Crispy Yogurt Chicken

The rumors are true! Pioneer Woman's Crispy Yogurt Chicken is awesome.  Beyond awesome.  Someone, please help me find a new adjective.  My sixth graders so gently reminded me today that you have to vary the adjectives you use, and I overuse that one.

Anyway, about this chicken.  I loved it.  Mike loved it.  It was simple, it was really delicious, and it photographs surprisingly well, which is always a bonus.

I used plain bread crumbs instead of panko because I had them on hand.  I also skipped the butter on top (forgive me!) because it honestly seemed like overkill... and fortunately it was still plenty crispy without it.  Served with roasted broccoli and cheesy grits (you know, because I left the butter off the chicken), this was a nice hearty dinner.

(adapted from Pioneer Woman)

about 8 drumsticks

2 cups plain yogurt

3 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

juice of one lemon

salt

pepper

about 1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 350 F

Spray a glass baking dish with nonstick spray.

Mix together the yogurt, garlic, and parsley.

Sprinkle the salt and pepper liberally over the drumsticks.

Dip each drumstick in the yogurt, then breadcrumbs, coating well.  

Place in the baking dish, cover with foil, and put in the oven.

After 45 minutes, remove the foil and continue baking for 15 to 20 minutes, until nice and golden brown.

Tipsy Apricot Chocolate Cake

My husband is pretty much obsessed with Ireland and all things Irish. He has a collection of Irish cookbooks, and one of them is from an Irish pub in Florida. We've made some recipes from it before, and they all turned out well. The other night we were having some friends over for dinner and I wanted to make the Tipsy Apricot Chocolate Cake.  The premise of the recipe sounded great - chocolate cake with some whiskey, apricot jam, whipped cream, and whiskey-spiked chocolate frosting.  

However, here is the recipe for the chocolate cake:

2 eggs

2/3 cup self-rising flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Sift dry ingredients together.  Beat eggs until thick, fold flour mixture into eggs, then stir in 2 tbsp water.  Pour into pan and bake.

Does anything look wrong with that? Oh I don't know, like the fact that there is NO sugar? NO butter or oil?  Yeah...My husband swore his sister made it and it worked, but...NO.

So I slightly modified a brilliant Nigella Lawson recipe...it worked VERY nicely. 

Oh and I HATE whiskey in real life, but in this cake, I didn't even notice it (but my husband could taste it...he loves whiskey).  So don't be deterred if you aren't a whiskey-lover.

Chocolate Cake:

(adapted from this recipe)

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup best-quality cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup chilled water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line the bottom of an 8-inch cake pan.
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In another bowl or wide-necked measuring cup whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla until blended.
Using a standing or handheld electric mixer, beat together the oil and water.
Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix together on a slow speed.
Add the egg mixture, and mix again until everything is blended and then pour into the prepared pan.
Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes, or until a cake-tester comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then turn out on the rack to cool completely.

Finishing the Cake:

(adapted from the McGuire's Irish Pub Cookbook)

3 tbsp whiskey, divided

1/2 cup apricot jam

3/4 cup heavy cream (plus 1 tbsp)

2 tbsp powdered sugar

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 egg

When the cake is completely cool, use a serrated knife to cut it in half horizontally.

Place the bottom layer on a plate and sprinkle with 1 tbsp whiskey.

Spread the jam over the whiskey.

Whip 3/4 cup cream and sugar until soft peaks form.  Spread over the jam.

Place the other layer on top of the whipped cream.

Chill while you prepare the frosting.

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler.  

Remove from heat and stir in 2 tbsp whiskey.

Transfer to a stand mixer and beat in the egg, 1 tbsp cream, and the butter.

Spread evenly over the top and sides of cake (I just put a thick layer on the top because I like the rustic look. And I was in a hurry.)

Soft Pretzels

These have been on my to-make list for awhile, but it wasn't until I was standing in my kitchen, thinking about making some bread, that I realized I had all the ingredients and plenty of time to make pretzels.  I'm so happy I did, because these were HIGHLY addictive.  Like, so addictive I probably won't make them again for a few months because they were gone way too fast.

They are best right out of the oven (with plenty of mustard, of course), but as my husband discovered, cold ones are easy to reheat in the toaster.

(adapted from Home Baking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid)

1 cup milk, scalded and cooled to lukewarm

1 envelope active dry yeast

1 tbsp honey

1 cup bread flour

1 1/4 to 2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup baking soda

1 egg yolk

2 tsp milk

kosher salt

Place the scalded milk in the bowl of a stand mixer, and stir the yeast in until dissolved.

Add the honey and one bread flour, and stir until smooth.

Sprinkle on the salt, add the butter, and stir well to incorporate.  

Add 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, and mix with the dough hook for about 5 minutes, until dough is smooth.  Add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky.

Transfer to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1/5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450 F.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and cut into 8 equal pieces.

Roll each piece out into a long skinny rope, 24-30" long.  Pick up the ends, twist, and press into a typical pretzel shape.  

Let the pretzels rise for about 10 minutes under a clean kitchen towel while you boil 1 cup of water with the baking soda in a small saucepan (make sure one pretzel at a time will fit in the pan!)

Mix together the egg yolk and milk.

Carefully lift a pretzel with a spatula and place in the boiling water.  After 20 seconds, remove and shake off the water.  Place on a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with the remaining pretzels.

Brush the egg yolk-milk mixture over the pretzels, then sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for about 12 minutes, or until deeply golden brown, then cool on a wire rack.

Simple Marinara

With a half marathon in the morning, I needed my usual pre-race dinner: spaghetti. I've been eating spaghetti the night before a race (from 5K to Half-Ironman) for over 10 years, and I see no reason to change it up now. I know it won't upset my stomach, I know it will give me some carbs to fuel my muscles during the race, and just having that routine gets me into race mode easily. I'm not a front-of the pack runner or anything, but I always try and get a PR, so the more I can do to set myself up for that, the better.

My usual protocol for making pasta sauce includes dumping a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes and random odds and ends into a sauce pan, heating it for about 10 minutes, then pouring it over pasta. It always turned out good enough - why bother with a recipe? However, when I saw That Girl's recipe I decided to give it a go. I just made a few changes - using fresh basil because I happened to have some on hand, adding about 1/2 tsp of sugar to balance the acidity of the tomatoes, and tripling the garlic because we can't get enough around here. It was really good, and definitely got me in the mood to go out and run 13.1 miles!

(adapted from Paved With Good Intentions)
1 small onion, chopped
3 clove garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1/4 cup white wine
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt

Heat oil in saucepan over medium high heat. Add garlic and onion and cook until onion is lightly browned.
Stir in remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook 30-45 minutes.
Remove cover and cook 15 more minutes.
Serve over spaghetti with a dusting of Parmesan cheese

Cumin-roasted Pumpkin Seeds

The absolute best part about carving pumpkins is saving all the seeds and roasting them! I got the basics of how to do this on Simply Recipes, and added some cumin to spice them up a little.
They are salty, crunchy, and extremely addictive! I loved the flavor the cumin added, but you could always try a different spice or just go with salt alone!

2 cups pumpkin seeds
4 cups water
2 tsp salt, plus extra for roasting
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin

Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Remove all the stringy pulp from the seeds.
Place the water and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
Turn the heat down to medium-low, add the pumpkin seeds, and simmer 10 minutes.
Pour the olive oil into a metal sheet pan.
Drain the pumpkin seeds, and add to the oil. Using a spatula or just by shaking the pan, mix the seeds so they are evenly coated.
Sprinkle with salt and cumin, mix once again, and bake for about 15 minutes, or until seeds are golden brown.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

We had some friends over to carve pumpkins, and of course I just had to make some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for the occasion.  The problem was, I didn't have a recipe.  I checked out Annie's blog, because she always has such fantastic recipes. I found this one, took out the raisins and nuts and replaced them with chocolate chips, opted not to do the glaze (because I didn't have the time and it just seemed like overkill with chocolate), and changed up some of the spices. 

The verdict:
"So soft and fluffy!" says Meghan. "This cookie makes me wish pumpkin could be used year-round." (I think it should be!)
"Mmmmmmmm" says Brigitte.
Simon says "this is delicious."
Ian declares "I love these cookies!"
"They're damn good!" says Dana. "They taste like pumpkin!"
And my husband is speechless.

So there you go... pumpkin carvers agree - you gotta have these cookies!
And for the record I will make the original recipe from Annie's blog soon because it looks amazing!
(adapted from Annie's Eats, originally from Williams Sonoma)

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks butter (3/4 cup), softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg with a fork. Set aside.
In a stand mixer, beat the butter on medium-high speed for about 1 minute.
Add the sugars and mix on medium until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin and mix until incorporated.
Stir in the flour mixture, and mix on low until the flour disappears.
Add the chocolate chips, mixing on low until they are evenly distributed.
Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a Silpat lined baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until set.
Cool on a wire rack.

Risotto with Lemon and Scallions

I think I have found my new favorite risotto recipe!  The flavors are so bright and fresh and it is deliciously creamy, like any good risotto should be.  When the days are short and the weather is cold I'm definitely coming back to this recipe.  I think it would be DIVINE served aside some grilled salmon, but I just served it with a green salad.  Either way, it's quite tasty.

(adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison)

4 bunches scallions (yes, 4 - just the white part and an inch or two of green)

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper

5-6 cups broth or stock (I used chicken, the original recipe called for vegetable)

1/3 cup finely diced shallot

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup chopped parsley

8 basil leaves

zest of one lemon

1/3 cup grated Parmesan

Slice the scallions thinly. Cook them in 1 tsp of olive oil until soft, about 3 or 4 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Put the stock in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Keep it simmering as you use it.

Chiffonade the basil leaves and set aside.

Put the remaining tablespoon of oil in a wide pan.  Add the shallot and cook over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the rice, stir to coat the grains, and cook for 1 minute.

Add the wine and simmer until it's absorbed.

Add 2 cups stock, cover, and cook until absorbed.

Remove the cover, and add the stock 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly, and waiting until the liquid is absorbed before the next addition.

When the rice is almost finished cooking, add salt and pepper to taste, stir in the scallions, and cook for one more minute.

Remove from the heat, stir in the basil, parsley, and lemon zest, and sprinkle with parmesan before serving.