UniBrain Trust » Cooking

Fresh Pasta Night

Jim — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:04:42 +0000

My sister got Nadya a pasta press for Christmas. Tonight we made our first batch and had it with a lovely bottle of wine. Here is to more nights of fresh pasta!

Lady of Leisure

Nadya — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:27:13 +0000

With my impending return to full time work, I spent my penultimate Friday off goofing off like I meant it.
A stop at Nordstrom for boots

Relaxed at Public Domain Coffee with a book

And what might be my last solo trip to the new Penzey’s store in the Pearl. I have vowed to use each of these at least once within a month!

Picante Lime Chickens PLUS Burritos: a Twofer

Nadya — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:33:41 +0000

I adapted this recipe to make two dinners for us. The first night is chicken breasts in a simple sauce, the second night is shredded chicken burritos.

Here’s my version.

Servings: Two dinners for two people plus one lunch. Or five dinners for one person. Etc.

Ingredients

1/2 cup chunky salsa

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp butter

Directions

In a shallow nonporous dish mix the salsa, mustard and lime juice. Add chicken, cover dish and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (I did this first, then prepped the rest of dinner while it marinated.)

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Remove chicken from marinade and add to skillet. Saute on both sides until lightly brown. Due to the marinade left on the chicken these don’t get very brown. Don’t worry.

Meanwhile, boil remaining marinade in a saucepan for 4 to 5 minutes. Add a bit of water if it seems too thick. Add boiled marinade to chicken, and saute another 3 to 5 minutes or until chicken juices run clear.

Serve two chicken breasts for dinner, topped with a bit of the sauce. I served this with couscous (mixed with shredded dry jack and cilantro) and a simple salad.

After dinner, shred the other two chicken breasts and mix with all the sauce left in the pan. Refrigerate. The next night, heat up the chicken. I microwaved it, but you could gently heat it up in a pan. Make burritos as you like them. I used warmed refried beans^*, shredded cheddar, salsa, and sour cream. Yum. The leftovers would also be great on a salad.

^*Here’s a tip for making canned refried beans better. Stir in some fresh ground pepper while they’re heating. I got this idea from the beans at Rubio’s.

Carolina Ribs and Chile Smashed Potatoes: Two Keepers

Nadya — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:01:13 +0000

We had a couple of friends over for dinner yesterday. Jim is just getting over a bad cold which typically means he’ll be ravenous after a week of soup and spaghetti. So I decided on something hearty: Carolina style country pork ribs, Smashed Baby Red Potatoes with Chile Oil and Dry Jack Cheese, and a simple Caesar salad. I also tried a new dip, but it was a bust. Two out of three ain’t bad.

The ribs were very tasty. We’re trying to figure out why they came out a teeny bit dry. I tested them after two hours, before I added the sauce and they were juicy. At that point you pour off the fat and add the sauce. I don’t know if I should just cut a half hour off the cooking time, or leave some fat on to keep them juicy. Will have to experiment. This was my first time making a Carolina style sauce, which is Jim’s new favorite kind, and it was easy and good.

My darling sister-in-law had given me some red chile oil from an olive farm near her in Arizona. I used it in this recipe instead of dealing with dried chiles and it turned out tasty and is much simpler to make. Yum.

Pacific Wonderland Cocktail

Nadya — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:30:32 +0000

Oregon started issuing a special run of Pacific Wonderland plates today and yesterday Jim came home with two pairs. We’ve always loved this old plate style and were excited they are being reissued.

To celebrate I invented a Pacific Wonderland cocktail. I was shooting for all Oregon products, but had to fudge as I needed sugar, and a twist of lemon. I started playing with the idea of a Vesper variation, but the Old Tom Gin is so herbacious that in this it worked better as an accent than as a main ingredient. This might be improved by a bit of lemon juice – it’s good but we think it could be better.

For two moderately sized cocktails:

2 ounces Medeyoff Vodka

3/4 ounce Clear Creek Distillery Pear Brandy

1/4 ounce Ransom Old Tom Gin

1/4 ounce simple syrup

Stir with ice and pour into cocktail glasses. Twist a generous lemon peel over, and drop in. Celebrate Pacific Wonderland!

Fajita Chilaquiles Casserole

Nadya — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:44:30 +0000

I had a busy week last week with with four new recipes. This week it’s simple things like sausages and sauerkraut and leftovers from the freezer!

I started reading a new blog that links to reviews of Rachael Ray recipes. (I know, I know! Hey, either she can cook, or she’s hired good cooks.) First up was Fajita Chilaquiles Casserole.

I made this with steak, and halved the recipe. I thought there were too many tortillas, though maybe mine were bigger than the ones intended. Jim suggested that next time I serve it on top of lettuce as a salad, and I thought that would be great.

Although I’d halved the recipe, I made the full amount of the spice mix. So instead of chopping up fresh garlic to season the veggies I tossed the veggies in the other half of the spice mix, which worked well. Topped with Pico Pica hot sauce and Mexican Sour Cream.

I’d definitely make this again, but either reduce the tortillas and add more veggies, or reduce the tortillas and serve on a bed of lettuce. Half the recipe made three servings.

Roasted Chicken Thighs and Vegetables

Nadya — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:21:25 +0000

I made this tonight. Definitely a keeper. I used two white sweet potatoes, three carrots, two parsnips, a good dozen garlic cloves (on the grounds that they were small), and added an onion cut in sixths. I used a bit more seasoning and rubbed some on the chicken under the skin.

Next time I’d cut back on the olive oil (but I eyeballed it so the recipe may be right), try boneless thighs, and maybe skin some of the chicken to see how it comes out.

Big Pan o' Yummy

Nadya — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:20:51 +0000

One of the blogs I read posted this recipe, with credits to Mark Bittman, he of the 101 Summer Salads.

15091

If you make this, and you should, right now, I highly recommend the following:

Use Corn, Onion and Parsley from your local Organic Produce outlet. Mine happens to be open Thursday evenings, right around the corner from where I work.

Use roasted Hatch Green Chile that your friend just couriered back from New Mexico.

Use an Heirloom tomato from some friends’ garden, picked for you just last night.

Use Parsley instead of Cilantro, because that’s what the produce place had, and because parsley is vastly underrated.

Don’t worry if you don’t have Avocado. We didn’t and we didn’t miss it. Especially since SOMEONE mostly likes Avocado as guacamole, not in salad.

With all this going on, next time we’d cut the bacon in half. Never thought you’d hear us say THAT, did you? And really, even with supermarket produce, and no substitutions, this would be great. Serve it forth.

Oh, and if you need a serving suggestion: Split a steak with someone, and a bottle of 2004 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

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Citrus Beet Salad

Nadya — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:28:53 +0000

I grabbed this recipe from the Rachael Ray magazine and served it with some Carlton Farms (because everything must be locally attributed these days) pork chops tonight. The store didn’t have clementines or tangerines so I used canned mandarin oranges. Jim thought he’d like it better without the cheese. Without the cheese? Who is this man and where is my husband?

I was wondering if I’d like the beets just boiled instead of roasted but they were great – and I used large ones from the supermarket, not little baby ones from the farmer’s market. I’m taking the rest, WITH cheese, for lunch tomorrow!

Spice Rubbed Chicken & Vegetables – Yum.

Nadya — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:37:52 +0000

We made this tonight, with a few mods. I eyeballed the spice rub, used no onion powder or garlic powder, and used garlic salt. We added a thickly sliced Walla Walla Onion to the vegetables and it was very very good. Instead of serving this as tacos, we served chicken, vegetables, salad, and toasted some tortillas as a side. Used the chipotle sour cream as a garnish on the veggies and chicken. The cilantro slaw was good, too. Definitely a keeper!

Spice Rubbed Chicken Recipe