee.) My older one loves roasted asparagus with parmesan. They will eat a pound each of cherry tomatoes if you let them--which is why I am growing plenty. They love filet green beans, the little skinny ones (grew those last year), and here's the weirdest thing. They will eat frozen (or raw) peas and corn, straight out of the freezer. Strange but true! Sometimes if I am only steaming broccoli or something, I'll give them a little cup of the frozen veggies, and they're set.
I think dinner tomorrow should include some kind of bean. I made a Mexican skillet awhile back--sauteed onions, peppers, chicken, beans--like a mock Taco-Bell. But hmmm. Beans are a frontier still to be tamed. They won't eat anything creamy, so it's whole beans for sure....I just have to keep trying. If I can get my oldest to admit to liking broccoli like he did the other night...I can persevere with beans! I'm thinking for now...I'll post more tomorrow when I decide on the menu. In the meantime, I'll leave you with another promise--Pizza Bread is coming soon. I am in a bread phase, and have almost exhausted the sandwich bread trials...I am really anxious to re-try my Pizza Bread. More to come! Plus, Friday is Goodie Day for the Boys In Blue at the husband's work, so I'll be making my Penguin Bars again, trying to fine-tune it. Visit Mediocre Chocolate for more details....

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Made a recipe tonight I have been dying to try. It's from one of my favorite Food Network Chefs, Ellie Krieger (who has a NY Times Best seller at the moment.) She's all about balancing delicious food with good nutrition...and this one is a winner in both categories. You can find the recipe here, and I will tell you, it was an astounding success. Sweet, smoky, not spicy at all...very creamy and decadent for a low-fat pasta.
The only changes I made was cutting the feta half and half with reduced fat ricotta, a personal choice, and adding a bit of lemon juice. Oh, actually, I threw in some leftover steamed carrots, too--extra veggies never hurt. It would also have been amazing with some wilted spinach tossed in when I mixed it into the pasta...maybe next time. I sauteed some thin chicken cutlets real quick to go with it, and voila--delicious--truly delicious in under 20 minutes. Even my holdout 4 year old liked it! I highly recommend it, and it's open to many different variations.