And we're back

Yet another campaign has come to an end and yet again I am enjoying some free (unemployed) time. Its so great for about a week but then the boredom sets in and you create errands like driving out to Virginia in the middle of the day to buy a Scrabble board. By the way Facebook Scrabble is by far one of the greatest creations of the last year.

So this morning I decided to pull out the slow cooker. I have a pretty small one with only one temperature (note to self - buy better slow cooker) ... which i normally only use for this Chocolate Spoon Cake (the recipe is also below because it is SO DAMN GOOD) but today I needed to cook a bunch of chicken and various other veggies. So I decided to try Chicken Cacciatore in the crock pot.

While this was the easiest chicken dish i've made in about a year... it wasn't the greatest thing ever to come from my kitchen. I used breasts instead of thighs which was not the correct move and the chicken- which was swimming in a great tomato sauce - was still dry. I'd say use thighs and brown them first. other than that it tastes just like a chicken cacciatore that i'd make on the stove and I was able to go buy Scrabble at target while it was cooking so score all around.

Ingredients - i used about half of everything listed here because of the size of my slow cooker.
1 medium yellow onion, cut into half rings
1 jar marinara sauce (or use homemade)
1 bell pepper - chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Handful of mushrooms - chopped
1 pound chicken thighs
Basil, oregano, rosemary and red pepper flakes - to your liking

Layer half of the marinara sauce in the pot and place onion, pepper and garlic on top. Sprinkle mushrooms on top of that and then add the chicken. Add in the italian spices you like and then top it all off with the rest of the marinara sauce. Turn the puppy on and let it cook. If you have a varied speed crock pot cook it for 5-6 hours on low or 2-3 hours on high.

If you like a thicker sauce: Once the chicken is finished remove it from the sauce and then add 2 teaspoons of flower, 2 tablespoons of dry white wine and 2 tablespoons of water and cook on high for another 15-20 minutes or until you like the consistency.

I served mine over large shells but it really doesn't even really need a pasta or rice if you don't feel like it.

I'll post the Chocolate Spoon Cake recipe tomorrow... its late and I plan to go dream about it first.

New Toy

I broke down yesterday and bought a Cuisinart Immersion Blender - ignoring the little voice in my head yelling save! save! save! Its not that these fun tools are particularly expensive... its that I already own a Cuisinart Mini Prep (small food processor), a hand held dual head egg beater thing, AND a normal run of the mill blender. I could make soup for an army brigade.

My first project with the new blender was to make a light tomato sauce. It turned out pretty well considering I made it in about 30 minutes. I threw it all together and ran to the gym for an hour and a half or so... unfortunately when i got back the pasta has soaked up too much of the sauce ... loosing the nice soupy texture .. but it was still quite delicious.

I took my favorite le crusette pot and heated olive oil. I added two cloves of garlic and a good hefty pinch of red pepper flakes and cooked them over moderately high heat until my kitchen smelled amazing. Then i added diced shallots and cook those down until soft. At some point in here i decided to add balsamic vinegar to get it a bit more rich. And then came the tomatoes. I added 3 large diced locally grown heirloom tomatoes that i got from my fresh produce delivery service (www.washingtonsgreengrocer.com).

I let all of this cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Once the tomatoes break down and become mushy you can puree the mix with the blender... I waited a bit longer and added fresh oregano and dried basil (oregano seems to grow well indoors - basil, sadly, does not) and salt and pepper. After some tastes, some sugar proved necessary as well. I tried to puree the sauce right in the le crusette but there wasn't enough sauce to fully immerse the blender and i now have tomato sauce all over the walls.

Once it was all blended I cooked it a little bit longer. I should have served it immediately with a little fresh parm but the gym got in the way ... also, an obvious tip that somehow evaded me: store the sauce separate from the noodles. My leftovers today were too dry!