Bet you didn't see THIS coming!

You know that day you reach - after you've been sick for a while - when you are so fully fed up with soups, toast, orange juice, tea and all other sick foods? Well, today was that day for me.

It was also the day before the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break.

Feeling quite a bit healthier and totally excited about the week long school vacay coming up, I was primed and ready for an ambitious dinner.

I did some research in the office today and after school, I attempted to duplicate The Friendly Kitchen's Almond-Thyme Crusted Chicken with Maple-Balsamic Glaze, Pecorino Polenta, and Garlicky Kale.


What made me think I could manage a meal put together by a blogger with a $40,000 culinary education? What encouraged me to take on a dinner that requires two pots, two skillets, one pan, and various prep tools?

Honestly? ...Almond meal.

I'm still trying to use it up.

But... as you can see, my dinner was edible! And pretty good, actually.

I should never have been so scared of polenta. Wilted spinach (no kale at Smalltown Walmart... surprise!) is quite terrific. And almond-thyme crusted chicken is subtly flavored and will be great leftover.

But friends, I'll be honest. The drizzle isn't pictured because I forgot about it and instead of reducing it, I burned it. It turned into a balsamic, maple candy. Very black. Very sticky. And then very quickly very solid. Blech.

When it was all said and done, I learned a very big lesson.

No matter how many pots, pans, aprons (yes, two), whisks (again, two), knives, and measuring cups you use to make your dinner, it will still only take you about 15 minutes to eat it.

And then you'll have to do the dishes.

Dear Reader,

Never live alone.

Love,

Amanda

Fiddleheads - Bad, Chicken - Good

I had all the plans to roast brussel sprouts for my visiting family. My aunt and I decided to make some tasty, crunchy, oven-fried chicken, and roasted brussel sprouts would have been the perfect compliment.

But IGA didn't have any brussel sprouts. :(

I stood at the hole where the sprouts should be and that's when I saw them. Fiddleheads.


Pic courtesy of Wiki

I first saw fiddleheads at the American Folk Festival in Bangor. They were... umm... pickled. And even the woman manning the booth couldn't really tell us what was so good about them. They are ferns and only available for a very short period in these Northern parts.

Sadly, I couldn't find any recipes that just deal with fiddleheads straight out. Many of the recipes wanted me to use them in stew or some other dish. So... I just roasted them with a little bit of oil and sea salt.

As far as I'm concerned, needn't bother.


When I first opened the container, the fiddleheads smelled like wet camp. You know the smell... it's all wet and woody and dirty. And the fiddleheads were very wet themselves. They weren't crisp and dry like a brussel sprout or a broccoli floret, but I thought that maybe that would improve.

It didn't.


When they came out of the oven they smelled like hot, wet camp. Ugh. My dad and I ate a few of them. But they were not what one would call... good.

What was good... was the chicken. It was fantastic!


I made a crunchy coating of approximately 2c crushed Parmesan Basil Wheat Thins, 1/2c parmesan cheese, and 1t salt. My aunt stepped up and dipped the chicken fillets in egg and then in the crumbs. The chicken was baked for... about 45 minutes, but I don't remember exactly so check it at 30 minutes and then reassess.



Mmm... the chicken probably didn't need to bake as long as I baked it, but it was soooo tasty. The crackers have a strong parmesan basil flavor but it mellows a bit as it cooks. My mom didn't like the crackers for that reason, but she loved the chicken.

I'm definitely going to make this chicken again. I'm going to experiment with all the other Wheat Thin flavors, but then I might just go crazy with all crackers. Why not?!

Orange Chicken with Broccoli and Onion

Mmmm... lunch.

As school gets increasingly busy and stressful, I find myself cooking with increasing frequency. It makes sense, right?

It does.

Anyway, today I dusted off a package of Lee Kum Kee Mandarin Orange Chicken Sauce that has been on my shelf for over a year. The package told me that it would be best before August 2007. Umm... we're a bit past that but that sauce was hermetically sealed. I'm not worried.


The back of the package had directions for a chicken, pepper, and onion stir-fry, but I just did my own thing.


I started by chopping up an onion


and about this much broccoli.

Then I (horrors!) pulled out the thawed chicken.


On the hierarchy of my kitchen dislikes, chicken reigns supreme. It grosses me out. Chicken = deadly diseases. Every time. I don't even feel this way about ground beef, and I've read Fast Food Nation.

Back to it... I cut up the chicken for easy stir frying. I salted and peppered the pieces on one side, because I'm odd like that, and carefully placed them in a little bit of hot EVOO in the big skillet. (I say 'the' big skillet, because the roommate and I have a big skillet and a little skillet. We are very advanced.)

After they (finally) browned, I tossed the broccoli and onion into the skillet and lidded that jazz. I let the veggies sweat it out for a few minutes and then opened her up, stirred everybody around, and walked away. I did this three times, I think.


When I was quite pleased with the texture of the vegetables and, honestly, beginning to worry about burning the goodness on the bottom of the pan, I poured a fair amount of the Mandarin Sauce over the whole shabang. Turns out I added a bit too much sauce, but I just served the stuff with a slotted spoon and everything was fine.


About this time, I remembered the rice and set that to boil. I let the chicken and such simmer at a low temp for the 10 minutes it took the rice to cook. I don't know if this did anything to the flavor, but I will do it this way from now on just in case it did.


This dish was fantastic. One of my favorite restaurants in VA is the Red Star Tavern. I have had a few things that I liked there, but the reason I think about the Red Star on slow days is because their Orange Chicken is absolutely amazing. It's saucy and spicy and served on the most gloriously fluffy rice.

I'm pleased to report that this Mandarin Sauce was eerily similar to the Red Star dish. It wasn't quite as spicy as the Red Star variety, but it's as close as it needs to be to make me really really happy.

Now if only I could remember where I bought this sauce two years ago...