February Food Adventures

I hadn't made something new in a while, so here is a log of what I attempted recently:

1) The first was Chicken Cacciatore in the slow cooker for our friends who just had twins! It's always nice to be able to use the slow cooker since it is a weekday and I don't have too much time after getting home to make a nice dinner for friends. I actually did it over a course of a few days since the flavors meld and get better over a few days. Plus I had to debone the chicken, skim some of the fat, and adjust the flavor as necessary. I added multi grain pasta to it and everybody seemed to like it- success! The recipe I used was the one below (I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of the simply recipes website), but in true Amy style I adjusted a few things:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chicken_cacciatore_hunter_style_chicken/

2) The second was Shephard's Pie, which I like but in all honesty, I made it because we need to use up some potatoes. I blended a few different recipes with what my Mom used to make, and it actually came out great! I used ground turkey to make it a bit healthier, and flavored it with some Mrs. Dash for a low salt flavoring option, plus chicken stock, tomato sauce, and a few other adds to add flavor complexity. Topped it with mashed potatoes, and a lot of cheese on Jeremy's side, and voila! I really liked it, and Jeremy really liked it since he ate about half of the 9 x 13 finished product... it may have been because we went for a run and I didn't feed him until after 1pm! I'm starving my husband apparently, oops!

3) The third was Okowa or Japanese sticky brown rice (pictured next to the lemon bars below). I cooked it like any "takikomi gohan" or mixed rice, with chicken stock instead of dashi, mirin, soy sauce for flavoring, and for vegetables I included shiitake mushrooms, carrots, gobo (burdock) root, and konnyaku noodles. It didn't come out as sticky as I thought it would, so I'm not sure if I didn't add enough liquid, or too much, or if it was a different issue... it still tasted good though! Jeremy didn't like the flavor but oh well can't win them all...

4) Finally, I made Lemon Orange Bars courtesy of Rachael Ray's recipe to take tomorrow night for our girl gathering :) I halved the amount of crust since I don't like too much crust on my lemon bars, hopefully others share that preference! I used a 9 x 13 pan like it called for but it came out pretty thin, so I may have overcooked it, but the edges that I tasted (as I scraped the pan) tasted good so hopefully everyone else likes them too.
http://www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-index/dessert-recipes/Golden-Lemon-Orange-Bars

It felt good to try new things in the kitchen again... I'm considering doing another experimental project to get myself trying new things again, and maybe inviting more people over this time to test these dishes out!! If you read this, suggestions are welcome for the next Amy cooking/baking project!