Chicken with Rice and Roasted Veggies

This past Thursday we had Dan and Rebecca over for dinner. I didn't have a recipe in mind, but the plan was to stuff chicken breasts with this wonderful feta "salsa" from Whole Foods, but they were all sold out! So, after browsing the cheese section, Greg and I opted for a mustard ale semi-soft cheese to use instead. Then, as we were checking out, we noticed that sparkling cider was wwwwaaaayyyyy on sale. At this point, dinner really started to come together.

When we got home I flipped open my Flavor Bible and found that oregano and garlic go very well with mustard. Perfect. I knew that I wanted to bread the chicken breasts before baking them, so I added both oregano & garlic to my whole wheat bread crumbs. We also roasted a sweet potato, 2 red skin potatoes, and a few brussel sprouts, and cooked some multi-grain wild rice. YUM! And, a nice side note, this was a no-sodium added meal! The chicken had really good flavor, but was a little dry. Greg thought that I could have added even more of the cheese, since the mustard flavor was very subtle. The herbed bread crumbs were nice and added a good texgure. We just roasted the veggies with olive oil, black pepper and a bit of rosemary. They were scrumptious. Especially the brussel sprouts (though they did not re-heat well the next day). The rice was plain, but it has such a nutty flavor anyway that it didn't need much.

Anyway, we ended up eating at our table, which almost never happens. It was really fun to get out our wine glasses and serving platters, especially a large cabbage leaf bowl that my Mor-mor (maternal grandmother) gave us as wedding gift.


And so, yes, we will be making each of these again. But more cheese next time. I also thought a sauce using the cheese would be good. That way, each person could control the amount of mustard they put with the chicken. Maybe some carmalized onions would be nice to roll up with the cheese as well. Hm...only time will tell how we cook this next!

Recipe: Serves 5

Chicken:
5 chicken breasts, thawed and with a deep pocket cut in.
2 C. bread crumbs
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp oregano
olive oil
mustard ale cheese

-Open up the sliced chicken breasts like they were a book. Lay a few slivers of mustard ale cheese along the whold opening. Roll up tightly from one end. Toothpick closed. Coat in olive oil and then cover in bread crumbs. Place in a 9x13 inch baking pan, about 1 inch apart (i needed to use 2 baking pans). Bake for 35-45 minutes at 420 degrees (baking time depends on how thawed out the chicken is).

Rice:
1 C. whole grain wild rice mixture
2 C. water

-bring water to a boil. Add rice. Cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 30-45 minutes.

Roasted Veggies:

1 medium sweet potato, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
2 red skin potatoes, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 C. brussel sprouts, cut trimmed and cut in half
olive oil
black pepper
rosemary

-Combine the sweet potato and red skin potatoes. Toss with olive oil, black pepper & rosemary. Spread onto a greased jelly roll pan. Place in the oven below the chicken when the chicken has 20 minutes to go. Stir after 10 minutes.

-Toss the brussel sprouts with the same seasoning. Place cut side down on a greased baking pan. Place in oven when the chicken has 15 minutes left. Don't over cook!

-Enjoy!!!

Sweet Potato Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

My sister in law Rebecca made this cake yesterday. I brought over spinach lasagna for dinner, and then we had this scrumptious cake for desert! She found the recipe from the The Cake Mix Doctor, and then made her own tasty adjustments. As you can see, the cake has a wonderful texture. It's rather dense & moist from the sweet potato, but in no way is it undercooked. Perfect! The recipe calls for caned sweet potatoes, but she used the fresh ones, mashed with buttermilk. And, to add a bit more flavor, she added vanilla. I can't believe the original recipe didn't call for any. For even more changes, the frosting recipe called for coconut and pecans. Since cream cheese frosting and spice cake are both really rich, she opted to leave out the add-ins. I think that was a great idea, since the focus was really on the cake; not on everything else. For a future suggestion, Rebecca mentioned using a plain butter cream frosting next time, since this particular cream cheese frosting is extremely rich. Either way would be great, since the cake is really the star.

After dinner, I took a piece home for Greg. It was a great just home from work treat for him. Like the rest of us at dinner, he just loved it. Thankfully, Rebecca gave me this cook book as a wedding gift, he can make this for himself whenever he wants! But since it's just us, maybe cupcakes, and freezing the rest might be a better idea. For those of you who don't know, Greg can also make a wonderful cake.

Recipe:

Cake:
1 C. cooked sweet potato (1-2 potatoes)
2/3 C. buttermilk
1 package (18.25 oz) plain spice cake mix
3 large eggs
1/3 C. vegetable oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8oz cream cheese, room temp
8 tbs butter, room temp
2 1/2 C. powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the cake:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 9 inch round cake pans.

-Mash the cooked sweet potato with the butter milk

-Combine cake mix, eggs, oil, cinnamon, vanilla and sweet potato mash. Mix until combined.

-Divide the batter into the two cake pans. Bake side by side, 28-31 minutes.

-After cooling for 10 minutes, remove the cake from the pans and allow to cool to room temp.

-Once the cake has cooled, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until blended. Add the powdered sugar a bit at a time. Blend until fluffy.

-Frost the cake.

-Enjoy!!!

Honey BBQ Chicken

This past Labor Day Greg and I went to Dan and Rebecca's to grill. We provided the meat, they provided the grill! We had a nice day. Rebecca and I relaxed while Dan and Greg washed and waxed Dan's car. If you thought it looked fast before, watch out! This was the first car Greg washed since we moved last summer. Well, other than hang out, we also ate some awesome food. Rebecca made sweet potato fries (which we believe that recipe is courtesy of Sister-in-law Beth), corn bread muffins, bbq chicken, grilled pineapple, and lemon dessert. My mouth is watering just thinking about it all! We tried to take some pictures of our feast, but unfortunately our camera batteries were low, and absolutely nothing was in focus. It's really too bad, because everything together just looked amazing.

Labor Day was also a day of many firsts! My first time butterflying a chicken, grilling, making my own bbq sauce, and everyone's first time seeing a whole chicken on the grill. It was very fun. The chicken recipe came from my most recent Fine Cooking magazine. I stayed in line with the recipe for the most part. I changed a few things based on ingredients that I already had, and then again for preference. For example, I really like my bbq sauce on the sweet side, so I added more honey that originally called for, and knowing that Rebecca dislikes vinegar, I left that out. Next time I would like to put an oven themometer in the grill, so we can better judge how long it will take to cook. And, though our meat thermometer read that the meat was cooked, the meat around the bones was not cooked. Nothing that a little microwaving coudln't take care of, but next time I'd really like for it to be cooked through the whole way. I don't really have that problem when I oven roast chickens.

Chicken Recipe:

1 whole chicken, butterflied
2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp thyme
3/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp chipotle chile powder
1 clove garlic, crushed/minced

BBQ sauce Recipe:

1/3 C. honey
1 TBS soy sayce
2 TBS ketchup
2 tsp dried mustard
2 tsp WOrcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp chili powder

-Prepare the chicken: Mix olive oil, sat, chili powder, paprika, brown sugar, thype, black pepper, chiotle powder and garlic in a small bowl. Massage onto chicken, inbetween skin and muscle, and on top of the skin. Let sit either overnight in the fridge or 30 minutes on the counter.

-Prepare the sauce: Add all sauce ingredients

-Sear the chicken skin side on the grill at high heat (450 degrees).

-Once seared, turn down heat to about 350, or move to a cool place on the grill. Start brushing on the bbq sauce every 5-10 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Let stand for a few minutes once cooked all of the way through.

Sweet Potato Fry Recipe:

(Please correct me if this is wrong, Beth or Rebecca!)

1 large sweet potato
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt to taste

-Juline cut the sweet potato, leaving the skin on.
-Toss with olive oil and place on a jelly roll pan
-Roast at 400 degrees for 45 minutes
-Sprinkle with kosher salt once done cooking


-Enjoy!!!