Pomegranate Roast Chicken

This dish, and especially this sauce, has rapidly become a favorite of mine. I’ve cooked it twice now, and used a variation of the sauce for another dish as well. The chicken is tender and moist, the sauce has incredible flavor, and I love the vegetables cooked in the chicken drippings with butter and sage. I got this recipe from In Sock Monkey Slippers, and changed a few things, but the basic awesome recipe is from them. They also truss the chicken, which I’m too lazy to do.

To start, preheat your oven to 425 and cut up a bunch of root vegetables (potatoes, yams, carrots, squash, apples, and brussels sprouts all work well) and put them in the bottom of a roasting pan.

 

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Hearts

I know, this is a little late for Valentine’s Day, but it’s still a great gift for a loved one, and can be adapted to almost any shape. If you’re anything like me, and absolutely addicted to the wonderful combination of peanut butter and chocolate, then you’ll love this. It’s like reeses peanut butter cups, but even more awesome.

Start by creaming together peanut butter and softened cream cheese. You ARE making your own peanut butter, right? If not, go here immediately!

Add chocolate wafer cookie crumbs and mix together, then add sugar and butter first on low, then increase the speed until everything is combined. Scrape the bowl down, and mix again.

 

Chicken Cacciatore

Here’s another favorite dish that many of my friends request I cook when I have them over for dinner. One of my favorite things about it is how healthy it is, while also being fancy enough to serve to company. Eat healthy, impress guests, and relax with a glass of wine (or three) for an hour and a half in the middle of cooking. What could be better?

Start by rinsing the chicken and seasoning it with salt and pepper. Then heat some oil in a large dutch oven and brown the chicken.

Remove the chicken from the pot and add in the diced onions and bell peppers. Cook until they just start to soften, then add in the mushrooms and cook until those are soft too.

 

Sausage, Kale, and Navy Bean Soup

While it’s still cold and soup still sounds good, I wanted to get another soup recipe up here. This is one I adapted from a Food in Jars post, and canned to send to friends and family for Christmas. Even though it has sausage in it, there isn’t a lot, and it has a bunch of vegetables, so it’s pretty healthy.

Start by softening the beans by soaking them overnight or, if you have a pressure cooker, cook them for 30 minutes in that.

Then add some olive oil to a large pot and once it’s hot, cook the vegetables until softened and browned.

Next, add the sausage to the pot and brown it.

 

Spaghetti with Chicken and Thai Peanut Sauce

This is an old favorite recipe of mine, gotten from some quick pasta cookbook I got back when I was first learning how to cook. It’s pretty simple: boil noodles, marinate chicken, cook a peanut sauce, cook chicken, combine! I almost always pair this with garlic cheese bread, and usually a simple salad of some kind.

Start by marinating the chicken for 10 minutes (or, if you have time, a few hours refrigerated) in soy sauce, lime juice, your choice of cooking oil, garlic, and ginger. Then cook the chicken (no photos of that here, I forgot to take one), on a grill pan, the bbq, or something like a George Foreman grill, which is what I used. After cooking the chicken, let it cool and cut into 1/4 inch slices. While the chicken is cooking, boil the pasta water and cook the spaghetti noodles, and drain when they are done.

Meanwhile add soy sauce, lime juice, peanut butter, chicken broth, sugar, salt, and red pepper flakes in a small saucepan. Pour the marinade from the chicken into the saucepan as well.

 

Orange Mascarpone Filled Dates

The Superbowl is over, but apparently the Superbowl appetizer posts aren’t. I’ve made these twice now, once for New Years, once for the Superbowl, and they’re great. Actually, I must admit: I came up with the idea, but my friend’s 15 year old daughter Mary made them. And did a great job!

First you start by making the filling. Take a small container of mascarpone and scoop it into a bowl. Mix in the zest of an orange, half of the juice of the orange, and a teaspoon of ground cardamom.

Split open a date, and spoon a little of the filling into it.

 

Thai Chicken Mushroom Curry

I hope everyone had a great Superbowl, and managed to avoid being guilty about all the overeating! It was certainly good here, and we got a lot of great recipes tested that I’ll be posting soon. In the meantime, though, I got a number of requests recently for this recipe, so here’s a nice healthy curry for you.

Start by peeling and dicing some potatoes and then microwaving them quick to soften them (I never thought of this before. It’s a great idea!)

Next, mix some light coconut milk with curry paste (the original recipe called for red, we went with green) in a saute pan, and heat on medium high until bubbly.