Cooking: Southwestern Braised Chicken Thighs

Typically, when I make a meal for dinner one night, I end up eating it as my lunch for at least two more days. This is both the beauty and the curse of cooking for one. Most of the time, I enjoy my cooking so I don't mind and actually like the fact I get to eat it multiple times. This week was one of the times where I LOVED the fact that I had leftovers and every time I ate this meal, I was grateful I took my culinary boot camps at Cookology. This dish is even better the next day as all the flavors come together beautifully. Also, it's not difficult but people would be easily fooled into thinking it is.

This recipe uses two techniques: pan searing and braising. The methods (demonstrated below) can be used to make a wide variety of meals as you just follow a simple formula with unlimited ingredient combinations. You basically heat up a large skillet over medium high heat and cook the meat (chicken thighs, beef, pork loins) 3ish minutes on each side until browned (but not fully cooked). You then remove the meat, and cook the veggies (in this recipe simply mushroom & onions). You then "deglaze the pan" by pouring in a bit of liquor (2 tbsp) or wine (1/4 to 1/2 cup), which basically with the help of your spatula just loosens up all the good bits of flavor at the bottom of the pan. You then create a liquid broth using chicken/vegetable/beef broth. You add back in the meat, bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat, cover the pan, and cook for another 20-30 minutes until the meat is fully cooked. This is a great way to cook cuts of meat that are thicker and take longer to cook. Basically, this method allows you to enjoy the great flavor of the sear, while still making sure you meat is moist/fully cooked & the flavors have time to meld. If you use wine, make sure it is one you enjoy because the flavor deepens when it is cooked.

As a note, the spice listing for the spice rub can be a bit intimidating. However, if you don't have all the spices, don't worry about it! I have made this recipe with a few different spice combinations (just kind of sticking to the southwestern theme) and it always turns out pretty good. In fact, some Cajun seasoning, salt, pepper, and maybe a little cumin are probably all you need for a delicious meal. The key is just following the methodology, not the exact spice listing. I will say most of these spices are ones I use all the time so I would suggest slowly investing in them.

Enough talking, let's get cooking!

Cooking: Molten Lava Cakes

It has been awhile since I have blogged about dessert. Fear not! I have still been baking about once a week with high levels of success. However, whenever I go to blog, usually one of the meals I have made for the week just takes over my heart and I have to share it first. Now is the time to change that and to post about the dessert I made this weekend! Molten Lava Cakes (or Hot Chocolate Fudge Cakes)! Mmmmmmmm, chocolate!

I was in the mood for a pretty lazy weekend since I had been exhausted all week (as evidenced by my 8:15 bed time Friday night). However, I hadn't seen a few of my friends in awhile and decided to have them over for dinner. That way I could be social and not actually leave my house! I love that my house has generally been seen as the place that people can come in their sweats and make themselves at home. Nowadays, it is also seen as the place people can come for a good home cooked meal. What could be better than that?!

The girls I had over are the ones I went to Puerto Rico with back in May. Therefore, I opted for a Puerto Rico inspired meal and made Blackened Tilapia, my favorite black bean dish, and steamed kale. As the main meal was pretty healthy (and I ran earlier in the day), I decided to introduce some richness with a dessert. My friend is a chocolate fiend (understatement of the decade) and I happened upon this delicious looking recipe from cooking light that I knew would please her. I had made a similar dish in my cooking boot camp at Cookology, but that dish was really rich and I liked that this was on the lighter side (as light as pure chocolate can be). I had also bought 1/2 cup ramekins 6 months ago and I was excited to finally use them. 

I had this dessert both Saturday and Sunday night since it makes 10 servings & I also have family dinner on Sunday. Saturday I cooked them for the recommended time per the linked recipe which made them into cakes with nothing molten about them (see below). They were still quite tasty. Sunday I cooked them about 4 minutes less and they turned out wonderfully gooey! 

My favorite thing is that there are five of us at my family dinner and I only have 4 of the small ramekins. I compromised by making a fifth one in my larger ramekins I use for main meals. Luckily, my dad's idea of a normal serving of dessert is about 2x the size of a normal human being (at least!) so it worked out perfectly! There is a reason I make him do the Army Ten Miler with me every year.

Daughter and Dad sized servings

Let's get cooking!

Cooking: Chicken Enchiladas

One of my favorite food blogs this year as I have been trying to cook healthier has been Skinnytaste. I have used a handful of recipes from it, and I have never been disappointed. I saw this post for Chicken Enchiladas awhile ago and have now made it a few times, with some minor variations. The chipotles in adobo sauce add a wonderful smoky flavor to the sauce/filling. The best part about learning to make this recipe is you can use the same combination of enchilada sauce/tortillas/cheese from this recipe and make several different variations of enchiladas simply by making a different filling. The other week I made turkey and black bean enchiladas using leftover ingredients from the chicken enchilada recipe. The only downside is having to explain you are not as boring as you seem when your coworkers ask, "Enchiladas again?" (Oh wait, I am).

Let's get cooking!

Non-Cooking: Labor Day and Bachelorette Festivities

This past weekend I finally wrapped up my summer of travel! It seems I have been out of town almost every weekend since the end of July and to be perfectly honest, I am really looking forward to spending some time at home. This is especially true since I am now in full on marathon training mode. It is hard to fit in 12-18 mile runs & travel!

Cooking: Pizza w/ Homemade Dough

One of my favorite meals of all time is pizza. Specifically, brick oven thin crust mushroom, pepperoni, and Italian sausage pizza. What better combination in the world is there than meat, bread, cheese, and tomato sauce? In my basic cooking boot camp class, we learned how to make challah bread as part of our "dessert" class. The instructor gave us an easy alteration to the recipe to make pizza dough. Considering I love pizza and am loving learning to make things from scratch, I thought this recipe would be a fun and satisfying challenge! I have made it a few times, and my coworker also tried it and loved it (grilling the pizza versus cooking it and an oven - an interesting twist I would love to try). The crust is relatively thin and a bit sweeter (which makes sense considering it was originally a sweet bread recipe).  

One word of caution is that you have to let the dough rise for an hour or two once you have made it, so unless you want to eat at 9 (mistake #1) either start early, or make it the day before & let it rise in the fridge overnight. 

Let's get cooking!