Sauteed Chicken with Garlic and Rosemary

 Wow, it has been a long time since I updated this little blog. The pandemic has not done much for my cooking -- if anything I've gotten tired of doing it all the time, of being stuck at home by requirement rather than choice, of spending hours and hours in my kitchen for lack of anyplace else to do my work. For a while, it was difficult to do real menu planning, since it was hard to guess what the store would have. I made a lot of "throw together" meals that didn't rely on a recipe.

Now that the weather is getting cooler, and the situation is clearly going to drag on well into next year, I am trying to be a little more intentional about things, and to spend more time in the analog world. I have loads of cookbooks, and I've barely touched them in ages. This book in particular I don't know if I have ever used -- Bon Appetit's Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook, a goliath of a compendium from years of the magazine. I subscribed for ages, but there came a time where it began to feel stale and repetitive, like I had seen the seasons of their publication year come and go too many times. I use my back issues during the holidays, and that's about all.

This entry may be a one-off--I don't try to predict much these days--but it is a solid recipe and worth recording.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken thighs with bones and skin
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (or use 2 tsp dried)
• 1 c chicken broth
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Instructions

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large heavy skillet over high heat. Add chicken to skillet and saute until browned, about 5 minutes per side. 
2. Reduce head to medium-low, cover, and cook until chicken is tender and cooked through, about 15 minutes
3. Transfer chicken to bowl. Discard all but 2 Tbsp drippings from skillet. Add garlic and rosemary, and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. 
4. Add broth and vinegar. Boil until sauce is reduced to 1/2 cup, about 7 minutes. 
5. Return chicken and any juices to pan and simmer over low heat until chicken is heated through, about 5 minutes. 

 

New England Molasses Gingerbread Cookies

Another standard member of my repertoire ever since it was published, lo these many years ago. These are, quite frankly, amazing, and the recipe is large. I usually only make one batch of these every holiday season, and dole out a few in every box of cookies I give away.

They freeze very well, although be careful of the shapes you choose if you're planning to do that -- I love making these in snowflake shapes, but they tend to lose a point or two. 

Here is a link to the source.

Cookie Ingredients

6 cups (about) all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon salt
11 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 large egg
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing Ingredients

3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons light corn syrup
Water
Food coloring (optional)
Decorations (such as colored sugar crystals)

Instructions
These are the original instructions, to which I have only added numbers for readability. Personally, I do not fuss around with waxed paper, nor do I have the fridge space to tuck sheets of cookies away while they await their turn in the oven. My cookies have never seemed to suffer for this shoddy treatment.

1. Combine 5 1/4 cups flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in medium bowl; whisk to blend well. 
2. Using electric mixer, beat butter and shortening in large bowl to blend. 
3. Add 1 cup sugar, molasses, and lemon peel and beat until smooth. 
4. Beat in egg and buttermilk. 
5. Stir 2 teaspoons water and baking soda in small cup to blend; beat into butter mixture. 
6. Beat in flour mixture in 2 additions. Stir in more flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until slightly firm dough forms. 
7. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Shape each into disk. Wrap disks and chill until firm enough to roll, at least 2 hours. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated. Soften slightly before rolling out.)
8. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between sheets of waxed paper to 16x12-inch rectangle, occasionally lifting paper to smooth out wrinkles. Using 4- to 5-inch cutters, cut out boy and girl gingerbread people. Pull away excess dough around cutouts; flatten, wrap, and chill excess dough. Slide rimless baking sheet or inverted baking sheet under waxed paper with cutouts and chill until firm. Repeat with remaining dough disks, refrigerating cutouts on waxed paper on baking sheets. Roll out excess dough and make more cookies, using all of dough. (Cutout cookies can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; keep chilled.)
9. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Using thin metal spatula, lift chilled cookies off waxed paper and transfer to baking sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake until darker at edges and just firm to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheet 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely. Bake remaining cookies, 1 sheet at a time.

For icing:

1. Sift powdered sugar into medium bowl. 
2. Mix in lemon juice and corn syrup. Mix in enough water by teaspoonfuls to form smooth icing soft enough to pipe but firm enough to hold shape. Divide into 3 or 4 portions and tint with food coloring, if desired.
3. Spoon icing into pastry bag (or bags if using more than 1 color) fitted with small (1/16- to 1/8-inch) plain tip. Arrange cookies on work surface. Pipe icing onto cookies in desired patterns. Apply decorations as desired. Let cookies stand until icing is dry. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Store cookies airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

Farfalle with Chicken, Tomatoes, Caramelized Onions, and Goat Cheese

Summer's end is approaching -- the days are shorter, even if they continue to be too warm, and every market Saturday I remind myself that this might be the last of _______ for the year. So far, the tomatoes are still with us, and given that it has been ridiculously warm, this Sunday was a great occasion for making this dish. Like many of my favorite recipes, I have this one on a page pulled out of Bon Appetit magazine a million years ago.

As do many people (going from the comments on the linked version), I don't often  make this exactly as written. I never have marjoram and don't particularly care for it; I use other greens if that's what I have, I don't fuss about the kind of vinegar I use or adding sugar (because good heavens, why). I look at this recipe as the opposite of fussy; it's a way to enjoy some wonderful fresh ingredients as something other than a salad but without messing around too much.  

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large red onions, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons Sherry wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 8 ounces farfalle
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 6 heirloom tomatoes, cored, chopped (about 5 cups)
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken (from 1/2 rotisserie chicken)
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram
• 3 cups baby spinach
• 3 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled

 Preparation

1. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium high heat. Add the onions; sprinkle with salt and cook until beginning to brown, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in vinegar and sugar; cook until onions are browned, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Transfer caramelized onions to bowl; reserve skillet.
2. Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain.
3. Add wine to reserved skillet. Boil until reduced to 1/2 cup, 3 minutes. Add pasta, onions, broth, and next 4 ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Stir over medium heat to warm through, about 3 minutes.
4. Divide spinach among plates. Spoon pasta over spinach. Top with crumbled goat cheese. 

I hope you will make this (without fussing) and enjoy it, too. 

Honey Oat Bread

I spent most of yesterday immobilized by a glancing encounter with a stomach bug (8yo had a more severe one, unfortunately). After a day of crackers and ginger ale, at 4 p.m. I decided to make bread along with the basic chicken soup I had planned for dinner. I picked this recipe because I remembered it as taking relatively little time to make, but that turned out to be not entirely accurate.

Still, it is very good bread, and I can tell you that it also makes amazing toast. The header text on my copy of the recipe leads me to think that it originally came from Bon Appetit.

Never have I tried a homemade bread as light and delicious as the honey-oat loaf at The Green Mountain Inn in Stowe, Vermont," writes Rebecca Rothaug of Westbury, New York. "With your help, I would like to share this bread with my family and friends."

Serve slices of this tender, slightly sweet bread with plenty of butter and honey.

Servings:   Makes 2 small loaves.

1 3/4 cups warm water (105°F to 110°F)
1 tablespoon dry yeast
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1/3 cup honey
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 cups (about) all purpose flour

1 large egg, beaten to blend
Additional quick-cooking oats

Stir 1/4 cup warm water and yeast in large bowl. Let stand 10 minutes to dissolve yeast. Stir in remaining 1 1/2 cups water, 3/4 cup oats, honey, oil, and salt. Stir in enough flour to form soft dough. Coat another large bowl with oil. Transfer dough to oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel and let rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Oil two 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2-inch loaf pans. Punch down dough; shape into 2 loaves. Place 1 loaf in each pan. Cover and let rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush tops of loaves with egg; sprinkle with additional oats. Bake until brown on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool completely. (Can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)