Green Posole - May 20, 2013

I found this recipe while perusing one of my favorite inspirational food blogs, Yummy Supper. It looked so different from anything I had made recently and actually got me excited to think about cooking again.  Nick helped me with this one since I was at a workshop all weekend, and together we made a great dinner.  I was able to snag a bag of Rancho Gordo hominy at the Co-op and with that, we were off and running.  I followed Erin's directions pretty closely.  We garnished our bowls with avocado, cilantro, chopped black radishes from our CSA, and lots of fresh lime juice.  It had a great, summery flavor, but since it was a bowl of warm soup, it was perfect for this cold and rainy spring weather we've been enjoying here in the Midwest.

Hen with Garlic Sage Sauce - May 8, 2013 (and a puppy birthday party)

It's no secret that the Hartmans are pretty big food TV junkies. Richie in particular has become a bit of a Top Chef addict and has even purchased seasons 1-5 on iTunes to watch whenever he needs a fix! Therefore we couldn't help but be drawn in when we saw season 5's Italian star, Fabio Viviani, staring back at us from the book display at Costco. Even though we have a plethora of Italian cookbooks at home, he charmed his way into our cart anyway and I'm glad he did as the first dish we made from it was definitely a winner.

This is his recipe for "hen with garlic sage sauce" and my only quibble is that his directions were a bit imprecise. I'm pretty comfortable in the kitchen, so "cook until done" was OK with me but I would imagine it might not work for less seasoned cooks. The end result was absolutely delicious and a great use of some of our abundant herb garden growth.

I also made a grain free focaccia bread and ate the dish with steamed green beans. Richie had his over angel hair pasta.

In other news, Lily is no longer a puppy! She turned one on May 2 so of course we had a party. I made four kinds of cupcakes (vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, grain free carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, grain free toasted coconut, and peanut butter pumpkin for the dogs) and we invited all her two and four legged friends to a little gathering in the common space next to our house. 

Here is a picture of Lily with two of her four-legged friends. She's the one in the middle.

Moroccan Chicken and Creamy Spice Market Kale - March 23, 2013

Until this moment, I just wasn't on the kale bandwagon. I know it is good for you and very popular, but I had not found a way to prepare it that really made my mouth happy. In fact, I was so sick of it by midsummer last year that I let our then puppy go nuts and eat all of it that I had growing in the container garden to assuage my guilt over not picking and eating it

But this dish has made me a believer! Both elements, the chicken breasts and the kale, are recipes from my new favorite cookbook: Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love To Eat by Melissa Joulwan. Only modifications were to leave out the coconut aminos (not SCD legal) and to roast the chicken in oven rather than on the grill since I didn't feel like going out in the cd.

Tandoori Chicken with Yogurt Sauce (and Jaime's new outlook on food)

Greetings Dinner Clubbers! I'm sorry I've been quiet lately, but I have a reason. A little over a month ago I came to a big decision in regards to my health and it relates to food in a big way.

As dinner club members all know, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at age 19. I then spent my 20s trying to pretend that everything was just fine, eating everything I wanted and choosing to believe that diet had nothing to do with my digestive health. More than anything, I just wanted to be normal.

Then I paid for that negligence with a series of surgeries and complications in my early 30s. I am now 37 and have post-surgical short bowel, chronic anemia, and food allergies in addition to active Crohn's Disease. Right after Christmas I finally decided that I wasn't willing to put up with that as status quo any longer and that I was ready to try some dietary changes, even if that meant radically changing my relationship with food.

On January 21, I started the day with a bagel and cream cheese, granola bars for a snack, a stuffed baked potato for lunch, for dinner a cold cut and cheese combo on a big sourdough baguette and then followed it with a huge bowl of homemade ice cream with hot fudge and caramel sauce.

On January 22, I started following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). No grains of any kind, no starchy vegetables, no sugar, and no lactose. I won't lie... the transition was really, really, really hard but I decided to give it a month and then reassess.

I'm happy to report that the results are already positive. My digestion is vastly improved and I had a colonoscopy last week that showed major improvement in all areas. YAY!

And now that I'm 5 weeks into this new way of eating, I barely remember what it was like to eat the old way. Just writing about that day of eating makes my stomach hurt.

So what is left for me to eat? Lots of great thing like fruits, meat, nuts, most vegetables, homemade yogurt, and most cheeses. For example, tonight I made this tandoori chicken with yogurt sauce from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. It was so delicious, I forgot to take a picture and so am using the one from the website. Richie had rice with his; I enjoyed a side of steamed green beans with mine.

Now that I've decided the diet really does work and am committing to it for the long haul, I'm looking forward to sharing more of my delicious meals!

GG's Tea Party - Nov 23, 2012

Chicken Mandarin Orange Spread Sandwiches

This is slightly out of order, but since I'm still playing catch up from two months ago, I'm not too worried about it.  These pictures are from a birthday party for Nick's Grandma, known affectionately as GG, held the day after Thanksgiving.  GG turned 90 this year and we celebrated in style.

Cucumber-Salmon-Watercress Sandwiches

Specifically, we had an afternoon tea party where hats, of any kind, were required.  Nick and I were in charge of organizing the finger sandwiches for the party.  Nan wanted four different kinds, one of them being a pimento cheese sandwich, because it's not a Southern tea party without the pimento cheese sandwiches.

Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

Nick and I picked out three other recipes from this list.  A grocery list was compiled between Nick and me in Minnesota, and Chip and Nan in South Carolina.  Some math was required, but Nick and Chip are good guys to have on your team when that happens.  We got the numbers figured out without incident.  Nick's parents did the shopping, plus pimento cheese making, and Nick and I did the prep work (making the chicken and salmon salads, plus the compound butter for the ham sandwiches) Thursday evening, once the Thanksgiving feast had been cleared from the kitchen.

Party Ham Sandwiches

Then, bright and early Friday morning, a whole crew of family and friends gathered around the kitchen island. Uncles worked next to nephews, sisters worked next to brothers, fathers-in-law worked next to cousins, nieces worked next to girlfriends, and everybody pitched in to make hundreds of tiny tea sandwiches in record time.  We had so much help, in fact, that I had nothing to do besides answer the random question and stand back and admire the flurry of activity, as inside jokes and friendly barbs flew back and forth across the counter.  The rookies were included into the fold as though they had always been there, and the whole, wild and crazy assortment of family members became a happy, and quite efficient, team.   It was my favorite moment of the whole weekend.

Moroccan Chicken Stew with Sweet Potatoes - Oct 25, 2012

A recipe shared and recommended by JJ, this chicken stew was a delicious use of some of our sweet potatoes.  I changed up a few things...first, I used chicken breasts rather than the thighs called for in the recipe, but only because that was what I had on hand.  I think this would be even richer with thigh meat.  Next, I served this over white jasmine rice rather than couscous, which probably makes it a little less "Moroccan."  JJ's notes stated that she uses rice, so I followed her lead here.  I think any grain would be an easy substitute. The rice was quite nice.



Nick and I really enjoyed this dinner.  In fact, it made enough so that we were able to enjoy it twice. 

Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce - August 5, 2012

The picture doesn't do this dish justice. I picked up some tomatillos at the farmer's market last week without any particular plan and they were languishing in the refrigerator waiting for inspiration to hit, which came when I was strolling through the "international" section of Whole Foods. Salsa verde! Add that to leftover chicken, some homemade tortillas, and a bit of cheese and we had delicious green enchiladas (also known as "Enchiladas Suiza" - according to Google) for dinner last night.

I used Mark Bittman's recipe, using jalapeños from our patio garden in place of the serano chiles he calls for. My only complaint is that it ended up being maybe a little too sweet in the end. The sauce tasted great after I cooked it, but seemed to get a bit more intensely sweet after baking. Next time I will add a bit more lime and maybe even a dash of vinegar to help counter that.

Chicken Nuggets and Oven Fries - January 30, 2012

I swear that I don't just eat junk food, but it does seem that many of my home kitchen projects these days seem to be devoted to creating corn-free versions of such things from scratch. I tell myself though that it isn't junk if you make it home and use "organic" ingredients... right?

I stumbled upon this recipe for chicken nuggets inspired by Chick-Fil-A on Pinterest. (Side note: I am trying to "get" Pinterest but so far it is kind of leaving me cold. Pictures are nice, but I guess I'm a word person too. Sometimes I am as enthralled by a description of something than I am by the visual. But if you want to follow me on Pinterest, I'm here.)

The only variation I made was to use buttermilk instead of regular milk, since I had a partial quart in the fridge that was already past its expiration date. Also, since regular powdered sugar has corn starch, I made sure to use the organic variety from Whole Foods.

The fries I made in the oven while I fried the nuggets on top of the stove. I followed a technique I've seen in a couple places that essentially boils down to this... 

Preheat oven to 450. Peel and cut two large russet potatoes, toss them with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, spread on baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, use spatula to turn rearrange, bake for 10-15 minutes more. Then turn the oven OFF but leave the pan in the oven for another 10-15 minutes. This has the effect of drying out the fries so they are more like crispy fries than soggy oven baked faux fries!

Moravian Chicken Pie - December 2, 2011

Wow, it sure has been quiet around here! Guess all the Dinner Clubbers are busy celebrating the holidays and a Badger football Big 10 Championship win! I've started my Christmas cookie baking and will post about that later... for now here is yet another comfort food dinner.

This dish was on the cover of Cook's Country magazine this month and Richie thought it sounded fantastic. "Like the world's best chicken pot pie!" said my non-vegetable eating husband. I thought it sounded bland, but I was willing to give Moravian Chicken Pie a shot.

The final dish was tasty, but a bit on the too-salty side. I think that may have been because I used kosher chicken which is already brined and then seasoned the chicken generously before beginning to brown it. I also didn't love the crust... I thought it was a bit too dense and not very flaky. But the pie kept very well in the refrigerator and made for some great leftovers!

Perfect Roasted Chicken - November 17, 2011

I have been on a quest for some time to find the perfect roast chicken recipe and I can now say that I have found a winner! It is from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home cookbook, which is almost too pretty to cook from (especially when you are as messy as I am in the kitchen!).

I've tried a ton of other techniques, including the Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe method that requires you to use a v-rack and rotate the chicken three times and Tom Colicchio's recipe in How To Think Like a Chef that has you sear the skin on the stovetop first. Both produced pretty good chicken, but an annoying amount of tending for what should be a simple stick-in-the-oven-and-mostly-ignore dish. Keller's recipe is not only the tastiest of all, but the easiest too! No brining, searing, rotating, or basting necessary.

The first key is to start with a good small chicken (3-4 pounds). I got mine from Whole Foods last week when they were having a sale on their "free range" whole chickens. I was a little nervous because I've had corn allergic reactions to supermarket chickens in the past and was not certain that this one would be safe, but fortunately I had no problems. I'd like to find a more local and sustainable source that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, but for now this is a good and cost effective option.

Keller recommends you unwrap the chicken a day ahead of time and let it sit in the refrigerator uncovered so the skin can get nice and dry. Then, take the chicken out of the refrigerator 1-2 hours before you start cooking it to allow it to come to room temperature. I've never done either of these things before and I think it made a big difference.

The recipe is simple. Generously salt and pepper the cavity, shove a few crushed garlic cloves and thyme sprigs in, and truss the chicken following the directions in the book. He says trussing helps keep the breast from drying out. Then rub canola oil on the outside of the chicken, season it generously, and place a couple pats of butter on the breast before placing in the oven to roast for 25 minutes at 475, then lower to 400 and roast for another 45 minutes. I also roasted carrots, potatoes, and onions in the pan to make it a one dish complete dinner.

The result: An incredibly moist, delicious bird with a beautiful crisp skin!

Rosemary Lemon Fried Chicken - November 10, 2011

I have been craving fried chicken pretty much since the moment I realized that my corn allergy made all trashy fast food fried chicken off limits. I knew it could be made at home, but had never attempted it myself and so was a bit nervous about the idea, especially after the tater tot incident where I nearly burned the house down.

But I got an enameled dutch oven and a proper thermometer and Michael Ruhlman's section on "frying" in Ruhlman's Twenty reassured me that deep frying wasn't really scary if I used both of them to control the temperature.

Plus his recipe for fried chicken that was first brined in a rosemary, lemon, garlic, and onion solution sounded so delicious I decided to go for it!

The recipe was a two day process. First I created the brine and let the chicken soak for 24 hours, then removed from the brine on the morning of the second day and allowed it to dry uncovered in the refrigerator for about 8 hours. In the evening I breaded the chicken, following Ruhlman's recipe exactly - including paprika, black pepper, and cayenne pepper in the flour and using organic fat free buttermilk. The result was incredibly delicious. The breading was reminiscent of a much less greasy and better tasting Popeye's chicken and the chicken itself had amazing notes of rosemary.

The only problem I ran into was that my chicken's breading seemed to be done long before I thought the chicken inside was actually cooked through. Ruhlman's directions said to fry "until the chicken was cooked through, about 12-15 minutes depending on the size of the piece." But how do you know when the chicken is cooked through? My breading was turning an alarming dark brown just 6 or 7 minutes in to the cooking and I ended up pulling everything at the 12 minute end of that range or earlier. If it had stayed in for a full 15 minutes it would have been burnt to a crisp.

That aside, I've been loving Ruhlman's book and highly recommend it for both accomplished and new cooks. Whether you are just starting out or looking to refine your skills, you'll find things in here to love.

Cheese and Basil Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Roasted Tomatoes and Potatoes - September 28, 2011

After several weeks of travel (mostly for business but also for pleasure... more on that in another post), it was so nice to be home and back in the kitchen. I far prefer to eat my own cooking than anything in most restaurants and after some disappointing meals that featured tomatoes and another that tried to pass off some al dente fingerling potatoes as "roasted," I was craving something that utilized those ingredients positively. We also had an abundance of basil growing on the patio and some certified corn-free mozzarella in the refrigerator, so this dish seemed perfect.

Not sure exactly where I got the original idea for this simplified technique for stuffed chicken. Basically I take two boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cut a small slit in the thick part, then use my fingers to enlarge it to carefully make a pocket for the stuffing, which was in this case was a mixture of shredded mozzarella, garlic, and chopped basil. Then I stitch them closed with a wooden skewer, plop the breasts in a baking dish, and brush them with a bit of mayonaise and press on the crumb topping (made from fresh white bread, basil, garlic, and a bit of olive oil in the food processor).

To add a tomato flavor, I took about half a pint of cherry tomatoes and cut them in half, tossed them with olive oil and salt and scattered them around the breasts. The whole thing goes in the oven at 375 for about 30 minutes.

Since I always like to make the oven multi-task, I also threw in some red potatoes to roast in another dish.

Chicken Fricassee with Harvest Grains - May 8, 2011

A few weeks ago we were watching Top Chef and somebody made a "fricassee" and the judge remarked "I can't believe you made a fricassee in just 30 minutes!" or something like that. To which I said, "What the heck is a fricassee?" I remembered the word from one of my favorite childhood books, Caddie Woodlawn ("If at first you don't fricassee, fry fry a hen!") but had no idea what it really meant.

So when I saw a recipe in last week's food section of the Washington Post called Not Enough Thyme Chicken Fricassee, I knew I needed to try it - especially since the recipe title was pun-y!

It turned out quite delicious, although there was a thick layer of grease floating at the top of the finished dish which I skimmed off much of. I also removed all the skins before I served it because most had become separated from the meat anyway and were all soggy and unappetizing. I think next time I will just remove the skin to begin with. It was also bordering on being a bit too salty. I did use reduced sodium chicken broth as the recipe called for, but the only tomatoes I had were the normal kind and not no-salt-added. I generously salted the chicken at the start of the cooking and could probably lay off that a bit and just adjust the seasoning at the end if it needed more.

Finally, I served the fricassee over Harvest Grains Blend from Trader Joes. It is a mixture of Israeli couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans, and red quinoa and was just a perfect complement to the meat and sauce.

After we were done eating, we agreed that we still didn't know exactly how to define "fricassee" - other than "tasty"!