Chicken in Garlicy-Almondy Goodness!

A few weeks ago I got to play tour-guide for my Mom and her friend Jen who came out to visit me for almost a whole week! We had a great time! Hit all the highlights of the Monterey Bay area: whale watching (with some double tail and close tail at that), Cannery Row, Fisherman's wharf, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Carmel (twice in one weekend). I totally ruined Mom and Jen's life for the rest of theirs as I introduced them to Calamari Steaks. Once you have the whole steak, you can't go back.

One of the other perks about them being here on a Sunday is that for the past month or so I've been having a good old fashioned Sunday dinner with our neighbors and they have spoiled me with their amazing food so with so many great people around, I got to try out a new recipe! 

Chicken in an Almond-Garlic Sauce (adapted from Bon Appetit):

3/4 cup slivered almonds

4 cups cubed white bread

6 cloves of garlic

3ish cups of chicken broth

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 tsp saffron (if you have it, which I did)

6 chicken legs (thigh and drumstick)

1 onion, minced

chopped parsley for garnish

salt

pepper

olive oil

The original recipe called for 4 chicken legs but since there were 5 of us, I made 6. 

Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat until toasted to a golden brown and then remove from the pan. Place about half of them in a food processor and save the rest for garnish. 

Add the chopped bread to the pan and toast them with the garlic cloves that of course, went through my favorite kitchen tool, my garlic press. Toast everything together until the bread is a very lovely golden brown. I guess in a pinch you could use the nice croutons from the bakery section of your local grocery store but this was pretty awesome too. 

So then remove the toasty bread to the food processor with the almonds. Add some salt, fresh pepper, the saffron (if using), chicken stock and wine to the food processor. A word of advice on this. Because the original recipe was smaller and because there is NEVER enough sauce, I was improvising on the sauce front. A food processor is only capable of holding so much liquid. Luckily, my trusty kitchen elf was there to help me save the sauce and the food processor. I ended up having to whisk in the wine once I transfered it to a bowl. But it was worth it. 

The next time that I make this, which I definitely will, I think what I would do is actually infuse the saffron into the chicken stock on the stove before I added everything to the sauce. I feel like it would give it a more consistent color and not look so spotted like in the picture above. But just a thought if you decide to use the saffron (which I highly recommend). 

In the midst of sauce madness, I found that my pug was over at the computer trying to put up the Taco Pie...me oh my! recipe. 

Back to the stove though. Now you want to bust out the chickens. Leave the skins on for sure because you want to get them nice and brown on both sides, but not cooked through all the way. Then take the chicken out of the pan. 

We had a very nice onion tonight and because Mom and Jen are not the biggest fan of onions, I had to saute them until very golden brown and very done. That took forever. I think at this point we had cracked the wine. 

Once the onions are nice and done, you add everything back to the pan. Chicken in then cover it with the sauce. You then want to bring the sauce up to a boil, reduce the heat, pop a lid on that pan and let it work its magic. 

Add a little vino, some great company, a game of catch phrase and you have the ingredients for a great plate and a great meal. I served this with rice and beautiful peas (from the frozen food section) and this is what we got! 

I was really glad that I made that sixth piece of chicken because MC came hungry, everyone went back for seconds on the rice covered with gravy, and I think one person even had seconds on the peas. Overall it was a hit! I was really glad that I made the extra gravy too. 

Thanks for coming by and checking it out! Have a great night! 

Oh, and a very big thanks to my Mom and the Kitchen Elf for coming all the way out here to see me! 

Grilled and Stuffed Pork Chop? Yes, Please!!

I have discovered a love for grilling. Prior to living in California, we lived in an apartment and per the landlords rules, it out lawed grilling. We tried once in the first apartment we lived in. But one day we didn't pull the grill in fast enough after it cooled and the maintenance guys threw our grill away. 

But here in Cali, we have an excellent backyard full of sand, a few patio squares and a grill! 

So here ya go. My take on stuffed (and grilled) pork chops:

2 large inch thick pork chops

goat cheese

fresh spinach

one red and orange bell pepper

radicchio 

2 sweet potatoes

olive oil

salt

pepper

As always, try to get the freshest meat and produce possible. 

Start by mixing the goat cheese and spinach together in a bowl. And who doesn't like anything with goat cheese in it? Thats one of the things that I miss most from NC. Garlic and herb goat cheese fresh from the farmer's market. Ahh...

I found that mixing it by hand was the best approach. Somehow a fork and knife just didn't cut it. 

Using a sharp knife, slice through the middle of the pork chops but just to split them, not seperate. 

While your husband starts the grill (or you), stuff the pork chops with the goat cheese/spinach mix. 

We secured them together with tooth picks to make sure all the yummy goat cheesy goodness stayed inside. One thing we did do that I wish we hadn't was started them on the grill in aluminum foil. That was a bit of a downside but once we realized it and took them out of the foil and straight on the grill, things went a lot better. 

The one thing that was good grilled in aluminum foil was the sweet potatoes. Start the potatoes as soon as the coals are ready to go in the grill. 

In the mean time, chop your veggies. We opted to go for strips of peppers. I sprinkled them with a little olive oil, some salt and fresh cracked pepper before we threw them on the grill. 

I just loved all the combination of colors that we got in this meal. 

The time it takes to grill your potatoes and pork to perfection is going to depend on the size of the potatoes and the thickness of your pork chops. However, this is a meal that is totally worth the wait! 

Doesn't he have a sexy hand?

But once everything is grilled to perfection, pop it on a plate. Add some butter to the potato and enjoy! 

We enjoyed our meal sitting outside in our backyard of dirt. But we had a great day. 

Thanks for coming by and reading! I really appreciate it!! (And tell your friends too!)

Side note

Please follow my blog on Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/TheCowApron

Thanks in advance!!

Taco Pie...me oh my!!

Pie. One of my favorite foods. Sweet or savory, my favorite part of pie is the crust. I will eat all the filling of a slice of pie in order to enjoy the crust as the very last part. And if it's a pie with a crust on top too, I'm in heaven!

But taco pie is not your normal pie. The crust is a type of crust but not crust. It's a tortilla!

Taco Pie: 

1 lb ground meat of choice (we used turkey)

1 package of taco seasoning of choice

3/4 cup of water

8 oz. Velveeta cheese

jalapeno slices

1 can black beans or refried beans

2 cups mexican blend shredded cheese

16 oz. jar of salsa

package of large tortilla (we used wheat)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Brown the meat until done in a skillet over medium heat. Because we used ground turkey and it was so lean, we didn't have to drain the meat but if you are using a meat that has a higher fat content, I would recommend doing so. Add the taco seasoning, water and Velveeta to the meat. 

Take a 9x13 pan and arrange two to three tortillas in the bottom. You need to make sure the bottom is completely covered and goes up the sides. If you get the large tortillas, two will do the job for sure. 

If you are going for a two layered mix (which I suggest), add half of the meat mix on top of the tortilla. Add maybe a third of the salsa, beans and jalapenos on top. Spread it out. Then add a few dollops of sour cream and spread it out. Then add a third of the cheese. 

So there is layer one. Word of advice:  don't go crazy with the toppings on layer one. Try to keep the layers even and balanced. The more sour cream and salsa the soupier the mix gets and you don't want that. Smooth everything out as best you can to make it even. 

Add another layer of tortillas (should only be two) and repeat the layers. Add a bit more to the top layers in regards to cheese and sour cream just because its the top layer. And be sure to end with the shredded cheese on top. 

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25-30 minutes. (Even though some people objected then later said yay, after the first 25-30 min, i took the foil off and baked for another 5 minutes to get the top nice and crispy). 

Let it set for a few minutes before you serve. 

Because of the jalapenos and the salsa I ate mine with a little bit of sour cream on the side. But the husband and Cleo loved it! 

Thanks for checking this out. I hope you enjoy! 

Crafts with Crayons

First, let me apologize for being MIA for a while. But stuff happens so...on with the show.

Second, I'm going to take a quick break from posting recipes to write about some craft projects that I did when Cleo came out to visit. If we lived closer together, I would really feel sorry for my husband because Cleo and I both LOVE to be creative and no wall or surface would be safe.

If anyone has been on Pintrest I'm sure you've seen the project where you take crayons, glue them to a canvas and use a hair dryer to melt them. We sure enough did. Well I did anyway. Cleo took a different approach which I'll get to in a minute.

We knew that this project was meant to be when we went to the craft store and found not only canvases on sale, but also crayons! I decided to go with a kind of color progression for my canvas instead of a random conglomeration of colors. 

I used a hot glue gun to adhere the crayons to the canvas. It worked pretty well. 

Trying to take a picture while using a blow dryer is a bit more difficult than I thought. I ended up having Cleo hold the canvas up at an angle while I used the hairdryer in order to have the wax melt down the canvas. 

One thing I learned is that it really depends on which way and from which direction you are holding the hairdryer that the wax goes. But if you hold it at the end of the crayon you melt a lot from the top of it. But overall it was fairly successful. What do you think?

Cleo took a different approach with her canvas and crayons. First she used a black square canvas instead of a white rectangular one. And also instead of gluing the crayons to the canvas, she used a pencil sharpener to shave pieces off and arranged them in an image on the canvas. 

If you choose to pursue this method, take my advice and put down a liner. There were little pieces of crayon that I found even days later so trust me, this stuff goes everywhere. 

We made the attempt to try and use the hairdryer method to melt the wax to at least adhere to the canvas and that didn't work. But luckily due to our perseverance we came up with a great idea:

Yes. That, my friends, is a creme brulee torch. The husband and I received it as a gift when we got married but had never used it. And for our purposes, this worked wonderfully! 

We found that even though it looked like there was enough color on the canvas to make a solid image, the crayon shrinks up a lot as it melts so she had to do a few layers. Also if you blow on the crayons while they are still kind of melty, they meld together to make awesome swirls and patterns. 

Our crafting continued long into the night but we had a great time and it was totally worth it! 

Thanks for coming by and checking it out! Hope everyone has a great day!!