Mixed greens with tuna, green beans, and broccoli

This was the first meal that we made in our new home in Tucson. Pretty simple mix of fresh ingredients, plus some albacore from the can. We purchased just about everything at a Trader Joe's nearby; I'd nearly forgotten how totally wonderful that store is. 

Nothing special for the dressing. Jenny used a bit of the oil from the oil-packed tuna, and then drizzled some balsamic vinegar over the top of it all. I got tomatoes on mine, but Jenny isn't a huge fan of raw tomatoes. Right there on the plate is also one of the forks from our Jasper Morrison set, Knife Fork Spoon, a highly recommended set of tableware.

Chicken Frittata

Lee and I love a frittata. We'll eat one for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. So today, when we found in our fridge a bit of leftover chicken (from the Chicken with 20 Cloves of Garlic), a half-empty bag of frozen potatoes O'Brien, a red bell pepper, some Chihuahua cheese and five eggs, there was only one thing to do for brunch.

I used to be an omelette fan, and I like them. But more and more often, I find myself drawn to the foolproof frittata, which is basically a baked omelette. Just saute vegetables, mix in the pre-cooked meats and a few beaten eggs, top with cheese, and move the skillet directly from the stovetop to a 350-degree oven. Thirty minutes later, you have breakfast for eight!

Frittatas are often quite fluffy, but you'll notice that this one is pretty flat. As I mentioned, we had only five eggs. I could have used a smaller skillet, but decided instead to make a flatter frittata that would yield more servings with fewer eggs. With our wedding just around the corner, we're trying to eat light.

Vegetable Penance Soup

We spent the weekend out of the kitchen, visiting out-0f-state relatives. But two flights in two days means a lot of eating on the go, and today we felt the need for something fresh, light and easy.

Enter Vegetable Penance Soup. Basically: saute a medium-sized onion and a few cloves of garlic in just a dab of olive oil, then add some vegetable broth and every vegetable you can find. We used broccoli, cauliflower, chard, zucchini, carrots and cabbage. Then add in some fresh herbs (we used a couple bay leaves and a sprig of thyme) and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. Simmer until the carrots are tender and eat a generous bowlful.

Chicken curry with rice

Tonight, we ate a wonderful meal that was half bottled and half fresh. Williams-Sonoma has some wonderful bottled curries, for those of us who have yet to attempt serious Indian cooking. We simmered chicken breasts with one of their curries and some frozen broccoli and okra until the chicken was tender and delicious.

The bottled curry alone, perhaps, is not post-worthy. But the basmati rice that accompanied our dish was so lovely that I must share it. Basically: prepare the basmati rice according to the package, adding one whole vanilla bean and one cinnamon stick to the water. When the rice is finished, fish out the vanilla and cinnamon and you're done. The rice is unbelievably fragrant and delicious without being overpowering.

Yum and yum.

Hot cocoa

Well, winter has finally hit Chicago, and for Lee that means one thing: hot chocolate (I'm more of a coffee drinker, myself).

There are a few varieties of hot chocolate mix around our place, most with spices of some sort. But once Lee fought his way through the blustery cold, he was in the mood for a classic, rich drink.

Here's what I cobbled together from ingredients on hand. It came out pretty well, I'd say.

Hot Cocoa for Lee
2 tablespoons of sweetened cocoa powder (like Ghiradelli's)
1 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup of whole milk
1 cup of skim milk

Heat the milk in a small pot and whisk in the cocoa powder once things warm up. That's it.

The two types of milk are probably not necessary: mostly, I used the whole milk to bolster the richness--skim would not have worked with the bittersweet chocolate. The mix of cocoas is the crucial detail here. The result: a perfectly grown-up, perfectly classic hot cocoa.

I even had a couple of sips.

Black-Eyed Pea Dip with Toasted Pita

We rang in 2007 with black-eyed peas, bacon and collard greens for lunch. Black-eyed peas, eaten before noon on New Year's Day, are considered good luck.

I had quite a bit of leftover beans and decided today to make a dip with them. I served them with oven-toasted pita chips. Perhaps we'll wrest a little more luck out of this year, yet.

Black-Eyed Pea Dip
Drop two cloves of garlic in the food processor, pulsing until they're finely chopped. Then add about two cups of black-eyed peas (if you're using canned peas, rinse and drain them first. Better yet, use freshly cooked peas. They're so inexpensive!) and process until creamy. Add one teaspoon of natural peanut butter, the juice of one small lemon, and salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste.

Toasted Pita
Cut pita rounds into triangles. Spray the bottom of a jelly roll pan with nonstick spray, then arrange the pita triangles on a single layer in the pan. Brush the tops of the pita with a lightly beaten egg white (I suppose you could also use more cooking spray) and bake them in a 450-degree oven for about five minutes. If need be, crank the oven to broil for the last minute or so.


We ate it with Escarole and Fennel Salad with Pears and Gruyere and called it lunch.

Pork Tenderloin with Risotto and Green Beans

Lee and I had a pork tenderloin around and have been trying to find the best use for it. I saw a recipe online for pork tenderloin in a caper-olive sauce, but we didn't want the weight of a sauce--especially since I was making a risotto to accompany the meat. Here is what we did, instead.

The Risotto
Chop some vegetables (I used one onion, a couple cloves of garlic and some celery) and saute them in olive oil over medium heat until they start to soften. Then add about a cup of rice. I usually use arborio, but in the midst of daydreaming about grad school applications, added basmati instead. Surprisingly, it worked. After everything mixes together and the rice starts to turn translucent, deglaze the pan with some dry white wine (about a cup). Turn the heat down to medium-low and stir the mixture frequently with a wooden spoon. Meantime, take out a container of chicken stock. When the rice has absorbed the liquid, add about half a cup of stock and stir. Repeat this process until the rice is creamy and tender, with just a bit of bite left in the center. How much liquid this takes will depend on your rice and your kitchen, so be sure to taste the rice from time to time. Finish your risotto with a little olive oil or butter and perhaps some parmesan cheese (we added a couple ounces of parmigiano-reggiano at the end, grating it right over the pan with a microplane).

The Tenderloin
A little olive oil in the pan - sear on all sides, then turn down the heat and cover, turning every few minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 160. We didn't add a thing to the tenderloin--not even a dash of salt.

The Tapenade
Lee made an insanely delicious tapenade with one chopped garlic clove, a bit of chopped parsley, some kalamata olives and some capers. He finished the whole thing off with two teaspoons of port. It was incredible.

We served the tenderloin over risotto with some tapenade on top. On the side, green beans with toasted pine nuts. It was a successful meal, rice blunder aside, and everything came together pretty quickly once the risotto was finished.

Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts with Sweet Potato Fries

Tonight, I made pan-seared chicken breasts in thyme-peppercorn sauce with steamed green beans and brown sugar-glazed sweet potato fries. The chicken is really simple: just pound two half chicken breasts until they're about a quarter of an inch thick, then sear them on each side for three or four minutes in a bit of oil. Set them aside, and sprinkle a little flour in your pan (a teaspoon, maybe) and start scraping up the fond. Deglaze the pan with half a cup or so of chicken stock and maybe a quarter of a cup of half-and-half. Stir in a couple of teaspoons of dried thyme and a few peppercorns.

The fries were a great find from Cooking Light.

In other news, Lee and I have decided to try alternating the menu planning. We share the cooking duties, as it is, but we hope we'll cook more often if we take turns taking charge of things. So I'm playing executive chef this week. I hope he'll post his meals next week--Lee's an excellent cook.

Jen