Ingredients:
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped (I used yellow)
1 jalapeno pepper, with seeds, basically minced
3 Roma tomatoes, rinsed, seeded, chopped
4 oz American cheese, shredded
4 oz Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1 tsp corn starch
Ancho chile powder, chipotle chile powder, and cayenne pepper to taste
1 Tbsp taco sauce (original or hot)
1 tsp hot sauce (use your favorite)

Cook the onion in butter until it is soft. The onion, not the butter. The butter will already be soft. Stir in the tomatoes and jalapeno then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, put the cheese, corn starch, and dry spices into a zip top bag and shake the heck out of it to blend everything together. Stir the cheese blend into the tomato blend a little bit at a time, waiting until what you have has melted before adding more. I did the cheese in 4 batches. Stir in the taco sauce and hot sauce then heat through. Serve with chips or just get out a spoon and dig in.

The guacamole
4 Haas avocados, mashed
6 Tbsp salsa, recipe follows
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
The juice of one lime

Combine all ingredients. Take plastic wrap and press it directly onto the dip (to prevent browning) and let sit at room temperature for an hour. I added the salsa 2 tablespoons at a time until the dip looked right to me. I used about 6 tablespoons but you can use more or less depending on what you like.

A trick I learned from a friend who is a cooking instructor. If your avocados aren’t ripe (as in, they are hard as rocks), put them in a paper bag with an apple and let them sit for a couple of days. We bought hard avocados on Wednesday and let them sit in the bag with an apple until Saturday morning. They were perfect and the dip had a very smooth consistency.

The salsa
6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 Red bell pepper, chopped
4 jalapeno peppers, with seeds, chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped (I used yellow, my husband thinks red would work better)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
A handful of fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
The juice of one lime
A tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt, pepper, ancho chili powder, and chipotle chili powder, to taste

Combine all of the ingredients and let it sit in the fridge overnight to blend all of the flavors.

I’m kind of a traditionalist. Saint Patrick’s Day means Irish food and Irish Cider (for me. ALWAYS Magner’s®. It’s always Guinness® for the hubs). Traditionally we serve corned beef and cabbage. I’ll eat corned beef and cabbage any day of the year. We have it many times throughout the year. But. On Saint Patrick’s Day it is a must have. Next year I might try a different Irish dish (I have a cookbook!). But this year we stuck with our tradition.

My favorite corned beef and cabbage recipe comes from Alton Brown of The Food Network (and the Cooking Channel by proxy, now). It’s dead simple and very tasty. The problem? This year I seriously did not want to deal with having to get up and down watching the water to make sure it’s simmering and not boiling, over and over. Do this, wait and watch, add this, wait and watch, add that. Love the recipe but really didn’t want the hassle this time.

Bring out the crock pot. I found this recipe. It sounded good, but I am trying to stay away from pre-mixed spiced blends, like pickling spice. So I looked at what is in pickling spice. Pickling spice is fine. It has some good flavors. But if you look at the ingredients it’s dead simple to mix up in proportions based on your own personal palette. Come on. It’s cinnamon, allspice, mustard seed, coriander, bay leaves, ginger, chillies (their spelling, not mine), black pepper, mace, cardamon, and “sulfiting agents.” I had most of this stuff already. For the black pepper, I substituted my (bought) pepper blend. The pepper blend is black, white, green, and pink peppercorns. Awesome pop of flavor. For the “chilles” I used red pepper flakes. I also added whole cloves, kosher salt and fennel. I love the smell and taste of fennel. And I have learned that salt is almost a necessity. It enhances flavors. Flavor is good.

I started out with a quarter teaspoon of all of the spices in the spice grinder. I made basically a fine powder out of it, thinking the spices would distribute more evenly. I tasted it. Too salty. So I did another quarter teaspoon of everything but the salt and it turned out great. I put two tablespoons of the seasoning blend in the bottom of the crock pot. I poured in an 11.2 ounce bottle of Guinness® Draught. I put the corned beef brisket on top of that (no, I do not corn my own beef). This is where I made my mistake. I added hot water next, covered the beef and then an inch more. Doesn’t sound like that big a deal, right? Well, displacement. As I added my potatoes, carrots, and onion….the water level rose. Until the crock pot was almost filled with liquid. I ladled out three cups of water. I kept it just in case. It came in handy. The crock pot was full, I knew I wasn’t getting any cabbage in it. Don’t forget to put in a couple of whole bay leaves! I almost did. Remember to take them out before serving. Bay leaves aren’t to be eaten and why I didn’t use pickling spice. I second guessed myself and added the rest of the seasoning blend after everything else was in. Glad I did. It was perfectly seasoned.

I did make the sauce in the recipe. Like I said, kind of a purist, but it sounded good. It tasted good. I liked it, but didn’t use it on my corned beef (but Mike did and he seemed to like it a lot).

I set the crock pot on high and a timer for 7 hours. After 5 hours I started on the Guinness® Bread recipe I found and wanted to try. I can’t speak much on this, I followed the recipe. It smells and tastes incredible and paired very nicely with the corned beef and cabbage. It is very, very filling. And super tasty. I can’t even tell you.

Okay. In the last half hour I put the cabbage in a pot with the leftover liquids from the over-fill. I needed more so I ladled more out from the crock pot and put it in. I needed just a *little* more water so I just added some from the tap. There was enough seasoning, I didn’t want to overdo it. I just wanted it to taste like it hadn’t been cooked separately. Mostly succeeded. I brought the cabbage to a boil on high, then turned the heat back to about a 3 on the dial (electric stove, out of 10) and let it go while the bread cooled. All told 20-30 minutes in the soak.

I am reeling with the success of this dish. The flavors popped and were well balanced. The bread was incredible. My only regret? Our new eating habits have cause stomach shrinkage so I wasn’t able to eat that much! Fortunately? Dinner is taken care of for tomorrow because these leftovers are gonna be great. And! I’m allowed to make it again! Recipes follow.

The spice blend:
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon each of cinnamon; allspice; mustard seed; coriander seeds; ginger, a blend of white, green, black, and pink peppercorns; mace; cardamon (or cardamom); whole cloves; and fennel seeds.

Put everything in a spice grinder and grind into basically a powder.

The Corned Beef and Cabbage:
Spice blend
11.2 ounce bottle of Guinness® Draught beer
Hot water, depends on how much you need
1 corned beef brisket, mine was roughly 3.5 pounds
1-1.5 pounds red potatoes, skins on, rinsed and cut into quarters or eighths (depends on the size of the potato)
4 or 5 large carrots cut into about 1/2 inch pieces, thicker pieces sliced in half length-wise
1 small onion, sliced into thin rings
1 small green cabbage (no more than 2 pounds) cut into 8 or so wedges
2 bay leaves

Put two tablespoons of the spice blend in the bottom of your crock pot then pour in the beer. I had let it get warm, I’m not sure why. Put the brisket on top, I lean towards fat side up. I refuse to trim my corned beef. The fat is so tasty. Add the potatoes next. I try to place them as much around the brisket as possible. Then add the carrots and onion and two bay leaves. Now pour in some hot water until the brisket is covered, plus one inch more. For some reason, everything floats. The way I did it was pushed the brisket to the bottom of the crock pot and added the water until it came up to the middle knuckle on my finger. I then sprinkled the rest of the spice blend on top of everything. Set the crock pot to high and set a timer for 7 hours. After 6.5 hours, add the cabbage if you can fit it. If you can’t pull out as much of the broth as you can without compromising keeping as much as you can submerged. Put the cabbage wedges in the bottom of a nice big pot, then add the broth. Add water as needed, and if you need to add more seasoning…make more of the spice blend! Serve IMMEDIATELY. Other than lovely leftovers, this dish is best served right away.

The bread:

Follow the recipe linked previously. It bakes in 3 stages. 30 minutes at 425, 30 minutes at 400, then 30 minutes in the oven (turned off and door open). That last stage? That is when I started the cabbage and the sauce. It timed perfectly.

A while back I posted about a recipe idea Mike helped me come up with. Cilantro lime chicken. And the kicked up succotash. It was…less than successful. Not horrible, but totally lacking in flavor and texture. I’ve recently had some successes with cooking without a recipe so my confidence has been pretty high. I wanted to try again. And Mike let me. When I got home from work most of the prep work was done so I could basically start cooking.

Let’s think back on the failings from the first attempt. Lack of flavor. Committed the huge sin of underseasoning everything. Lack of texture. The chicken felt boring. The succotash was a little dry due to over cooking. The cheese wasn’t very melty. The jalapenos didn’t quite fit in. I wanted to fix this. I *knew* this recipe could work.

To address the flavor issue I changed up the marinade. We had 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1.5 pounds). I put them in a ziploc bag with 5 ounces of lime juice, a couple of big pinches of lime zest, and a ton of dried cilantro. Okay. A tablespoon, maybe two. Probably closer to 2. We’ll get to the succotash in a bit. The chicken is the star of this one.

To address the texture issue we knew we needed to bread the chicken. I decided to oven fry since it worked so well for the pork chops. This also helped me with time management. I get a little panicky when I have a lot going on so if the chicken took care of itself I had one less thing to worry about so I could focus on the succotash. Since we breaded the chicken I had another opportunity to add some flavor. I double breaded again. The first breading was a cup of Italian bread crumbs, lime zest, cilantro, cumin, ancho chili powder, chipotle chili powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. I basically added the spices to the bread crumbs so that when it was all shaken together I could see little flecks of the different seasonings. I took about an eighth of a cup of this blend and added it to about a cup of panko bread crumbs for the second breading. So it was bread crumbs, egg wash (we added about a 1/2 tablespoon of milk and a big pinch of lime zest to the egg wash), then panko mixture. I did the same cooking method as the pork chops. Cooling rack over a baking sheet, 425-450 degree oven. Flipped the chicken after 10 minutes (and noticed the breading coming off in spots). All told the chicken took about a half an hour in the oven.

While the chicken was cooking I started on the succotash. I sweated about a tablespoon and a half of minced shallots in about two tablespoons of olive oil. When the shallots started looking a bit translucent I added the chorizo (two links removed from the casing and chopped into smaller bits) and browned it with the shallots. Let me tell you. This smelled INCREDIBLE. Shallots have a nice garlicky aroma as they cook. And chorizo just rocks. When the chorizo was browned I removed everything from the pan. I added about a tablespoon more olive oil and tossed in a 10-ounce package of frozen succotash (thawed, actually) and a chopped red bell pepper. I let this cook until signs of browning on the corn and lima beans. I added about 2 tablespoons of lime zest, about a teaspoon or two of cumin, and about a tablespoon of cilantro. When I started getting the browning I was looking for I put the chorizo and shallots back in and warmed everything through.

The chicken came out of the oven, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. The breading was coming off and it looked pale in spots. I hoped it tasted better than it looked. We topped the chicken with a blend of shredded Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheeses. Then we added strips of jalapeno that had been give the egg wash and bread crumbs treatment then fried in a little olive oil.

Looking at the dish plated…it looked so much more like I had seen it in my head when I first came up with the idea. Yes, there were flaws with the breading. But. It was incredible. Layers of flavor, a nice crispy texture, just delicious. I am very, very happy! The succotash was awesome, the chicken very flavorful and crunchy.

Improvement ideas for next time:

• Marinate the chicken overnight. We’re going to do the lime juice, a little bit of olive oil, and lots of fresh cilantro. We’re going to liquefy this mixture and basically coat the chicken overnight.
• Add the seasonings we put in the bread crumb mixture to the marinade. That way if we lose some of the breading we still get all of the flavors.
• Dry the chicken off before breading. We think it was too wet for the breading to really stick.
• Make a batter for frying the chile pepper strips, perhaps go with a hotter chile.
• More shallots for the succotash. The garlicky flavor would be welcome.
• One link of chorizo instead of two. It took over the succotash a little so you lost a little of the lime and other flavors.

Despite the little flaws, I am thrilled with how this turned out. The layers of flavor really stood out. Too tired/lazy to actually type up a recipe, I really did kind of wing it tonight.

Oven fried pork chop with garlic and herbs roasted red potatoes and spinach sauteed in bacon fat.

Tonight I wanted to try oven frying. The concept intrigues me. To put something in the oven and have it come out as crispy as if it was fried? Yes, please.

I started with some GORGEOUS pork chops selected by my fabulous husband. They were about an inch thick. I am the Queen of Underseasoning so the first thing I did was give each chop a healthy coating of salt and pepper on both sides. I like double breading for fried foods. For the first breading, I started with Italian seasoned bread crumbs. They tasted kind of boring to me so I added oregano, parsley, sage, coriander, basil, thyme, ancho chili powder, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I combined all of that and put it in a ziploc bag with the pork chops and sealed it up. Yes, I created my own shake and bake. Once I was satisfied that the chops were well covered they got an egg bath. I noticed that some of the seasonings I really wanted didn’t seem to stick to the chops so I added some of the breading mixture to some panko bread crumbs. After the egg bath I coated the chops with the panko mixture. I didn’t like the idea of the pork chops sitting in a pan soaking up their own juices as they cooked. I wanted crispy. So I took my wire cooling rack and placed it on a cookie sheet. This way the juices could fall away from the pork chops and all sides would stay crispy. This worked very well. Crispy on top and bottom. Because the pork chops were so thick they took about 25 minutes to cook in a 425 degree oven. I recommend turning the pork chops at least once, about halfway through the cook time, to evenly brown the breading. Since we weren’t really sure how long these were going to take they got flipped once after 10 minutes.

For starch, it’s usually potatoes in our house. I didn’t want mashed again so I roasted them at 425 degrees for about 50 minutes. I did about 2 pounds of red potatoes, chopped into chunks about an inch thick. I put them in a bag with minced garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and the same seasonings as the pork chops minus the bread crumbs, ancho chili powder, and smoked paprika. They were gorgeous.

For the veggie I had originally intended mustard greens, of which I am a fan. But I happened to have most of a 5 oz package of baby spinach in the fridge so I just sauteed it for a few minutes in about a tablespoon of bacon fat we keep in the fridge. Totally healthy, I know. A little salt and the spinach was perfect.

I have to say I am a HUGE fan of oven frying right now. Totally crispy but light because there’s no oil involved. Those were the best damned pork chops I have ever made. Perfectly cooked and juicy and the flavors in the bread crumbs were incredible. Tooting my own horn here, this meal was my best success yet. Toot toot!

For the pork chops:
An appropriate number of pork loin chops for the amount of people you are feeding, 1 inch thick.
1 cup of Italian Seasoned bread crumbs.
About two teaspoons each of oregano, parsley, sage, coriander, basil, and thyme.
About 1 tablespoon each of ancho chili powder and smoked paprika.
Salt and pepper to taste.
2 beaten eggs.
Maybe a cup or so of Panko bread crumbs.

Give each side of the pork chops a healthy coating of salt and pepper. Mix the bread crumbs and seasonings up then add to a large ziploc bag. Put the pork chops in the bag, seal it, then shake it until the chops are coated with the bread crumb mixture. I would then take some of the bread crumb mixture and add it to the panko bread crumbs for extra flavor. Not much, maybe a quarter of a cup. Coat each pork chop in egg, making sure to get all of the surface covered. I allow the excess egg to drip off, personally. Coat the entire chop with the panko mixture and put the finished product on a cooling rack that is sitting on a cookie sheet to catch any drips. If you don’t have this setup, I read in a recipe for oven fried pork chops that you can put melted butter in a baking dish to crisp up the bottom but I decided not to try that.

Put in a 425 degree oven. The time it takes to cook will depend on the pork chops. It took about 25 minutes for 2 1-inch thick chops in my oven. Try to turn the pork chops at the halfway point. We let the pork chops rest for a few minutes while I sauteed the spinach.

For the potatoes:
2 pounds of red potatoes.
To taste: salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, sage, coriander, basil, and thyme.
3 or 4 large cloves of garlic, minced.
Enough olive oil to coat the potatoes.

Put the chopped potatoes in a large ziploc bag and add the seasonings. Pour in enough olive oil to coat the potatoes generously. Shake it all up to evenly distribute the seasonings. Pour it all out onto a cookie sheet large enough to accommodate the potatoes in a single layer. Put in a 425 degree oven for 45-50 minutes, or as long as it takes to get a nice golden brown color to them.

Tonight, I decided to tackle my arch-nemesis. Pot Roast. No matter what I tried in the past the darned thing always came out dry and basically inedible. Except with gravy. Lots of gravy. Even slow cooking didn’t help. Such a simple dish and I always ruined it.

Given the culinary fun we’ve been having lately, I decided to give it another shot. I decided on a bottom round roast (I like the flavor and texture a little bit more than chuck). While I could have gone super traditional with potatoes and carrots, I am a big fan of turnips and parsnips so I got those instead. Yes. I bought a jar of gravy. Just in case.

I cut a small onion into wedges and layered them on the bottom of the crock pot. I cut a stalk of celery into about 1-inch chunks and added it on top of the onions. I peeled the parsnips (8 small ones) and cut them on the bias into 1/2 inch discs. Into the crock pot they went. Peeled the turnips (2, about the size of a baseball) and cut them into wedges and tossed them in on top.

The meat. Yum. I did not trim the fat off of the roast. I’m sorry, but that is a waste of good flavor. I lightly coated the whole thing with salt and pepper, then seared the roast in a hot pan with some olive oil. I had to turn it and flip it and stand it on its end, but I got most of the exterior nicely browned with a hint of a crust starting to form on it. The meat goes on top of the veggies, fat side up. As the fat melts it kind of bastes the roast, in my opinion.

For the jus, I started with beef stock. I got the concentrated beef stock that looks like meat jello. I melted it with about 2 cups of boiling water and added a splash or two of red wine and Worcestershire sauce. You can use pretty much whatever seasonings you want. I used chipotle powder, granulated garlic, thyme, oregano, basil, ground white powder, and Italian seasoning. I mixed the spices in with the liquids and poured it over the meat in the crock pot. You basically want to cover your veggies with the jus so you may have to adjust your liquids accordingly.

Every crock pot pot roast recipe I have found has you cook the meat for 8-10 hours on low, which I translate to 4-5 hours on high. This is a mistake. Tonight I decided 4 hours seemed like a really long time for a roast that is just slightly over 2.5 pounds. After 2.5 hours I took the roast’s temperature. 146 degrees. I look for 155 and rest it to finish. Huh. Almost done. Another 20-30 minutes and we were just over 160 degrees. Perfect. I let it rest under an aluminum foil tent while I dug out the veggies to put them in a bowl and sliced up some sourdough bread.

Note the lack of an actual recipe on this one. You don’t really need it. Whatever spices float your boat, but if it looks like you have added enough to the jus, add more. When you’re doing the actual cooking, estimate about an hour per pound (I would say 2 per pound on low but I have not tested this) and start taking it’s temperature when you get close to the end. The beef was still a little pink and very juicy by the time it was done. Now what do I do with this jar of gravy? lol

Yay! My husband gave me a second chance at dinner. Previous attempts were kind of fails. I roasted a chicken! He had some good advice for seasoning (herbs and such) and I kind of rolled with it. The recipes will follow but will not include any measurements. It really depends on taste and the size of the chicken. Oh. The most important lesson I have learned in the kitchen. Putting herbs and aromatics (onion, celery, carrot etc) in the cavity of the chicken is a good thing. But DO NOT completely pack it full. The chicken will never cook. That mistake cost me a bundle in last-minute Chinese food delivery and over-tipping the delivery guy because we called 15 minutes before the restaurant closed.

The chicken. I bought a whole roaster who weighed in at just under 5 pounds but was still plump and meaty looking. I also bought a poultry pack of herbs (rosemary, thyme, and sage), some garlic, a lemon, and yellow onion. I rinsed, drained, and dried the chicken. Then I began stuffing it. I figured slicing the onion and lemon kind of thin would help keep me from over-stuffing the bird. The yellow onion I had was tiny. I sliced it fairly thinly and put it as my bottom layer. Then I threw in the smashed garlic (can I just say that smashing garlic is fun?). I put in two slices of lemon. I wish I had done more, but I was afraid of putting too much in. I was also afraid to add some julienne carrots and a little celery. My top layer was about half the poultry pack of herbs, trying to get even amounts of the sage, rosemary and thyme. With sage? Rub it a little between your fingers to bring out all the flavor before putting it in the bird.

The next thing I did was create pockets between the skin and meat of the bird. Into these pockets I put minced garlic, more of the herbs, and a very thin slice of lemon, cut in half so I could distribute it evenly. Next time, I’m just smashing more garlic, I think. So much easier to deal with. And I want to do more of the herbs under the skin so I’ll have to remove the stems for this part.

Now to treat the outside of the bird. I flipped the bird over so I was looking at the underside. I brushed on some olive oil (I wanted a nice, crispy skin). I then started sprinkling on the Montreal Chicken Seasoning. Fabulous stuff really. I flipped the chicken again but put it in my roasting pan on the rack. I gave the front side the same treatment. Brush on the olive oil and put on the Montreal. You have to make sure to get it down into the wings too. You basically want a really good coating of the seasoning all over. To be honest? I think it needed a little something more. Next time I am adding some smoked paprika to the spices. More lemon, less onion. Maybe a little bit more salt to bring out the flavors, but it was tasty as it was. The onion flavor actually penetrated the meat! It made it very juicy and a little sweet but not oniony.

The chicken roasted at 350 degrees and finished in 90 minutes (that is going to depend on the size of the chicken, though).

For the starch, I did mashed sweet potatoes. Not yams. Sweet potatoes. Different texture, slightly different flavor. Totally delicious. For this, I just peeled and cubed the potatoes, put them in a pot of cold salt water, and cooked for about 15 minutes after the water started to boil. I mashed in about a half a stick of salted butter and some whole milk (I didn’t measure, just add a little bit at a time until they are as creamy as you want). Oh, yeah. I also mashed in some freshly grated nutmeg. LOVE that stuff. A little bit goes a long way and I think I added maybe a quarter of a teaspoon to my mix (I started with about 3 pounds of potatoes). I should have added a little more. A little bit of salt and pepper to taste at the table and you’re good to go.

Veggie? I steamed some fresh broccoli in the microwave. Gorgeous color, totally fresh flavor.

The recipes as I made them:

Chicken (all amounts are based on your taste and the size of the chicken).
1 whole roasting chicken
Fresh poultry-friendly herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme) – Leave the herbs whole for the cavity, remove stems for under the skin
Garlic (smashed)
1 small yellow onion, sliced
1 lemon, sliced (thicker slices for inside the cavity, thinner slices for under the skin).
Olive Oil
Montreal Chicken Seasoning

Rinse and drain the chicken, then pat dry with a paper towel. Put the sliced onion, smashed garlic (I did 3 cloves in an almost 5 pound chicken and wanted more), lemon slices, and the whole herbs in the cavity of the chicken. I did 2 lemon slices and wanted more, shoot for twice as much lemon as onion. I cannot stress enough: DO NOT over stuff the cavity. The chicken will take FOREVER to cook through. Next, use your finger to separate the skin of the chicken from the meat. Be careful to not poke holes through the skin. You’ll run into some tough spots that won’t really separate. But that’s okay, just create pockets as you can. You’ll want to put more of the herbs, garlic, and lemon in between the skin and the meat. This will be easier if you remove the stems from the herbs and if you smash or slice the garlic. I used about 2 cloves but I minced it which turned out to be a pain in the ass. I think it could have used more garlic all around.

Flip the bird over on the cutting board and brush the underside with olive oil. Get a good even coat on it, this will create a gorgeous browned crispy skin. Coat it with Montreal Chicken Seasoning. Turn the chicken over but put it in your roasting pan, on the rack. Coat the top side with olive oil, be sure to get into the nooks and crannies in the wings. Coat with the Montreal Chicken Seasoning, again making sure that you get into all the nooks and crannies.

Roast the chicken according to the instructions on the package. Mine wanted 20 minutes per pound and finished in 90 minutes. It was so freaking juicy!

The potatoes:
Sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (not yams, I make no promises if you use yams), I used about 3 pounds
Whole milk/cream/half and half, whatever you have
Salted butter, half a stick
Nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground or 1 teaspoon already processed (I honestly didn’t measure)

Add the peeled and cubed potatoes to a pot of cold, heavily salted water (it should taste like sea water, seriously) and bring the water to a boil over medium-high to high heat. Once the water is boiling cook the potatoes for 10-15 minutes, or until the potatoes are really tender. Mine fell apart when I pierced them with a fork. Turn the stove to low, then drain the potatoes. Put the potatoes back in the pot and add the half-stick of butter and nutmeg. As you are mashing the potatoes, butter, and nutmeg, slowly mash in the liquid dairy of your choice. Add the dairy a little at a time while mashing until the potatoes are as creamy as you like. I guarantee I used less than a half a cup of milk and the potatoes were lovely.

The broccoli:

2 heads of broccoli, cut into florets
2 tablespoons of water

Put the broccoli and water into a microwave safe dish, cover and microwave on high for 4 minutes. It’ll come out a little crispy but still cooked and flavorful.

The finished plate:

Cilantro lime chicken with queso fresco and jalapeno, kicked up succotash, and mashed yucky.

My husband has gotten into the habit of cooking basically on the fly. No recipes, just creating these amazing wonderful dishes. Me? I’ve always needed a recipe so I am totally jealous of this ability. The other night I got to thinking about chicken. It started out that I was going to cook the chicken with chiles in the oil, then add a slice of pepper jack cheese. Mike pushed me a little bit to think about it more. I remembered a salad dressing/marinade recipe on the box that came with our Good Seasonings salad dressing kit. Cilantro lime. Hmmm. I suggested using the cilantro lime marinade, then topping with the cheese and maybe some strips of chiles. My husband suggested queso fresco. Yes. Definitely. But what to have with it? I love succotash. Maybe add some red pepper. But it needs something more….Chorizo! Yes! My husband suggested a little onion as well, just for flavor. But what else? We need a starch. Why not mash up some yucca root? Use our standard mashed potato recipe but substitute yucca for the potatoes. Boom. A dinner plan without a recipe.

I started the marinade according to the recipe on the box. 1/4 cup water, 3 Tablespoons lime juice, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro. It was a little oily and the lime was kind of lost. So I added the zest of one lime then juiced that lime and another. So. About 3 limes of juice. I marinated the chicken breasts for 2 hours in the fridge. Every once in a while I got the bag out of the fridge and moved things around a bit to make sure everything stayed covered.

The yucca was easy to prepare. I treated it like potatoes. It’s kind of obnoxious to peel, the exterior is almost woody and the inside is a little sticky. I took a small taste. It was like eating wood, but I could taste some potentially good flavors hiding in there. I diced it up and put it in some salty water and waited for the water to boil. Once the water started boiling I started on the kicked up succotash.

The first thing I did was remove the casing from a Chorizo link. I ended up with 3.5 ounces of Chorizo. I added some olive oil to the pan (maybe a Tablespoon) and began browning the sausage over medium heat. When it was brown I added one small yellow onion (diced) and one medium red bell pepper (diced). When the onion was cooked through I added a bag of succotash I got from the freezer section and had allowed to thaw. I also added a half teaspoon of ground cumin. I sauteed this concoction until everything else was done. I admit, I underseasoned the succotash. I should have added some salt and pepper with the cumin. You live, you learn.

The chicken was simple. Cook it in a hot pan until it’s almost done. You don’t even have to add oil to the pan, the oil is in the marinade. Our chicken was about a half an inch thick and took about 5 minutes on each side over medium-high heat. Once you have it mostly cooked and golden brown on both sides, move it off the heat….and onto a foil-lined broiler pan. If you have to do the chicken in batches, finish it all before moving on. Once the chicken is cooked, in comes the cheese. Crumbles of queso fresco. Nom. Cover the chicken with it, you won’t regret it. Then add some thinly sliced rings of chiles (your choice, we did jalapeno). Put the chicken under the broiler until the cheese is melty and starting to brown.

The yucca. We mashed it with a Tablespoon of butter and a little bit of half and half. Don’t bother. Yucca is gross. lol

The dish plated nicely. Ignoring the yucca, the rest of it was pretty good. The succotash was my favorite part. The chicken was okay. I think I probably should have given it a sprinkle of salt before putting it in the pan. All in all, for my first recipe on the fly, it wasn’t horrible. But it also wasn’t nearly as good as what my husband has been making me. It wasn’t a complete failure, I think it just needs some work. Oh well. Recipes follow.

The Marinade

• 1/4 cup water
• Zest of one lime
• Juice of 3 limes
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp chopped cilantro

Thoroughly mix all ingredients. Put them in an airtight container and shake the heck out of them so the oil doesn’t start to separate out.

The chicken

• About 1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Queso Fresco
• 1-2 jalapenos, sliced into thin rings

Marinate the chicken in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Cook on a hot pan over medium-high heat until both sides are browned and the inside of the chicken is almost done. Move the chicken to a foil-lined broiler pan. Cover the top of the chicken with crumbles of the Queso Fresco. Then add a few jalapeno rings on top of the cheese. Put the pan under the broiler until the cheese starts to melt and turn brown. Serve ASAP.

Kicked up succotash

• 1 bag frozen succotash, thawed
• 3.5 ounces Chorizo (remove the casing if you have a link)
• 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground Cumin
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Add the olive oil to the pan and heat it on medium. Brown the Chorizo, breaking it into crumbles. Once the Chorizo is browned, add the red pepper and the onion. Saute until the onion is cooked through. Add the succotash and cumin, plus salt and pepper to taste, and saute until warmed through.

Ingredients:

• Pork tenderloins, 2, about 1.5 pounds total weight
• Olive oil, 2 tablespoons
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Ancho chili powder
• Fresh or thawed frozen corn kernels, 1 cup (save some time, buy a cheap bag of frozen)
• Ground cumin, 3/4 teaspoon
• Yellow onion, 1 small, chopped
• Tomato, 1 large, seeded and chopped (pain in the ass but worth the trouble)
• Lime juice, from 1 lime
• Fresh cilantro (fresh coriander), 3 tablespoons chopped

Preheat the oven to 425. Rub the pork with 1 tablespoon of the oil, then season generaously with salt, pepper, and the chili powder (get some good coverage, it’s not spicy). In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, warm the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Add the pork and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes total. Transfer the tenderloins to a shallow roasting pan just large enough to hold them. Reserve the frying pan and drippings. Roast the pork until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 145-150 degrees (do not go over 150 or it will dry out) and the meat is barely pink in the center., 15-20 minutes. Transfer the port to a carving board, tent with aluminum foil, and let stand for 10 minutes (the pork will finish cooking here).

While the pork rests, add the corn and cumin to the drippings in the frying pan and place over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring, until the corn is lightly browned, 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the onion, tomato, lime juice, and cilantro. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cut the pork into thin slices and serve with the warm salsa.

Recommend side:
Roasted sweet potato wedges
Peel and halve 4 sweet potatoes and cut into wedges. Toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt, and pepper, and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast the sweet potato wedges alongside the pork, turning them once, until crispy and browed, about 20 minutes.

Okay. We roasted the potatoes for 30 minutes and they were delicious, but they did not get crispy. So don’t worry if they are soft.