This past weekend I went to my local library and got a library card which was so exciting since I haven’t had a library card in, like, 10 years. I nearly forgot how much I enjoyed picking random aisles and arbitrarily sliding a book off the shelf to peak inside. This library is very small but nonetheless a wealth of information. I walked out with 6 heavy books, one of which was “Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes” by Jeanne Kelley.

The book itself is beautiful and the recipes have this California/French Countryside vibe (perfect). I was drawn to read one recipe primarily out of curiosity, “Rabbit with Prunes and Olives.” Well, let’s just say that I have no plans to stew up rabbit any soon (”Not that there’s anything wrong with that,”  I guess.) but since the author mentions this recipe is based off of a chicken one then I figured it would turn out about the same. Chicken I can do.

Folks, this was good. I mean GOOD. And easy. And not too expensive (initially buying olives and white wine seem expensive but they can last through a few recipes). I served this with a simple green salad and couscous seasoned with a pinch of lavender salt.

Here is the recipe with my notes in brackets:

“Chicken with Prunes and Olives”

2 T olive oil [I used extra virgin b/c that's all I have]

1 whole chicken (about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 lbs), cut into 8 pieces [I used 2 1/2 lb chicken, 3 large bone-in breasts with skin and fat removed]

Salt and pepper

1 large onion, chopped [this I julienned and only used half but a whole one would be just fine]

6 garlic cloves, chopped [I always crush mine simply b/c it's easier]

2/3 c dry white wine [I used 1/2 c white cooking wine and the rest was cooking sherry, seemed to work!]

3 T red wine vinegar

3 T chopped fresh oregano or 3 t dried [I used dried]

2 T light brown sugar [I used dark brown]

1/2 c pitted prunes

1/2 c picholine or other brine-cured green olives [I used large garlic-stuffed ones]

Heat 1 T of the olive oil in a heavy, large enameled Dutch oven or pot over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, season with salt and pepper, and cook until golden brown on both sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a bowl.br /br /Add the remaining 1 T olive oil, the onion, and garlic to the Dutch oven and cook until well browned, about 5 minutes (the bottom of the pan should be dark brown but not burned). Add the wine and bring to a boil, stirring up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan (deglazing). Add the vinegar and reduce the heat to low. Return the chicken to the Dutch oven and add 3 cups of water. Add 2 T [or 2 t if using dried] of the oregano and the brown sugar. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook until the chicken is no longer pink and cooked through, about 30 minutes.

Stir in the prunes and olives and simmer, partially covered, until the chicken and prunes are very tender, about 15 minutes. (Can be prepared to this point up to 2 days ahead. Cool, cover, and refrigerate. Return to a simmer.)

Transfer the chicken to a serving dish. Boil the liquid in the Dutch oven until it has thickened and reduced to a sauce consistency, about 5 minutes [this seemed to take me about twice the time]. Season the salt with salt and pepper to taste and spoon over the chicken. Sprinkle with remaining 1 T [or 1 t dried] oregano and serve.

[I say this makes about 4 servings.]

“Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes” by Jeanne Kelley. Excerpted by arrangement with Running Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2008.

I have to admit, one of the things that I love to do most when I get back from a trip is housework. I have done countless loads of laundry in the past couple of days as well as a lot of cooking. In a effort to save both time and money I’ve taken to cooking large batches of goodies then freezing whatever I don’t think we’ll eat within a week.

This winter I’ve been in chili mode. Mainly turkey chili that I make in the huge crockpot my mom gave me a few years ago. (I never thought I’d have such a need for so large a pot but it has certainly come in handy.) The day we got back we went to the store in the evening to get groceries including turkey chili stuff.

I just spied Alicia’s dad’s chili (yum) which I’ll have to try the next round of chili-making (and once I locate liquid smoke, something I haven’t been able to find at the market yet).

I have yet to make the same recipe twice. I wanted something a little spicier this time and yes, in my opinion, I would say this was a medium spicy which can be hot if you plan on eating a big bowl of it! This version is also low sodium and low fat as well as onion and gluten-free. That being said, I thought it was pretty good with some sea salt and cheddar cheese!

“Jen’s Healthy Turkey Chili”

Ingredients:

2.5 lb lean ground turkey

.25-.5 lb pork roast, trimmed of fat and de-boned and cut up

1-28 oz can whole or diced tomatoes (with juice)

1 small can tomato paste

1 can whole corn (with juice)

2 chipotle peppers in adobo, de-seeded and chopped

1/4 c white cooking wine

2 T maple syrup

4 large cloves garlic, crushed

1 T chili powder

2 t oregano

1 T ground coriander

2 t ground cumin

1/4 t cinnamon

1 t bacon salt or regular salt (optional)

1 bay leaf

1 T (heaping) ground unsweetened cocoa

1/4 c cornmeal

Optional garnish: sea salt, shredded cheese, chopped red onions, sour cream…

Directions:  Brown pork in a skillet and add to crock pot. Brown turkey in the skillet, drain (optional if you are using lean meat - I personally don’t drain this, only skim off any foam if it comes up) and add to crock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients to the crock pot and stir. Cook for 4 hours. Serve and garnish. (Wasn’t that easy?)

And for dessert, some gluten-free dark chocolate chip and hazelnut cookies:

This was also an experiment. (Ok, so most of my cooking could be categorized as such.) I bought some gluten-free Trader Joe’s brownie mix, halved the oil and mixed in dark chocolate pieces and chopped hazelnuts. I turned the brownies into drop cookies, used parchment paper on the cookie sheet and baked them for 14 minutes. They are pretty good and very rich (chocolate-wise) .

If anyone tries my turkey chili recipe I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Cold and bright sunny days are so good for baking. I love spending time in my little yellow and green kitchen whipping up some goodies.

I’ve been doing a little experimenting in this department. I’m not sure what is going on but I’ve been finding myself having some digestive disagreements (Don’t worry, this blog won’t turn into my daily log of ailments!) and I’m beginning to suspect that it’s something specifically that I’m eating. So I thought I would remove some foods from my diet (namely [wheat] gluten and dairy, the usual suspects) and see how things go.

But for someone who loves to bake this could be quite the problem. But I know there are lots of alternatives out there and I’m determined to have my gluten-free cake and eat it too.

I found some gluten-free chocolate chip cookie dough mix at Whole Foods (a house brand). It’s basically a box of the dry ingredients (stuff like rice flour and sugar) to which you had the wet ingredients. I did a little substituting here as I’ve had gluten-free cookies before and they are not always, err, good.

My boyfriend’s step-mom got this delicious vanilla extract from a recent trip Belize (I think…although it says product of Mexico). I doubled the amount which always seems like a good idea. I also used walnut oil instead of margarine since it’s not hydrogenated and is loaded with healthy omega-3s.

I added an extra egg too for protein and bindy-ness. (That’s a word, yea?)

The dough was quite gloppy and sticky but as you can see from the first pic, they look like regular cookies and tasted pretty good too as long as you ignore the slight sandy texture of the cookie part.

My next test would be some gluten-free cupcakes. I recently gathered up all of my liners into this cookie jar so I can see all of them and how pretty they are. They are also tempting me, so I’ll have to keep you posted on this next attempt; I know a lot of folks out there have similar issues with gluten and dairy.

Have a sweet Tuesday!

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_M5dKBd5_Vfk/SJoaIKOBBQI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/dIasoyots4Y/s1600-h/alice-rose-strawberry2.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_M5dKBd5_Vfk/SJoaIKOBBQI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/dIasoyots4Y/s400/alice-rose-strawberry2.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231522644628669698″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”br /Little Strawberries with Rose Whipped Cream/spanbr /br /1/2 pint heavy whipping creambr /2 t. rose flavoring (or to taste)br /1 generous drop of rose pink gel paste food coloring, or similarbr /sweetener (here I used agave nectar, about 2 T?)br /br /1 basket of strawberries, preferably organicbr /Violet syrup for drizzling (optional)br /br /I usually start whipping up the cream then add everything else (flavor, color, sweetener) once it starts to firm up a bit. Not sure if this is the proper way but it works for me. br /br /Well, there you have it, really easy. Not much of a recipe but sheesh this is good stuff. You know what’s span style=”font-style: italic;”really/span good: dolloping the rose whipped cream over homemade waffles and fresh fruit. Yea.