Chicken Cacciatore... or Another Chicken and Random Ingredients Recipe

I try to follow recipes. I do. Really. But these crazy chefs out there really think that I'm going to go out and buy a red onion when I have 37 yellow ones, or spend precious dollars on things like herb garnishes and saffron when really, who cares? Give me meat and potatoes and try not to screw it up, please.

I suppose you can take the girl out of the Midwest...

Anyway, we found ourselves hungry one evening so I decided to go the way I went the night I made chicken scallopini, as in, find whatever you can and put it over chicken.

At this point, I need to recant a few of my statements in the previous chicken scallopini post. My boyfriend has a great selection of food in his pantry. He is an amazing cook. He has perfectly proportional arms that don't drag on the ground. He has lots of important people who want to be his friend.

Now that I'm out of the doghouse, on with the eats.


This picture is s total lie. Some of these things are in this dish, yes, but not all. Those mushrooms on the left there? They went bad. That chicken broth? Didn't use it. There's no onion in this dish either. But I did use: 3 chicken breasts, a 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes, garlic, dry red wine, extra virgin olive oil, pasta, capers, red pepper flakes, and oregano.

Did I tell you I put capers in every dish with chicken and pasta? I meant it.

This is the wine we chose tonight. It's pretty tasty... but can I tell you? We like all wine. Don't believe us if we say we have any idea what we're talking about. This wine is dry. And it's red. And that's all I know.


And how about this guy? Ain't he cute? This is Art's roommate's wine stopper. Art flies the T-6 Texan these days, and there may or may not be a tiny T-6 cork on its way to Southwest Texas. I'm just saying.


So, um, here's a picture of some chicken. I should probably stop drinking wine when I'm taking pictures and cooking.


Drizzle some olive oil in a big pan, wait for it to get hot, and then sear the chicken for about 3 minutes on both sides. Don't worry about it cooking all the way through - that will come later when we mix it with the sauce. Once it's golden on either side, take it out of the pan and set aside.


And here's some garlic. I actually took this picture so you could see how delightful the kitchen looks around dinner time. The sun sets right behind the house and the light is just gorgeous.

Anyway, around 5 gloves. It's an Italian recipe, for Pete's sake.


Once upon a time, I used to refuse to use garlic presses, for two reasons. One, the only one we have in my house was red plastic and just made a pulpy mess, if you could get it to press at all. Two, I consider myself a purist. I like to open wine with wine keys too.

But that was until a gorgeous military man introduced me to this:


My life changed forever.

If there's not enough oil in the pan leftover from the chicken, add a little more. Otherwise, turn the heat to medium and add your garlic and as much red pepper flakes as you would like. I think I put in about a teaspoon, but you could certainly add more if you like. It's ok with me.


And hey! Do you know what you should be adding if you aren't like me and let things go bad in your refrigerator! Mushrooms! You don't have to. But you should.

Don't let the garlic burn, just brown it up enough so that it gets sweetened in the oil.

Are you ready? Are you realllllllly ready? This is where you may fall over dead from the delicious smell of this meal.

Take about a cup of red wine and dump it in to your pan (if it's an open flame, please save your eyebrows and remove it from the stove for a hot minute). Deglazing? Yes, that's what it is called.


Now, there's alcohol cooking off of this at a very rapid rate, so try not to lean over the pan to take a picture while this is happening. It's a little potent.

This doesn't need long at all to cook. Once the wine has a little time to reduce, add the crushed tomatoes. While that's heating, cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add them to the sauce.

We're here:


Oh dear! I almost forgot the capers! Don't you forget the capers. Don't you dare.


I wanted to stop for a second and let you see what I have been seeing every day for the past three weeks. Sunset around this place is so relaxing. Ahhhhh.


Annnnd we're cooking. Taste the sauce, and then add in whatever spices you like. I'm a huge fan of dried oregano, so in when a bunch of that. I added in some dried parsley too, just so I could claim to be cultured and experimental.

If you have fresh basil by any chance, that would be divine in this as well. Don't forget your salt and pepper!


You can serve this over pasta or just on its own. We like carbs around here so I made some spaghetti, but my next venture is to put this on a loaf of bread and have me a sammich. MMMMM.


Enjoy friends!!

Chicken Scallopini

I haven't done a whole lot of cooking since I've been in Texas. Usually, I take charge of the grocery list and ensure that these boys get some good eats and that I get to play in the kitchen. But Art's been on this health food/tight budget kick, and so... there's some chicken. And more chicken. And pork for a treat. And while I will sing chicken's praises all day long, there's only so much grilled chicken I can think about eating. So, I looked at what we had in the pantry, and this came out. This is NOT your standard chicken scallopini recipe. In fact, I'm only calling it that because I think it might look like it. That is the only reason.

Digging through this bachelor pantry, I found this stuff:

White wine (I used 2007 Barefoot Chardonnay... ain't bad), some lemons, God-forsaken chicken breast (this had rib meat on it... takes two seconds to trim off and it's much cheaper!!), extra virgin olive oil, half and half, garlic (natch), margarine (could also use butter, but for shame), capers, parmesan cheese, and mushrooms. Don't you forget the mushrooms or I will cry.

We're going to bread up the chicken a little, so it's important that they are even thickness. If you have a rolling pin, flat sauce pan, meat tenderizer, etc., use that and pound the heck out of the chicken. Or, if you are in the house of two clueless bachelors, ask them politely to borrow their potato masher.


Get a few tablespoons of oil and a few tablespoons of butter in the pan, and get your pasta water rolling.


After the butter and oil has mixed together, split a few cloves of garlic and pop it in the pan. We'll remove it later.

Salt and pepper the flattened chicken and roll it in some flour. Or, if you have a plastic gallon bag, put some flour in there and shake shake shake. Then put the chicken in the pan. Why I thought you needed a picture of boiling water and not a picture of the last three steps, I'll never know. My shortcomings are many.


Your kitchen should be smelling delicious now. And, if I'm right, around this time you'll have some good looking single men start to gather in the kitchen saying "Looks good." And then they'll drag their knuckles and go back to watching Cash Cab.

... Perhaps that will only happen if you're me.

Anyways, once the chicken is delightfully browned on both sides, remove it from the pan and put it under a foil-tent on a plate. Remove the garlic cloves.

Then, oh baby, this is where the fun starts. There should be lots of brown bits stuck to the bottom of your pan. DON'T DO ANYTHING TO THEM. That's where the magic's at.

Melt a little more butter and throw in a bunch of sliced mushrooms. Try not to eat half the carton as they go in.

Again, that may only happen if you are me. Be grateful you're not me and you can cook your mushrooms in peace.

Once the mushrooms are coated, take about a cup of dry white wine and pour it into the pan, and start to scrape the bits off the bottom. This is called deglazing. I think. Unless the Food Network tells lies, because I obviously do not get my culinary information anywhere else.


Oh good gracious. Oh mercy me. If your kitchen doesn't smell divine right now, I have failed. There is something about the smell of reducing white wine that makes me swoon.

The mushrooms will cook in the wine sauce and reduce quite a bit. Like THIS:


The best part of this dish? It brought this handsome fellow into the kitchen:


Dreamboat, am I right? I can't guarantee he will show up in your kitchen if you make chicken scallopini. But honestly, it's worth trying.

Anyway, back to the food. Reduce the heat to low and pour in just enough half and half to thin out the sauce a little bit. You could also use chicken stock. I wish I did, actually. My GI tract hates half and half.

I promise never to talk about my GI tract on this blog ever again.

No I don't.

I decided to add in some capers, because God wanted me to. Actually, it was just me that wanted to. Because I think that every dish that involves chicken and pasta should have capers in it. I don't want my life to be any other way.

At this point, you could put the pasta and chicken side by side and then spoon the sauce over it. (Did you drain the pasta? Overcooked pasta is gross). But, me being me, I decided to add the pasta to the sauce and toss in the pan.


Oy. The combination of reduced wine and delightful mushrooms and briney capers... mmmm. Is this in any way related to real chicken scallopini? Does anybody know? If this recipe is wrong, I don't want to be right.


Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy. And don't forget the cheese.

I'm alive!!

Dorm living does not give way to crafting. This I have learned, age 23, summer 2009.

I am severely bogged down by classes these days. Truthfully, I'm learning that I should never have taken a summer job. Not that it isn't fun, because it (sometimes) is, and it's really fun pretending I'm in college all over again, but my academics have definitely suffered to due having a job. So, as you can see, crafting is pretty low on the totem pole these days.

Although, on the bright side, I PASSED BOTH PRAXIS II'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, all that worrying was for naught. Who knew? :)

Two more weeks left of summer, then I'm jetsetting to Texas for three weeks (remember those place mats I was supposed to be bringing with me? ha.), and THEN I should be returning to my normal, nerdy, seamstress self. I WILL (I promise) be uploading some recipes during my trip. That beautiful kitchen of Art's, man I just can't stay out of it!!! :)

Cuteness!!

At work every week we have a meeting, and each week someone different is in charge of bringing a snack. Most of the time people bake cookies, buy a cake, bring some chips, etc. etc.

Well, let me introduce myself. My name is Out of Control. It was my week this week, and I wanted to make something fun and also get a chance to release some pent-up energy the culinary way.

Have y'all seen this site? If not, please check it out and follow Bakerella. I first discovered her when she was featured on my fave blog, Pioneer Woman, and I drop by her site occasionally. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I couldn't resist her Father's Day cheeseburger cupcakes. They are so adorable!!!! I sometimes make cheeseburger cookies for Art, which consist of two vanilla wafers, a grasshopper cookie or Thin Mint, some coconut and icing, but these were more labor intensive and way more adorable.

This is how mine came out (ML is the abbreviation for our building):


They were a hit!! Please go to Bakerella's site and make them.

Of course, nobody wants to be my friend at work anymore because I clearly am Out of Control, but you know what? You will do some crazy things to avoid calculus.

THE. DRESS.

I contemplated waiting a little bit to post this, since I clearly JUST blogged about the bridesmaid dress, but what the heck.

First of all, I must report. Since I measured myself for this pattern, I've dropped two dress sizes. Yes, yes, I can hear you all saying "QUIT WHINING ABOUT LOSING WEIGHT!!!!!" I'm not necessarily whining about that, but what I am whining about is that my cut dress no longer fit!!! I suppose it's better than if I GAINED two dress sizes, but when I put the finished dress on I was somewhat bummed out.

That, on top of all the first-timer mistakes, made me less-than-confident to wear this dress to the wedding.

But nobody noticed anything and it was just fine!! I probably won't have time to change the imperfections about it before the July 4th wedding I'm going to, but I don't care. I'm very happy that I was able to do this!!

I'll start with some pictures of the finished product (I'm sorry about the horizontal-ness... not sure how to fix that):



Man, I just love looking at that yellow fabric. It's probably the prettiest yellow fabric I have ever seen.



And then I might show you what the back looked like. Whoops.



That was a zipper issue. And I really have no idea how to rememdy this one. I cut the pattern the way they said, and I can make the pieces fit together, but for some reason installing the zipper set it off SIGNIFICANTLY.

Speaking of the zipper, I picked an invisible one. Why? I enjoy self-torture. That's the only reason I can come up with for wanting to do double the work.

Since Bernina wants $45 for an invisible zipper foot, I pulled out my mom's Singer from circa 1965. Isn't it a beaut?



This sewing machine is the marathon runner of sewing machines. It's the one I learned on, and I'll tell you, it works just as nicely as my three-year-old baby.

Here's a picture of the way the dress looks from the back. Fortunately, the zipper crookedness is less apparent here:


You can really tell how poorly the dress fits from this angle. That neckline is supposed to hug my neck, not droop down like that. PS - check out my new haircut! Do you want to know how I fixed that? I'll keep it real for you... I folded the shoulder seams over and ran a straight stitch right over them. I kind of felt like a pageant mom fixing my kid's dress at the very last minute with safety pins.

The neckline (not shown) was also troublesome, and I didn't have enough fabric for an even hem all around. So shoulders, neckline, zipper, hem... there were problems all over the place.

And you know what? I'm the only one who noticed any of them!! I rate that... SUCCESS!!

All in all, I'd give myself a C+ on this dress. I've definitely found a new part of sewing that I like, but I'm very relieved to go back to quilting and needlepoint for a while :).

Except when I see things like this. Then I want to make clothes all day long.

Let me know what you think!! :)

Hemming 101

So, a friend of mine recently asked me to hem her bridesmaid dress for the wedding I went to last weekend.

I said sure, because I do things like that. I have a guilt complex.

The bridesmaid dress was polyester, but that stiff bridesmaid-y material, which I have never worked with. Actually, little did my friend know that this was my first hem ever.

So, I took to my #1 resource, the Internet. God love the Internet. There was a rolled hem tutorial that walked me step-by-step on how to hem such a thing, and it worked out perfectly.

Here's the before picture, of my friend standing in the dress once my mom and I pinned it up:


The next step was to take the pinned edge and measure and mark 5/8 in. up and pin and press on that new line, then stitch. Trim the excess, roll down 5/8 in., stitch, done!

Here's my pinning:



And here you can see that I pinned on the wrong side, so I had to take the pins out verrrrrry carefully while I stitched!



Here's the finished product, all hanging up and ready to go!!!



Nobody at the wedding noticed it was a totally homemade hem, which was obviously my goal!

This was the only sewing I did before the Praxis, so I'm glad it was simple!

Back!

I promise I have not abandoned this blog!

Praxis... DONE (won't get the results til July, not talking about it until then!), Art's visit... DONE. Now I have a relatively normal life until August, when I go to Texas for a month!

I got to sew a few times during my hiatus, and cook a recipe, all of which I will post probably later today after class.

Until then!!! Welcome back!! :)