For most of us, weeknight dinners can prove to be pretty tricky. Very often after a long day at work or school you may not have the energy to make a meal. Throw all of the after-school activities on top and it can make everything even more challenging. NYT Cooking has put together a bunch of recipes that you can make quickly and easily that make for great weeknight dinners for you and your family. Check it out!
Source: Easy Weeknight Recipes Recipes – NYT Cooking
Summer Family Dinner Ideas – Best Summer Dinner Recipes.
Easy dinners are great no matter what time of ywear it may be, but having some easy dinners to make are even better in the summer when it is too hot to spend hours in the kitchen or you just want something quick. Delish has 40 easy summer family dinner ideas for you to give you a little bit of everything to try and choose from to make dinnertime easy. Check it out!
Our Best One-Dish Dinners – Bon Appétit.
I love one-dish dinners, especially during the weeknights when getting dinner on the table can sometimes seem hectic as you try to figure out what you can do. When you are able to get your meat and vegetables all in one place and have only one pot to clean up, it is a great night! Bon Appetit has put together 21 of their best one-dish dinners that you can try for any night of the week when you want a great meal with easy clean-up. Check it out!
Our Best Camping Recipes – Bon Appétit.
One of the favorite summertime (or really any time of year) pastimes is to go camping. Just because you are going camping does not mean you cannot eat a great meal along the way. All it takes is bringing the right ingredients, tools (don’t forget your cast iron pan) and a campfire and you can have fantastic meals during your trip. Bon Appetit has put together 25 camping recipes that are perfect for your next outdoor trip. Look them over and see what you can make next time you go camping. Check it out!
50 French Recipes, French Food Recipes | Saveur.
French cooking is considered among the finest and most elegant in the world. If you are celebrating Bastille Day and want to try your hand at some traditional French recipes, Saveur has posted 50 classic French recipes that you can give a try and reach new gastronomic heights. Check it out!
Leftovers That Don’t Taste Like Leftovers – NYT Cooking.
We all have leftovers from meals that we make and 9 times out of ten you have a hard time figuring out just what to do with them. Sure you can bring them for lunch but to try and turn them into another piece of a meal or main dish for dinner can be tricky. The New York Times Cooking has tried to help out with that with 65 recipes that make use of leftovers for all kinds of occasions and dishes. You can find some new ways to make use of those items you don’t know what to do with with just a bit of this inspiration. Check it out!
It looks like spring has finally arrived in my corner of New York here, at least over the last few days anyway where the temperature has been warmer and all of the snow has finally melted away! I even went to Opening Day at Citi Field yesterday to celebrate the warmer weather and the baseball season coming, so I know that everything is getting better around here. Now if the rest of life could just slow down a bit so I had some more time to do some fun writing, things would be even better! Oh well, it is better to be busy working than not and I’ll just have to learn to fit in blogging where I can and when I have time to do it. That being said, I decided to usher in spring weather for us by making a nice spring stew for dinner the other night. I got this recipe from Calphalon and it is a great one dish meal of spring stew with chicken, asparagus and mushrooms and some herb dumplings to top it off. it is very nourishing and hearty and sure hit the spot and made use of the spring favorite of asparagus along the way.
Spring Stew with Chicken, Asparagus and Mushrooms with Herb Dumplings
For the Stew:
1 whole, boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into 1-inch cubes
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 1-inch cubes
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 stalks celery, cut into 1/4-inch dice
3-4 carrots, trimmed and peeled, cut into 1/4-inch dice (about 3 cups)
1 pound asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into 1-inch lengths on an angle
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 red pepper, seeded, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
48 ounces chicken broth
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
For the Dumplings:
1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh chives, minced
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
2 teaspoons vegetable shortening
3/4 cup boiling chicken broth
Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a large shallow bowl. Dredge the cubed chicken pieces in the flour mixture to coat them well. Preheat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat for several minutes. Add 3 tablespoons of the olive oil to the hot pan and allow the oil to heat for about 1 minute. Add the chicken pieces to the pan (in batches if necessary so you do not crowd the pan) and brown the chicken on all sides, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the chicken pieces and set them aside and repeat the process with any remaining chicken.
Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil back into the Dutch oven and allow the oil to heat until shimmering. Add the onion, celery and carrots to the pan and saute the vegetables until the onions are translucent, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, asparagus and red pepper to the pan with the other vegetables and continue to cook the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Return the chicken pieces to the pan along with the chicken broth, sprigs of thyme and the bay leaf. Give the mixture a stir and turn the heat down to medium-low to bring the stew to a simmer. Allow the stew to cook for 30 to 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the dumplings. Combine the cornmeal, four, baking powder, salt, chives, parsley and thyme together in a medium bowl. Cut the shortening into the flour mixture using your fingers until it is incorporated. Add the boiling chicken broth and stir the mixture with a spoon until the mixture is just combined and holds together. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and shape the dumpling dough into a 3/4-inch thick rectangle. Cut the rectangle into approximately 1 1/2-inch squares. Place the squares on a plate and keep them chilled until you are ready to cook them.
After the stew has cooked for 30 to 45 minutes, add the dumplings. Scatter the dumplings over the top of the stew. Cover the pan and cook the stew for an additional 12 to 15 minutes or until the dumplings have a light sheen to them. Ladle the stew into bowls and serve.
This is a delicious stew that makes good use of the chicken and vegetables. I think you could do this with a rotisserie chicken as well and perhaps not coat the chicken in flour, but you would not get as thick of a broth in the end so it depends on what you like the best. The dumplings, to me, were more like polenta dumplings from the cornmeal than an herb dumpling, put they tasted quite nice with the broth, chicken and vegetables and this made a great one pot meal.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
We are still experiencing windy and cold weather here today in my area of New York and even though Spring starts tomorrow night, we are expecting 2 to 4 inches of snow tomorrow, which does not bring a smile to anyone’s face around here after all of the snow and cold we have had this winter. In any case,cold weather, and even early spring weather that can be chilly, is still a good time to break out the soup recipes and make something nice and warming. This particular recipe that I found at the Kitchn worked perfectly with some leftover chicken that I had. It is for chicken and barley soup and makes use of chicken, some veggies and barley to create a hearty and warming soup.
Chicken and Barley Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil
2 carrots, peeled and diced
4 stalks celery, diced
1 onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 quart chicken broth
1 cup water
1 cup pearl barley
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice, to taste
Parsley, to garnish, if desired
Heat the olive oil or vegetable oil in a Dutch oven or large, heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the carrots, celery, onion, oregano and salt. Stir to coat the vegetables with the oil and herbs, then cover the pot and allow the vegetables to sweat until the onions are translucent and the carrots are softened, about 10 to 12 minutes.
Add the chicken broth, water and the pearl barley to the pot. Bring the mixture up to a simmer and then cover the pot and turn the heat down to low. All the soup to simmer until the barley is cooked through, about 30 to 40 minutes. Uncover the pot and add the cooked chicken. Allow the chicken to warm through, about 2 to 3 minutes, then add 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Taste the soup to adjust the seasonings and add more lemon juice, salt or pepper to suit your tastes. Serve the soup immediately and garnish it with parsley, if desired.
If you do not have any cooked or leftover chicken in the fridge, you can easily add some uncooked cubed chicken after you have sweat the vegetables and cook the chicken until it is no longer pink and cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes. the lemon juice adds a nice touch to the soup but I found 1 tablespoon to be plenty and left it at that. I really liked the barley with this soup and it added great texture and flavor overall to make the soup a bit heartier than just your standard chicken soup or chicken and rice soup. You could always add different vegetables or other veggies if you prefer and this soup is hearty enough to stand on its own as a meal, though some nice crunchy homemade bread with it does go rather nicely. Hopefully it will be the last soup recipe of the winter for us here!
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Fun, unusual and forgotten designations on our calendar.
Happily Ever After Lives Here
a little bit naughty a little bit nice
Letting Life Lead
Simple and delicious dinner inspiration
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