Cassie’s Ruminations

Chicken Enchiladas

October 7, 2009 – 7:20 pm

This was an experiment, as Shaun wanted something different for dinner. It was a decent quick meal. It needs some tweaking, but all in all not a bad simple start. I’ll definitely season the chicken some next time. If you’re normal, you’ll probably want to add a cup of shredded cheddar to the top before popping this in the oven.

Chicken Enchiladas
Serves 4

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into small bite-sized chunks
8 small corn tortillas
1 can, 20 oz, enchilada sauce (I used Rosarita brand, but I prefer 505 Chile brand)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large non-stick skillet, brown the chicken over medium heat until cooked through. Wrap the tortillas in paper towels and microwave for 40 seconds to warm. Spoon chicken into the middle of a tortilla and roll it into a tube. Place seam side down in an 8″x8″ baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and chicken. Pour the enchilada sauce over the top.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly. Serve hot.

Posted in Food, Mexican, Poultry | No Comments »

Winter Squash Soup

October 6, 2009 – 6:13 pm

This is a great way to use up some leftover winter squash, since they’re often so big and hard to eat in one sitting. It’s very simple and tasty.

Winter Squash Soup
Serves 2

1 tbsp butter
3-4 cups leftover winter squash chunks
1 cup chicken broth
¼ tsp dried sage
dash white pepper

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the squash chunks and slightly brown. Add the broth and spices and stir to combine. Use a fork or a potato masher to crush the squash. Simmer for 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Posted in Food, Soup, Vegetables | No Comments »

Roasted Pork Tenderloin and Pork Burritos

October 6, 2009 – 6:11 pm

We roasted two pork tenderloins for dinner Sunday night (similar to this recipe, but without the final glaze). For a side I served some baked winter squash, a baby hubbard squash in this case. The squash baked at the same temperature. I just cut it in half, put it cut side down in a pan with some water, and gave it about 20 minutes head start on the pork. We ate one of the tenderloins and refrigerated the other.

Monday night, I cut up the pork into small cubes and warmed them in a skillet with some chili powder and onion powder in addition to the previous rub. We warmed up some chili beans, diced up some tomatoes and avocado, and had a second tasty dinner with minimal effort.

Posted in Food, Leftovers, Mexican, Pork, Vegetables | No Comments »

Chicken and Basil Calzones

October 2, 2009 – 6:05 pm

This recipe is from the pages of Cooking Light. I’ve had it bookmarked for some time and was recently reminded of it. You can find the original recipe here. I made minor tweaks. Mine are far from pretty, but as these were delicious, I’m sure I’ll get more practice making them 🙂 I made a little bit of tomato basil salad, but next time I think I’ll make a full green salad. We were both hungry today after long days, so we each ate two instead of one, but with the low calorie count from the rest of the day, we weren’t too worried 😉

Chicken and Basil Calzones
Serves 4

non-stick cooking spray
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 pound ground chicken
1 small can tomato sauce (8 oz)
½ tsp dried oregano
⅛ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
10-15 fresh basil leaves, chopped (about ⅛ cup)
1 (13.8 ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Spray a large skillet with non-stick spray. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the garlic. When it starts to sizzle and turn fragrant, add the chicken and cook until browned, breaking up into small chunks. Turn the heat to low and add the tomato sauce and seasonings. Stir to combine and remove from the heat.

Unroll the pizza dough and divide into four equal pieces. Stretch each piece slightly into a rectangle. Spoon a quarter of the filling onto one of the dough rectangles and fold the dough over the top. Pinch the edges together, folding inwards, to seal the calzone. Repeat with the remaining 3 dough pieces.

Place the calzones on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Posted in Easy, Food, Italian, Pizza, Poultry | 1 Comment »

Paella, Revisited

September 28, 2009 – 6:56 pm

This was my next iteration of paella, incorporating the changes from last time. I didn’t have any onion on hand, so I just used some onion powder, and it turned out just fine. I also used a full pound of shrimp, though I’d be perfectly happy to have half shrimp and half clams as I did last time. The only other thing I’d change for next time would be to use peeled shrimp, as the smaller shrimp were a bit pain to peel when cooked whole.

Paella
Serves 4 generously

1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into large chunks
2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp dried oregano
kosher salt and black pepper
½ lb Spanish chorizo, Portuguese Linguica, or Andouille
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1`tsp onion powder
4 large cloves garlic, pressed
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 can whole tomatoes (15 oz), crushed by hand
2 cups dry white rice
3 cups warm water
kosher salt and black pepper
½ tsp saffron threads
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used 51-60 count in the picture above)
½ cup frozen green peas, thawed and drained

Sprinkle the chicken with the paprika, oregano, salt, and pepper, and let sit for 20 minutes. Heat the olive oil in a large deep skillet over medium heat. Add the chorizo and brown on all sides. Remove to a plate. Add the chicken and brown on all sides. Remove to a plate. Add the garlic and dried parsley, and cook until the garlic is just turning fragrant. Add the tomatoes, parsley, and onion powder, and stir to combine. Cook to reduce any liquid.

Add the rice and stir to combine well. Add the water, saffron, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 6-8 minutes or until the liquid is mostly absorbed, stirring regularly. Add the chicken and chorizo back to the skillet and cover, cooking for another 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Add the shrimp to the skillet, pushing them down somewhat into the rice. Sprinkle the peas on top. Recover the skillet and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and opaque.

Serve hot.

Posted in Food, Italian, Pork, Poultry, Rice, Seafood, Spanish and Portuguese | No Comments »

An Early Birthday Celebration

September 27, 2009 – 7:57 pm

Since my birthday falls on a Tuesday this year, and Shaun’s second day of law school to boot, we just celebrated today. It started out with a nice relaxing morning at home, playing with Emma, and getting my wonderful present from Shaun, a little Toshiba netbook. This post comes to you from our couch with Emma’s head on my lap. 🙂

We then went to The Rock Pizza in Mill Creek for some wings and wood-fired pizza

image courtesy of The Rock Pizza website
followed by some book and kitchen gadget shopping, then back home for a bit more relaxing.

We then headed out to Anthony’s Homeport in Everett.

images courtesy of Anthony’s website
Happily, we discovered that on Sunday evenings they have all-you-can-eat dungeness crab. We split an order of calamari, then I had the crab, while Shaun had the fish and chips. We ended the meal with a divine molten chocolate cake. All in all a very nice day!

Posted in Food, Ramblings, Restaurant Review | No Comments »

Quick Chicken and Summer Squash Skillet

September 24, 2009 – 7:26 pm

Lacking any dinner plans, I threw this skillet meal together and hoped for the best. It actually turned out pretty decently.

Quick Chicken and Summer Squash Skillet
Serves 2

1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 lb summer squash (I had half zucchini and half yellow crookneck)
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 cup chicken broth

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and thyme. Add the chicken thighs and brown on one side. Flip them over and brown on the other side. Add the squash over the top and sprinkle salt and pepper over the top. Add 1/4 cup water and cover the skillet. Cook for 10 minutes or until the squash is tender. While the squash and chicken are cooking, melt the butter in the microwave and then stir in the flour to make a quick roux. Remove the squash and chicken to a plate. Add the chicken broth and roux to the skillet and whisk to combine. Bring to a boil so the roux thickens the gravy. Serve over the chicken.

Posted in Easy, Food, Poultry, Vegetables | No Comments »

Egg Drop Soup

September 20, 2009 – 7:06 pm

This recipe is directly from Elise of Simply Recipes. I omitted the green onions and used a generous handful of dried shiitake mushrooms as I did not have any fresh on hand. It made for a nice quick and easy light dinner.

Posted in Asian, Easy, Eggs, Food, Soup | No Comments »

Peach Muffins

September 20, 2009 – 3:50 pm

This is a slight modification of this Allrecipes recipe for peach muffins. I made about a third of the recipe so I wouldn’t have too many muffins sitting around. We’re just starting to get really good peaches here in the Northwest, so this was a great use for some of them. I used a silicon cupcake pan to make the muffins in cute football shapes. They didn’t come out of the pan as nice as I would have liked, but they were still tasty!

Peach Muffins
Makes 6 muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
scant ½ tsp salt
½ cup vegetable oil
1 egg
⅔ cup granulated sugar
1 cup peeled, pitted, and chopped peaches (about 1 peach)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray.

Mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat together the oil, egg, and sugar. Stir the two mixtures together until just combined. Fold in the peaches. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups.

Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck into the middle of a muffin. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a rack to finish cooling.

Posted in Breakfast, Food, Fruit | 2 Comments »

Oktoberfest

September 20, 2009 – 3:47 pm

Well, we didn’t make it to the Fremont Oktoberfest this year, but we did have a nice lunch in the spirit of the event – fresh bratwurst boiled in Possmann Frankfurter Applewine, made in Germany, and then browned up in a skillet, similar to my previous recipe. The apple lent a very nice subtle flavor to the surface of the brats, and I’ll definitely look for the apple wine, or another hard cider again.

Posted in Food, German, Holiday Cooking, Pork | No Comments »