Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables and Showdown Results!

Man, you guys are some serious cheese fiends. I heard 5 votes (one from Facebook) for cheese and zero for butter. And my vote, hands down, is definitely cheese. I love cheese. I might have some sort of weird affection for it. If there is cheese within a 10 foot radius of me, I will find it. And eat it. And it will be great. Yay cheese!

And on that note, I present you with an entirely cheese-free meal. If I had planned ahead I would have posted my favorite recipe for macaroni and cheese or cheese-stuffed pasta shells. Or some other cheese-tastic meal. But that would require a small amount of pre-planning. Which just doesn't happen that much around here. In honor of the cheese win however, I will post a totally cheesy recipe here soon. And by cheesy I mean it will be full of cheese. Not like the jokes I make all the time. Har har har.


Aaaanyway, last Saturday we helped some friends move, so by the time dinner rolled around we were starving and exhausted. This meal was perfect. Filling, quick, healthy, and really really good.

And everything except the onion and the chicken came from our share! I love it when a meal comes together like that. It makes me feel thrifty... or something.

Make this the next time you're recruited to haul boxes and furniture for friends. Or the next time you have beets on hand. You know, whenever.

Roasted Chicken Breasts with Root Vegetables
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
3 chicken breasts
3 beets
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 potato
4-5 carrots
1/2 cup beer
Salt
Pepper

Preheat the oven to 350.

Salt and pepper the chicken on both sides.

Cut the onion into eights. Peel and chop the beets and carrots roughly into pieces. Mince the garlic.

Heat oil in a medium size dutch oven over medium-high heat. Once the pot is really really hot, add the chicken and sear for 1-2 minutes, without moving. Flip and cook the other side for 1-2 minutes, without moving. Remove to a plate and set aside. We're just trying to get some good color on the chicken, not cook it though. We'll do that later.

In the same pan, add the onion, beets, potatoes and carrots. Brown the vegetables in the pot for about 3 minutes, just to give them some color. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute to distribute the garlic. Add about 1/2-1 cup beer or chicken stock to the pan. Cook the liquid down for about 2 minutes, then return the chicken to the pan. Cover and bake for 15-20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with rice on the side. Enjoy!

P.S. Because there are beets in this, everything will be a funky purple/pink/reddish color. Never fear, your food is not turning into something scary.

P.S.S. For the veg-heads out there, this is a really good way to cook the vegetables with a lot of flavor. Just leave out the chicken... obviously... and don't use so much butter and oil in the beginning. Yum!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp for Two

Last night I had every intention of posting this recipe. It's great for a cute little Friday night dessert for you and your sweetie. Or you and your fork before your sweetie gets home so that you remove any evidence of it's delicious existence.

I had such great plans. But then. I sprained the hell out of my ankle stepping down from the garden ledge. Quite possibly the most lame way I've ever heard of to sprain your ankle. I think I'll tell people that I was saving a baby from a burning building or chasing down some robbers who stole a little old lady's purse. That sounds heroic, right?

"Yeah, and I only came out with this strain. It doesn't hurt too bad. But like, totally worth it, ya know."

That makes me sound waaaaay cooler. And we'll just keep the actual reason between us, m'kay? OK, thanks.

Anyway, I spent most of last night curled up on the couch with a big bag of ice on my ankle watching old X-Files episodes. Also one of the coolest ways to spend a Friday night.

So, without further ado, here's the strawberry rhubarb crisp! Make it tonight. It will make you and whoever you choose to share it with sigh and be happy. That is, if you choose to share it with anyone. And I will completely understand if you choose that route. I almost did...


Last week we got a whopping 2 stalks of rhubarb from the CSA. As I was peeking into our box, I was thinking, "What do you do with 2 stalks of rhubarb??"

Well, ladies and gentleman. You do this! Cook it down with a bunch of strawberries and create a sort of make-shift crisp.


Next time, well that is if there is a next time this season, I'll cook the rhubarb down for a little bit in a suacepan to loosen it up a bit and then combine that with strawberries, throw a crumbly top onto it and make it that way. This version, while it tasted delicious, the texture was lacking what I think a good crisp should be. It was sort of more like a strawberry rhubarb jam with crisp on top. Really tasty, but it needed a little more to bite down into.




Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp for Two
For the Compote:
2 stalks Rhubarb
1 Pint Srawberries, stems removed
1/8 Cup Brown Sugar

Rhoughy chop the rhubarb. Add rhubarb, strawberries and brown sugar to a medium sized sauce pan. Turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for 10-15 minutes until the rhubarb has broken down. It should look a pretty watery at this point. Turn the heat to medium to medium-low and cook uncovered for 10-15, until thick.

For the Crisp:
1/4 Cup Oatmeal
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/8 Tsp. Cinnamon
1 Tbsp. Flour
1 Tbsp. Butter

Combine oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour in a small bowl. Using a fork or a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Preheat the oven to 350. Divide the compote evenly between two small oven-proof containers (or 1 larger bowl). Sprinkle the crisp topping evenly between the two bowls. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the compote starts to bubble and the crisp topping is golden brown.

Yum! Enjoy!

P.S. If you try this without making the compote, let me know! I'd love to try it but I'm pretty sure strawberry and rhubarb season is over here in Michigan, hence the not-so-perfect nature of this post.

Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs With Kale, Chard, and Olives

What can I say, I'm on a kale kick. It's also in season in Michigan, so it's been in our CSA share every week (new pictures of share #2 tomorrow!!). And it's healthy, so you should eat it! Aside from the fact that when you mix it with a bunch of fatty things it obliterates the bitterness and leaves you with a creamy, tender, healthy side dish! And it just doesn't get much better than that.

This recipe was originally from Thomas Kellar's Ad Hoc at Home and it calls for several things that I didn't have: fennel, fresh thyme and bay leaves. So, I did changed it up. It's what I do. Deal.

Instead of fennel, I used the newest bunch of kale from the CSA and the last of the Swiss chard from the garden. It's what we had, but you can probably use whatever greens you have on hand. Instead of thyme, I used rosemary and in place of the fresh bay leaves, I grabbed a few fresh basil leaves from the garden. I was a little worried about all of my substitutions, but it was great! (If I do say so myself.)

Mmmmm taters and garlic.


Dinner from last night: Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs with Kale and Chard, Roasted Garlic and New Potatoes from The Pioneer Woman, John's Homemade Bread and wine.

Crispy Braised Chicken with Kale, Swiss Chard, and Olives
Originally seen in Ad Hoc at Home

7 Chicken Thighs
Olive Oil
1 Medium Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Bunch Kale
1 Bunch Swiss Chard
1/2 Cup Dry White Wine
4 Slices of Lemon Peel (Use a Vegetable Peeler)
1 Cup Green Olives
4-5 Sprigs of Rosemary
3-4 Basil Leaves
1 Cup Chicken Broth

Preheat oven to 375. Heat oil in an oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Choose one that is large enough to fit all of the chicken in a single layer. Once hot, add chicken thighs, skin side down and cook for 4 minutes. Flip chicken and sear on the other side for 1 minute. Transfer chicken to a cookie sheet and place into the oven to keep it warm.

Add the onion to the hot pan and cook for about 1 and 1/2 minutes. Next, add garlic and let cook for 5 minutes, until onions are translucent. In batches, add the kale and chard to the pan and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Add wine and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring. Add lemon peel, olives, rosemary and basil to the pan. Stir, then add chicken broth. Once the mixture comes to a boil, return the chicken to the pan, skin side up and nestle it into the greens. Cook for a few minutes, then transfer the entire pan to the oven. Cook until chicken is done, about 20-30 minutes. Turn the broiler on and cook the chicken for 2 minutes to get the skin crispy. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!