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Recipe: Chicken Monterey

Hey there…I’m still here…I haven’t vanished and ran off to one of those reno hotels or anything! I’ve just been sick…and busy…and hot-flashing…and going crazy over stupid meds.

Anyhoo, I have a nice recipe to share today, which I adapted from one from the original Silver Palate Cookbook…still a classic after all these years!

I changed things a little by doubling the recipe, as the original only made 2-4 servings…this is a family-sized recipe, and it also makes for good leftovers if you don’t have a family. I also call for chicken thighs here, they are cheap and have more flavor than the white meat. I also did not give a specific amount of oil to be added, as the thighs are fattier, so you should use less olive oil here. Original recipe amounts would have been too much.

This is another one of those dishes that is better the second day, which is why I use the increased amounts.

Chicken Monterey

Ingredients:
Olive oil
5-6 pounds chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
Salt & pepper to taste
2 cups chopped yellow onions
One (1 pound) bag of baby carrots
8 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced (or put through a garlic press)
2 cups chicken broth (can be canned or homemade)
1 cup orange juice
One (14 or so ounce) can plain diced tomatoes
Fresh or dried rosemary, to taste
2 sweet red bell peppers, cut into julienne
1 each of zucchini and yellow summer squash, sliced diagonally
Cooked egg noodles (the wide width is preferred here)

Method:
Heat some of the oil in a large pan (For this amount, I use a pan that looks something like this). A 6-8 quart Dutch oven will work very well here. Pat the chicken pieces dry, and season them on both sides with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in the pan, cook gently for 5 minutes, turn, and cook another five minutes. Do not crowd the pan, if you can’t fit it all in one layer, cook the chicken in batches.

Once the chicken has been par-cooked, remove it all to a plate and set aside. Preferably someplace where the cats can’t find it…LOL!

Add the onions, carrots, and garlic to the fat remaining in the pan, and cook, covered, over low heat, until the vegetables are soft. This should take 25-30 minutes.

Then add the broth, orange juice, tomatoes, and rosemary to the pan. Season with salt and pepper, simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes.

Now you want to return the chicken and any accumulated juices on the plate to the pan, with the sauce. It can all go in at once, even if it’s not in one layer. Simmer it in the sauce for 30-35 minutes, turning the chicken halfway through.

In a skillet, heat some more oil, and saute the pepper julienne for about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and summer squash, season with salt & pepper, and saute for another five minutes. Then, using a slotted spoon, transfer the pepper/zucchini mixture to the pan with the chicken, and simmer it all together for another five minutes.

Serves 4-8 people.

Enjoy!

Best pulled pork EVAH!

And I cooked it in the appliance seen here…the Rival Crock-Pot BBQ Pit! I KNEW I had a pic of this on my computer’s hard drive, so I didn’t have to download it again. This is exactly what my appliance looks like.

The original recipe can be found here: Beer Braised BBQ Pork Butt. It’s from a Food Network show called Good Deal With Dave Lieberman. This is a good show, as he shows you how to cook good meals with inexpensive ingredients…and pork butt is one of the cheapest cuts of meat out there.

Only you have to cook it for a long time to get it to be nice and tender. Dave cooks his in the oven, but who wants to do that in the middle of the summer? So I went and adapted it for my BBQ Pit appliance. You will probably get good results in a regular crock-pot, but don’t quote me on that, as I have yet to try this.

What I did was put the spice rub on the pork the night before, and set it in the fridge overnight. The next day, I put it in the BBQ Pit, without the rack, just directly into the crockery insert. I turned it on HIGH and cooked it for about two hours…and it was starting to smell wicked yummie by then.

Then I added the beer and garlic. If the crockery is hot, the beer should be at room temp, and NOT cold from the fridge. Otherwise, your crockery insert will crack, and then you’ll be sorry.

I used Samuel Adams Boston Lager, because that’s what I had on hand. But any good beer or ale will work as well.

The whole thing cooked for about 8 hours altogether. Then I removed the pork roast to a cutting board, and dumped the pan juices into a saucepan. Then I followed the recipe instructions for the BBQ sauce.

I also made the potato salad that goes with it…very yummie as well.

Enjoy!

A big fear of mine…

…is when I fall asleep with my glasses on. It happens often enough. The big fear is that they will fall off my face in the middle of the night, and then I’ll roll on them and break them. Once I can very close to doing just that.

If Mike is still awake when I nod off, he will remove my glasses and put them into their case. But if he nods off first, I’m out of luck.

I know that now there are contact lenses that you can sleep in…something that didn’t exist 20-something years ago when I tried contacts. But honestly, I just didn’t feel comfortable sticking something onto my eyeball. So I went back to glasses.

And now there’s Lasik eye surgery. I keep seeing commercials for it on TV.  It sounds scary, but I hear it is fast, safe, and painless.  I’ve sometimes thought about going to one of those free consultations that I see advertised, to get an opinion as to whether or not I’d be a good candidate for it.

But we just don’t have the money for it right now, and it’s not something insurance will pay for…even if we had GOOD insurance (i.e., something other than Cigna).

On the other hand, we might be able to get a payment plan…

Warnings, warning, warnings everywhere!

We’ve already read all about the diet pill warnings and such. And this week, we’ve been warned about how most kids’ meals at fast-food joints have too many calories.  Well, that’s not exactly rocket science…remember how people would eat at these places, and then are shocked, SHOCKED to discover that this food made them fat?  D’oh!

But here’s another warning that is NOT so well-publicized:  if you have food allergies, don’t eat at Olive Garden.  In a discussion on a private board I go to, they were talking about whether or not restaurants should be required to disclose nutrition info upon request.  One woman asked about certain ingredients in a dish that she wanted to order at OG, only to be told that they won’t disclose ANY ingredients, they are *secret*.  And she was told the thing about if you have food allergies, don’t eat here.

She says that she and her party of 15 left to dine elsewhere.  And I agree.  This is just plain unacceptable.  WTF is so secret about Olive Garden’s dishes, anyway?  I’ve never eaten in one, I admit, but I’ve never WANTED to.  We live in the Boston area, we can find REAL Italian food in the North End or in other Italian neighborhoods.  Olive Garden is probably as about as Italian as I am.

DECENT restaurants are more than happy to tell you what is in something, so that you can make an informed choice as to whether to order it or not.  And not just because of food allergies, but how about likes and dislikes?  Mike HATES coconut, for instance.  We like to go to a place called the Naked Fish, which has a lot of tropical themed dishes.  Many of them contain coconut.  But it says on the menu if they contain it or not, and if he isn’t sure, he asks, and they will tell him.  It’s not like Mike would get sick or die from eating coconut, he just doesn’t like it.  If he were served a dish that contained coconut after not being told that was in it, he’d be pissed, and not return to this restaurant.

I think that customers DO have the right to ask what is in the food, and if the staff can’t/won’t tell them, said customers should dine elsewhere.

States such as New York and California are now requiring chain restaurants to put nutrition info ON THE MENUS.  Although I agree that this info should be made available to those who want it, I don’t think they should be forced to make new, ginormous menus for this.  Just a not, “nutrition info available upon request”.  You request, they bring you a sheet of paper with said info on it.  Fair enough to all.

People need to be allowed to know exactly what they are eating, right?

Review: HP Photosmart C4280 All-In-One Inkjet Printer

Earlier this year, I found that I needed a new printer AND a new scanner. Rather than buy separate components, I shopped around and found the very affordable HP Photosmart C4280 All-In-One Inkjet Printer. At only around $100 or so, it is a great printer for the money.

I was especially looking for something that would give me decent quality prints of my digital photos, which I use for my scrapbooking projects This little machine does the trick!

The machine comes with one black cartridge and one three-color ink cartridge, which do the job well. But for enhanced color for your photos, they make a six-color cartridge that you may want to invest in.

The ink cartridges aren’t dirt cheap (black goes for about $15, tri-color for about $20, you can save by buying a two-pack with one of each). But they last surprisingly longer than I thought they would. Just do yourself a favor and use only genuine HP inks, I have used cheapo ones in other printers, and they ruined the printers.

The scanner and printer features work really well, too. You can set it to scan into your favorite image editing software, or just use the software that comes with the device. And it makes good quality photocopies, as well…no more having to go out to a copy shop, or put money in the machine at the library.

You can either print photos from your computer, or you can insert your camera’s memory card and print from there, no computer needed for this. There are slots for various sizes and types of cards, including the SD card and Compact Flash.

The only thing is that this does NOT come with a USB cord, which is required for hooking it up to your computer. You will have to either buy one separately, or just use the one from your old printer, which is what I did.

If you are looking for a good all-in-one printer and are on a budget, you could do much worse than this one.  I highly recommend it for those looking to spend around $100 or so.