"Marsala" Chicken and Asparagus

So, I had mushrooms and asparagus from my CSA that I thought I'd use with chicken. Marsala chicken, I thought. Well, plans changed as I realized my mushrooms had gotten a bit too fungal and probably weren't good to use any more. No matter, I forged ahead. I found this recipe using my Epicurious app, and it appears also on the website. It is apparently from Gourmet, June 1995. Here are my changes:

• There's just one of me, so I did a third of the recipe, with one chicken breast and it made two light meals.
• I used green onion instead of onion, and added a clove of garlic.
• Didn't have chicken broth, so I made up that volume using half water, half wine.
• No Marsala wine, so I used some wine I didn't really enjoy drinking, a semi-sweet rose.
• Didn't have parsley, instead used the green onion greens.

Asparagus is pretty quick to cook; I just used some fresh garlic, olive oil, and salt for that. While the last steps of the chicken were being completed, I cooked the asparagus.

Here's the ingredient list I used for the chicken:

• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp butter plus 1/2 tbsp
• 3 green onions - tops for garnish
• 3 tbsp wine
• 1/3 cup water + wine
• salt to taste

When prepping green onions, I cut off the rooty bit and any sad-looking ends of the greens.

Here you can see where I separate the denser more onion-like part from the green leafy part.

Veggies prepped! Again, kept the greens and whites of the onions separate, one garlic clove for the asparagus.

Since I live alone, I usually divide up my meat and freeze part. Rolling down the baggies helps keep them open, and helps keep meat juice from the outside of the bag (bit of a germaphobe here). Putting a single serving in a bag makes things quick and easy when I want to defrost one in the fridge.

To the right: On low heat I melted the butter with the garlic in it.
To the left: Garlic in olive oil for asparagus. I put this on very low heat to let the garlic infuse into the oil.

I cut the breast in half, as directed, and tried to make all pieces about the same thickness. I used lemon pepper and salt to season.

Chicken just lightly browned - wanted to keep it juicy!

Here's the wine I used; sadly did not enjoy drinking, but excellent for food!

I believe I left all the fat in the skillet after the chicken, and cooked the onions until they were transparent.

Added chicken back, and cooked some more.

The lovely sauce - it was so good!

Here's the asparagus, just rinsed.

Added into the slowly heated garlic in olive oil during the second chicken cooking.

Just takes 5 or so minutes to cook on medium heat. Right at the end I added half of my green onion greens.

 

Used the second half of green onion greens to garnish chicken - how pretty is this? And so tasty!

Sweet Orange Cupcakes

I had some oranges that were nice and ripe, but I was being finicky about eating them. Since I also had a desire for some kind of baked good, I decided to make orange cupcakes. I used a yellow cake recipe from the grand old Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. Magically enough, the recipe is also online! For the frosting, I used a recipe from Woman's Day (April, 2007) for their Chocolate Orange Blossom Cake, also online! I, of course, made a few adjustments based on my desires and kitchen stock (below). Overall, the cake was a little dense, but tasty, and didn't have a strong orange flavor. I think next time would add twice as much zest. The frosting was perfect. It was sweet and orangey, and had a pretty glossiness from the marshmallow fluff.

• I made half the cake recipe, which resulted in 11 cupcakes.
• Instead of milk, I made up that volume with about half soy milk, half orange juice from the orange, and a couple tablespoons vanilla to make to full volume.
• I added about 2 teaspoons orange zest to the cake batter.
• I only made half the frosting recipe.
• Instead of orange juice, I just added more vanilla to the frosting.
• I used about 3 tablespoons orange zest in the frosting, and about 2 tablespoons honey.

Butter and sugar - a favorite step of mine. I use a whisk to help get bubbles to make it fluffy.

Orange zest! This was from one orange.

Batter ready to go - to the right you can see t cookie scoop I used to put the batter in the pan.

Mmm.

I made largish cupcakes; two scoops using my cookie scoop which is about 3 tbs. per scoop.

So sweet!

After baking - I baked for about 12 minutes.

Ingredients for the frosting.

I ended up adding a bit more powdered sugar to stiffen the frosting a bit more.

It was so good!

I love the sheen the marshmallow fluff gave the frosting.

Yum!

And again :)

Simple Stir-Fry

One of my most common uses for CSA goods is stir-fry. It's easy, and you can put all kinds of veggies in it. Here is a stir-fry I made a little while ago with beef, garlic, celery, green onion, and oyster mushrooms. It serves two (or dinner for one, and leftovers for lunch!) and I cook 1/2 cup dry rice to go with it. I used about a single serving of meat (deck of cards-size).

First off, this is something I do with all skillet dishes that have garlic - I let the garlic (fresh garlic made small with garlic press) sit in the oil I am going to use on low heat. I feel like the oil absorbs the flavor this way. I suggest sesame oil for the most Asian flavor, but vegetable/canola works, too.

I suggest cutting all your veggies before you do anything. It makes everything easier. I put everything on a "prep" plate - this one was a bit small, but still good. Notice I separated the the denser part (mostly white) of the green onion from the thinner "leaf" part (green).

Cut my beef into little pieces, I like to do this so I can get a bit of beef in every bite - this was some kind of steak. It was a bit freezer burned :(

Beef cooking up in the garlic oil! I do this on medium-high heat.

When beef was just about done, I added the denser part of the green onion.

When the onions were cooked (relatively transparent), I added the mushrooms.

And, once mushrooms were a bit soft, added my celery. I add this near the end so it maintains some crunch.

Let the celery cook just a bit, then add sauces. For two servings, I add 2 tbsp. oyster sauce and 3 tbsp. soy sauce. That may be a bit salty for some, so perhaps add less soy sauce.

Finally, right before serving, I add the green part of the green onion.

Okay, so this photo obviously makes it look rather unappetizing, but I swear it's edible and at least semi-delicious, haha.

Final tip: When I save stir-fries, I put the saucy part on the bottom and the rice on top, so the rice doesn't get soggy. Heat in an appropriate container, and then turn over onto a plate and it's perfect :)

Savory Wheat Pancake

I like to be resourceful and use what I have. I am also lazy and don't like to go out and buy things. This leads me to make substitutions are attempt to create new things. A recent experiment has been to try to create a pancake using wheat flour. Oddly enough, the inspiration for this was the Bible. I had been reading through the various laws regarding offerings in the Old Testament, and a few times saw something that described making cakes from flour mixed with oil. Here are a few verses (NIV) that describe this:

Exodus 29:2 And from fine wheat flour, without yeast, make bread, and cakes mixed with oil, and wafers spread with oil.

Leviticus 2:4-7 If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it is to consist of fine flour: cakes made without yeast and mixed with oil, or wafers made without yeast and spread with oil. If your grain offering is prepared on a griddle, it is to be made of fine flour mixed with oil, and without yeast. Crumble it and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. If your grain offering is cooked in a pan, it is to be made of fine flour and oil.

I tried a few times to make some cakes using what I had on hand, which in particular happened to be an abundance of wheat flour. Ultimately, this is the recipe I came up with:

• 3 Tbsp. wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 4 Tbsp. soy milk

1. Mix dry ingredients in measuring cup, add wet ingredients and stir until just mixed.
2. Pour batter onto greased, medium heat (4/10) skillet. Batter may need to be spread out a bit if it is thick. Flip and cook other side.

I have some flavored dipping olive oil I like to use to grease the skillet. It might be interesting to do a version using cinnamon, or other spices. I did make one version replacing 1 Tbsp. of flour with cocoa powder - it resulted in a very chocolaty cake. It was good, but rich. It might make for a good breakfast. For the record, I used light vanilla soy milk. I imagine other liquids will work, too. You can eat these by themselves, putting toppings on them, or use as a wrap. Now for some photos!

The batter, just lightly mixed

Batter on skillet - was spread out with a spatula since it was a bit thick.

I flip it when the top looks kind of dry.

The cooked side.

I used some of my CSA lettuce and a some BBQ ranch dressing to make a little wrap.

There was a lot of lettuce, but the pancake is there :)

Yum! It tastes a bit like a chalupa - would probably be delicious with taco stuff.

A bit much lettuce, but tasty.

One last look!

Rat Hammock!

I've seen rat hammocks for sale, and I had a feeling my girls would love one. However, I thought I'd try making one myself. Originally I had cut the bottoms off some old tall socks I had for little blankets for them (they love nesting with these, or even sleeping inside if they are still tube shaped, like a sleeping bag), and I thought I might make hammocks out of the tops. I probably still will, but upon finding my yarn stash and a crochet hook, I thought I'd try crocheting one.
I honestly don't know a lot about crocheting, but I just made a square (25x25 rows) and then crocheting several rows of edges, including loops to attach the hammock. In a crafty mood, I then went and made another one. The first seemed kind of small, so I made this one 30x30, but it's a little saggy once they all get on it. Which is fine, but it makes the space beneath the hammock a little small. Would be good in a taller cage.

25 x 25 square - pretty pink :)



Binder rings to attach

30 x 30 square - sunny yellow :)

It's pretty taut, but when they lie on it, it sags down.

Full cage view - they just have a small cage now, but hopefully will upgrade soon.

They all checked it out, but were hesistant to stay on it until I moved it up to the top shelf, where they like to be. Besides being a new comfy spot, it also helps me because they used to carry bedding up to the top shelf to bed on, and then kick it out all over the floor. Now that they have this little haven, they've only carried up a couple pieces :) I change the hammock once every 3-4 days.

Front to back: Shale, Chalcedony, and Lilac

Super comfy!



It's hard to get good pictures because Shale always has to see what's going on

...like this :)