Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Peppers

About an hour ago, I finished watching the movie, Julie & Julia - and I must admit, I'm a little bit intimidated! You see, Julie & Julia is the story of an average blogger (like me), who loves to cook (like me), is still very much a beginner (like me), and decides to take on a year's worth of recipes by Julia Child in order to find herself in a deeper, more meaningful way.

Now, when I started this blog in December 2008, I didn't really set out with any specific "goals" such as, attempting every single recipe in a book called "Mastering the Art of the French Cooking," within the span of one year. I did, however, start this blog with the intention of encouraging myself to try new and challenging recipes, to find unique and uber-fresh ingredients, and to record the many recipes that I try for future use. I have printed almost all of my recipes and put them in a binder, and I refer back to them frequently. So in every way possible, this blog is for me. I do love that some family members and friends read my blog and try my recipes - but that's not why I keep writing. I keep writing and cooking because it is truly fulfilling - it has become and will remain an inherent part of who I am and what I love.

I highly doubt that I will ever receive phone calls from the Food & Wine editors, or the producers of Food Network, as Julie did at the end of the movie. But, that is okay with me. Whether your kitchen is a private sanctuary or a place for millions to know and enjoy, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you are having an absolute blast with just a few things in front of you - fresh ingredients and a hot pan to cook them in.

And with that, here is the latest from my small, yet perfectly functional and enjoyable, kitchen:

Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Peppers

salt + pepper

garlic powder + dried oregano

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

olive oil

2 large bell peppers, cut into thin strips (3 if they're small)

1 large shallot, thinly sliced (I omitted)

couple sprigs of fresh rosemary (leaves only, trash the stems)

1 C chicken broth (or 1 C water + 1 cube chicken bouillon)

2 TBS balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Using a meat pounder, pound chicken until 1/2-inch thick. Brush chicken with a bit of olive oil on each side and sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano onto chicken. Heat a large skillet over med-high heat and add a bit of oil. Add chicken; cook 3 minutes or until browned. Turn chicken over and cook for a couple more minutes. Place chicken in a baking dish and bake at 450 for 10 minutes or until cooked through.

3. Add a bit more olive oil to pan, if needed. Add rosemary, peppers and shallots. Sautee 3 minutes. Add broth, scraping pan to loosen brown bits. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is done. Before serving, stir vinegar into broth (add a bit of salt and pepper if you like.) Serve bell pepper sauce over chicken.

Hummus

If there's one snack that I can't get enough of, its hummus on pita. I recently went looking for an easy, basic hummus recipe. By "basic," I mean something that can serve, literally, as "base" for any type of hummus - roasted red pepper, chipotle, jalepeno, etc. This recipe definitely serves my purpose: its awesome on its own, and could easily be played with to add any ingredient you may like. The texture is identical to what you find in a restaurant, and the flavor is great, too - pretty garlicky, but if you don't like that, just reduce the number of garlic cloves.

Now, normally when I try a new recipe, I set out to find inexpensive ingredients (trying to save for a house, you see....) However, there is one ingredient in hummus, called Tahini, that is somewhat expensive. Some people say that you can either eliminate the Tahini or replace with a few drops of sesame seed oil (Tahini is, after all, essentially sesame seed butter.) But at the store, as I held the jar of Tahini in my hand with a pricetag of $10.99, I had to give in. Cooking is like candy to me. And sometimes, its ok to indulge in the things you love. The jar will last me for years, its imported from Greece, and when I try a new recipe, I want it to be the real thing.

So, whether you skip the Tahini for the sake of your checkbook, or indulge in it for the sake of living life to its fullest.... serve this hummus on warm pita with a sprinkle of paprika, and I promise that you'll have yourself a very healthy and delicious snack :)

Basic Hummus

2 (15-oz) cans of garbanzo beans, drained (set the juice aside, don't trash it)

3 TBS Tahini*

2 TBS lemon juice

sprinkle of salt

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 TBS olive oil

pinch of paprika and cumin

*can be found at health food stores, or at the grocery store in specialty goods, or near peanut butter

1. Place all ingredients in blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Adjust seasonings as you prefer. Add reserved juice from the beans as you try to achieve a good consistency. I added about 1/3 C of the juice throughout the blending process.

2. Before serving, drizzle a bit of olive oil over hummus and sprinkle with paprika.

Ham & Beans

Brett and I decided to spend last Halloween at my sister Kellie's house, so we could be with my nieces and nephews as they ran from house to house trick-or-treating. We had such a great time! My brother-in-law Ryan recently bought a tractor, so he was able to hook up a trailer for the adults to ride along in (beer in hand, of course...) Of course, at the end of October, the weather was a bit cold so by the end of a couple hours trick-or-treating, we were ready to get inside and eat something warm and filling. Ryan and Kellie had the perfect thing waiting in the crockpot for us - ham n' beans!!!

While this isn't the exact recipe, c'mon, its ham n' beans! Its impossible to screw up and has such a classic flavor. This recipe calls for brown sugar which I love, since I tend to like things a little sweet.

I'm trying to get all these winter recipes posted before springtime arrives. Before we know it, I'll be cooking all sorts of fresh tomatoes and basil-based sauces. I love cooking in sync with the season. Ingredients taste better and more than anything, its fun! This may or may not be my last "soup/stew" post of the season. I'm sort of a spontaneous cook, and never know what's next!

Thanks to my sister Kellie for this inspiration on this one! Love you!

Ham and Beans!

1 lb dry Great Northern beans

1/2 lb cooked ham, diced

1 small onion, diced

1/2 C brown sugar

salt, pepper, cayenne, parsely

1. Rinse dry beans in a large pot; discard shells or broken pieces. Add 8 cups of cold water and let stand overnight.

2. Drain beans and pour into slow cooker. Add ham, onion, brown sugar and seasonings. Add enough water that beans are just barely covered. Cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4 hours. Adjust seasoning as necessary.

Taco Salad

After our New Years Eve party with our friends, we found ourselves with 4 large, unopened bags of tortilla chips. Now, Brett and I love chips and salsa, or chips and cheese dip, or chips and guacamole. But four bags of chips....that calls for something bigger. As I sat there wondering about the best way to get rid of the chips, I decided on two things - first, to give two bags of chips away to our friends. Second - TACO SALAD! I've never even made taco salad, so this idea was a winner. Even better, I was able to find other necessary ingredients already in my pantry: taco seasoning, enchilada sauce, Rotel. I sort of "invented" this taco salad on my own, based on things I already had.

This meal will take you about 20 minutes to throw together, and you end up with a heaping plate of yummy finger food! The first night, we ate the taco salad out of bowls because I was worried it would end up all over the floor.

Brett's suggestion for this near-perfect taco salad: jalepenos. I really don't know I overlooked this the first time but I totally agree, jalepenos would be the perfect addition!

Taco Salad

1 bag of Santitas corn tortilla chips

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 TBS olive oil

1 package taco seasoning

1 can chili beans

1 can spicy Rotel

1-2 C shredded cheddar cheese

shredded lettuce

canned jalepeno pepper slices

sour cream

2 TBS ranch dressing

3 TBS enchilada sauce

1. Cut chicken breasts into thin, small strips. Heat olive oil over medium heat, and add chicken. Cook until no longer pink inside (shouldn't be long since the chicken pieces are small.) Add taco seasoning and water according to taco seasoning package.

2. Assemble the rest of your taco salad. Take a couple handfuls of chips and place on a plate. Sprinkle some shredded cheese and add a few spoonfuls of beans. Zap in the microwave for 30 seconds. Remove, and top with warm chicken, a couple spoonfuls of Rotel, a small handful of lettuce and a few jalepeno slices. Add a dollop of sour cream on top.

3. Mix ranch dressing and enchilada sauce in a small bowl. Drizzle dressing over salad.

Crab Croissants

I don't like beginning stories with "When I was younger...." but I can't think of how else to start this! So, when I was younger, we would always go to my Aunt Ellen's for Halloween. She lived in the perfect neighborhood close to my grade school. Once school let out, my dad and I would make the short trip to her house where she would always be making a huge pot of tomato, beef and potato stew. We would have this for dinner, along with a salad and often times, these little crab croissants. After dinner, I would go trick-or-treating with friends or cousins in Aunt Ellen's neighborhood.

During the years in which I was too old to trick-or-treat at Ellen's, but too young to have discovered the joy of cooking, I didn't get to enjoy these crab croissants. Eventually, I decided to try out the recipe (it wasn't hard to remember the two "ingredients") and at this point, I've made more of these than I can count! They are super easy (did I mention they call for two ingredients?) and super fun to eat. The flavor is great, too - a creamy, crab-y filling inside a buttery crust. I've made them for parties, for weekend snacks, or even as a side dish for dinner!

I am so thankful to my aunt Ellen for all the wonderful memories and meals. As I say at the very top of the page - the single best part of cooking is sharing it with ones you love. Whether its an elaborate pasta dinner, or a simple crab-filled croissant, if it makes your family and friends smile....its a job well done.

Crab Croissants

1 tube Pillsbury Crescent dough (reduced fat!)

8 oz crab dip/salad

1. Unroll crescent dough. There will be 8 triangles. Cut each triangle into two small triangles. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

2. Take a small tablespoon of crab dip and put in the center of each triangle. Roll into a small crescent.

3. Bake crescent rolls as directed on package.

A couple notes - - -

a) I use Santa Barbara Bay Krab Salad found at Wal-Mart in the specialty cheese, sauce, etc. section. Crab salad is less thick/creamy than crab dip, but its a bit sweet and has small chopped veggies in it, so we really like the texture and flavor. Most grocery stores have their own type of crab dip somewhere in the refrigerated section. Have fun experimenting! Also, I actually prefer the texture of imitation crab to real crab, so I've never attempted making homemade crab dip for this recipe with canned or fresh crab.

c) As written, this recipe makes 16 little croissants. They do not last long!! I almost always double the recipe.

Cocktail Meatballs & Chicken Skewers

Looking back exactly a year ago, I was making a blog post for carmelized onion dip that I made for friends on New Years Eve. Well, its funny how nothing and everything changes in a year. My love for cooking, my wonderful friends, the place I live, the job I go to each day....none of it has changed. I did, however, acquire a new nephew as well as another very good friend, and biggest of all - I got engaged! I have so much to look forward to in 2010, and its fun to imagine where I will be on January, 1, 2011 - a married woman! Will I be in a new house? Will I be in my same position at work? Will I have made another new friend? It's all very, very exciting :)

Let's get to these yummy appetizers. I know cocktail meatballs are a total classic, but they were new for me, and I post almost every new recipe that I make on this blog. They were seriously delish! A bit sweet and so flavorful. Everything just goes in the crockpot for 3 hours and the only "accessory" you need is a toothpick! These little guys go down fast.

Next up are chicken pineapple skewers. This recipe is so fun to eat - anything on a skewer is! The recipe is easy to make, and since its broiled, the cook time is super fast. I made these in the afternoon and threw them in right when my friends arrived. These skewers were a HUGE hit; the chicken is very juicy (I attribute it to the fast cook-time) and the marinade is so flavorful.

Here's to a wonderfully exciting and peaceful 2010. I know I can't wait :)

Cocktail Meatballs

14-oz can jellied cranberry sauce

1 bottle Heinz Chili Sauce

2 TBS brown sugar

3 tsp lemon juice

2 lb frozen meatballs

1. In slow cooker, place all ingredients on high for 2.5-3 hours. Stir occasionally. Eat with toothpicks and keep slow cooker on warm.

Chicken & Pineapple Skewers

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 C soy sauce

1/3 C sugar

1.5 TBS olive oil

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 drops toasted sesame oil

1 can pineapple chunks

wooden skewers

1. In bowl or container, mix all ingredients from soy sauce through sesame oil.

2. Cut chicken breasts into 1-inch chunks, ensuring that you remove all fatty pieces. Place chicken in marinade and refrigerate for several hours.

3. Place wooden skewers in water for approx. 30 minutes. This prevents charring once they are broiled.

4. Thread chicken and pineapple onto skewers. I put about 4 pieces of chicken and 4 pineapple chunks onto each skewers, and cut the skewers in half after baking, so each "mini" skewer had two pieces of each.

5. Turn oven to broil, and broil skewers for 5 minutes on each side. If chicken still looks slightly pink, turn oven to 350 and bake for several more minutes.