Hello everyone! Emma here from Verbal Mélange, guest posting while Maggie is moving and settling into her new home! I’m moving myself in a few weeks, so I can totally understand why she needs a break… it’s a hectic and stressful process!

I usually blog about style, but I’ll occasionally throw in a post about home décor, DIY projects or food. Today I’m sharing a quick and easy recipe that’s perfect for those nights when you don’t want to make an elaborate meal, but still want something that tastes good and is healthier than takeout. It’s a dish my mom used to make a lot when I was a kid, and it’s one of my favorites.

Hawaiian Chicken and Rice

Photo by Emma

Ingredients:

- 2 cups Minute Rice (you can use regular rice, but it ups the cooking time by about fifteen minutes)

- 4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

- 4 kiwis

- 20-oz can of pineapple tidbits, juice reserved

- 1/2 cup soy sauce

Prepare the rice according to package directions. If using regular rice, wait 10 minutes before going on to the next step. If using Minute Rice, no waiting necessary!

Add the pineapple juice and soy sauce to a large skillet and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once it’s simmering, add the cut-up chicken.

While that’s cooking, peel the kiwis and cut into half-inch pieces. You want the pieces to be about the size of the pineapple tidbits. You’ll notice in the photo that I used pineapple chunks, which are a little larger. It worked out okay, but I think the whole thing works better when you use smaller pieces.

Put the kiwi pieces and the pineapple tidbits in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until warmed through.

The chicken cooking time depends on how big the pieces are, but it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes or so. Cut open one of the bigger pieces if you’re not sure.

Serve the chicken and the fruit over the rice. Top with additional soy sauce if desired.

And there you have it! A quick and easy (and delicious) meal in less than half an hour. I’m out, but feel free to stop by VM anytime. Best of luck to Maggie on her move! I don’t know about you all, but I can’t wait to see how she decorates her new digs

I first came across the recipe on the Smitten Kitchen food blog, in which the author sears and roasts chicken and then drizzles it in this amazing, delectable, delicious sauce. And it is awesome.

Then I was starting with a recipe for Pork Medallions in Mustard Sauce from my aunt’s cookbook, Full Moon High Tide. There’s a mustard sauce listed with this recipe, but a little Smitten Kitchen lightbulb went off in my head. So here’s how a little bit of mustard, white wine, and shallots turn themselves into a sauce you want to put all over your plate!

Ingredients
4 boneless pork chops*
2 shallots, sliced thin
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp Dijon mustard

Heat oil in a saute pan over medium. Add shallots and meat, browning pork by keeping it on each side for 4-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chops. Mine were 1″ or so, so they took a while to cook! Then, put a lid over the saute pan for your chops to finish cooking. There should be NO pink when you cut into them! This may take about 10 minutes, check on them frequently.

When chops are done, remove from the pan and put in a warm oven or the microwave so you can make the Dijon sauce.

Keeping the saute pan on medium, add the white wine and scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Let the wine simmer a little bit, then add the heavy cream. Bring to a boil, and as you do, add mustard and mix well. Let boil for almost a minute, just so the sauce thickens a bit, stirring constantly.

Plate the pork chops and ladle the sauce on top. Enjoy!

*you may choose to marinate the pork chops, which I did, or sear them with a little bit of salt and pepper. Here’s the marinade I used:
4 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp coarse mustard (dijon works well)
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup dry white wine (think sauvignon blanc)

Katherine Loyal Collins daylights as a teacher, and has a really hectic schedule. Busy and tired, her dinners were usually crackers and cheese. In the beginning of 2011, she made the choice to really cook dinner and ran with it! She loves looking through cookbooks, planning menus, and cooking for her family, friends, and fiance!

As I was driving today from my home in Washington, DC, to my fiance’s home in Charleston, SC, I was thinking to myself: it’s the first day of summer. What should I make? More importantly, what recipe can I share on Maggie’s blog that other people will want to make? So there’s a question for you all, what kind of recipes would you like? Vegetarian? Seasonal? Light? Quick and easy? Fancy schmooze and impress your friends? Feedback welcome!

Our sugar snap peas have been producing a ton, so we’ve had a few nights with just regular steamed peas. But the other night I came home to this: pork chops and sugar snap peas with a mint julep glaze. I love having a man who cooks.

It smelled so good when I walked in the house, and it was very tasty too. Fresh and summery and just slightly sweet.

So I snapped pictures, then coerced Ryan into sharing his source: epicurious. This is the recipe he used. Of course, I think the magic ingredient is the peas and mint that came from our own garden.

What about our plants that are still in the ground, you ask? The green lettuce is done (we couldn’t pick it fast enough and it went to seed), the carrots are ALMOST ready to come out, and we’re about to put in our tomato plant (which has a few green tomatoes on it already!). I’ll take new pictures when it’s all in the ground. For now, we’re enjoying eating dinner from our own backyard!

I know some of you were putting in gardens too (or at least some little planter pots). How are your efforts coming along?

Ryan's homemade pizza on fresh made dough, getting ready for the oven. (The mushroom side was his.)

For the past year or two I have found myself spending more and more time in the kitchen.  I’m the type that tends to get excited over kitchen gadgets, but inevitably, if the gadget only does one thing well it will just end up at the bottom of the kitchen gadget drawer, collecting dust and taking up room.  Before you know it, the drawer is overflowing with bits of metal and plastic, a sharp jungle of points and edges that nobody wants to deal with.  Thus I’ve started to try and reduce some of the clutter in the kitchen and search for different tools that not only do their job well, but serve as a good replacement for other items, helping to reduce the dreaded unknown of the gadget drawer.  Here are a few gadgets and tools that I have come across that I think would serve all home cooks well and help reduce kitchen clutter.

1. Once you have a mandoline in your kitchen you’ll soon wonder how you ever lived without it. The increase in the speed you can slice vegetables alone makes this gadget worth the extra space it takes up.  A mandoline will also give your slices a perfectly uniform thickness, with most models coming with detachable or adjustable blades, so you can change the thickness and type of slice.  Some other models include blades that can serve as a large grained grater, so you can replace that box grater you have at home too.  One thing you should be cautious about is working with the blades on a mandoline.  Typically the blades are quite sharp, noticeably sharper than your average knife.  Most slicers will come with a grip or food holder you can use while cutting to help protect your fingers.  In most cases, with a bit of common sense and care, you can get away with just holding the item you’re cutting in hand.  A good mandoline will should run you between $20 or $30 dollars and should come apart easily for cleaning.

2. If our mandoline can start the job of replacing the box grater, a microplane grater can help finish it.  Microplane graters come in a variety of grains (course, fine, etc.), and work great for zesting citrus fruit and grating harder cheeses.  The different grains are suited to different purposes; a course grater works better on hard cheeses and chocolate, while a fine grained grater excels at zesting lemons and cutting cinnamon and nutmeg.  You can also kiss that silly garlic press goodbye, because a microplane grater will  do a fantastic job pureeing garlic and ginger. The other advantage microplane graters have over their boxier cousins is that they are much easier to wash after use.  Since they are a flat surface, with all the teeth facing a single direction, cleanup is a snap.  A quality microplane grater tends to be about $10 or $15 dollars.  Keep an eye out for sets that include multiple graters with a variety of grains, they can often be a great deal.

3. Once thing I learned quickly in the kitchen was that properly cooking meats can be a challenge from time to time.  Sure, a recipe might have a recommended cooking time, but considering the differences in heat sources and cooking surfaces, a ‘supposedly’ medium-rare steak can end up well done (or a little too rare) by following the recipe’s directions exactly.  A quick and easy way to take care of this problem is an instant read meat thermometer.  Just insert it in the piece of meat and in a few seconds it should tell you the internal temperature.  Some models will have notes on the display that list recommended cooking temperatures for a variety of meats and donenesses.  A basic analog meat thermometer should run you $5 or $10 dollars. Digital thermometers are $15 dollars and up, with high end digital models that are oven-safe and can alert you when the thermometer has reached a preselected temperature.

4. A good dough scraper can be one of the most versatile tools in your kitchen.  Dough scrapers are designed to make splitting up dough as easy as possible, but they have quite a few uses outside of baking too.  You can use a scraper to quickly move ingredients between work surfaces and to help clean up work surfaces after you’re done with prep work.  Most dough scrapers have a sharp edge, so they can chop up vegetables in a pinch too.  Some scrapers also have measurement units listed along the base that can double as a ruler in the kitchen.  Dough scrapers are usually made of stainless steel or plastic and come in a variety of sizes and handles.  You should be able to find a dough scraper for $10 just about anywhere.

5. One kitchen gadget that we don’t actually own (yet!) but I want to mention anyway is a kitchen scale.  While it’s probably not a necessity in every kitchen, it can really be useful for a few reasons.  First, a kitchen scale can help you better understand proper  serving sizes.  Too often we are served giant portions at restaurants and over time they can distort what we think the ‘right size’ a serving of meat or side-dish should be.  Once you have a scale at home, you can find out exactly how much 6 ounces of meat really is and what a healthy serving looks like.  Owning a kitchen scale can also open up a new world of recipes to you.  While most recipes written for American home cooks have a list of ingredients by volume, many recipes written for British or Australian audiences will often list the ingredients by weight.  Many baking recipes for bread and cakes also list ingredients by weight.  By having a kitchen scale at home, you can start cooking with any of these recipes without having to do the messy math to convert between weight and volume.  Kitchen scales come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, capacities, so prices can vary widely.  A good home scale should cost somewhere between $25 and $50 dollars, depending on the brand and style.  For most home purposes, a 10 or 11 pound weight capacity should be more than sufficient.

These are only some of the tools that have found a home in our kitchen, but I hope something in this list has piqued your interest and will help you make some choices about what you need to get dinner on the table.  Most of these tools are pretty affordable and can be found at most home and kitchen supply stores.  What kitchen tools or gadgets have you found extra uses for in the kitchen and couldn’t imagine cooking without?

I love bread. When everyone went anti-carb, I remained loyal. Bread with butter, great bread for a sandwich, I’ll take it all.

Part of the allure of bread is its mystical quality. I’ve found that most people are in awe of the idea of baking bread. It seems to be the ultimate baking feat. Kneading, letting it rise, waiting, and baking… it’s a lot of work. Especially for something cheap at the store, or can be made in a bread machine.

I’ve had great bread from a machine, but I really wanted to attempt making bread by hand. We don’t own a machine and I wasn’t about to go buy one (I know my track record with those kinds of things). But I was intimidated by the lengthy and touchy process. Until I found this recipe.

I saw the recipe for no-knead bread on several blogs that all raved about it. So I thought I’d give it a try. This loaf is called a boule. I won’t rehash the directions because you can follow them yourself, but I do have some tips and pointers.

1. Read through the whole recipe at least once (twice if you can) before you even get out the measuring spoons. Make sure you have enough time and enough flour.

2. The recipe is called Five Minutes a Day for Fresh Bread, which I feel is vaguely misleading. Sure, maybe five minutes of hands-on-work, but the process will still take more than an hour.

3. Note that the recipe makes enough dough for FOUR loaves. The genius is that the dough will last for about two weeks in the fridge and simply needs some time to get to room temperature before baking (it can also be frozen). We made a loaf on Saturday, one on Sunday, and still have dough in the fridge.

4. You will need a pizza stone and ideally a pizza peel (for easy transport, but not crucial). Ask around on facebook for a pizza stone to borrow or buy for cheap. This is the kind of thing that people buy or get as gifts and then don’t use. Ryan’s mom gave us her’s (we have also made pizza on it since getting it!). If you are sure you’ll get tons of use out of it and have a place to store it, we hear Costco sometimes has them for a steal.

5. Use caution when pouring water into the broiler pan at bake time. I was surprised by the hot steam and spilled the whole thing in the oven, made a big mess, and we had to wash all the pans that live in the drawer under the oven. Also, use hot water for this like they suggest.

6. Don’t let the bread totally cool before eating. It is best ten minutes after exiting the oven (we tested this), slathered in butter. Add a little kosher salt and you will be in heaven.

Enjoy! This recipe makes delicious bread (and that’s coming from somewhat of a connoisseur!)

Both photos by me.

That’s why I’m so excited for The Urban Pantry to come out! This book by Seattle author and foodie Amy Pennington (also known as the “Go Go Green Gardener”) is destined to be loved and cherished by many urbanites who want “tips and recipes for a thrifty, sustainable and seasonal kitchen.” Heck, she could have just put my name on the cover with a big “BUY ME” sticker.

I got to take a sneak peek at the books contents (it will be in stores in April) and immediately added it to my Amazon wishlist. Pennington stresses the use of local and seasonal ingredients for the best meals, but it was her practical use of those pantry-lurkers that really brought me in. You know, the weird grain you bought for a 1/4 cup for a random recipe and the rest of it has been lurking on a shelf since then because, dang it, it cost like $10 and you can’t just THROW IT AWAY. Well Pennington likely has a recipe that uses it up. Along with some of those random spices that you accumulated. And she shares her tips for making sure you’re stocking your pantry with items you’ll actually use.

Sure, there were a few items I raised my eyebrows at (four kinds of flour, NOT including all-purpose?) but she follows up with great explanations of what each pantry-essential is used for and why. Do you know what kind of sugar is best for melting? Pennington does. And she has a recipe that will use it.

But this isn’t just a big shopping list (although she does have great time-saving tips like keeping a pound of bacon in the freezer for when you just need a bit for flavor, or keeping smoked fish on hand for when you are too busy to cook something BEFORE adding it to your pasta salad). She has a whole chapter on “kitchen economy” – using up the bits and pieces of every ingredient you buy. She also has great advice on how to properly store things like fresh herbs that might otherwise go to waste. And my favorite, a chapter on canning and preserving food, so the fresh strawberries you pick up this summer at the farmer’s market can still be enjoyed next December.

I can’t wait to get this book and read it front to back (even including the recipes and the gorgeous photography by Della Chen). This will really come in handy when we start harvesting from our little garden too! Interested? You can pre-order the book, or just wait for it to hit shelves this April.

Note: I did not receive any payment for this post or for links. I didn’t even get a free book. But if I do, I’ll be sure to get an extra one and definitely do a giveaway!

Just finished flipping through my issue of Country Living that arrived today (I always do a good flip-through before settling into the articles I want to linger on) and just adored this photo of a simple bright kitchen. My favorite part? The antique cutting boards. I love how their warm patina looks against the stark white walls. Don’t they just make you want to whip out a loaf of oven-warm french bread and cut through it’s crustiness right then and there?

I may be waxing poetic about food because I also just finished watching the film “Julie and Julia” which is not only a very romantic love story about Julia Child and her husband Paul, but a love story about food. And of course, a story about blogging (although I slightly felt that it gave blogging a bad name). But the food… the food was to die for. Every pan and dish looked absolutely delicious. Meryl Streep said she gained 15 pounds during filming! Made me want to melt some butter just watching it.

Of course, since moving in together and really since the lay-off, Ryan has been the cook around here. Tuesday night he tried a pad thai recipe that I found on A Chow Life, another Seattle-based blog that is rather addicting and equally butter-melting tempting (seriously gorgeous pictures of food!). And we had our “first cooking disaster of 2010″ as Ryan has dubbed it. I think somehow the sauce got screwed up, like our tamarind wasn’t the same kind or something. The sauce was bitter. Or sour. Or something. We ended up making pizza.

But it got me thinking about it tonight, watching Julia Child suck it up chopping onions for the first time. And watching Julie Powell drop a whole stuffed chicken on the floor. Cooking is full of mistakes waiting to happen. You just have to pick up and move on. Dust that bird off and stick it in the oven, so to speak. Kind of the way life can be too. So we’re going to try the recipe again sometime, make a few tweaks, and experiment.

Today was just a cooking-themed day, I guess, because I also finished the book “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain. And let me tell you, the floor isn’t the only place that chicken has been. Yep, the one you just ordered for dinner. But Tony is another one of those people that loooooves food. And that butter-melting urge totally comes through in his writing. (Side note: I have a totally gross crush on Anthony Bourdain considering he is twice my age and the quintessential bad boy. But a guy that can cook, loves food, loves travel, and can WRITE? Call me, Tony!).

It’s been a tough week, heading back to work for my first “full” week since the holidays and since my “full” week turned into four days due to staff reductions. I am definitely not a morning person and my current commute requires that I be one. So I’ve been grumpy and not very productive. But nothing beats the nights that I come home, open the door while totally exhausted, and smell whatever wonderful concoction Ryan has going on in the kitchen. My favorite time of day is coming home.

What about you? What cooking experiences have you had lately? Do you wish you did it more? And have you ever made anything from Mastering the Art of French Cooking?

(If you haven’t had enough “Julie and Julia” lately, Design Sponge’s ‘Living In’ series just featured the same film! Check it out.)