Chicken With Forty Cloves of Garlic

Most of the time, I just cook whatever I want, and Brent goes along with it, because Brent is a pretty go with the flow kind of guy. However, one of the reasons I truly love cooking is that it makes people feel appreciated, or cared about when you make them a meal. Because Brent had a pretty stressful week, I decided yesterday I wanted to do something nice for him, and I made plans to make him his absolute favorite dinner tonight.

Now, it’s pretty obvious we don’t really eat much meat, other than fish in our house, but we used to eat more of it, and I made this Barefoot Contessa recipe for the first time about 2 years ago. It was an immediate hit with Brent —  a dish that made him literally smack his lips and lick his fingers. So, although it’s not something I’d normally choose to eat, it made me happy to make it for him (the last time was like a year and a half ago). He was very appreciative.

The amount of garlic obviously sounds obscene, but it’s not. The garlic softens and becomes sweet and buttery. It’s actually perfect for spreading on toast. Tonight’s dinner also including herb roasted fingerling potatoes, which I really filled up on, and was rounded out with some crusty Artisan Bread for sopping up the sauce. Because he loves it so much, and I rarely make it, I made a lot, so he would have leftovers for the rest of the weekend.

Brent took the afternoon off of work, so we’ve been bumming around watching basketball, although I was truly depressed by the Illini’s loss last night. (Brent was not surprised by their loss). I hope everyone has a lovely Friday night!

Cod with Fennel and Potatoes

Tonight’s dinner was from Everyday Food: Great Fast Food, which I picked up last week at the library. As far as cookbooks, I tend to rely on Veganomicon and the Moosewood cookbooks, but because I’ve been getting kind of bored, I thought checking out some different sources of inspiration might be nice. This one dish fish meal sounded like a good one.

I’m kind of on the fence about this one. On one hand, Brent and I both like fennel, so I’m always looking for recipes that use it, but this one isn’t going to “Wow” anyone. It’s totally serviceable, and the lack of dishes dirtied while making it definitely upped its stock, but the flavor didn’t make me jump out of my seat or anything, which is kind of what I was hoping for.

I guess I would make it again, just because it takes very little prep or active work, but don’t make it for your in-laws, or aspiring food critiques or anything.

Back to basketball! I have Villanova going to the fourth round, so they better pick it up!

Feels Like Monday

I have no idea why, but it feels like the week has already started. I guess because Brent went into work, plus it’s super dreary outside. I’ve decided to try to be super productive today. I’m in the middle of doing laundry and making some veggie stock, and I’m hoping to get a lot more cleaning done, as well as do as much food prep as possible for our meals this week. Brent, however, took care of breakfast! 🙂

I love breakfast potatoes. He fried up some Russet potato, along with some leftover peppers and onions. Yum! Oh yeah, and some scrambled eggs, and of course, coffee. He’s so much better at breakfast than I am.

Hope everyone has a relaxing Sunday!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

We’re not super huge into celebrating Valentine’s Day. Well, that’s probably a lie. I’m into celebrating everything, but Brent — not so much. Our anniversary is in 2 weeks :), so we celebrate that a little more. However, our Valentine’s Day tradition (except for 2007 because we got 17 inches of snow and everything was closed) is for Brent to make a fancy dinner for us at home.

In 2006 he made shrimp cocktail, some sort of delicious creamy pasta with bacon and peas in it, and chocolate fondue for dessert. Last year he made the shrimp cocktail again (it’s one of my favorites. I love the homemade sauce), steak au poivre, and creme brulee, along with a delicious blueberry martini.

I like the idea of being surprised, but the concept of delayed gratification is just something I haven’t mastered, so I already know what he’s making this year and I am so excited!!! It includes a lot of my favorites! Unfortunately Brent has to work this weekend 😦 so I won’t see him all day, which is probably for the best because I have a mountain of homework, studying and cleaning to do, but I’ll post a recap of dinner later tonight or tomorrow (or maybe I should have him do it!)

Oh, the point of this post was that I wanted to quickly mention my breakfast, which was a potato and red onion frittata.

I usually make a frittata and some roasted potatoes on the side, but this morning I just combined everything because we didn’t really have much else to put into the frittata. Yum! It was basically layers of sliced potatoes held together by eggs. I need to put potatoes into the eggs more often!

Also, per Heather’s suggestion, I put just a tiny bit of almond extract in my coffee this morning and it was awesome! 🙂 I love finding another use for one of my favorite ingredients!

What is everyone else doing today? I can’t wait to hear about it. Have an awesome day!

Breakfast for Dinner

I’m in such a good mood! I finished my first test — and it went well! My grandmother (who had been hospitalized the past 2 weeks with a host of problems) was just released this afternoon and is back at home. 🙂 Dog-walking was fun. There is a yellow lab puppy that just got adopted that looks just like the dog from the Marley & Me posters. Now that my exam was this week is over, I’m feeling relieved, and like I have a bit of breathing room tomorrow.

Unfortunately we found out that my brother did not complete all the requirements for graduation, so he will not be graduating this week and we will not be going to Kentucky.

Back to the food…. One of my go to meals for the nights I have school is a frittata. They’re perfect because they’re quick and cheap and you can use absolutely whatever you have on hand. Tonight’s was some steamed broccoli, onion, roasted red pepper and pepper jack cheese. I’m really loving on roasted peppers right now. Yum.

On the side, I made some roasted potatoes (which I think go with absolutely everything).

A note on tea…

A while ago I ordered some tea from Zhena’s Gypsy Tea and loved it! Really, I think it is the best brand of tea I’ve had. Brent wasn’t super pleased with the shipping charges, so I’ve been savoring them slowly. I tried the Coconut Chai — which is the best chai I’ve tried, and the Pumpkin Spice which is like heaven with a teaspoon of honey. Perfect for when I’m freezing and trying to thaw by the fire. I want to try the chocolate chai. Maybe next time. Unfortunately, I’m running precipitously low on this gourmet tea supply, so I was just wondering if you’re a tea drinker, what are your favorites?

Poe-Tay-Toe

Tonight’s dinner came courtesy of Cooking Light. I made Twice-Baked Salmon Potatoes. I loved these! I love potatoes. I love smoked salmon. Why hadn’t it ever occurred to me to make them a main dish? I want to stuff and twice-bake every potato I ever eat from now on. I may allow rare exceptions to that though. 🙂

I loved the flavor of the horseradish in this recipe. I would add more green onion next time because I didn’t get a ton of their flavor, and truthfully, even though it was melted right on top, I didn’t really taste the cheese much.

A great feature of this recipe is that you can make it ahead of time up to the point of the second baking, which is what I did today, and then just stick them in the oven and dinner will be ready in less than 20 minutes. Brilliant. I love these kinds of recipes, and they’re a big help on nights when I have school.

I’m already brainstorming other twice-baked variations, like a Mexican one with black beans and salsa, or a Greek one with spinach and feta. Yum!

See you tomorrow for a “junk-food” Friday night dinner!

Under the Weather

I’m feeling a little under the weather. Just generally icky. So the past few nights, I’ve made easy comfort food. Last night, we had a frittata and some roasted potatoes. I love roasted potatoes. So delicious. I really love potatoes in pretty much every form, but especially roasted, when they get slightly crispy, but soft on the inside. It’s like a mini baked potato in every bite. I tried to squeeze in some nutrition as well. The frittata included some onions, mushrooms, and spinach, all topped with some shredded provolone.

Delicious, and really quick. Perfect for a night when all I want to do is lay on the couch. The roasted potatoes are the easiest thing in the world, but just in case, here’s how to make potato nirvana.

ROASTED POTATOES

• 8 baby yukon golds (or baby red)
• 1 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Quarter potatoes and spread out on pan.
3. Drizzle with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.
4. Mix it all up so that all potatoes are coated.
5. Bake for ~30 minutes.

These potatoes go with everything and everyone likes them. I know… that’s a very strong statement to make about the humble potato, but believe me, it’s completely accurate.