Jack Daniel's Salmon

I started summer classes last night, and Andrew was nice enough to make dinner. He made Jack Daniel's Salmon, one of my favorites. Plus it's super-easy: he made the marinade after work, let the salmon sit and cooked it in the oven when I got home. Last night we had it with couscous and green beans. These pictures are from our one-month anniversary, when we made a salad with mandarin oranges and uncooked Ramen noodles. Yum!

I know my recent posts make it look like I am obsessed with bourbon, but I promise this is just a super-good salmon recipe. I've loved it since I was little. You really do want it with couscous so it can absorb all the marinade.

Jack Daniel's Salmon

1 cup Jack Daniel’s (or other bourbon)

½ cup soy sauce

2 rounded Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated finely

8 cloves garlic, sliced

4 Tablespoons brown sugar

½ cup olive oil

2 Tablespoons Grey Poupon mustard

Mix ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Cool.

When the marinade is cool, pour over up to 3 pounds of salmon. Marinate for at least an hour and up to 2 hours. Salmon can be simmered with marinade, skin side up, on top of the stove for 10-15 minutes, or baked at 375 for 20-25 minutes, until flesh is firm. Do not crowd salmon in pan as it will extend cooking time and dry out salmon near the edges of the pan.

Spoon some of the marinade and the caramelized garlic over the salmon to serve.

Turkey-spinach pie, or, What to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers

It's already Christmas in our house. After the FSU game yesterday (which we won't even talk about), Andrew and I have been putting up lights and decorating the tree. We're currently watching Elf while I blog and he knits!

However, if you're still living in the house where you ate on Thursday, you're probably still dealing with Thanksgiving leftovers. Growing up, we'd always have turkey tetrazinni, Harrison's favorite. I don't like mushrooms, though, so when we had our turkey dinner earlier this month, Mom and I found this unique answer to extra turkey. The phyllo dough makes it just beautiful! And it tasted amazing. (It should be no secret by now that spinach is one of my favorite foods!)

Turkey-spinach pie, from the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook

Slice two leeks and mince a clove of garlic. Cook them in butter until the leeks are tender.

Combine the leek mixture with 3 eggs (slightly beaten), 10 ounces frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained), 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, 2/3 cup milk and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Chop 2 cups cooked turkey or chicken, and mix in with everything else.

Layer 6 sheets phyllo dough in a pie pan, brushing each layer with melted butter. Spoon the filling into the crust and fold the dough toward the center.

Bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes, and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Thanksgiving: Stuffing, Carrots and Pecan Pie

I'm back! As you may have noticed from the incessant Christmas ads, Thanksgiving is upon us. Thanksgiving is really one of my favorite holidays because it's so unpretentious. It's about eating a delicious meal with people you love. Better yet, it's about preparing a delicious meal with the people you love. It's worth waking up early to throw on an apron, watch the Macy's parade and brown flour for the gravy. Every family has their own traditions: in my family, it isn't Thanksgiving without rice, at least five types of cranberry sauce and wine jelly with boiled custard. Well, that isn't strictly true. We've had Thanksgiving with a lot of different people, not just with family in the same city every year, which I think is great: you can have the same holiday in many different ways. Which is why it's okay that I've married into a mashed potatoes family...

However, I firmly believe that Thanksgiving shouldn't be the only day of the year when you go all out and cook your favorite foods. For this reason (and because Andrew got a free turkey with his flu shot), we had turkey dinner when my parents came to visit last week.

At Wakulla Springs

My parents' visit was wonderful. Daddy hadn't been to Tallahassee before, and Mommy had only been to help me move some of my stuff down before the wedding, so we got to spend the long weekend showing them everything the beautiful town of Tallahassee has to offer. We went to Wakulla Springs, Maclay Gardens, the fair... and Mommy's college friend Susan and her husband Mike came to visit! We saved turkey for the night they were coming because we would need help eating it.

So here are some of my favorite recipes that I made last week and one that I'll make tomorrow night to take to Tampa. If my mom sends me some other family favorites (wine jelly and cranberry chutney??), I'll post them; they don't seem to be in my recipe file just yet!

The feast. I love any excuse to pull out the fine china and crystal.
Andrew, as you can see, loves milk.

Grandmama's Sausage Stuffing
My grandmama was an absolutely incredible cook. I remember Thanksgiving weekends helping her roll out and cut the yeast rolls for dinner (a competitive item when my twin cousins, uncle and I were at the same end of the table). This is her stuffing recipe, which I think is absolutely fantastic. We didn't put it in the bird last week, since it makes the cooking take longer, but if you have time it's worth it.

Cut 1 pound sausage (the kind that comes in a giant roll) into 4 slices. Cook it on the stove, breaking it up into small pieces while it cooks. Once all the sausage is browned, take it out and put it in a bowl.

Meanwhile, take 1 pound of soft white bread. Old bread is great; if it's fresh, set the slices out to dry a little so they harden. In my family, we try to save heels and crusts in the freezer and thaw them for stuffing. Then cut the bread up into small pieces.

Chop 1 large or 2 medium onions, and cook it in the sausage grease until soft and clear. Mix the onion, sausage and bread together, and add salt and pepper to taste.

If you're cooking it outside the bird, add chicken broth (I used 2 cups for the whole thing) and heat in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. The chicken broth softens it, since it's missing out on those yummy drippings from the bird.

Carrots Vindalee
I believe this is a more recent recipe in my family's Thanksgiving arsenal, but it is a great one. This is the only version of cooked carrots Andrew will eat. It's from the "Mountain Elegance" cookbook by the Junior League of Asheville, NC. (Thank you to Auntie Flo for correcting my original, poorly remembered version!) You can never have enough vegetables at Thanksgiving, and the orange brightens up the plate.

Cut 4 or 5 carrots into thin slices. Chop 1 celery heart, including the leaves. Cook the carrots and celery on the stove covered in dry white wine and a tablespoon or two of sugar. The wine should cook down so it isn't soupy. Add a teaspoon or two of dill and enjoy!

The Jackson, MS Junior League Pecan Pie
This is what I'm making for Thanksgiving this year and I'm so excited. Not only is it delicious--better than any other pecan pie you have ever eaten ever--but it is incredibly fun to make. I'm even going all out and making my own pie crust (thanks, Eleanor!). This recipe came from Becky Heishman, a good family friend. Daddy likes to call it PEAKEN pie.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake a 9-inch pie shell for 3 or 4 minutes. Cook 1/2 cup butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar and 1/2 cup light corn syrup over low heat until the butter melts. Do not let it boil. Cool slightly.

Lightly beat 3 eggs (the recipe notes, "Do not unloose your inner masochist"). Stir them into the mixture--be careful not to add the eggs while it's too warm or they will start to cook and you will be very embarrassed in front of your auntie who's chopping carrots. Mix the eggs in well.

Finely chop 1 1/2 cup pecans, and add them to the mixture with 1 tsp vanilla. (I like to reserve 1/2 cup or so pecans to arrange a pretty pattern on the top, but you don't have to.) Pour filling into crust and bake for 40-45 minutes. Pie should be soft in center when removed from oven.

How to eat an entire chicken, day 3: Chicken pot pie

Such a delay between posts, I know! But I hope that this recipe is worth the wait. It's one of my all-time favorite comfort foods. I first made it for Andrew and Andy during Christmas weekend at W&L. Neville Skyped in and Allison was there, and it was lovely. The last time I made this, Andrew was teaching late and didn't come home until the pot pie was almost out of the oven--about 7:00. The look on his face when he realized that chicken pot pie was waiting for him was just priceless. (I was too distracted with feeding him to take pictures of dinner...)

It's really easy, and you can vary the vegetables based on what you want. I've made it with potatoes before, but I really love carrots, peas and corn. I use Bisquick for the topping plus a couple of extra biscuits, but a puff pastry would also work. Leftovers are yummy, as always. This is especially good when you're using up your cooked chicken and your homemade stock... but you can also cook up some chicken breasts or whatever you have. Classic comfort food, made even better with a side salad.

Chicken pot pie
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Dice an onion and 2 carrots, and sautee them in 4 tablespoons butter in a skillet with high edges. Add 1 cup frozen corn and 1 cup frozen peas. After they've cooked for a few minutes, stir in 1/2 cup flour and cook for another minute to make a roux. Pour in 2 cups milk and 2 cups chicken broth, stirring constantly, until the sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat, add 1 pound cooked chicken (shredded or chopped). Stir in 1 teaspoon dried thyme and some salt and pepper.

Pour the mixture into a casserole dish. Roll out biscuit dough and cut into a shape that will cover your dish. Bake until the biscuit topping is golden, about 35 minutes.

How to eat an entire chicken, day 2: Stock and soup

You remember Alexander, who went to sleep with gum in his mouth and now there's gum in his hair and when he got out of bed this morning he tripped on the skateboard and by mistake he dropped his sweater in the sink while the water was running? Well, I've been having a day just like that today. I even locked my keys in my office on my way out of work. Fortunately, today's recipe was already mostly done, and pretty easy to throw together.

I've been working on a chicken this week: rosemary chicken, chicken pot pie and chicken soup. Although I made them in that order--I roasted the chicken on Monday, made the pot pie on Tuesday and made the soup tonight--I'm going to tell you about the soup first, because you start making the stock the night you roast the chicken.

I just Googled chicken stock, to see what makes it different from broth. Apparently stock is made with the bony parts, and broth is made from the meat. This means the stock has a richer flavor. You could buy either for a soup, but if you're roasting a chicken it's really wasteful not to make your own. The first time I did this, I froze my stock as ice cubes. They live in a freezer bag, and I pull out a couple every time I want chicken stock. It's super convenient, and the stock is almost free to make. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't think it would be too attractive, but it makes your house smell incredible.

Chicken stock
After you've roasted your chicken, carve or pull all the meat off the bones, and save it for later. You're going to want as much of that meat as possible, and it isn't doing you any more favors by going in the stock, so get in there! Put the carcass, bones, innards (from the paper bag inside the carcass when you started) and skin in a pot or Crockpot. Add enough water to cover everything.

Add a whole carrot (peeled with the ends chopped off) and some celery. I like to use the leafy parts that otherwise get thrown out. Peel an onion and cut it in half, and toss that in too. Add a bay leaf and some herbs--maybe some sprigs of rosemary or thyme if you're feeling inspired.

Cook it on low for several hours--all day/night if possible. When it's ready and smells amazing, strain it and discard the vegetables and bones. Especially if you're going to freeze it, pour the stock into the narrowest container you can find and refrigerate it for several hours. The fat will rise to the top and you can skim it off (kind of satisfyingly gross). Freeze it in small portions, refrigerate it to use in all your recipes or make it into soup!

Chicken and rice soup
This is a totally variable recipe, so put in whatever you like in your chicken soup. Some people prefer noodles or potatoes to rice. You can also make it come together much faster if you precook the rice and the vegetables. In that case, just cook it on low for about half an hour or until you get hungry.

Chop 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks and any other veggies (onions, turnips?). Cut your leftover chicken into bite-sized pieces. (I had already made my pot pie by this point, so I had about a cup and a half of chicken.) Put the veggies and meat in a pot with your unbelievably delicious chicken stock, and pour in 1 cup rice. Feel free to toss in more herbs or some pepper; I felt my stock was plenty flavorful, but everyone has different tastes.

Cook on low for several hours, until the veggies are soft and the rice is cooked. I'm doing mine overnight so I can take it to work tomorrow in my Snow White thermos! It matches my Snow White lunchbox, circa 1995.

How to eat an entire chicken, day 1: Rosemary chicken

Some of my readers may know that my ancestry includes thrifty Scottish Presbyterians, industrious pioneers who reached the frontier of Missouri, and Pattawomeck Indians (Native Americans) by way of Pocahontas herself. These genetic roots have left me predisposed to hate wasting anything. Sometimes I have to get Andrew to throw something away for me because I just can't do it myself. Recycling helps. So does making a week's worth of meals out of one cute little chicken. Plus, it is incredibly cost-effective. Andrew and I can eat for about a week on the cost of one chicken, some carrots, celery, onions, two cups of Bisquick and some rice. And we can do it even though both of us are working full-time.

From one chicken (5.64 pounds), I made three meals: roasted chicken, chicken pot pie and chicken soup. Today we're starting with the roasted chicken, which is day 1 of the project. Roasting a chicken shouldn't be scary, but I know I was overwhelmed by it before I tried it. I don't like touching raw meat in general, but really this was okay. (I still refuse to bone my poultry like Julia Child keeps wanting me to.) If you're an experienced chef who cooks chicken all the time, I promise that this is still an exceptionally delicious way to go about it. Rosemary chicken was probably my all-time favorite meal growing up.

Roasted rosemary chicken
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place one whole roasting chicken in a roasting pan. Pull out the little paper bag of innards from the cavity and save it for later (I wrap it up in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge). Stuff the chicken with a carrot, peeled and cut into pieces; a couple of celery stalks; and an onion cut in half. Add several sprigs of rosemary to the cavity, and tuck some under the skin or between the legs. Tie the legs together using butcher's twine (they sell this at the grocery store, but you may have to ask) so they sit above the opening to the cavity, like in the picture.

Bake for 20-23 minutes per pound, or until the interior reaches 165 degrees. Some chickens come with their own little thermometer that pops up when it reaches the right temperature. Let stand 15 minutes before carving.

I serve this with whatever veggies I have on hand. If I'm making rice--I didn't this time--I also make gravy: brown flour in a cast-iron skillet and whisk it in with the drippings from the chicken. Delicious.

After dinner, strip the carcass of whatever you didn't eat. Save the meat in the fridge for later. Put the carcass, bones, skin and the innards from before in a pot to make into your chicken stock. We'll get to that tomorrow...

Spaghetti alla Neville

First of all, let me apologize for the long delay between posts. Starting my new job has been exhausting! I don't know what I'd do if Andrew didn't take some of his afternoons to clean the house, get groceries and do laundry. So I've been learning how to cook dinners that require minimal effort by the time I get home--often by working on tomorrow's meal after dinner. I am actually one of the few kids in my generation who didn't grow up with a Crockpot, but I am learning to love mine. I get everything ready in the morning or even the night before, and come home to a delicious-smelling dinner. It's delicious, it's good for me, and it's a perfect way to end my day.

Today's Crockpot recipe comes from our good friend Neville Fogarty, who's been featured on this blog before for writing crosswords and loving meatloaf. Now my general opinion on food is, "Why buy it if you can make it yourself for better?" But... this means that sometimes it is better to buy it. If something is too much trouble or you can't find a good recipe, just buy it. I used to believe that spaghetti sauce fit in this category. Sure, I could make my own if I wanted to, but it comes in a jar just as well. Since trying this recipe, I have found that, for the minimal amount of effort it takes, it is far better to make your own sauce. That being said, I think--again, for the effort and payoff--that sticking with canned tomatoes is just fine. Yes, fresh tomatoes are great, but I don't think it makes enough of a difference here.

This sauce is delicious; it's classic comfort food. It's so easy, I put it together before work when I was half-asleep. And it makes a lot; you could halve it, but I just froze most of the extra for later. I did adapt Neville's seasonings a bit--chopping my own garlic instead of using garlic salt to taste, throwing in basil leaves and some oregano, and leaving out the mushrooms. Sorry, Neville!

Spaghetti alla Neville
Brown 1-2 pounds ground round beef (or sirloin or turkey). Meanwhile, mix together 28 oz canned tomato sauce, 28 oz diced tomatoes, 1 small can sliced mushrooms and 1 small can tomato paste ("literally the small one at the grocery"). Chop 3 celery ribs--not to be confused with the much larger celery stalks--3 garlic cloves and 1 large white onion.

Drain the beef and mix everything together. Toss in several whole basil leaves (I just chop off a lot of my plant) and season with a little salt* and pepper and a few shakes of oregano. Keep tasting it to adjust the seasonings. Cook in your Crockpot on LOW for 8 hours. If you don't have a Crockpot, let it simmer on your stove for several hours.

* Check that your diced tomatoes don't have salt... if they do, don't add more!

"'Everybody is going to get to know each other in the pot. I'm serious about this stuff.'
- Kevin Malone"

- Neville Fogarty

Salmon and tomatoes en papillote

I know it's been a while since I last blogged... this week has been very busy and very exciting. I got a job!!! I am now the assistant to the chair of the chemistry department at Florida State, and Andrew's building is right by mine, and everyone seems really nice, and I have a pretty office with a big window. It's been a bit of a shift to start waking up at 6:30 and run out the door, but it is so nice to have something to do besides obsessively clean the house and watch TLC. On the food side, I'm going to start experimenting with dinners that can do double-duty in my Snow White lunchbox the next day. Wish me luck!

Today I'm sharing a recipe that I actually made last week. It takes literally about half an hour to throw together, has next to no cleanup and is knock-your-socks-off delicious. It's easy enough for a quick meal at home, but yummy enough for a dinner party. I have dreams about this meal sometimes. Plus, it is just about as healthy as you can get. The proportions I'm sharing here are for four people; you could halve it for two, but I love having the leftovers. It has all the Provençal flavors I miss from last summer, and it's just so pretty! It's like a little garden wrapped up in foil.

The instructions look complicated, but once you've made it once you'll be able to improvise pretty easily. This recipe comes almost exactly from my French cookbook, Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan. I moved the basil on top of the salmon because I think you can taste it more that way; if your salmon is skinless, you can put the basil underneath. Both times I've made it, I haven't had cherry tomatoes, so I cut up two tomatoes into bite-sized pieces and divided them among the packets. You can use foil (easier to wrap up, but less pretty) or parchment paper, depending on who you're trying to impress.

Salmon and tomatoes en papillote

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Cut four 12-inch squares of foil or parchment paper, depending on who you're trying to impress. Cut 28 ounces of salmon into four equal portions (7 or 8 ounces each).

If you want to sear the tomatoes to intensify their flavor, heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and cook 16 cherry tomatoes for a few minutes until their skins are wrinkled and bubbly.

In the center of each piece of foil, drizzle a little olive oil, sprinkle it with some salt and white pepper, and top with a piece of salmon. Put the tomatoes on one side and about 5 basil leaves on the other. Grate zest from one lemon over everything. Chop 4 scallions (or 2 spring onions) and scatter them over the fish and tomatoes. Cut the lemon into 8 slices, putting two slices over each piece of fish. Top with a sprig of thyme or rosemary and another drizzle of olive oil.

Seal the packets, making sure they are airtight and that there's puff space between the fish and the top of its cocoon. Put the packets on the baking sheet, slide the setup into the oven, and bake for 10-12 minutes.

(The packets can be assembled up to 6 hours ahead and refrigerated; remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. If the packets still feel cold when you're ready to slide them into the oven, add a minute to the baking time.)

Update:

My mom made this salmon for her and Daddy and sent me a picture! Look how beautiful! They ate it with a salad, green beans and Provencal rosé.

Beef empanadas

What a busy week coming off of a busy weekend! I have Pi Phi stuff tonight, Thursday and Friday--mostly helping FL Beta with recruitment, which should be wonderful--and Saturday is a biology department party. I predict that a lot of this week's dinners will be leftovers, so when I woke up craving empanadas yesterday I went ahead and made them. I served them with fried plantains and a mango salsa. How tropical!

I had never made empanadas before--Andrew claims he had never even tried them--but they were yummy! Full disclosure: the dough recipe I found online wasn't so great. You can try it here, but I don't feel comfortable endorsing it since it was a little dry. It also didn't make enough for the massive amount of filling I ended up with. Next time, I'm going to try them with just storebought pie dough, like another website recommended. But the filling was delicious. I adapted this recipe. It made a ton--I made six and a half empanadas, which was the amount of dough I had, and almost half the filling was still left over. I would halve it next time, since the two of us can only eat so much.

 
Beef empanadas
Chop two small potatoes into small pieces and boil until soft. Hard-boil two eggs and coarsely chop them when cool.

Chop one small onion and mince 5 cloves of garlic. Sauté the onion in a little vegetable oil, then add the garlic. Add 1.5 pounds ground beef. When the beef is browned and mixed in with the onions and garlic, pour in 1 cup beef broth. Let it simmer until the liquid is gone. Fold in the potatoes and eggs, and let the stuff cool.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut your dough into circles and spoon the filling into the center of each circle. Fold them in half and crimp the edges. Arrange the empanadas on a greased baking sheet and brush them with a little beaten egg. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Fried plantains
Peel two or three ripe plantains and cut into good-sized pieces. Fry them in butter and a little sugar. Drain on paper towels before serving.

Mango salsa
Chop 2 mangos, 1 cucumber and some green onion. Mix together with some lime juice.

Spinach quiche and (bonus!) an Old-Fashioned

Neville has been complaining that he can't cook curtains, so we're back with food this time! Maybe it's the French major in me, but I have always loved a good quiche. Served with greens drizzled in balsamic vinaigrette, it is a surprisingly filling meal. One of the coffeeshops in Westfield, New Jersey, where I went to high school, has a different type of quiche every day, which I would often get for lunch as long as it didn't contain asparagus. When I lived in Aix-en-Provence last summer, I would often grab a tartelette aux épinards for a quick lunch in town. My spinach quiche still brings back memories of strolling through downtown Aix with my friends, getting fresh peaches at the market and speaking nothing but French.

Lavender fields from Haute-Provence to get you in a French mood

I started developing this recipe when I was living on $11 a day in Richmond for my poverty minor. It is quick, easy and incredibly forgiving. If you go with a pre-made crust, you can get it in the oven in less than half an hour. It calls for yogurt instead of sour cream, so it's very good for you but still has that nice tartness in the center. I use plain, fat-free yogurt; vanilla has a lot of extra sweetener added, which could throw off the flavors. The recipe is super-flexible: you can add just about whatever vegetables you feel like to it. I saw a beautiful quiche on Pinterest that had sliced tomatoes on top. When I get to it, I'm going to experiment with a quiche Lorraine (ham and cheese) like my host mom made in France, but I think that would call for nicer cheese. If you're adding a lot more stuff, cut out an egg or two so the crust doesn't overflow.

The quiches I made tonight were a little different. Andrew asked me not to use onion this time (dislike of onion is his only flaw, I promise), so I used these cute mini-tart pans to make six mini-quiches. Three had onion, three didn't. The extras will be great for lunch the next couple of days! I kept the whole process separate but equal, so his portions wouldn't be tainted with delicious sauteed onion. However, this is the regular recipe. If you're making it with the two regular crusts, I would freeze one for later once it's partially baked. As my family likes to say, it's money in the bank.

Spinach Quiche
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Prick your crust (1 deep-dish unbaked pie crust, 2 regular crusts or 6 mini-tarts) with a fork and bake for 5 minutes.

Thaw 10 oz frozen chopped spinach by running water over it in a colander or microwaving it. Squeeze out as much excess water as you can. Meanwhile, chop one small onion and 3 cloves of garlic, and sautee them in a little olive oil. Add spinach and cook until dry. Make sure to break up any clumps. If you're adding other vegetables that want to be precooked, toss them in with the spinach.

Here we have one wife working two skillets for one onion-averse husband

Beat together 5 eggs, 1 cup plain yogurt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Stir in 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese and the spinach mixture. Pour into the pie crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Then decrease the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 30 more minutes. Let cool before serving.

The cheese makes a delicious golden topping...

As I said above, normally I use a pie crust from the grocery store, but I was inspired to make my own for almost literally the first time ever. Fans may recall from my first post that I made pie crust by hand in home ec in eighth grade. It was unpleasant, and the ensuing apple pie was nowhere as good as ones I have made following my grandmama's recipe--with storebought crust. (My family has a thing about apple pie, but this is not the time.) Anyway, my experience with the chocolate tart and my food processor taught me that pie dough does not have to be terrifying. So I tested out this recipe, which was given to me by my BFF, bridesmaid and notorious pie lover, Eleanor! This made more dough than I needed for my mini-pans, so I will be creating a pie sometime soon...

Look how cute they are!

Pie dough from Eleanor
Mix together 4 cups flour, 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 teaspoons salt. Cut in 1 3/4 cups shortening or butter. Separately, mix 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 large egg and 1/2 cup cold water. Add this mixture to the flour and shortening. Chill. Roll into desired shapes. May be frozen. Makes enough for 1 and a half pies.

Finally, I have a bonus recipe that comes from my very tall husband. We procured bitters this afternoon and he made my new favorite drink for me! I first tried it at the Southern Inn in Lexington after graduation. Tonight, it helped motivate me while I quiched. This old-fashioned is pictured next to a scarf-in-progress with the Trident, the symbol of W&L, knitted into it. Andrew has so many talents!

Andrew's Old-fashioneds
Put 2 maraschino cherries and a slice of orange in the bottom of a glass. (An old-fashioned glass is best, but do we need to say it?) Add 1 teaspoon sugar and a splash of club soda. Muddle everything together into a paste. Add 2 ounces of bourbon. Mix together and add several ice cubes.

Comfort food for when you don't want comfort food

It's been a shamefully lazy day. Although I had an absolutely wonderful time catching up with old friends this weekend, I think I caught some unpleasant bug and have been reduced to watching the Olympics all day on the couch while I think about all the cleaning and organizing and job-hunting I should be doing. I didn't get any kind of appetite until almost 3, when I had a tuna salad sandwich for a very late lunch. It's the kind of day where I would love to rationalize ordering pizza or Chinese, but being away from home means I've been eating out for three days, and I was at the point where I really want a healthy, homemade dinner. Even mac and cheese isn't that good for me... But here we are with a blog post, which means I had an absolutely delicious dinner and am now feeling loads better. Tonight's dinner came together in about an hour, and it was so easy.

Andrew and I both went to Washington and Lee, which is known for its many formal events: Fancy Dress Ball, Christmas weekend and about four sorority formals a year. We'd have parties before formals, where everyone would gather at an off-campus house to enjoy appetizers and drinks. I made coconut shrimp before New Member Formal in February, and it was a huge hit. This coconut chicken is basically the same thing, but with chicken instead of shrimp. Andrew loved it--and he doesn't normally like coconut anything! I also dressed up green beans, my favorite vegetable of all time, into a beautiful summertime salad.

My chicken-breading station

Coconut chicken and apricot chile sauce
I found this recipe ages ago via Pinterest (here's the original), and was so excited to finally make it! It's breaded chicken with a hint of sweetness from the coconut. I fried it, but think next time I will just bake it--it takes longer but is much less stressful. The blog where I found this recipe recommended serving it with sweet chile sauce. I just made the same sauce I first used for my coconut shrimp: mix together 1/2 cup apricot preserves, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar and some crushed red pepper flakes. Easy! I did this first so the flavors had a chance to mix together.

Cut 2 lb chicken breasts into easy-to-manage strips. The thin-sliced cutlets were on sale, which meant my work was done. Lucky, lazy me! Dip each strip into three bowls, in order:
- 1/2 cup flour and a dash of salt
- 2 eggs and (if you have it) 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 1 cup bread crumbs (panko if you have it) and 1 cup coconut, blended in a food processor so the pieces are smaller

Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet and fry the chicken strips in batches. Drain them on paper towels before serving. Yum!

Green bean salad with goat cheese, tomatoes and almonds
My mom emailed this recipe to me this afternoon (here's the original), and it looked so beautiful and delicious. What a great summer side dish! The goat cheese melts a little around the green beans, and the almond flavor takes it up to the next level. I used fewer almonds and less garlic than the original recipe wanted. I also used grape tomatoes; the bigger cherry tomato probably wouldn't hide in the bottom of the bowl quite as much.

Preheat oven to 350°. Bake 1/4 cup sliced almonds in a single layer in a shallow pan for a few minutes until lightly toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through. I used my toaster oven.

Cook 2 lb. green beans in boiling water 6 to 8 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain. Run cold water over them so they stop cooking. Cut 1 pint cherry tomatoes in half and mince 1 clove garlic. You can also add 2 sliced shallots, but I didn't.

Whisk together 3 tablespoons sherry or white wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and a little salt and pepper. I used red wine vinegar, which is what I had on hand. Add 1/3 cup olive oil. Pour over the green beans, tomatoes and garlic. Serve with the toasted almonds and 2 oz. crumbled goat cheese.

Product placement: I made the dressing in my emulsifier, which is truly incredible if you're at all interested in making your own salad dressings. It whisks oil and vinegar together in no time at all. It's from Williams-Sonoma, and comes with handy instructions for measuring out your own vinaigrettes! My sister-in-law, Anne, gave it to me and it is just amazing (just like she is).