Moroccan-style Chickpeas and Greens

So I saw this recipe for Spicy Moroccan Chickpeas and thought yummm... Plus we'd gotten both mustard and collard greens and I thought how that would be a great combination. So I mostly followed the instructions in the above recipe (I forgot to read the part where you coat the chickpeas in oil first and then coat in spices, so I mixed all the spices in the oil and then coated the chickpeas). I also used less cayenne since someone's heartburn acts up when things are excessively spicy, and cut back on the salt a bit. Also, I only used about 3/4 of it.

Then I sauteed the greens with some scallions and garlic, braised them with some vegetable broth, and then tossed in the rest of the oily spices. We served with rice. So delicious!

So delicious in fact that I made up the seasonings again the next night and used it on baked chicken (again with rice and collards). And then the chicken on a salad today.

Here's a list of the seasonings, for reference:
½ teaspoons Curry Powder
½ teaspoons Allspice
½ teaspoons Ground Cloves
½ teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice (optional... If You Have It In Your Spice Rack, Use It!)
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
½ teaspoons Cayenne Powder (or More... If You Are The Spicy Type!)
2 teaspoons Fresh Grated Ginger
2 teaspoons Sea Salt


-Thyme

First crop of the year

Please don't be jealous, oh ye who live in northern climes where there is still snow on the ground. We harvested our first vegetables from our garden this week. Radishes! Full disclosure - if it were up to me, we wouldn't have planted radishes since I'm not a big fan (another case of not really eating them when I was a kid and not having ever developed a taste for them). But we said "why not?" and today they were ready to be picked. (Whether they liked it or not - apparently there's some big slabs of concrete under our lawn/garden where there used to be a driveway, so the radishes only had so much room to grow down in before they hit rock.)



So here's what I did with them:


Radish and carrot salad:

Slice up some carrots, radishes, cucumber, and some of the radish greens (I also meant to put in some corn and red onion, but forgot). Toss it all together, coat with creamy dressing of your choice. Serve this spring-y deliciousness with whatever you want (we did Italian chicken and rosemary rice - recipes below).

Dressing (measurements approximate):
1/3 c. mayo
1/3 c. plain yogurt
1/4 c. sour cream
1/3 c. olive oil
3 tbs lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
pepper

Whisk together all ingredients. Add more of whatever you want to taste.

Italian chicken:

Chicken breasts
Italian dressing

Marinate chicken in dressing for 15-20 minutes, cook in pan on stove with marinade for another 15-20 or until done.

Rosemary rice:

Cook rice with rosemary and a dash of kosher salt.

-Thyme

Pineapple Cashew Chicken with Coconut Scallion Brown Rice

Several weeks ago I decided that I would take a leap of faith and try a completely different sort of recipe. It is called "Pineapple Cashew Chicken with Coconut Scallion Brown Rice"...A solid name. I pulled the recipe off of the Simply Orange Orange Juice web site and it was created by a lady named Jennifer Iserloh, I say props to here. Here are some things I learned while making this:

1. Cooking rice in a crock pot does work, but it does not take 4 hours on high, unless mush really is your final goal.
2. No matter how badly you want it to be the blender is not a food processor--forcing the issue will not end well (I used it actually for the dessert portion of the meal, but it was a lesson learned nonetheless).
3. Fresh pineapple makes almost everything better (thanks Thyme for teaching me how to pick a good one)
4. Chicken can indeed marinade for too long.
5. ALWAYS invite nice people over for experiment night. The will make you feel great about your efforts regardless of the quality of the results.

Now for the recipe:
Pineapple Cashew Chicken with Coconut Scallion Brown Rice (serves 4)

1 cup Simply Orange with Pineapple (or any kind you have handy)
2 TBSP cornstarch
2 TBSP low sodium soy sauce
2 TBSP dark brown sugar
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into cubes
1 cup fresh cubed pineapple (mmm)
1 TBSP canola or vegetable oil
1 medium red onion, cut into cubes (I cheated here and used a regular yellow onion)
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 red bell pepper
1 15oz can of baby corn or 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen kernels whatever you have handy
6 TBSP salted cashews
4 scallions, trimmed and sliced thinly (another confession, I didn't actually use these, I couldn't find them!)
1/4 cup coconut
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups short grain brown rice

Alright, first your going to mix your OJ, cornstarch, soy sauce and brown sugar in a ziplock bag (or bowl with a lid). Mine turned a kinda nasty looking brown color, but it did smell good. Put your chicken and pineapple in there to marinate for at least 3 hours, I wouldn't recommend overnight. The chicken ended up with a weird texture after marinating that long.

Heat the oil in a skillet or wok, sautee the onions, celery and pepper. Move these off to a plate and then cook the chicken and pineapple in the same pan (putting the marinade to the side in a small bowl). Return the veggies once the chicken is mostly cooked and the pineapple is soft.

Grab your bowl of marinade and microwave it for a couple minutes or bring it to a boil in a little saucepan, then add it back to your chicken/veggie mix along with the corn. Reduce the heat and cook and cover until the chicken is completely cooked. Sprinkle with the cashews.

Take your cooked rice (I am not about to try to explain how to cook rice, I am the worst ever at that part, but I am sure you all know how) and mix the coconut, scallions and salt into it. Put your chicken on your rice and voila! Dinner is served!

The verdict: Once you get past the murky brown color action going on I'd say the mixture of flavors was pretty dang good but probably you could actually back down on the amount of pineapple or just served more fresh and to the side (cooked pineapple isn't exactly my thing actually, so don't ask me why I tried it). If you cook the chicken right I think this would be amazing. I'd like to try it again sometime.

-Cayenne

Chicken Noodle Soup

Since the days have turned nice and chilly I've decided to start cooking again. This soup is easy, fast and delicious!

Chicken Noodle Soup

3 medium carrots, diced
1 small/medium onion, chopped up
½ to 1 ½ cups celery, diced (I had let some celery languish in my fridge so I had chopped off the top 1/3 and bottom, and whatever was good I used)
1 chicken breast, cut up (this was from a…um…well endowed chicken so you might need 2 but that depends on your preference)
Noodles (see below)
Oil
1 tbsp butter
Salt
Pepper
Water
Parsley (opt)
Sage (opt)

Heat the oil in the pot. Throw the veggies into the pot with a little bit of salt. Cook until soft. Throw in the butter and the chicken. Cook for 2 or so minutes. Add water until it reaches the desired level. Then add more salt, pepper and other seasonings. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes then add noodles and cook for another 5 or so minutes. Enjoy!

Noodles
(recipe from Better Homes and Gardens “New Cookbook”)

2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp dried basil, marjoram, or sage (I chose sage)
½ tsp salt
2 beaten eggs
1/3 cup water
1 tsp oil (I used olive oil)

Mix the flour, herb of choice, salt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture. Combine egg, water and oil. Add to dry mixture, mix well.
Knead the mixture until dough is smooth and elastic (8 to 10 minutes). Roll out the dough to the desired thickness and cut into noodles.
This made more than enough dough for the soup. I have over half of the dough leftover.

Nutmeg