Spanish Tortilla (a/k/a Frittata)

Yesterday, I was watching America's Test Kitchen on public television and they made a lovely Spanish Tortilla. A Spanish Tortilla is not what we think of as the corn or flour tortilla variety. Rather, it is an egg-based dish with vegetables or other fillings - like a frittata.   I've tried making frittata in the past, with limited success (mostly due to having an alpha-dog-type fight with my cast iron pan over releasing food easily). However, America's Test Kitchen / Cooks Illustrated generally has very good, workable recipes that turn out successful so I decided to give it a go.

Tonight, I made a potato, onion and pea tortilla. The only thing I didn't use in mine that was in the original recipe were roasted red peppers from a jar. I pretty much followed the recipe precisely, including using a non-stick skillet instead of my cast iron pan, so I am not going to reiterate it here. There is a video on the America's Test Kitchen site if you want to give it a try.  It is a very easy recipe.  The hardest thing was waiting 15 minutes after it cooked for it to set up to be able to cut it!

Tasty and easy.  Now, I've got breakfast made for the next several days.

   

Absconded!

This morning I woke up early and made some bread, planning on having a nice breakfast.  I took the bread from the oven and set it to cool.  In the meantime, I ran a quick errand down to the hardware store.

I returned home, ready to tuck in and what did I find?  Dad had stopped by my house in the meantime and absconded with my loaf of bread (thinking it was his)!*  Thwarted!

*his was actually a rye and wheat loaf that was still rising.

A Homecoming: No-Knead Bread

My parents have been traveling the country for nearly two years and last week finally arrived home (the picture was taken in June 2009, when my parents flew back for a short while to attend Marlo's graduation from high school and my graduation from law school - even though I was actually a licensed, practicing attorney by then).  Let's just say that I am very happy they are home. Yay!

Ever since the first time I made No-Knead bread, my dad has been a fan.Within two days of arriving home, mom called and said, "Your dad wants you to make some of The Bread."  I made two loaves right away.
Yesterday, I mixed up two more loaves, this time one with rye and wheat flour, and a second with regular all-purpose flour with some wheat germ mixed in.  We'll see how my improvising works out.  I set them to rise yesterday and overnight in the oven with the light bulb turned on for warmth.

Normally, I gripe pretty heavily about waking up early on the weekends - which I usually do because my Internal Clock doesn't get The Memo that it is time to sleep in and unfortunately Internal Clock has lifetime tenure and cannot be fired.  However, today I woke up at 7:00 a.m. and didn't mind it at all because I fixed the bread up for its final two-hour rise, and get to bake it at 9:00 a.m., just in time for a fantastic "Dipping Eggs" breakfast (*note, the picture below is sans No-Knead Bread).

No-Knead Bread is baked in a heavy lidded Dutch Oven in order to mimic the effect of a professional baker's steam oven which creates a great crust on the bread.  I bake mine in my red Le Creuset pot that I got out of the law school experience.  Still hate law school; still love the pot.  It makes me feel all warm and well, domestic, I guess.

It's a good start to a rainy Sunday.

 

FFwD: Meme

I am starting to participate with a new blogging group, French Fridays With Dorie (FFwD), where I'll be trying to make a different French recipe from Dorie Greenspan's new book "Around My French Table."  The blogging group assigns a new recipe each Friday and the participating bloggers try to make as many of the recipes as they want.


One of the first postings was participation in a meme, to introduce the blogging members.  My answers are below:
 
Name: Roxanne
Hometown: Seattle
Current town: Seattle
How you pay the bills: I'm an attorney and own my own law firm.
How many in your household? 1 (and sometimes 2 when my adult daughter comes to visit)
What is your favorite comfort food? Pot roast.
Favorite dessert to whip up at midnight? Ice cream from the freezer.
The best restaurant you have ever been to? (and what did you have?) Ruth's Chris steakhouse (filet mignon).
Worst habit or vice? Waking up at 4:00 a.m. and reading.
If you were a biscuit, which would you be? I'm taking "biscuit" to mean a "cookie" in the British sense of the word: I'd be a Galette de Bretagne, essentially a butter cookie:  classic and rich.
What is your mother’s best dish? Stuffed grapevine leaves.
What is your motto? "It will all turn out."
Which kitchen gadget do you use the most? Not really a "gadget" but I use my silicone spatulas the most.
The soundtrack to your life is? Life's Highway by Steve Warner.
Any last words? I'm looking forward to participating in this group.

The Apricot Tart that Wasn't (sarcastic "Thanks" to Costco)

I picked up a new camera from Costco this morning. My other one broke during Marlo and my trip to France last Spring (as in 2009, not 2010), which I failed to blog about (my apologies). Anyway, fast-forward over one year later, and I figured it wasn't worth getting my other one fixed since my new camera has 12.1 megapixels and a 12x zoom. My older one only had a 3x zoom and I found myself wishing I had more ooph in the zoom department when taking pictures in Europe. Pair self-justification with a coupon from Costco and Presto! new camera. I'm hoping this translates to more blogging as I find it boring to post without pictures of some sort.


Which brings me to the point of today's post. While at Costco, I picked up a clam-shell of California Apricots. I had visions of luscious, juicy apricots baked into a rustic tart. I got the crust ready (frozen crust from Trader Joe's, which I rolled out a little to fit into the only tart pan I own. It was then that I realized that the apricots are hard as rocks. Solid. No give. No juicy apricot-y smell. Nothing but pure disappointment.

So, I switched gears and sliced up three juicy, ripe nectarines. I haven't sliced into the tart yet so I cannot comment on the success or failure of this venture. At the moment it seems to be a bit liquid-y despite the King Aurthur pie filling enhancer I added to the raw ingredients that is supposed to thicken the filling.

It looks pretty, though.

My Kitchen, My World - Puerto Rico Trip Postponed

The cold that derailed our trip to Ireland last week is also interrupting this week's trip to Puerto Rico for My Kitchen, My World. Stay tuned, though, as next week's trip is to Iran!

Even though I cannot travel even in the culinary sense, my cold apparently can: from sore throat, to head cold, to chest cold, to conjunctivitis with a lingering cough. Ugh.

I'm just focusing on trying to get through my last three weeks of school. Then, I get three weeks in December to do absolutely nothing until I start bar exam preparation in January.

Nothing sounds blissfully divine right now. I wish it were December already!

My Kitchen, My World - Ireland Trip Postponed

Last week's My Kitchen My World voyage was to Ireland.

Unfortunately, debunking Marlo's theory that once one is showing symptoms one is no longer contagious, and thus it is safe to cough on one's mother, I caught her cold and have been very sick since last Saturday. Don't get me wrong, laying around the house in my bathrobe is a dream, but I really don't have time to be in a Nyquil-induced coma right now.

Plus, my sore throat really hurts. Anyway, with no signs of getting better by now, I'm postponing the Ireland trip. This week's trip is to Puerto Rico, but my participating will depend upon whether I beat this cold in the next couple of days. I'm crossing my fingers...

My Kitchen, My World - Germany

I picked the My Kitchen My World destination this week. In honor of Oktoberfest, I selected Germany.

I made Hofbrau Beer Brat's from Trader Joe's (who I love, love, love), with roasted potatoes, carrots and onions, served with with pub beer mustard.

First, I browned some onions and carrots.

Once the onions and carrots were softened, I added diced potatoes that I pre-cooked in the microwave.

I then removed the vegetables and browned the brats.

Once the brats were browned, I put both the brats and the vegetables into the oven. Why? Because I had to go pick up Marlo from work and I wanted dinner to be ready for her when she got home after her long day. (On occasion, I can be a nice mom...)

And Voila! Dinner was dished up within minutes of getting home. Marlo loves mustard in all forms so she really liked this meal. I enjoyed it too.

You can see what the other Chefs with Passports have created here.

Sometimes simple things are the best.

One of my favorite breakfasts is what Marlo and I call "Dipping Eggs." The British call these "Eggs & Soldiers." That is, in American Speak, soft boiled eggs and buttered toast cut into strips for dipping.

If you haven't tried this, and enjoy sunny-side-up or over-medium eggs, you'll like it. If you are a "my eggs have to be cooked until they resemble hockey pucks" type of person, you'll probably want to pass this by.

Quite simply, you boil eggs for 3 minutes if using large eggs, or 4 minutes if using extra large eggs. While the eggs are cooking, toast and butter your bread. When done, put into egg cups, slice off the top and add a little salt.

Num-num-num-num-num!

This is what Marlo and I consider breakfast comfort food.

Roxanne

My Kitchen, My World - Cambodia

This week's My Kitchen, My World flight headed to Cambodia. The destination was selected by Lauren of I'll Eat You who is the new My Kitchen My World moderator.

In order to better understand our trip, I have obtained the following information from Cambodia's wiki page (and see original wiki page, linked above, for all citation sources):

The first civilization appeared in Cambodia in the 1st Millenium AD. In its more recent history, Cambodia was a protectorate of France from 1863 to 1953, administered as part of the colony of French Indochina. After war-time occupation by the Japanese empire from 1941 to 1945, Cambodia gained independence from France on November 9, 1953. It became a constitutional monarchy under King Norodom Sihanouk.


Unfortunately, Cambodia's happy independence was quickly interrupted by the Vietnam war, which spilled over into Cambodia. The communist Khmer Rouge fought for control and finally reached Phnom Penh and took power in 1975, changing the official name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea, led by Pol Pot. The Regime, heavily influenced and backed by China, immediately evacuated the cities and sent the entire population on forced marches to rural work projects. They attempted to rebuild the country's agriculture on the model of the 11th century. They discarded Western medicine, destroyed temples, libraries, and anything considered western. Any person with trained skills, doctors, lawyers, teachers, were especially targeted. With that result, hundreds of thousands died from starvation and disease there were almost no drugs in the country.


Estimates vary as to how many people were killed by the Khmer Rouge regime, ranging from approximately one to three million. This era has given rise to the term Killing Fields, and the prison Tuol Sleng became as notorious as Auschwitz in the history of mass killing. Hundreds of thousands more fled across the border into neighbouring Thailand.


In November 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia to stop Khmer Rouge incursions across the border and the genocide in Cambodia. Violent occupation and warfare between the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge holdouts continued throughout the 1980s. Peace efforts began in Paris in 1989, culminating two years later in October 1991 in a comprehensive peace settlement. The United Nations was given a mandate to enforce a ceasefire, and deal with refugees and disarmament.


On March 17, 2003, the United Nations reached a draft agreement with the Cambodian government for an special criminal tribunal to try former Khmer Rouge leaders. The agreement came after five years of negotiations and 24 years after the Khmer Rouge were driven from power. Under the agreement, the panel of judges will include a majority of Cambodians. Human rights groups argue that the government's ability to impose its will on these judges poses an unacceptable obstacle to justice. On the other hand, with many likely defendents over the age of 70, time is running out for justice to be served. (Source: Global Policy Forum.)


The first trial is expected to begin in early 2009.

Despite its recent tragedies, Cambodia is a historically rich country, which is reflected in its cuisine. Many recipes have influence from Vietnam, Thailand and also its French colonization. Ultimately, I selected curry, mostly because I had most ingredients on hand.

First, I cut peeled and cut white pearl onions into quarters. Then, I sauted them in oil and butter with two teaspoons of minced garlic. Even though I was following the recipe's instructions on this, if I could do it over again, I would begin by sauteing the onions well before adding the garlic because the garlic began to brown and burn well before the onions were soft. Also, I grated a teaspoon or so of fresh ginger before I realized that ginger wasn't on the ingredient list (brain was running on slow-mode that day). So, I went ahead and added it. Good for flavor, but a big mistake to add it when I did because ginger browns and burns even more easily than garlic.

Anyway, before the onions were really soft, but before the garlic and ginger were too far gone, I went ahead and added the coconut milk, meat (I used pork) and potatoes. I then simmered it very gently for a long time (lower and slower than called for in the recipe since I was using pork). I think that if I had used chicken instead of pork, the meat would have been done long before the potatoes. Another addition I made to the receipe was to add petite green beans a while before the meat was done simmering.

My friends, Anjali and Jeff came over for dinner. We all really enjoyed the curry, served over brown rice. I will say, though, that after cooking the recipe, I realized that it couldn't possibly be that authentic. Why? Because each serving has a whopping 1,200 calories. Holy cow! Needless to say, although the curry was supremely tasty (with all that fat, what wouldn't?), I won't be making it again.

Failed, but not from my lack of execution.

Last night I made a steelhead fillet for dinner. For those of you not familiar with steelhead, it apparently is related to trout, but has a nice red firm flesh very similar to salmon. I put it in a shallow baking dish, topped with lemon slices, pats of butter and a couple of sprigs of rosemary. Baked 10 minutes per inch of thickness at 400 degrees.

I bought the fillet from a local grocery store, not normally where I buy fish, because I just don't think their fish looks that good. However, this one appeared fresh in the package, and had just been packed the day before. Big mistake. The fish wasn't very fresh and had a very fishy taste, which is unusual for good, fresh fish.

Anyway, had the fish been fresh, this would have been a fantastic dinner. I served the fish alongside steamed green beans and couscous. Couscous is so very easy to make when you want a side dish that takes no time at all. You just pour boiling water over the couscous grains and let sit covered for five minutes and then fluff with a fork. You gotta love any recipe that ends with instructions to "fluff."

Roasted Butternut Squash & Carmelized Onion Galette

I subscribe to several cooking blogs. On Saturday morning as I scrolled through the unread items in my Google Reader, I saw a recipe for a Butternut Squash Galette, which is a free-form tart. I cannot remember whose blog it was at this time, so you'll have to hit Google for the exact recipe.

It looked so good that I just had to make this recipe! I had all the necessary ingredients, except for some Fontina and fresh sage leaves, which Mom sent over from her fridge (the cheese) and my sister's herb garden (the sage, obviously).

First, I peeled and cut up a butternut squash. Then, I roasted it in a 350 degree oven until soft.

While the squash was baking, I sliced a Walla Walla sweet onion thin and then carmelized it in a cast-iron pan. If I re-do this recipe, I would use a regular yellow onion to provide a bit more contrast to the squash's sweetness, especially since carmelizing onion makes them sweet as well.

I mixed the squash, onion, shredded Fontina and chopped sage leaves in a bowl.

I placed the filling in the center of a pre-made Trader Joe's pie crust, leaving a margin around the edges. I folded the dough up over the edge of the filling, pleating it as necessary to make it fit. (It is at this stage that the photo was taken.)

The tart is then baked at 400 degrees for about a half hour until golden brown. It was heavenly and, again, smelled so good that I forgot to take a final photo.

My cousin Julie had some into town to stay the night, and Marlo graced us with her presence for dinner (sometimes a big victory with teenagers on a Saturday night). Everyone enjoyed it very much.

Julie ate some of the leftovers for lunch on Sunday, and I had some for Monday's lunch. It wasn't nearly as good re-heated, but still very tasty.

Will you marry me, Joe?

I've written before about my obsession with Trader Joe's, but last night's dinner really cemented my love affair.

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up the required fixings for pizza such as whole wheat pizza dough, shredded Italian cheeses, pizza sauce, and these spicy chicken Italian sausages. Yesterday was the expiration date on the dough so I placed pizza squarely on the menu for dinner last night.

This was so easy, yet so good and satisfying. All I had to do was spread the pizza dough out on a pan. (I used a sheet pan, but it would have been even better with a pizza stone.)

Then, I spread out the pizza sauce I bought from Trader Joe's. This pizza sauce was so much better than canned and way better than anything I could have made myself. It had a long-cooked tomato flavor, nicely spiced, with a hint of sweetness.

On my last trip to Trader Joe's, I had picked up a package of grilled zucchini and eggplant from the frozen vegetable section. I defrosted several slices of each and then cut them up with scissors for the top of the pizza. Originally, I was just going to lay them whole across the top, but once they were defrosted I realized that they were much more liquidity than I anticipated. I thought whole slices would have made the pizza soggy, so I cut them up into small bits.

Then, on one half of the pizza, I laid slices of the chicken Italian sausage, and on the other, julienned strips of salami. (This is the stage at which the photograph was taken.)

A sprinkling of cheese over the whole thing, baked for 10-15 minutes at 450 degrees and Voila! (Okay, that's French, but I don't know the equivalent expression in Italian.) Fresh pizza for dinner in less time than it would have taken for delivery and at far less expense.

It smelled so good when it came out of the oven, I forgot to take another photo! Marlo thought it was really good and preferred both sides of the pizza equally. I preferred the side with the Italian sausage as the salami didn't end up having as much flavor as I would have liked.

I actually wish I had bought two pizza dough packages because I have some leftover pizza sauce and cheese, and this seems to have triggered some sort of wild pizza craving. Maybe they put some addictive pizza chemical in the sauce?

My Kitchen, My World - Argentina

Yes, yes, sometimes I am just very lame. This week's My Kitchen My World foray is a good example. Theresa of I'm Running to Eat selected Argentina as the country of the week.

Now, all I know about Argentina can be summed up in a few sentences:

• It is a South American Country.
• My dad used to spend weeks at a time teaching there for Boeing.
• A military Junta ruled the country and caused the "disappearances" of thousands of people. The Junta would come in the middle of the night driving green Ford Falcons, the sight of which still causes a jolt of fear in the hearts of Argentineans.
• Nazi's escaped from Europe after WWII and sought refuge in Argentina.
• Argentineans eat beef - lots of it.

I googled the Internet a bit searching for recipes. Meanwhile, I asked Dad to bring over some beef since I don't normally cook it at home unless it is in the form of Beef Burgundy, Pot Roast or Burgers. He dropped off some steaks.

Saturday, I made several loaves of no-knead bread, and a butternut squash & roasted onion galette (blog post coming soon). By the time evening came around, I was too beat to find an Argentinian recipe and make it. So, I ended up frying the steaks in a hot cast iron pan, served along side green beans, a slice of the galette and the fresh baked bread.

Considering these were the first steaks I have cooked in my own house, by myself, for at least 5 years, I'm considering the consumption of unadulterated cow my nod to Argentina.

My Kitchen, My World - Morocco

I made last week's My Kitchen My World recipe tonight - late because I have been sick since last Friday. I made Moroccan chicken as Morocco was the country selected by fellow Chef with Passport Judy.

This was a great recipe. I modified it only by cutting way back on the cayenne pepper from 1/4 teaspoon to a dash since I didn't want a repeat of my Curried Zucchini Soup over-hotness. Also, the recipe says to brown the chicken until nearly cooked, to simmer the mix after adding the tomatoes for 10 minutes and then for another 15 minutes after adding the zucchini. I added the tomatoes, chickpeas and zucchini at the same time and then cooked until the zucchini was done. The chicken was perfect and not overcooked, which I think would have happened had I followed the recipe exactly. Also, at the end I thickened the sauce up a little bit (very little) with cornstarch. I served it over couscous.

Marlo said, "It was good, fresh and colorful. The only thing I would suggest is to cut the ginger very fine or you'll be chewing little bits of it."

MKMW Update

I haven't gotten this week's My Kitchen, My World recipe done as I have been ill all weekend. This week is Morocco and I was supposed to make a Moroccan stew to take to an all-girls retreat at my friend Karol's family's lake house. Not only did I not get the stew done, I also missed the retreat.

As soon as I'm well and done feeling pathetically sorry for myself, I'll make the stew and post about it. :)

My Kitchen, My World - Ecuador

This week's trip around the culinary world from the My Kitchen My World blog was Ecuador, selected by Shelby of The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch. Mom sent me a bunch of links of recipes she found, but none of them appealed to me exactly. However, I noticed that some of the recipes featured quinoa. I was intrigued. Why? Because I've had a box of it in the pantry for a long time. I googled "Ecuador and Quinoa" and found a recipe for Ecuadorian Quinoa Soup in The Atlantic.

It doesn't sound appetizing to say, but the most appealing thing about this recipe was the number of ingredients it was going to use up from my fridge and pantry that needed to be used: Green onions, cabbage, 1/2 a yellow onion in a ziploc bag, the aforementioned quinoa, avocado and russet potatoes. I only had to borrow some cumin from my mom since I wasn't going to the store.

The recipe is simple (I'll let you get it from the Atlantic since it is copyrighted material):

I started by sauting the green and yellow onion with the cumin and paprika. I cheated a little where the receipe called for dried oregano and used Herbs de Provence since I had forgotten to borrow some from mom.

After the onions are soft, you add the quinoa, potatoes, cabbage and water and cook until done.

We topped ours with diced avocado, but you can also use cilantro or peanuts.

I shared this meal with my wonderful friend Theresa who came over to go shopping at Ikea, and Tristyn, a lady that I had hired to help me get my house cleaned and organized following the move. We needed to add more salt and pepper to the soup, but all of us found it very tasty.

Click here to see what the other Chefs with Passports have created.

(Because I'm up blogging at 2:30 a.m., I can tell you that next week's country is Morocco!)

Super-Easy Flavorful & Healthy Dinner

Tonight, I made taco soup. Instead of using the standard recipe floating around the Internet, I made up my own so that I could use up a bunch of ingredients that I had in my freezer and pantry.

I had about a pound of leftover turkey taco meat in my freezer that I had previously browned and made using a commercial taco-seasoning mix. I popped that into a soup pot, added a large sized can (28 oz) of pinto beans, a normal size can (~14 oz) of diced tomatoes with jalepenos, and a can of whole kernel corn. I let it simmer while I finished baking the no-knead bread dough that I had mixed up yesterday night before going to bed.

Marlo came in while I was cooking and asked me if I'd make some roasted garlic to go on the bread to eat with the soup. I had exactly enough time to roast the garlic while my Le Creuset dutch oven was pre-heating for the bread and the bread was baking.

I can't believe how easy it is to roast garlic, and it was so good to eat! I cut off the tops of two heads of garlic, peeled away most of the paper skin around the heads, drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and then wrapped them in a foil packet. These took about an hour because the garlic heads were extra large. We then pinched out the cloves and spread them on the no-knead bread just out of the oven. Nummy!

I garnished the soup with diced avocado and sour cream, but you could also use cilantro, salsa or shredded cheddar cheese.

My Kitchen, My World - India

This week was my first week participating in My Kitchen, My World. The blog's premise is to experience other cultures through food. I love the idea, as it reconciles nicely with my Unified Food Theory that one can tell how well a culture has been accepted within another by how accepted their cuisine has become, and that food may be a way to bring cultures closer in understanding.

Anyway, with My Kitchen, My World, each week one member selects a country. It is then up to each individual blogger to find a recipe from that country, make it and blog about it. This week's country was India. I made Curried Zucchini Soup and Tandoori Chicken.

I selected this particular Curried Zucchini Soup recipe because many of the others online were made with Zucchini as well as apples. I didn't quite get the idea of apples in my curried zucchini soup. Plus, I liked how this recipe, from Emeril, finished the soup with a little bit of cream, which would give it some body and a nice mouth feel.

It was a very easy recipe to make. First, you saute the onion in a soup pot until it is soft.

Then, you add the curry powder, salt and a dash of cayenne. This is where my first misstep was made. I added two shakes from the cayenne spice container. Note to self: two shakes must equal far more than a dash because the soup ended up very spicy.

Once the spices have cooked for about 30 seconds and become aromatic, you add the zucchini and cook until softened. Then, you add the chicken broth. I was lucky and used some homemade broth that my mother had sent over. The zucchini-curry-broth mixture then cooks for another 20 minutes until the zucchini is very done.

Then, you blend the soup using either a regular blender or an immersion blender. I used an immersion blender because that is all I have. It does a good enough job. You trade the velvety smoothness of a regular blender for ease of clean-up with an immersion blender. A quick rinse under the tap and you're done (unplug it first, of course).

The blended soup had this ugly olive hue, with a yellow overtone. Kind of like if you swathed an Army tank with yellow film. Once I added the cream though, it took on an appealing color.

Overall, the soup was decent, but way too spicy. I kept one two freezer containers and gave two more away. I just wasn't feeling the love enough to keep four freezer containers of this soup for myself and Marlo.



The tandoori chicken was likewise very easy to make. You just mix up the spices with the yogurt, leave the chicken to marinate, cook it and you're done.

I modified the recipe a bit because I couldn't find the little Ziploc of powdered mustard that my mother had sent home with me. So, I used prepared spicy brown mustard instead. I didn't have cardamon, so I omitted it. Instead of regular ground cumin, I had unground black cumin seeds in my cupboard. Of course, because I am still moving households, I am sans mortar and pestle. I tried grinding the seeds against one another between my palms and did a fair job.

After the chicken had marinated for about six hours, I removed it from the marinade. I had only marinated two boneless skinless chicken thighs. There was so much marinade remaining, and I hadn't reached the maximum 24 hours of marination time, so I added another package of chicken to the remaining marinade and put it back in the fridge. I'm glad I did because once I ate a piece of the cooked chicken, I realized that six hours wasn't near long enough time to have the flavors meld properly.

Anyway, the recipe calls for baking the chicken in a baking dish. However, my oven was being used to make nectarine crisp (separate blog post coming soon). So, I dredged the chicken in flour and fried it in my cast-iron pan. Unfortunately, my cast-iron pan and I are still having an alpha-dog fight about who is in charge. Crispy bits stuck to the pan in quite a few places. The chicken was far from ending up the nicely golden brown I imagined. When I cook up the remaining chicken I have marinating, I am going to use panko instead of flour. I also may try yelling at my cast-iron skillet since seasoning it well with vegetable oil isn't working. (I've found yelling sometimes works with my computer so I'm going to see if the same applies to kitchen pans.)

Anyway, I enjoyed my meal of curried zucchini soup and tandoori chicken well enough. I think both recipes are good and that it was my execution that was less than stellar.

I can't wait to see what next week's country is.

Guest blogger and celebration of food and final terms

Hi. This is Karol Brown, writing as a guest blogger on Roxanne's Road Rules blog. I came to Roxanne's house to celebrate the first day of the last term of Roxanne's law school career. Hooray! We toasted with champagne, flavored with Creme de Cassis liquor.

One of the most irresistable temptations for me was that Roxanne agreed to cook for me. For those of you who know me, that in itself is enough to have me travel far outside my normal routes. Compared to the Lean Cuisine dinner that was waiting for me at home, the Chicken with Mushroom Sherry Sauce was a gourmet delight! Now, that is not a fair comparison but it has been some time since I had a home-cooked meal that involved more than four ingredients.

For those interested in trying this delicacy for yourself, below is the link to this recipe online:
Chicken with Mushroom Sherry Sauce

And for those of you keeping track, Roxanne now has 10 weeks of law school to go. She'll be done with her last round of finals by Christmas of 2008. She'll then have a short vacation to recuperate before diving into the bar review course. The bar exam is in late February, and (assuming all goes well) she'll be a full-fledged attorney by May 2009.

As Roxanne says (and we all echo), "Oh Thank God!"