notes, quotes & anecdotes of a year fast passing

alright, folks, i’m not going to lie. these pictures aren’t that pretty… but the meal was really quick and easy, so don’t judge the dish by the photos.  i found a variation of the recipe in cooking light, but doctored it up based on what we had in the fridge. customize your version accordingly! it’s really simple to make and since it’s a one pot meal, you won’t have many dishes to worry about after. isn’t that the best kind of dinner?!

anyways, what else is new? i hope you’re in your kitchen baking up some holiday treats to share with family, friends, coworkers and the gang. if you need any inspiration/ideas/recipes, think about gingerbread cupcakes, classic sugar cookies, hot chocolate cookies or eggnog cupcakes! and how to wrap it all up? cookie baggies, of course :) (shameless plug: if you’re looking for other recipe ideas, you can always check the recipe rundown. i’ve been very meticulous in organizing alphabetically and also by category!)

alright, after that rant, i just really want some sweet treats… but i’ll show you a nutritious and filling dinner idea instead.

ingredients:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1” pieces

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 can low-sodium chicken broth (14.5 oz)

1/3 cup lemon juice (plus lemon for garnish, optional)

2 teaspoons honey

3/4 cup orzo

1 cup fresh green beans, cut into 1” pieces

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1” pieces

2 cups water

done collecting? great, let’s move onto the doing.

(ps - yes i know there’s sour cream in that picture, but just ignore it. i saw it in the original recipe, but think it’s totally unnecessary, so you don’t need to use it.)

prep by cutting your chicken, green beans, bell pepper (or whatever veggies you’re going to use) into 1” pieces.

next, pour the broth and lemon juice into a big pot or dutch oven. bring them to a boil, add the chicken, salt and pepper. cover, reduce the heat to medium and cook for another 10 minutes or so, until the chicken is cooked. remove the chicken from the pot and set it aside for a bit.

now that the liquid is the only thing left in the pot, bring the heat back up to high, let it cook for about five minutes and whisk in the honey.

add the two cups of water to the pot and bring to a boil. pour in the orzo and cook for 10 minutes or until the orzo is tender, the majority of the liquid is absorbed and the pasta is more voluminous (don’t you just love that word?! i do.)

add the green beans, bell pepper and chicken. let it simmer for about five minutes before serving.

nice and light but totally filling. enjoy!

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

first off, HELLO AGAIN. i’m sorry i’ve been so MIA lately, but i was (dun dun dun dunnnn…) the official scorer for the atlantic 10 women’s basketball tournament all weekend and subsequently lost any ability or time to blog, socialize or be a functioning member of society. i was holed up in arena for four days straight and i let my lovely blog get lonely in my absence. it felt strange to not cook for so long and equally as weird to not share any recipes! such a bummer, i missed you all :)

i had fun, though, and earned a little bit of money for my upcoming trip to california (which SHOULD have started tomorrow. womp womp.) anywho, lots of new and exciting things going on in the life of eliz and i can’t wait to share them with you. in the meantime, however, i’ll just share with you this scrumptious recipe for chicken piccata, which already has me hungry for dinner.

the first time i ever made piccata was my senior year of college when my roommates and i hosted “family game night” every wednesday night. our guests got to rotate the decision-making for what would be on the menu and my friend mono picked chicken piccata one week. i thought it was easy, came out great and seemed to be a hit, so that became the first “dish” that i considered one of my specialties. when i was nannying and was given free reign on dinner one night, i chose this because all of the ingredients were already on hand. so easy and once again… huge hit!

i had never written down the recipe before this and i’m still convinced it’s a little different every time i make it, but here is at least a variation of my chicken piccata. (lesson: don’t let therecipe box you in!)

it is lemony, flavorful and light. there are a few things that are different in this recipe from traditional piccata… i’m not a fan of salty little capers, so i nix them and i wanted to bulk up the veggies a little bit, so i added some chopped sweet onion (YUM). i served it over linguine and with some wilted spinach. perfect dinner!

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or four thinly sliced)

1 egg, lightly beaten (this is enough for up to 5 chicken breasts)

1/4 cup flour

1/4 large sweet, yellow onion, thinly chopped

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chicken broth

2 lemons

salt & pepper to taste

[this serves two)

first, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. then, in a large skillet, combine the butter, onions, garlic and juice of two lemons. bring the mixture to a simmer and reduce the heat. let the onions brown for 7-10 minutes of a medium-low heat.

dredge the chicken breasts by first coating in egg and then lightly coating in flour on both sides.

bring the skillet back up to a medium-high heat and place the chicken in with the onions. let it cook 2-3 minutes on each side.

lightly oil or spray a small baking dish. remove the chicken from the skillet (leave the onions/sauce) and place into the dish. slice some of the juiced lemons and laythem flat on top of the chicken.

bake in the 425-degree oven for 20-25 minutes (for regular chicken breast or 12-17 for thinly sliced), or until they’re cooked all the way through.

meanwhile, keep the sauce on the lowest possible heat to keep it warm while the chicken is in the oven. add the chicken broth, stir, and let simmer while the chicken is cooking.

when you’re ready to plate it, put the chicken on your serving dish and pour the onions and lemon/butter sauce on top.

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

i wonder if i’m going to get any blair waldorf/gossip girl searches landing here on my blog. i found out yesterday that not one but THREE people got to my blog using the search term “bakeries are small and black just like your great uncle.” yup, you read that right, folks. i guess between my talking about nyc bakeries, black and white cookies and using a story people quote involving a great uncle, this makes sense. but WHO searches for that?!

anyways, quick state of the union: i’m pretty proud of myself for learning how to make BUTTONS last night and now have an rss feed and twitter button over on the right. it’s so geeky and it made me stay up way past my bedtime, but i was determined and i did it! also, my friend and loyal reader, ally, is fantastic. she’s always giving me such valuable feedback on my blog and her suggestions usually invoke change! i wouldn’t have a printable recipe page if it wasn’t for her and now, on said printable recipes, i’ve also added nutrition information, cooking times and serving sizes for those of you that are interested :)

anyways, here’s a recipe for my waldorf salad. let’s consider it… chicken salad with a twist. rather than chunks of chicken thrown together with gobs of mayo, this is a scrumptious alternative, light on the mayo, full of different textures and flavors from tart apples to chewy craisins and juicy grapes to crunchy walnuts. trust me, it’s fantastic and for some reason, reminds me of summer.

three chicken breasts (appx. 1 lb.)

pinch of salt

two pinches of pepper

two pinches of garlic powder

two pinches of onion powder

1 cup grapes

1 granny smith apple

1/4 cup walnuts or almonds or a combination of both

1/4 cup craisins

1/4 cup light mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon dill weed

done collecting? super. let’s move onto the doing.

the longest step of this whole dish is cooking the chicken and waiting for it to cool. during that time, you can go watch real housewives of beverly hills or something, it’s not hands on, so even though from beginning to end this dish might take you an hour, that doesn’t really count.

spray a baking dish with nonstick spray and put your chicken in the dish. sprinkle the side that’s facing up with one pinch of salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. then, flip over the chicken and sprinkle the other side with the rest of your pepper and powders. let it cook another 10-15 minutes or until it’s cooked all the way through. you want the chicken to be cooked but not charred or anything - i wouldn’t suggest grilling or anything like that.

set it aside and let it cool as much as possible.

while the chicken is cooking or cooling, prep the rest of your ingredients. if anne burrell has taught me anything, it’s the importance of your mise en place. for those of you that don’t speak french (read: me), i’ll let you in on a secret - it just means everything in place. basically, have all your prep work ready to go, so that when you’re cooking, you don’t have to sit there and clean, chop or look for your ingredients.

i sliced all my grapes in half, cut my apple into 16ths and then chopped that. i measured out my craisins and chopped my almond/walnut mixture, as well.

when the chicken was cooled, i chopped it into bite-size pieces. isn’t this plate so pretty?!

i then thought up a little technique to make sure everything was well-mixed from the start. instead of just dumping everything into the mixing bowl, one ingredient at a time, i went around the plate three or four times and grabbed a little bit of each component and layered it in the bowl.

once everything is in there, add the light mayo and the dill. mix everything together and sneak a bite to see if it needs anymore seasoning.

after that, i toasted an english muffin and it was the perfect little sandwich! i ended up eating it open-faced, but i think it would have been great on a baguette, in a wrap or even on some lettuce if bread isn’t your thing.

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

imagine my panic this morning when tumblr wouldn’t allow me to post pictures inside my blog entries (!!!!!). this blog has become my favorite part of the day and hearing your feedback on my recipes always makes me smile. the other day, my dad told me it seems like a waste that i cook such great meals and don’t get to share them with anyone. my defense was fourfold:

1) it’s much more budget-friendly when i cook for myself and have leftovers for a few days. even if a dish costs me $20 to make, if i get five meals out of it, i’m fine with it! i’m much less wasteful with my grocery shopping these days, believe it or not!

2) when i make treats, i ALWAYS share them with my office. it would not be very beneficial to me or my waistline to keep plates full of cookies lying around. willpower is not in my vocabulary!

3) i AM sharing my food. with everyone that reads my blog! sure, it might not be hundreds or thousands of readers, but it’s allowed me to reconnect with people, inspire friends’ menus and show everyone something i love to do!

4) okay, i get it. i know i need a boyfriend.

anyways, that was a long way of saying that my heart was broken when i thought i had reached some type of upload limit and wouldn’t be able to blog anymore! this little thing has become my favorite hobby and thoughts were racing through my mind about having to start a new blog, not blogging at all or even taking a break from it. HELLO! i have a list of recipe i want to get cracking on! i tried a different browser, different computer, the catch-all REBOOT, different pictures, etc. and nothing seemed to work.

i wrote to the tumblr support team and i was SO impressed at how quickly they wrote back to me (thank you, thomas!). it made me feel like an actual person with a valid question than just a tiny URL in a sea of bloggers. come to find out, this is a site-wide problem (read: i didn’t break anything!) and the developers are working on it. in the meantime, they gave me a little solution that isn’t quite as convenient but works totally fine for me!

so without further ado, i give you a delicious dinner idea! feel free to swap out your favorite protein (beef, shrimp, tofu!) and your choice veggies. the ones i chose are stir fry staples for me, but the possibilities are really endless. the sauce is what MADE the dish for me and i was surprised at how great it came out. it was just an idea that popped into my head and i’m thrilled with the result.

1 cup orange juice

2 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

2 Tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

zest from 1/2 large orange (optional)

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 large red bell pepper

1/2 large sweet onion

small head of broccoli

1 cup snow peas

1/4 cup carrots, chopped

2 teaspoons canola oil

1 Tablespoon flour

once you’re done with your own, personalized version of collecting, let’s get to the doing!

in a large bowl, combine the orange juice, soy sauce, honey, minced garlic, pepper and ginger. if you’ve got an orange, zest away! whisk everything together until it’s well-blended and set it aside.

next, wash and dry your chicken breasts, trim away the ugly parts and cut them into bite-size pieces. when i used to cook for the families i babysat for, one mom instructed me in an email to cut peppers into “stir fry size pieces” and i didn’t quite know what that meant. i do now! sometimes grocery stores have stir fry packaged meats that are already cut into these bite-size scraps, but i prefer to just do it myself.

once you’re done prepping the chickn, drop it into the orange juice mixture, cover and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour. if you want, you can do this in the morning before work and let it marinate all day. i’m not much of a morning person, though, so i’d rather sleep 10 extra minutes than deal with the kitchen before i head to work.

(please note, i had this great idea of showing you photos of each of the layers of the bowl (first peppers, then broccoli, snow peas and carrots), but i can’t resize the photos in this little temporary solution of a blog editor, so you’re stuck with just one picture!)

while the chicken was marinating, i had plenty of time to unpack my suitcase (from a week ago, which i need to already repack tomorrow), put away the dishes from the dishwasher (i think i have kitchen OCD because i love this activity. it’s oddly relaxing for me to fit everything back in its place) and finish an episode of teen mom 2 (my thoughts: love leah, not a fan of jenelle). even with all that, i had time to spare to chop my veggies before it was time to cook!

you can throw all the vegetables into a big bowl once they’re cleaned and cut, except for the onions. those should cook longer, so keep them aside.

pour the little big of oil into a large sautee pan or wok and let it get HOT! add the onions and chicken first. don’t dump the bowl with marinade, though - use a slotted spoon or tongs to just take the chicken out. save the marinade for later. constantly stir the chicken and onions for about four minutes and once it’s mostly cooked, toss in the rest of the vegetables.

stir these and let them cook for another 2-3 minutes until the veggies are not raw, but still crunchy. in the last minute, dump the marinade and stir everything together.

now, remove all the veggies and chicken with the tongs or slotted spoon and put them on a platter or in a bowl. you should be left with just the marinade. whisk in the flour and keep stirring until it dissolves. bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for five minutes or so until it has thickened up a little bit.

i put a half cup of brown rice on my plate, added a generous portion of the stir fry and spooned a little bit of the sauce on top. it soaked right in and i sprinkled with sesame seeds for some CRUNCH! and i had a delicious dinner that tasted fresher, sweeter and healthier than any chinese takeout i’ve ever had :)

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

chicken fingers and honey mustard (certain types of honey mustard, at least) are two of my absolute favorite foods. i’m sort of picky about batter vs. breadcrumbs, sweet honey mustard vs. sauce with actual mustard seeds, etc. but at the end of the day, this has been a staple for me since i was a kid.

i’m not even kidding when i say that these chicken fingers are better than any fried chicken you’ve had. well… my tastebuds aren’t kidding, but i guess it depends on your preference. these aren’t greasy, the chicken is fresh and they’re so crunchy. the best part is they’re not made with any fat other than what’s already in the chicken, so you can enjoy the finger food without any greasy food coma after!

when i was in college, my roommate amanda and i used to concoct crazy homemade chicken finger recipes on what seemed like a weekly basis. i never thought to double dip them like this recipe calls for, so our breading tended to fall off. but nevertheless, we were creative! we used captain crunch, corn flakes, cool ranch doritos, classic breadcrumbs and more. i have to say the doritos were the most inventive - talk about well-seasoned! the captain crunch ones are awesome with a hint of sweetness, too.

3 cups of cornflakes

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 egg

1/3 cup skim milk

1 pound of boneless, skinless, chicken breast tenders (or chicken breasts, cut into strips)

pretty simple collecting, eh? let’s start doing.

preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

in a large bowl, pour the corn flakes and mash them up into tiny flakes. you don’t want to turn them into dust, but the smaller the flakes, the more likely they’ll stick to the chicken and stay there. mash just enough to get some frustration out.

in a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder. if you’re looking for more of an italian seasoning, you could always add basil and oregano or if you want a buffalo-esque chicken finger, go for some cajun seasoning and hot sauce! for this classic version, i stuck with the basics.

mix together the milk and egg and then combine with the flour mixture. mix together until everything is well-blended and a batter is formed.

now, start a production line that starts with the raw chicken, cleaned, dried and trimmed to your satisfaction (i’m super picky about chicken, so about 1/5 of this package got chopped off because i was too particular). next, dip the chicken til it’s covered in the batter and then coat it completely in the crushed cornflakes. lay them flat on the parchment-lined baking tin and bake in your 400-degree oven for 30 minutes.

the outer coating should be golden brown, crisp and if you cut one open, the chicken should be cooked all the way through, no pink.

ken’s light honey mustard is top notch, so i enjoyed that immensely with the chicken fingers. i decided to stick with finger foods and had some baby carrots, while i figured cornbread was a perfect pair for (non) “fried” chicken. really, i was just trying to clean out my freezer, though, and had some homemade cornbread leftover from when i made chili back in the fall.

what are your favorite childhood foods?

click here for a printable version of the recipe!