Winter in the kitchen: Resources

{pate a choux cream puff shells, cooling}

 While searching online a couple of months ago for a good spinach artichoke dip recipe, I came across Annie's Eats, a cooking and baking blog that has quickly become one of my favorite sources for delicious, from-scratch recipes.  I am a sucker for crisp, appealing photography of the steps of a recipe, but more importantly, the final results of a recipe.  I shy away from cookbooks with no photos, particularly when the recipes are unfamiliar or complex, because I enjoy both the inspiration that a photo can provide (especially when I'm cooking or baking for guests) and the hints it offers when I am feeling a little stumped during preparation.  Lucky for me, Annie's Eats is chock full of bright, colorful and scrumptious photos of all of the recipes!  Tonight I baked up a batch of cream puffs for the first time, using a combination of this recipe and this one.  They're for a co-worker's birthday tomorrow, so I'm really hoping they're a success!  But really, who doesn't like cream puffs?  Wish me luck...

Delicious Things: Sun, Sunday and pizza on the grill

Recipe for a rainy day

It's still rainy, and I still love it.  There really is something about a good spring rain - everything looks greener and refreshed when it clears, and the starting-to-get-warm-but-still-cold weather is perfection.  It makes me want nothing more than to be curled up on the couch next to a big window - watching the rain, reading a book, drinking hot cocoa, observing my birds on the deck.  The only thing that can make a rainy day better is a warm, savory dinner, and tonight chicken and biscuits is just perfection (a vegetarian chicken substitute for me, of course). 

Chicken and Biscuits for One+
(You'll have leftovers for lunch the next day...yum)

Ingredients:
1/2 pound chicken breast
1 cup of broth
2 tablespoons butter
1/8 cup flour
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
thyme
salt
freshly ground pepper

1 cup bisquick
1/3 cup milk


1.  Melt butter in a large saucepan.  When fully melted, add carrots, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. 
2.  Let simmer, stirring occasionally, until carrots are mostly cooked. 
3.  Reduce heat and stir in flour. 
4.  Once flour and butter are fully blended, add broth and cover pot.  Bring to a boil.
5.  Add chicken (sliced into bite-sized strips).  Cover pot and bring to a low boil again. 
6.  Allow chicken to cook through, approximately 5-7 minutes.
7.  Mix Bisquick and milk with a fork to create dumpling batter.  Drop spoonfuls of batter into pot, cover and reduce heat slightly.
8.  Allow dumplings to cook through fully, checking with a fork occasionally. 
9.  When dumplings have finished, turn off heat, serve and enjoy on a cool, rainy night!

Don't you love fall?

Local Lovelies: Montgomery Place Market

There's nothing better than fresh fruits and veggies in the summer and early fall. This summer, I discovered heirloom tomatoes at the farmstand that lies just a mile or two from campus. Their products are actually grown and made on a historic property that's less than a half mile from campus, easily walking distance, but alas, the stand itself is nestled on the side of a slightly more major highway, and so a car is required to pick out and purchase the goodies they sell.


Still worth it!

Coming soon: pumpkins! Last year I designed my whole Halloween/harvest decor around Montgomery Place's lovely white Cinderella pumpkins :)

Summer baking

Discovered this website today and will be making this recipe asap. Finally! A use for the FULL BUCKET of blueberries I "accidentally" picked a week and a half ago :)

Today for lunch

Homemade ciabatta bread (recipe here). I like mine with a quick dipping oil made from olive oil, balsamic vinegar, kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, rosemary and a bit of parmesan cheese.

and on the side: pepper jack cheese and sliced avocado with lemon juice.

Delish.

What did you have today?