Tag Archives: chicken

Not Much of a Recipe

Posted on October 2, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Today I offer a cooking post. Sort of. Well, regular readers know this is not a cooking blog and I’m nobody’s chef. Still, this is Wuss-out Wednesday and I didn’t quite wuss out on dinner. I’m writing a post about it.

The post really started last week when Steven made rice for dinner. It was brown rice. He put a can of mushrooms in it. There was some left over.

The next step came on Sunday. I wanted to offer food to the lovely people who helped us with our fence, so I put some chicken legs in the crock pot. I put butter, honey and mustard in it. This is from a recipe I got out of a book put out by a church group. The recipe is actually for chicken wings baked in the oven, but I thought it would be fine for legs in the crock pot. I was right. Again, we had leftovers.

It was Steven’s idea to combine the chicken with the rice. I luckily remembered it and decided to implement it before he got home today. The first thing I did was to put the leftover chicken in the microwave to melt the butter, which had solidified. I guess I should have seen that coming.

I put the rice and mushrooms in my cast iron frying pan after spraying the pan with no-stick stuff. When the chicken was once again in liquid, I pulled some of the meat off the bones and added that. I poured in some of the liquid as well. I still have chicken leftover. I probably won’t write another blog post when we eat that.

Before I started heating it up, I added frozen spinach. I love spinach. Steven likes it when it is part of a dish, not just by itself. So I add it whenever it seems appropriate.

It did not take long for everything to heat through. Steven declared it tasty. I hope my readers will declare the blog post OK.

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Chicken Anne Boleyn

Posted on April 21, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

Well, I started the day having Mohawk Valley adventures, until I got sidelined by a sinus headache (could have been a migraine; I don’t know from headaches). After taking a nap and lamenting my wasted afternoon, I managed to fix something for dinner that I thought might make an acceptable cooking post.

First I pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees, then sat back down to read my book some more. A wise woman once told me you can’t rush into these things (I think it was my mother). Finally I rousted myself back into the kitchen, where I put some frozen pre-cooked chicken strips into my cast iron frying pan to heat (it always takes longer than the package says). I covered it with a glass lid that just happens to fit the pan perfectly (the pot the lid went to broke a long time ago).

Then I took some fresh asparagus, rinsed it, broke off the tough ends, broke it into pieces and put it in a glass baking dish. I had some oil in the refrigerator with garlic and spices in it, which I had used the last time I roasted vegetables. I poured some over the asparagus and put it in the oven. Set the timer for nine minutes, although I figured it would take longer than that.

I put some water on to boil for some cheese tortellini, then read my book some more. I stayed in the kitchen reading it, though, to keep an eye on the chicken. It’s a biography of Anne Boleyn, which I’ve read before, but these history books always bear re-reading.

After a while I thought to put some frozen spinach in with the chicken. I poured some of the garlic/spices oil over that and kept it covered. It took even longer than expected, but that was OK, because the tortellini water took a long time to boil. The asparagus, too, took longer than expected. I kept taste testing it. I love asparagus.

Eventually everything was done. I put it in a metal bowl, added some pepperoni, feta cheese and Italian salad dressing and stirred well. I had actually meant to do all this at least an hour before I did it, chill it and call it salad. As it turned out (we’ll blame the headache), Steven was due home any minute. I decided it could be warm salad. Leftovers will be regular.

Perceptive readers may have noticed I did not cook with wine, as I like to do. Well, I knew I had a blog post to write. I didn’t want it to be full of typos.

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Popeye Would Have Liked It

Posted on January 10, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

I got such good results with my Chicken Cordon Bleu, I thought I would invent a recipe for Chicken Florentine.

I learned a long time ago from Mr. Food (may he rest in peace) that “florentine” means “with spinach.” I’ve made Mr. Food’s recipe for Steak Florentine. I’ve eaten Eggs Florentine at a Chauncey’s Restaurant in Vermont. I could get silly and say the old Popeye cartoons were Violence Florentine, but, you know, I used to like those. My sisters and I would sing the Popeye song every time our mother fixed spinach.

Where was I? Ah yes, inventing a recipe. We preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Steven put in potatoes to bake (he was helping me cook because of my bad ankle) (see yesterday’s post).

I grated some mozzarella cheese (not as much as I grated for the Cordon Bleu, because I did not intend to make a cheese sauce). Once again, I did not pound the boneless skinless thighs (once again, instead of breasts), but sliced them so that I could kind of sort of fold them open. I put cheese, spinach and baby portobello mushrooms on them (I bought the pre-washed, pre-sliced mushrooms. I’m not too lazy to slice, but it is such a pain to wash mushrooms) (and I used fresh spinach, although I suppose the frozen kind would work just as well). I folded the chickens over and rolled them in breadcrumbs as best I could.

A word about the breadcrumbs. I normally buy the Italian Seasoned, but when I shopped on Sunday, I noticed 4C were made in Brooklyn, NY (Hannaford puts out helpful signs telling you these things). They were “Seasoned” not “Italian Seasoned,” but when I read the ingredients, it looked to me like they used all the same stuff. I thought, why quibble over an adjective? I went with the New York State brand.

One further note: I saw the word “wheat gluten” in the ingredients, too, and made a mental note not to use breadcrumbs in anything I may fix for my friend Phyllis. I have become more aware of gluten since I found out Phyllis has Celiac’s. Is that a HIPPA violation to mention that? Oh dear.

After I got the chicken in the oven I put some spinach and mushrooms in a casserole dish, drizzled olive oil over them, sprinkled on a little lemon pepper, garlic power and minced onion (oh, stop shaking your purist gourmet fingers at me! I’m sure garlic powder and dehydrated onions are perfectly respectable), and tossed it with a bamboo spoon and fork (just to give you an accurate picture). I did not put that in the oven till the last ten minutes or so.

As a matter of fact, Steven put them in. I set the timer for twenty minutes, showered, then flipped the chicken while Steven poked the potatoes. I set the timer for a second twenty minutes and left Steven with instructions to check things again, decide how much longer it needed, and put the spinach/mushroom mixture in for the last ten minutes or so. Then I went upstairs and started writing yesterday’s blog post (which I composed at the computer. Today I am writing in a regular paper notebook on a break at work) (again, in the interests of an accurate picture).

Steven cooked the chicken and potatoes an additional ten minutes while the other vegetables cooked. The potatoes perhaps could have baked a little longer, but it was a yummy dinner. I felt pleased with myself. Perhaps I’m no Rachel Ray, but I do my best.

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