New use for an old thing

I made olive tapenade for grilled cheeses last night (put marinated garlic stuffed green olives, kalamata olives (pitted), and a little good olive oil in a mini food processor and just chopped it, basically). Lovely grilled cheese, btw. But had left over tapenade and no good bread or anything, so I put it over pasta today with a bit more olive oil. REALLY good.

No postings

Okay, I don't think anybody is using this anymore, but I thought I'd point out that Beej and I are making the jamaican jerk salmon tonight and I'm wicked excited about it. I have this fantastic cashew "recipe" if I can find it, and I'll post that here. It's great for parties or even gifts.

Crock Pot

Okay Braden, you've been absent from here for quite some time. So have I. But we have a new crock pot and I've never really done much crock pot cooking. Any good recipes for me? I have one for pulled pork already. And I get chili and soup. Anything in the chicken/ham realm?

Emerald City Market's Mojito Chicken

I can't take any credit for this. I had it made for me at the Emerald City Market in Manhattan, KS. The recipe is adapted from a Guy Fieri recipe. It's absolutely delicious.

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Dry Rub

• 4 clvoes garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp onion flakes
• 1 tsp whole cumin seed
• 1 Tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika

Combine garlic, onion flakes, spices, and salt. Put chicken breasts and mixture in a resealable plastic bag. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer. Longer is better.

Mojo Marinade

• 1 C. orange juice
• 1 C. Nelly & Joe’s Key Lime Juice
• ¼ C. white wine vinegar
• ¼ C. Bariani EVOO
• ¼ C. dark rum

Whisk ingredients together and add to the bag with chicken breasts. Return to refrigerator for at least an hour. Longer is better.

Mojito Glaze

• ½ C dark rum
• ¼ C. Nelly & Joe’s Key Lime Juice
• ½ C. Rose’s Key Lime Marmalade
• ½ C. water
• 1 Tbsp. dark brown sugar
• ¼ C. chopped mint leaves
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
• Zest of 1 lime
• Salt & pepper to taste

In a medium saucepot, combine rum, key lime juice, marmalade and brown sugar. Bring to hard boil and cook 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Ad mint leaves and remove from heat. Let sit for 30 minutes. Strain to remove mint leaves. Combine 1 Tbsp water and 1 Tbsp cornstarch and mix thoroughly. Bring glaze back to the boiling point and stir in cornstarch mixture. Cook until glaze has thickened. Add lime zest.

To Prepare: heat oven to 325. Remove chicken from bag and place in oven-safe dish. Leave some space between each breast. Add generous ½ C. marinade to dish and back about 25 minutes or internal temp reaches 165. Remove from the oven and brush the chicken liberally with the glaze. Place under broiler for 5 minutes. Remove and serve.

Cajun Chicken Pizza w/ Fresh Cilantro

Skipped dinner tonight, so I got pretty hungry around 9:30pm. I was cooking up a bunch of cubed chicken breast for my lunch this week, and remembered I had a mini boboli in the fridge from last night. Eureka!

I did this:

1. Cube a bunch of raw chicken breast. Salt, pepper, and f*ckin' bury it in spicy cajun seasoning

2. Throw it into a pan with a little bit of olive oil on the bottom. Cook until...cooked

3. Grab a boboli crust from the store and smear some olive oil on it (all the way to the edge, for a nice crispy crust.)

4. add shredded cheddar, shredded mozz, and chicken cubes

5. cook until the pizza is crispy

6. drizzle a touch of olive oil on top, and rip up a bunch of fresh cilantro on the top

Damn Tasty Chicken Sandwich

Hi Braden! (I figure it's just you and me on here, so when I post, I'm generally thinking of you.) So I made a panini on my George Foreman grill tonight (yes, I own a George Foreman grill and I'm not ashamed to admit it) and while it's hardly revolutionary, it's definitely delicious, so I thought I'd tell you about it.

I sauteed some sliced mushrooms in a little bit of butter and garlic salt. I thought about onions, but thought it would be too much and maybe too messy because this sandwich gets messy as is, but I'm pro-sauteed onion, so next time, maybe onions.

Anyway, I took two thin but broad slices of good crusty olive oil and rosemary bread, lightly buttered one side of each, and threw them on the Foreman (at 375) butter side down, just for about a minute until they got a little toasty and took them off. Then I sprinkled some Famous Dave's wing spice on both sides of a thawed boneless skinless chicken breast. (You could use any cajun spice for this. I like Famous Dave's spices, though.) I grilled that on one side of the Foreman. Once that was done, I put a piece of pepper jack cheese on one slice of bread, put the chicken on top of the cheese, put the sauteed mushrooms on top of the chicken, then another piece of pepperjack on top of the mushrooms, then the other slice of bread. Then I put the whole sandwich on the other side of the Foreman til the cheese was melty.

And I know, you think it's done. You think, that sounds like a damn tasty chicken sandwich. And it would be. But then I take the sandwich off the Foreman and take the top piece of bread off (to which is stuck mushrooms and cheese) and pour two spoonfuls of buffalo sauce onto the chicken. Then I put that top piece back on, cut that sucker in half, and smile like an idiot because this, my friend, this is a DAMN tasty chicken sandwich.

Truffle oil again

mashed potatoes + truffle oil + just picked organic oyster mushrooms from the campus organic garden = AMAZING mashed potatoes. Just fyi.