badstar

For dinner tonight(and probably two or three more meals after that), I'm making a dish whose recipe calls for a whole rotisserie chicken.

I found a couple of packs of chicken on sale for only a dollar or two more than a rotisserie chicken would have cost- but I got a lot more chicken out of the deal. (Not to mention that the rotisserie stuff is always so freakin' salty. Bleh.) So I'm going to use some of it for this and throw the rest in the freezer.

I'm not looking forward to chopping up a fuckton of chicken (and pulling some of it off the bone to boot) but I think it will be worth it in the end. Thankfully the stuff still on the bone is legs, and therefore easy to remove.

Not particularly exciting, but it was quite good. I just made lamb chops in olive oil, asparagus with butter and garlic, brown rice with garlic, scallions and crumbled feta, and heated up the last little bit of couscous left over from dinner yesterday.

I like cooking. Being unemployed isn't the best situation, but it means I have plenty of time to cook good food (I made raspberry pancakes for breakfast this morning!) and what I get in unemployment is more than enough to keep us able to buy good food, so we're not stuck on ramen and mac and cheese (okay, so we eat mac and cheese once in a while...but it's the good kind.)

I called in sick to work tonight. Voice is gone, the nose is running (better catch it! har de har) you get the idea.

I decided that I really wanted chicken soup earlier. But not like, canned stuff. Real chicken soup. Which I've never made before.

So I went to ghettomart to get stuff. It took a while, but da soup is done and might I just say, damn.

Chicken broth (I was rather shocked to find that the little densely-packed cubes have almost 1/4 less sodium than the loose stuff...I thought they'd have more. Dunno why, but I did), chopped up white meat chicken, brown rice, celery, garlic, scallions, oregano, basil, dill, black pepper...um, I think that's it. Oh yeah...and rosemary

Even when sick, I rock.

(Modest? Me? Surely you jest.)

Mmmm...shake some red pepper on that business, and your nose won't be stuffy for long (even if it wasn't stuffy to begin with!)

I think the fact that it was one of only two dishes containing meat helped things along, but my fist venture into quiche making went over like white on rice. I made two (one with, one without pecans) and they went uh...quickly. Really quickly. Chicken, broccoli, asiago, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, egg, a little bit of spicy brown mustard, pecans and pre-made pie shells.

Damn, it was good. I must say. I didn't know quiches were so easy to make.

Woohoo...daylight savings time turns back, we get an extra hour of sleep tonight. Though, I wish they'd do away with it altogether.

I got out of work an hour early yesterday...and hopped the light rail on down to Saratoga street and bought me some hair dye...and I found not only the shade that I normally use...but my absolute favoritest shade of fuschia hair dye, which I've only found a few times before. Same brand. Not too far from the one I usually use. Slightly deeper, slightly redder. and then I went to the new Superfresh on Charles street. I started out looking for some stuff that I could just pick at for dinner, raw vegetables, focaccia, that sort of thing. Well, I found the focaccia. And I found some perfect red bell peppers. No broccoli. Then I wanted pasta. Cold pasta with chicken and stuff. Grabbed chicken, pasta, pesto, tomato-basil feta cheese and blackberries....yummy. Ran into Nicole whilst shopping and we headed home. Turned out that she was really wanting somethign for dinner that involved chicken also. I'd gotten enough food to cook for everyone in the house, but no one else was home last night. Ah well. It's provided me with a couple of days worth of lunch.

I will need to repeat this one...(Vegan variation is easy. Just don't use the chicken and cheese)

3 chicken breasts (skin and bone removed if needed)
2 medium-large red bell peppers
1 1-pound box of pasta (I generally use rotini or fiori. I'm not a fan of macaroni. Watch me geek about my pasta prefernces!)
-red pepper flakes (to taste. I like mine a little on the spicier side.)
-oregano (ok...tough call on this one, I pick some dried leaves out of the container enough to cover a specific little area in my hand. Then I rub them between my hands to crush them. I'm gonna estimate 1/2 teaspoon crushed for each use, so let's say a total of a teaspoon of crushed oregano.
~6-8 heaping tablespoons basil pesto
-crumbled feta cheese (optional. I like the tomato-basil stuff)

It doesn't matter if you cook the chicken or the peppers first. If your skillet will hold it all, you can cook them together- combine the amounts of pesto, oregano, pepper etc in the pan, though the peppers will be less cooked through if you only cook them as long as you cook the chicken. This is not a bad thing unless you have something against uncooked bell peppers.)

If you cook them separately, once the first is finished, set it aside til the pasta is ready.

-cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and throw it in a 12-inch skillet with about 1/2 teaspoon of the crushed oregano and desired amount of red pepper flakes. Add 2-3 heaping tablespoons of the pesto and cook over medium heat until the chicken is cooked through. (I didn't need to add any extra oil or anything like that for the cooking, the pesto was good enough for that, but a little olive or vegetable oil can be added if needed.)

-cut the peppers into small pieces (I usually do strips of about 1"x 1/4") (for faster cooking, I microwave them in a bowl of water for about 2 minutes but this isn't necessary.) toss 'em in a skillet with a heaping teaspoon of pesto...again, add a little oil if needed, half teaspoon crushed oregano, red pepper to taste. Let 'em cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally til they're the desired um...cookedness? Drain.

-cook the pasta per package instructions. once drained, stir in some pesto...(2 tablespoons made for a light, even covering of all the pasta on the box of rotini that i used last night.)

-get a bowl big enough to hold chicken, peppers and pasta. Combine all into bowl and stir to evenly combine the ingredients.

-sprinkle crumbled feta cheese on top if desired.

-Eat.

I really need to cook more often. I think once I get my new schedule after training in the new job, I will probably be able to do just that. And I might do the chicken-free variation of this recipe for Equinox this weekend. It would make for a good cold pasta dish. I had just decided that I didn't feel like waiting for it to chill last night.