Spicy Chicken Rigatoni and Oven Roasted Garlic Brussel Sprouts

Tonight, I was under a big time crunch. I ran out of lab early to come back and cook an ambitious dinner - spicy chicken rigatoni and oven roasted garlic brussel sprouts. Mostly because I already took the chicken out of the freezer to thaw in the morning, and I bought brussel sprouts last week and I really didn't want them to go bad. I usually deal with frozen vegetables, since they don't go bad on me as quickly and are relatively inexpensive.

Things went downhill from the start. To my surprise, we ran out of crushed red pepper flakes in my apartment, and so I tried to substitute with chili powder. While it does add a slight kick to the chicken, adding the chili powder to the hot oil with salt, pepper and garlic like it instructs to do so with the crushed red pepper flakes was a seriously poor idea. I don't quite know what happened, but it smelled pretty terrible, and at this point I honestly couldn't tell if it was from the chili powder in the skillet or the brussel sprouts roasting in the oven. But it smelled like melting plastic with a hint of spice. It was gross and gave me a headache. But I went on and cooked the chicken in the oil anyways since I was in a rush. Also bad idea. The chicken adopted the weird burnt chili powder taste and I had to add a lot of cheese to the sauce to balance out the flavors. Also, the alfredo sauce that I bought at the supermarket was COMPLETE GARBAGE. Gross. Do not buy the Ragu alfredo sauce, I guarantee you will immediately regret it. Not worth the maybe 75 cents I saved. Made my sauce taste very....off. A heavy dose of parmesan cheese helped thicken the sauce and mask the fake cheesy taste of the alfredo sauce. I substituted cut green beans for the peas that are called for in the actual recipe, since I personally think peas are disgusting. In the end, the sauce came together, and if you ignored the peculiarity of the chicken, the pasta wasn't half bad. I really like that it was rigatoni, the large tubes of pasta carried the sauce well.

I'll be honest. I have no experience with brussel sprouts. A friend made them for me once, and I discovered they weren't half as bad as their reputation. Soon after, I found a recipe and I decided what the hell, I need some more vegetables in my life. I halved the little ones, quartered the big ones and threw them into the biggest pan we owned (which sadly is a 9x9) with some olive oil, a LOT of garlic and some water, like the recipe instructs. Turns out, I added maybe just a little too much garlic, because at the end of the day, the brussel sprouts tasted like leafy, slightly bitter garlic things. I usually say, you can never have too much garlic, but believe me, it was too much. 5 cloves of garlic is just way too much, I'd suggest limiting it to 3. And I think I overcooked my brussel sprouts too because they were pretty soft and mushy, not the most pleasant texture, but some were crunchier than others.

All in all, I think I survived today. I didn't think I would have time to make dinner at all, and I managed to make both dishes, with prep time, in just under an hour. I would definitely like to try the spicy chicken rigatoni recipe again, this time with quality alfredo sauce and crushed red pepper flakes because I think it has the potential to be an awesome pasta dish. The brussel sprouts on the other hand, that I could maybe live without for now.

Lemon Sugar Cookies with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

(picture courtesy of luluthebaker.blogspot.com)


So to entice some of my sorority sisters to come to a sisterhood event I was planning this week, I decided to make these absolutely delicious lemon sugar cookies. Now, I don't like to toot my own horn, but these cookies turned out absolutely amazing. Usually when I make food, it turns out just okay. Probably not quite what it's supposed to taste like, but it's edible. Hence the title of this blog "My Almost Edible Year." I'm not going to lie, these cookies were a bitch and a half to make. Creaming the sugar, butter and crisco without a mixer was brutal, and making the dough was difficult with only a small metal spoon to work with. The frosting was also a battle, mixing in the powdered sugar into the butter and cream cheese. And how the butter had to be softened, but not melted. Everything was a chore. But man, did my hard work pay off! The cookies didn't really flatter or expand upon baking, so my first batch looked like tiny little mountains. After that I realized I needed to smoosh them down a little and make them circular to get the picturesque cookies. The cookies themselves were more on the dry and crumbly side, but in a good way. And they were perfectly complemented by the lemon cream cheese frosting, which tasted super lemony, but had that creamy and slightly tart flavor from the cream cheese. It was heaven. I would put that frosting on anything. It wasn't overly sweet either, so best believe I put that on my toast the next morning. I'm super sad that I forgot to take a picture of the result, but just imagine the most mouthwatering, flavorful, finger-licking, lip-smacking, melt-in-your-mouth cookies ever. They were that good.

Mustard-Herb Crusted Panko Chicken with Basil Parmesan Orzo

I owed my friend a home-cooked meal, so we looked through a couple of recipes and ended up making panko crusted chicken with a side of basil parmesan orzo. I went grocery shopping right before Blizzard Nemo, so supplies were thin and I managed to snag the only pack of chicken breasts left within the entire supermarket. Unfortunately, I was now saddled with $17 worth of chicken. The breasts were huge, so we only used two and cut each in half and it was more than plenty for the two of us. I also greatly underestimated how much orzo one box makes - hint: it's a lot. So even though only the two of us ate it, this will most likely serve four.

I pretty much made the chicken to the letter, only substituting dried herbs, since the supermarket was a mad house and there were no herbs left :( The orzo was a different story. Neither of us had a lot of experience making orzo, so we pretty much messed up the entire recipe. Here's what we did (though I would advise you to never follow it):

Ingredients
1 box orzo
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Cook orzo as directed on the box. Strain, and then add the chicken stock. The orzo will still absorb all the liquid. Add the parmesan, basil, salt and pepper and mix until creamy. Bam.

We were left with slightly awkward tasting orzo with an odd texture. You couldn't really taste the basil, and the orzo was still on the drier side so the cheese made it drier, rather than creamier. It was also pretty bland, adding the chicken stock after cooking the orzo, instead of cooking the orzo in the chicken stock. I will definitely have to make this recipe again and see if I can make a better version. Maybe follow the recipe or something.

Spaghetti with Chicken and Corn in a Cream Sauce

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, things have been busy and I swear I've been cooking, it's just the blogging part that's slowing me down. I'll add the posts from the last two weeks later since I still need to upload those photos. I surprised myself tonight by throwing together a couple of ingredients I had lying around to make a pretty yummy pasta dinner! This recipe is all me!

Spaghetti with Chicken and Corn in Cream Sauce

Ingredients:
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 cloves minced garlic
1 chicken breast, cubed
1 bag frozen corn
half box spaghetti, cooked
handful of monterey jack
1/4 cup pecorino romano, grated
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp flour
1 tsp butter
salt and pepper
chili powder

1 tbsp canola oil

Directions:
1. In a large skillet, add the onion, garlic and oil and cook until the onion is soft and translucent (I ended up using only half an onion since I spilled half on the ground in the transfer.....I would recommend actually using the entire onion for some yummy goodness)
2. Season chicken with salt, pepper and chili powder and add to the skillet. Cook until the chicken is almost done, but not quite. I tested this just by poking the cubes of chicken with my fork.
3. In a separate pot, steam the frozen corn for about 4 minutes, or until just cooked. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. In a new small skillet, create a roux by combining the flower and butter on medium heat. Add the milk and stir until it thickens. Add both cheeses. I only added the amount above because it was all I had left. I would suggest adding more pecorino, like about 1 cup to make this more of a mac and cheese-like consistency.
5. Combine chicken, corn and sauce in the large skillet and stir to combine. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Add the spaghetti to the skillet and voila you're done!

This dish was thrown together on a whim, but it actually tastes pretty great! It's creamy, but not heavy and this recipe makes a lot! Serves 4

Cauliflower Fritters

Eeep I'm so excited for this recipe! Let me preface: I'm not the biggest fan of cauliflower. It's kind of weird. But these fritters were so good, I forgot I was eating vegetables until I hit a particularly large chunk of cauliflower since I was very confused about how to even cut a cauliflower. Also, please bear with me, I know the pictures this week are pretty terrible. I pretty much followed the recipe found here, and added about a half cup more cheese to better hide the cauliflower taste.

Cauliflower Fritters

Notes to self:

1. Creating a nice brown crust makes these absolutely delicious

2. Don't store with paper towels - I decided to layer them in a tupperware with paper towels in between the layers to absorb the excess oil, but apparently they weren't completely cooled when I chucked them in the fridge so the paper towels got wet from the steam and held the moisture, making the rest of my fritters extremely soggy :(

3. The best way to reheat these bad boys is in a toaster oven to maximize crustiness and minimize sogginess - believe me, for some reason the soggier the fritter, the more it actually tastes like cauliflower.

4. This is now my absolute favorite way to make cauliflower. I fed a couple to some of my veggie-fearing college friends and they liked them too! Win for me! 

Steak with Pasta and Carrots

Okay, I'll be honest, I wasn't really paying the most attention to cooking this dish. I was running late for an event and simultaneously trying to cook and get ready (shower and everything) so I may have fudged some of the things.

Steak with Pasta and Carrots

First, the night before I marinated my steak (don't ask me what cut it is, I went for something thin and inexpensive at the supermarket) using the best steak marinade in existence. However, I didn't quite measure out the ingredients, just kind of eyeballed it and called it a day. Don't. I ended up adding entirely too much Worcestershire sauce and turned my steak a disgusting brown color. It also didn't taste like much else. So moral of the story: be cautious with the Worcestershire sauce - that stuff is potent.

I cranked the heat on the skillet, and then seared both sides of my steak, cooking on 2 minutes on each side. Honestly, this is probably good enough, since the meat was only about an inch thick. But then I threw it in the oven while I showered, and added some carrots to roast as well. The carrots were cut into half inch thick rods (for lack of a better term) and coated with salt, pepper, a little herb seasoning and olive oil. They baked in the oven at 350ºC for about 10 minutes. I whipped up some simple pasta, dressing it with a sauce made from the drippings left in the pan from the steak and some cream. And bam, a new homemade meal in less than 20 minutes! I ended up making my steak well-done and my carrots a little undercooked, but at least it was still edible! I made another piece of steak done in the same marinade the next night and only seared it on the skillet and it was pretty kick-ass!

Baked Chicken Parmesan

I want to preface this post with a couple of things:
1. I am not a foodie. As a college student on a budget, I don't have the time, or the burning desire to make everything from scratch. I'll use canned tomato sauce instead of making my own, use premixed seasonings like garlic and herb seasoning because it's easier, faster and I honestly don't care enough to make my own.
2. As I said, I'm a college student on a budget, so a lot of my ingredients and substitutions are going to be because that's simply what was in my pantry or refrigerator that day, or was on sale at the supermarket that week. So by all means, if you have better ingredients, please use them! I'm sure it'll come out a lot better than my creations.
3. I'm not a good cook. Not terrible, but not great. I am definitely not pretending I know how to do anything in the kitchen, haha.
4. I suck at taking pictures of the food I make, help!

Okay, so last week, following in the Italian vein, I made chicken parmesan, adapted from the recipe found here.

I modified this recipe modified from an America's Test Kitchen recipe mostly because I used what I had instead of trekking out to the supermarket in the cold. Lazy, I know. Directions are as follows!

Ingredients:

- two boneless skinless chicken breasts

- 1 cup Progresso Garlic & Herb breadcrumbs

- 2 egg whites

- 1 teaspoon water

- 1/2 cup flour

- 2 teaspoons garlic salt

- 1 cup tomato sauce

- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella 

- salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Place chicken breasts on cutting board and cut the breast horizontally to create two thinner cutlets. Pushing down on the breast with your other hand (the one without the knife) tends to help evenly cut the meat in half.

2. Lay out 3 shallow bowls - here I just use plates. In the first, mix salt, pepper, garlic salt and flour. Mix well to make sure there aren't spots of salty regret. In the second, beat the two egg whites with 1 tsp water until it becomes homogeneous and frothy. Lastly, in the third, lay out a nice even layer of breadcrumbs.

3. Pat each chicken cutlet dry, then dip in flour, egg and breadcrumbs in that order. Make sure to shake off excess flour before dipping in the egg mixture to create a lighter crust. 

4. Place chicken onto a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet. Bake at 475ºF for 10 minutes. Then top each piece with a spoonful of tomato sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

5. Bake for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Serve on a bed of spaghetti if desired.