3000 miles 'til dinner.

Original MIL Mission #47: Chicken Marbella

I walked into this mission with some…apprehension. Let’s just say that my husband is not a “fan of chicken marbella” on facebook.

Apparently MIL served it to her three boys a lot throughout his childhood and he notoriously kind of hates it. I offered to skip this one and wait until I was cooking for a friend or something, but he said he’d give it one more try. How very mature of him, I say. 

Ingredients.

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

I’ve had a bottle of dry rose staring at me all winter (inspired by our summer trip to Cannes), so I decided to use it in this dish. Plus it matches with the red wine vinegar.

For some reason I have a mental block on what dried fruits began as what. (read: Jessica’s not that smart). When I saw the word “prunes”, I registered it at dates. Yeah. Not the same thing. BUT, I decided to wing it because I had some dates left over from a previous bacon-wrapped date experiment.  

I also had some dried apricots already in the fridge. I put my dried fruit, olives and the rest of my marinade ingredients into a bowl.

And added my chicken pieces. While grocery shopping, I ended up purchasing a package of thighs and drumsticks. Who knew such a medley of chicken parts existed?! I love drumsticks because they’re very utilitarian and they remind me of the cartoons. (toon kings adore drumsticks)

I marinated the chicken overnight with the intention to bake the next morning. Unfortunately, per usual, I was running late and didn’t get to putting it in the oven until that night. It was at this point in the process that I read further to the “marinate for no longer than 12 hours” part. OOPS.

But I grabbed a drumstick and marched on.

I baked the chicken for the full 60 minutes as I think I heard MIL tell me once that drums and thighs are pretty hard to overcook. 

♥MIL MISSION #47: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

So lovely! 

I served my Marbella with some simple angel hair pasta tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, (a secret squirrel pat of butter!) and parmesan. A pairing I’ve enjoyed courtesy of MIL many times. Oh, and let’s just say that the bottle of rose is no longer staring at me from across the kitchen. 

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 1 hr. 20 min. (and overnight+ for marination station!)

Difficulty: 3

Deliciousness: 4 (it was just a tad sweet for my taste. Next time I’ll choose a more subtle wine and cuisinart the fruit and olives together so the savory, saltiness can have more presence in every bite.)

Impressed Husband factor: 3.5 (You know, for the amount of inner-child disdain he had coming into this dish, he cleared his plate.)

Leftover-friendly: 4 (I ate some cold as a snack at it was extra good.)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #48: Incredible Chocolate Chip Cookies

I came into Mission #48 with a lot of MIL’s Incredible Chocolate Chip Cookie eating experience, but no making experience. In addition, I have a bum right hand so I had to employ an assistant in the form of Husband. His payment? FREE COOKIES.

The stufts…

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

First off, do you guys even know about my pretty new manhattan-kitchen-friendly mixing bowls*? Now you do! Aren’t they cute?

*I was not paid by Williams-Sonoma to mention these bowls. In fact, they made me pay to take them home. The audacity! Ha.

I started with the sugars (as seen in darling new measuring cup set courtesy of friend Mindy!) and the butter in the food processor and then added the eggs and vanilla.

This went into the green bowl where I added the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips. When it comes to cookies, The Coulter household = nut-free zone.

The stirring was done by my handsome assistant. 

We spooned the cookie dough onto the pans and chilled them in the fridge. Some of the dough may or may not have made it in the oven. Assistants can be bad influences! (note: I’m to blame)

I took them out after about 12 minutes while they were still chewy.

♥MIL MISSION #48: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

All photos were taken by aforementioned handsome assistant as my photo-taking hand is out of commission. Don’t these cookies look perfect? I mean, INCREDIBLE?!

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 30 min. 

Difficulty: 2 (I have a hard time knowing when they’re perfectly baked. But I get better with every batch.)

Deliciousness: 5 (It’s true!)

Impressed Husband factor: 5 (Especially since he helped make them. I also sent some to work with him and his entire quad enjoyed!)

Leftover-friendly: 3 (I found they became too crunchy for my taste after a day, as fresh cookies will tend to do. Next time I will freeze half the dough as MIL suggested and bake as needed. Lesson learned!)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #46: Chili with Dark Winter Ale

Yay, cowboy food! Hearty and warming. Not quite warming enough to melt the perpetual dirty new york snow drifts that have been hanging out on the sidewalks for like ever. But warming nonetheless!

The fixin’s. (please ignore bottle of veuve clicquot. cowboys don’t dig on champagne.)

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

I chose speckled little pinto beans for this pot ‘O chili. Because they’re small and small things are cuter. I soaked them overnight with the intention of throwing everything in the crockpot the next morning. But I’ve been looking pretty winter-busted lately and apparently needed my beauty sleep because I slept in and had to skip it. I just let the beans continue to soak all day, too. 

All the better to digest you with, my dear.

I strained my beans. Cute beans!

Then threw my onion, chili and garlic into my BRANDNEWFOODPROCESSOR. Because trusty old Arthur the Cuisinart turned out to be not so trusty. MIL told me that I could replace all the broken bits. Which maybe I could have. But then…I didn’t. But I’m sure she’ll never find out. She doesn’t read this blog, right? RIGHT? (sorry, MIL)

I also made this chili with turkey because it matched the beans better. And it was fashion week and matching is chic! I browned and ground my turkey, once again in my new food processor. Chic turkey!

Like I said, cowboy’s probably don’t drink champagne around the campfire. But they do like beer. I had a bottle of pumpkin beer leftover from the holidays, so I rolled the flavor dice.

Everything, into the crockpot! Beer party time.

I cooked the chili on low all night and kept our bedroom door open so as not to induce strange chili dreams.

When we woke up, we were greeted with this. We were tempted to make some chili eggs (gross?). But instead, I cooled off the pot, threw on the lid and refrigerated the chili until dinnertime.

Smell ya later, chili.

♥MIL MISSION #46: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

I had some chives in the fridge so I made some chive-y sour cream, grated some cheese and applied both. Generously.

Now, we usually serve chili with corn bread. The really classy Jiffy kind from the box. But MIL once told me about a friend of hers whose family has a chili and cinnamon bun night. So, yeah. We had to.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 30 min. and 1 night

Difficulty: 1.5

Deliciousness: 5 (just a perfect bowl of chili. good one, MIL.)

Impressed Husband factor: 5 (Loved. And he said “once you go cinnamon roll, you never go back” or something to that effect. The man is carbcrazy.) 

Leftover-friendly: 5+ (in freezer for future chili and cinnamon roll nights!)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #44: Ashley’s New England Clam Chowder

As the closest 3000MTD blogger to actual New England, I was especially excited when I saw this mission as penned by one of our lovely cousins-in-law, Ashley.

Wicked important stuff (to be read in Boston accent).

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

I simmered my potato chunks with some salt until tender but not falling apart. I used to find boiling potatoes really intimidating for some reason. Always worried that I would boil them too long or too little and end up with lumpy mashed potatoes, etc. But the more I work with each ingredient, the more I zen understand. 

Briefly turning the channel to pig-skinemax so we can check out some food porn… 

Yep. Uh-huh. Sooooo good. Ok, and then I set my bacon aside and added my onions and celery to the pan and cooked them until translucent. The smell of celery and onions always makes me think of thanksgiving. Which is coming up! Yay!

Then, just like Marites in her attempt, I blindly made my first roux. I ended up adding some butter because the bacon fat had pretty much cooked out with the vegetables. And a little butter never hurt anyone. Right? RIGHT.

Then I stirred in my fish stock until smooth.

At which point I added my stock/roux into my potato pot along with the clams, bacon, veggies, remaining stock, milk and some pepper and let all that simmer on low for 45 minutes. While that was jamming, I baked some parbaked sourdough rolls in the oven. 

♥MIL MISSION #44: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

This recipe was so easy and yields a chowder that is just as delicious as any you’ll find in a restaurant. (especially with that pat of butter. yum.)

This would be a perfect recipe for a low-effort, high-reward cozy meal for a small group of friends. And I might even throw a bread bowl in the mix next time. Because a bowl is just a bowl but a bread bowl is carbalicious. 

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 65 min.

Difficulty: 1.5

Deliciousness: 5 (Like I said, It wasn’t too far from some of the more delicious chowders I’ve tried. Random note alert! I once had a chowder that had a drizzle of bright green scallion oil on top and it made it very special. There is a super fancy new olive oil shop on bleeker near my house and I might just have to make an investment for next time.)

Impressed Husband factor: 5 (He liked it!)

Leftover-friendly: -10 (I’m an idiot and waited so long for the soup to cool before I put it in the fridge that I actually fell asleep and it didn’t make it in the fridge. And I just don’t mess with clams plus pork plus milk that has been left out all night. That’s a recipe for trubs. Talk about tripping at the finish line!)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #43: Panzanella Salad

When I saw this mission, I realized that I’ve never actually tried any kind of bread salad before let alone Tuscan bread salad. So this was my first time making and eating the stuff. You know the weird pizza Bagel Bites jingle? Sing it with me.

“When pizza’s on a bagel, you can eat pizza anytime”.

Well as a non-salad lover, I have a better song.

“When bread is in a salad*, you can eat salad anytime!”

The ingredients:

 *methinks the word “salad” is used very liberally here.

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

I cubed the bread, drizzled some olive oil and toasted them. 

While the cubes were toasting, I confetti’d my basil.

And filled my bowl along with the tomatoes and garlic. When the cubes were toasted, they went in and I let everything come together for about a half an hour before serving. 

♥MIL MISSION #43: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

I served the Panzanella with a simple pork chop.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 45 min.

Difficulty: 1

Deliciousness: 4 (A perfect way to get in the last of the good tomatoes. The garlic I used was very strong when served raw. I think I might just use 1 clove next time.)

Impressed Husband factor: 4! (He also loves carbs, so this was his kind of salad. Again, a little garlic-heavy, but that was the only hang-up.)

Leftover-friendly: 3 (I prefer the salad with a little crunch to it, so the day old version didn’t appeal as much. Next time I will have to try MIL’s suggestion of turning it into breakfast, though!)

SIDENOTE: Did you know that Husband and I actually went to Tuscany this summer? (And isn’t MIL’s youngest strapping?) Most of our photos look like this because we spent most of the trip eating. We had Tuscan bread soup, but no bread salad. Next time! 

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #42: Garden Stuffed Bell Peppers

I was a little weary of making, serving and eating stuffed peppers at first. Because I hadn’t even thought about stuffed peppers since I was a little kid. And the thoughts little kids think about stuffed peppers are less than flattering (my inner-lil-jess went “gah-ross!”) 

But I thought of how far my taste buds have come since I was a tiny horse-lover with an accidental mullet living in Tigard, OR. I mean, if I figured out how to love tomatoes (and I do!), then stuffed peppers are worth another try. But I added Italian Sausage just in case.

The garden stuff…

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

I sliced my peppers long ways and scraped out the inside. In doing so, I found a new friend in my grapefruit spoons. These things make incredible prep tools!

I lightly olive-oiled my peppers and placed them baby-muppett-butt side up.

Hi, little muppet butt!

While the peppers were roasting, I shredded and sauteed the zucchinis, added some frozen shredded carrots I had left over from MIL’s Flaming Carrot Cake mission, and pre-cooked my Italian Sausage.

After 15 minutes, I flipped my peppers and then took them out about 15 minutes later. Pretty!

Then I combined the filling and added the spices, spinach and the fresh cilantro.

Here’s the mixture, all ready to get cheese’d.

There was just a little extra filling, probably because I added sausage, but it was almost the perfect amount. And I was feeling VERY generous with the feta and asiago. (you know, just in case).

♥MIL MISSION #42: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 75 min.

Difficulty: 3 (It’s easy, but a bit time consuming. Better left for a sunday pre-Mad Men supper.)

Deliciousness: 5 

Impressed Husband/co-worker factor: 5! (I brought some to work to both work partner and a gluten-free lady friend and they both gave props. Partner said “These peppers are Los Bombos!”) 

Leftover-friendly: 5 (They looked a little suspect pre-office-microwave. But when the cheese got melty it was like the first time every time.)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #18: Savory Tart

The first time I made MIL’s Savory Tart, I froze half the Tart Pastry dough so that I could easily throw together another tart in the future. Well folks, the future is now. 

This time, I made it with bacon, arugula, a little onion and a couple different types of grated cheese I had in the fridge (manchego included. my fave). The result was perfect and we enjoyed this tart every morning for about a week!

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #41: Fabulous Berry Cobbler

Great DILs think alike? I think so. Much like Marites’ attempt at this Fabulous Cobbler, I decided to use peaches and blueberries. (Marites included raspberries as well, which looked awesome.) 

Readers, you should try this one while summer is still barely hanging on. And peaches are in season!

Les ingredients.

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

First, I prepped my fruit. I should say right here that I had no idea what equaled a pint to make four pints. I’m pretty sure that those containers of berries are less than a pint. Right? I feel like a reverse Rain Man. And then when it comes to peaches in pints, I just don’t know.

***SPOILER ALERT*** 

I think I needed more fruit.

***END OF SPOILER ALERT*** 

Then, with the cornstarch and sugar sprinkled over the peaches and berries, I let them break down in the oven for 20 minutes while I prepped the topping. It smelled like a delicious home-baked-berry-pie realtor candle. Except it was real.

While the berries worked it, I lugged Arthur the Cuisinart out and dumped in my dry goods followed by the butter to make the biscuit mix. Oh hello, butter.

Then without washing…and can I just say my inner-Homer-Simpson LOVES when you don’t have to stop to wash something out…I added my wet ingredients.

I poured the wet over the dry and stirred it together. 

I took my berries out of the oven, globbed the batter over the top and sprinkled everything with my sparkly sugar and cinnamon mix. 

I took the cobbler out of the oven when the top was good and brown. The berry and peach juices were bubbling with deliciousness. 

♥MIL MISSION #41: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

Ummmmmmmmmmm, FABULOUS!

Topped it with some homemade whipped cream, I did. (woah, Yoda voice. where did you come from? I’m in a mood today…)

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 45 min.

Difficulty: 2

Deliciousness: 5 (I needed more fruit or less biscuit topping. But I can’t give it anything less than a 5 because it really was a fabulous cobbler)

Impressed Husband/co-worker factor: 5! (I sent a heaping serving to one of Husband’s co-workers and I got props! My work partner also enjoyed it. And of course Husband loves his sweets.)

Leftover-friendly: 5 (We ate that cobbler for a whole week!)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #38: Minted Zucchini & Feta Pancakes

Something funny about this mission is that while Husband was in LA for work, he was invited over the Marites’ house for a BBQ (her birthday celebration, if I am remembering correctly). What did she serve? Her attempt at Minted Zucchini & Feta Pancakes! So I wanted to wait a few weeks before serving them to him again. 

The goods.

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

I shredded up the zooks (as I think my mom used to call them).

And, as with most types of batter, I put everything else in and mixed it around. The mint and basil smelled incredible together. 

Then I proceeded to fry ‘em up. I’m always confused with recipes whether or not I should add more oil to the pan after the first batch. Should there always be a “pool”? Do you have to wait for the oil to heat up each time? Because there were so many batches, I just kind of threw ‘em on there and hopes they would turn out crispy and delicious. 

And they browned nicely.

As for the creme fraiche, I hadn’t realized that this is something you have to prepare ahead of time so that it can solidify. Thankfully, I had some plain greek yogurt in the fridge. 

♥MIL MISSION #38: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

Served with fish en papillote, which has become a weekly cooking method for us. (this time seasoned with lime and chili powder to compliment the herby pancakes with cooling yogurt)

Gorge.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 40 min. (if you don’t make the creme fraiche)

Difficulty: 2

Deliciousness: 4 (next time I’m going to make half the amount of batter and pour them a little thinner so that they are crispier)

Impressed Husband/co-worker factor: 4 (He had seconds! And he said they were very similar to Marites’, which means success.)

Leftover-friendly: 3 (MIL, is there a trick to breathing life into fried things the day after?) 

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #33: Scottish Shortbread

The first time I tasted shortbread was in Victoria, Canada when I was but a wee Jess. It’s called shortbread, but they should really just call it a butter cookie. A name like that sells itself.

The ingredients.

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

I Cuisinarted (yes, it’s a word) the butter until smooth.

Then gradually added the rest of the ingredients to form the dough. 

And just for the sake of variety and in the name of wingin’ it, I used a bottle instead of a rolling pin to roll out the buttery dough.

It should be known that I own a very odd assortment of cookie cutters thanks to Husband who frequently surprises me on valentine’s/birthday/anniversary with pancakes in creative shapes. 

I had to do two different batches in the oven because of all the dough. And before putting them in, I didn’t forget to dust with some sparkly sugar. Mmmm, sugar.

♥MIL MISSION #33: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

A heart for me and a bone for walter the dog! (Except, walter the dog isn’t allowed to eat people food. Well, save for the occasional french fry.)

I also utilized my favorite and most ironic cookie cutters in my collection: the half-eaten gingerbread man. Yes, I know that these aren’t gingerbread cookies. But comedy knows no boundaries. Or something like that.

All my wayward Scottish Shortbread cookies ready to be devoured.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 1 hour

Difficulty: 1

Deliciousness: 5

Impressed Husband/co-worker factor: 5! I send a huge bunch of these cookies with Husband to work and they were devoured. Though it was noted that these cookies are most delicious straight out of the oven (which he enjoyed several from). I myself  brought some cookies to my work and people were big fans. Huge!

Leftover-friendly: If you can hang on to them long enough…

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #37: 4 Summer Salads: Croutons from the Mock Caesar

Every once in a while, Husband requests something for dinner. It’s usually something random and usually has something to do with a movie or TV show he just watched. Nothing gets him craving say, spaghetti, like an episode of The Sopranos.

I’m not sure what movie spawned this, but he asked me to make a chef salad. And although chef salad isn’t a mission, I’ve been wanting to try out MIL’s croutons as seen in her Mock Caesar recipe.

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

Here are my ingredients. Just four.

I chopped some garlic and whisked it together with the olive oil and salt.

Then I took my cubed bread, tossed it in the bowl and finally put it all in the oven to brown up.

♥MIL MISSION #37: JUST THE CROUTONS ACCOMPLISHED.♥

These are some pretty little croutons, right?

They browned up really quick-like. Next time I might make them a bit bigger and brown the bread a little less (because I like it when croutons are soft on the inside).

Mini-mission accomplished!

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #39: Rich Chocolate Pudding

I set out to make this rich chocolate pudding on a night we had company over. I was running behind on dinner, so I didn’t get to making dessert until, oh, about the exact second our company arrived. Here are my ingredients, frantically thrown on the counter for a photo opp. Hurry, ingredients, become pudding!

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

I got my sugar, salt and cornstarch going in the pot, whisking and smiling as the company was walking in the front door. Then I added the milk and egg yolks, measuring and chatting and hoping that I measured correctly while still chatting. Measuring and chatting is hard. 

Husband poured some wine and took our friends into the living room so that I could chop up the impossible-to-break-by-hand chocolate like a crazy person with a giant butcher knife in between sips of wine. 

If anyone had walked into the kitchen, it would have been like walking into a taping of “Cooking with Kathy” from the Kathy comics.

Finally, I combined all the butter, chocolate and vanilla goodness into my pudding base, took it through a mesh strainer and stuck it in the fridge so I could go carry on with some normal chatting in the living room. 

♥MIL MISSION #39: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

Isn’t it pretty?

Ha ha, just kidding. I actually did spoon it into some tiny individual bowls for all to enjoy later that night. But didn’t manage to snap any photos. ACK!

But a few nights later…

I had all the time in the world, so I calmly made the whipped cream.

And voila. So civilized. 

Now that’s a proper snack pack cup ‘O puddin’.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 15 min. (plus cooling time because I like cold pudding)

Difficulty: 0

Deliciousness: 4 (It was a really rich, majorly chocolate-y pudding. You can only eat so much of it on it’s own and I can see that it would work even better in pie form.) 

Impressed Husband factor: 3 (Next time I’ll put it in pie form like Marites did).

Leftover-friendly: Yes! Snack pack attack!

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #2: Just Under the Skin Roasted Chicken

This last Sunday we had our friends Melinda and John over for dinner and to watch Mad Men. I wanted to make Mission #40, Wild Rice Salad with Mango and Toasted Pecans, so I texted MIL to see if she had any entree suggestions. She suggested an Asian-inspired marinated chicken, but when she said “chicken” I couldn’t get Mission #2 (with the Ricotta and Gorgonzola herbed cheese under the skin!) out of my head. So I just brought back the oldie and oh-so-goodie. 

Here’s the table. Our guests, in honor of Mad Men, brought a creamy, brandy-soaked Ambrosia. Bitchin’!

(posted by jessica)