My creation… August 20, 2008

Well dinner tonight was interesting. Because half my brain isn’t functioning (thank you, pregnancy), I thought I had laid out a pork loin for dinner. I was planning on pork with roasted potatoes and onions. When I got home, I saw chicken in the sink. Somehow I thought pork and laid out chicken instead…weird! So, I had to change my plans. I still wanted to use the potatoes but when I opened the bag, there were bugs in it!! Ugh it was disgusting. I guess the potatoes were a little too old.

I looked on foodnetwork.com for a little inspiration and saw a recipe for lemon chicken w/ pasta. It sounded good to me but I didn’t have all the ingredients and thought I would try to make it on my own. So I made a recipe from scratch with stuff in my pantry and fridge that I wanted to get rid of. The result? Deliciousness. It was actually very good!! The recipe is below. Some of the measurements are approximate because I ended up not measuring anything but just threw stuff in. If you know me at all, you know that I like to follow a recipe to the “T”, so this is very unlike me, but I am proud of me! Let me know if you make it!

 

Lemon Pepper Chicken in a Sherry Vinegar Sauce with Roasted Onions

1 medium onion
Olive oil
3-4 chicken breasts pounded thin
1 egg
1 T water
1 T Dijon mustard
Flour to dredge chicken
3 T lemon pepper seasoning
1 C chicken stock
1 C sherry vinegar
3 cloves garlic minced
1 T honey
¼ C lemon juice
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp parsley

Cut onion up into half moons. Place on baking sheet. Season with salt & pepper and drizzle w/ olive oil. Roast in a 450 degree oven until translucent and browned.

Heat a pan over medium-high heat with olive oil to coat the pan. Pound chicken breasts very thin. In a small dish, combine 1 egg, a little water and the mustard. In another dish, combine flour with lemon pepper seasoning. Dip chicken in egg mixture, then flour mixture. Sauté each chicken breast…just brown it on both sides, you don’t have to cook all the way through. Set aside and keep warm.

After sautéing, pour chicken stock in the same pan and use a wooden spoon to get all the bits off the bottom of the pan. Add sherry vinegar, garlic, honey, lemon juice, thyme, and parsley. Heat to boiling. Add chicken back in and cook on low covered for about 10 minutes or so.

Serve with couscous, pasta, or rice and whatever else. Put chicken on a serving dish and pour sauce over it. Top it with the roasted onions. Serve and enjoy!

I’m losing my edge February 20, 2008

**EDIT: Joel has since apologized for what he said about my lasagna!! :) 

If you know me, you know I love to cook and I LOVE to watch the Food Network. Cooking relaxes me and I enjoy seeing how ingredients come together to make something taste fabulous. I’m always up for trying something new. In fact, I usually never make the same thing twice. I like to switch from thing to thing. I’m like this with clothes too. If I put a cool outfit together I can never usually remember what it was and then it’s gone forever.

That said, I think I’m losing my edge. The past two nights I have made dinners that have not satisfied my husband. For me, this is a big deal. I love hearing him say “Mmmmmmmmmmm” when he takes his first bite. I need the reassurance, what can I say? I even made lasagna tonight and I worked really hard on it and all I got was, “Eh, it was OK”. This has never happened!

I can tell the newlyweddedness (like my made up word?) is slipping away when he says stuff like that. *sigh*

I need some new recipes…anyone got some to give me? I’ll try anything once!

p.s. don’t you love how I put “usually” and “never” in the same sentence twice! there goes my college education

Recipe fun August 29, 2007

I’m always looking for new recipes. I have a repertoire of my own, but I usually circulate through them and get bored. Most of the time, I figure out what we are going to eat 20 minutes before I make it. Some people can’t do that, but I love it…I love the spontaneity.

I get criticized quite a bit for watching the Food Network. Why is it OK for guys to be obsessed with watching football and golf? Well, I’m not obsessed with the Food Network. I just enjoy watching people make incredible things out of a few ingredients. I’ve learned to eat many new foods by watching the Food Network…I used to be a really picky eater! Plus, I’m not gonna lie…Joel has eaten pretty darn well from recipes I’ve made watching the shows. I don’t hear him complaining then…:)

Anyway, for those of you who need some more ideas, go to the Food Network website. I find all of my ideas there. No need for cookbooks, just search for what you want. I always look in my frig to see what kind of meat I have or if I have potatoes or tomatoes…and I go from there. I can usually make a recipe with just 2-3 ingredients. Or, if I don’t have the ingredients called for, I use my own and do a twist on the recipe. It’s fun! Try it tonight! Here are a few that I’ve done lately…enjoy!