Orange Balsamic Roast Chicken

Do you ever get home from work and you’re so tired but so hungry and you want to eat something delicious but don’t want to spend a ton of time in front of the stove? Of course you do. Because I feel that way all the time. I’ve been so bad at going grocery shopping once a week, so that means when it comes to dinner I’m either left to my own devices and forced to eat chips or I have to schlep to the grocery store (at RUSH HOUR OMG) and figure out what’s cooking.

Did this entry just turn into a rant? I totally didn’t mean for that to happen. Oops.

Anyway, the bottom line is that we all want (and, let’s be honest, deserve) to eat a delicious home cooked meal that doesn’t take endless amounts of time or energy to get on the plate. Right? Right. Well, I just might have the answer. Maybe. Ok, I do.

Orange balsamic roast chicken.

Imma let that marinate with you for a bit…Ok, good to go? Good.

This recipe calls for four ingredients (HOLY MOSES!) and takes about 20 to 25 minutes to make. It’s easy peasy and you could probably be half asleep and still pull this off. This recipe uses skin-on (no groaning! The skin gets so crispy and delicious) halved chicken legs. I know, I’m not the biggest fan of dark meat but this might have converted me. The dark meat gets coated in a tangy orange and sweetly bitter (not bitter sweet, ha) balsamic vinegar. Steam some broccoli and cook up some rice while this is roasting in the oven, and you’ve got yourself a pretty gourmet dinner. That’s so gourmet, bro.

Orange Balsamic Roast Chicken

• 4 skin-on chicken legs
• 2 oranges
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbs unsalted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and heat olive oil in cast iron or oven-safe skillet. Season chicken legs with salt and pepper. Once  skillet and oil is hot, place the chicken legs skin side down and cook for about 7 minutes or until the skin is golden brown. Meanwhile, cut one orange into wedges and the other in half.

2. Remove chicken from skillet and discard the fat. Place chicken, uncooked side down, back in the skillet with the orange wedges. Roast in the oven for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.

3. Remove chicken from the skillet again. Place skillet with oranges and balsamic vinegar on medium heat. Squeeze the juice from the halved oranges. Stir sauce and scrape up any browned bits for about 2 minutes then add butter until melted. Place chicken back in pan to coat.

Penne Arrabiatta with Bacon

For a minute I completely forgot it’s the beginning of March and spring is not quite here. The weather this weekend played a total trick on me and got me excited for stripey dresses and relaxing in the park. Not only was I tricked, but freaking mother nature tricked itself. My parents’ front yard had a few lilies sprouting out of the ground. You have lilies chillin’ in your front yard, what?

But, then, the weekend was over and we were plagued with nasty weather. So long, stripey dresses. Smell ya later, lilies. The quick change from beautiful sunshine to gloomy rain made me want to wear leggings as pants and watch reruns of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and The Rachel Zoe Project (love you, Bravo). The perfect addition to this lazy equation would be some no-fuss comfort food. Perhaps penne arrabiatta with bacon?

Penne arrabiata is one of my favorite pasta dishes. It’s spicy yet sweet and one of my favorite comfort foods. Plus, you can impress all your friends (or cat) with this simple homemade sauce. Yes, you read right. You’re making your own sauce. I’ve been a pasta fiend for the majority of my life and I never saw the point in making sauce. You can get it out a jar, why buy it? Trust me. This is so easy and doesn’t require hours of simmering. There are chunks of tomatoes, zesty garlic, sweet basil, and large pieces of bacon dancing around in this spicy sauce. If you need a little more substance to your dish, toss a sausage in the oven and let it roast while you’re making your pasta. This is lazy evening cooking, why make it more difficult than you need to?

Penne Arrabiatta with Bacon

• 1/2 lb of dried penne pasta (half a box, use a full box if you’re serving more than 2)
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large basil leaf, torn
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• salt and pepper
• pinch of sugar
• 4 slices cooked bacon, chopped
• Parmesan cheese, to serve

1. Cook bacon in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 to 30 minutes. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook penne pasta until al dente. Strain cooked pasta and add a teaspoon or so of butter to coat (optional), set aside.

2. While your pasta and bacon are cooking, heat about a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a heavy bottom pan. Cook minced garlic in olive oil until fragrant. Add torn basil leaves and stir a little. Add the can of chopped tomatoes, chilli flakes, and sugar. Season with salt and pepper and let simmer for about 30 minutes.

3. Chop cooked bacon and add to the sauce. Toss cooked pasta to the sauce and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

My Take on Traditional English Scones

I love a good, hearty weekend breakfast. Fried, hashed and browned, and swimming in syrup. Don’t forget the butter. But on lazy days where I don’t need to consume a day’s worth of calories in one meal, I like to take it easy and enjoy something simple. This weekend was one of those weekends. Enter the scone.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a red-blooded American girl and I love our crazy triangle breads we call scones. But there’s something about traditional English scones that make me want to live in an eternal tea party with the Queen of England.

Unfortunately for me, I don’t have the funds or time to fly off to London to get my scone fix, so I tried my hand at making them from scratch. These scones may look similar to biscuits but are completely different in taste. Where biscuits are flaky, scones are tender and crumbly and slightly sweet. Top with jam and cream while still warm, the perfect compliment to a cup of tea.

Scones

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tbs butter, cold
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.

2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl and mix. Incorporate the butter with your hands until you have a mixture resembling breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and milk. Mix until a dough forms.

3. Kneed the dough on a floured surface. Roll out to about 1 to 1 1/2 inch thickness. Using a round cookie cutter (or a drinking glass), cut out the scones and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

4. Bake for about 10 minutes or until barely golden. Let cool for a couple of minutes. Serve with your favorite jam and clotted cream*.

*If you’re lucky enough to have access to clotted cream send me some! No, I’m kidding, but you’re lucky. To make a substitute, mix about a 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream on high until medium peaks form. It doesn’t hold a candle to clotted cream, but it’ll suffice for me.

Homemade Pretzels

Are you one of those people that starts salivating the minute you catch the smell of freshly baked mall pretzels? Yeah, me too. It’s totally like a Pavlov’s dog type of thing…only it involves pretzels. Besides that mouthwatering smell, there’s something special about mall pretzels that you just can’t get from the frozen pretzels at the grocery store. They’re soft and golden brown.

Crap. Now I really want a pretzel. Not to worry! This recipe is so simple that you can practically whip up these puppies up whenever you please. Just make sure you bathe your pre-cooked pretzels in baking soda bath so we get that beautiful golden color. Yep, we’re giving these little dough boys a spa treatment.

Share your pretzels with friends or else you’ll probably eat them all. I’m serious…because that’s what happened to me…almost.

Homemade Pretzels

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 tbs baking soda
• 1 tbs melted butter
• kosher salt
• optional: shredded cheese, cinnamon sugar, jalapenos, garlic powder

Dissolve the yeast in the 3/4 cup of warm water. Once dissolved, add to a mixing bowl with the brown sugar and salt. Stir in the flour. Once everything is incorporated, knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth. Grease the mixing bowl and place the dough in the bowl. Let it rise for about an hour.

Cut the dough into 6 pieces. Roll into 1/2 inch thick ropes. Form the ropes into the shape of a pretzel and let rise for another 15 minutes.

Fill another bowl with 1 cup of warm water and mix in the baking soda. Bathe each pretzel in the water for about 30 seconds. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the melted butter on each pretzel and sprinkle with salt. If you are using other toppings, this is the point where you’d dress them. Go crazy. Be true to your pretzel-loving self.

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with dipping sauces. Honey mustard, melted cheese, icing. OMG, give me a pretzel.

 

Last Minute Christmas Cookie Baking

Has anyone else been stuffed to the brim with cookies? Yeah, me too. I’m getting them from everyone. Friends…coworkers…parents…regrifts from people who are too burned out on cookies. So you really don’t need another Christmas cookie recipe, right? Wrong! It’s Christmas Eve and if you’re like me you’re already plum out of cookies, and in T-minus six hours a fat man in a red suit is going to be making his way down the chimney. What the heck am I going to leave for that guy?

May I suggest some Linzer cookies? These are a favorite in my family and are almost too good looking to eat. The dusting of powdered sugar makes it look like a beautiful covering of snow. And you can use any sort of jam your taste buds are fond of. Raspberry, boysenberry, strawberry, maybe even some Nutella for you choco-freaks out there. Anyway, these cookies are so delicious I might actually make my way onto the nice list this year.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Linzer Cookies with Raspberry Jam

• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1 tbs cornstarch
• 1/8 cup white sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Raspberry jam (or your favorite jam)
• Powdered sugar for dusting

Grind the almonds, cornstarch, and white sugar in a food processor until it’s a fine mixture, set aside. Beat butter and brown sugar in mixer until fluffy and pale. While mixing, add vanilla extract and egg yolks, then add the almond and sugar mixture. Once incorporated, add flour, cinnamon, and salt and continue mixing. Wrap the dough in cellophane and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350F. Roll your dough on a floured work surface and cut using Linzer cookie cutters. If you don’t have linzer cookie cutters, regular circle cutters will work. Make sure you make an even amount of “back” cookies and “front” cookies, which will have the hole in front. Bake for about thirteen minutes or until the edges are golden. Cool at room temperature.

To assemble, dust the front cookies with powdered sugar. Spread jam filling on the back cookies and sandwich.

 

Plum Upside Down Cake

Over the weekend my family enjoyed the spoils of my dad’s recent fishing victory. He caught some delicious tuna and we had a giant party to celebrate. We ate melt-in-your-mouth tuna sashimi, homemade spicy tuna rolls, seared ahi with sesame seeds, and tasty poke. It was a feast, to say the least. My dad took care of most the cooking, or lack thereof, so I offered to bring dessert. But what to bring? I wanted it to be fairly light, but somehow stay within the Japanese theme of sushi. Then it hit me, plum upside down cake.

Had I had more time I would have soaked the plums in sake beforehand to fit our cuisine even more so, but regular old plums worked just fine.

After chopping up the plums and laying down the brown sugar and butter mixture, I arranged the plums in a cake pan in a spiral formation. It’s going to look absolutely beautiful baked on top of the cake.

And the final product. The plums soak up the sweet and rich flavor of browned butter and brown sugar while baking, and the cake is a simple yellow cake with hints of cinnamon.

Plum Upside Down Cake

• 2lbs plums
• 12 tbs butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Slice plums and set aside. In a frying pan, melt 4 tbs of butter and continue to brown. Once browned, add the brown sugar and mix until the butter and sugar are incorporated. Pour your mixture in a 9 inch cake pan and spread using a spatula. Place your sliced plums in the cake pan in a spiral pattern. You should be able to get about three of four rows of sliced plums. Set cake pan aside.

Using an electric mixture, cream the remaining butter with sugar until you achieve a fluffy mixture with pale yellow coloring. Add eggs one by one and then the vanilla extract. In another bowl, whisk your dry ingredients together. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk to the butter mixture.

Spread the cake batter on top of the plums in the cake pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. To remove your cake from the pan, take a butter knife and run it along the edges of the cake pan to ensure your cake is not sticking. Grab a serving plate and, while the pan is still hot, quickly flip the pan over on top of the serving plate. Remove the cake pan and voila! You have yourself an upside down cake. Serve warm with ice cream or enjoy plain.

Mozzarella Cheese Buns

I feel like I’ve dropped the ball on posting this week, that’s why I’m here on a Saturday afternoon bringing you a recipe I tried out this morning from Yammie’s Noshery. Stuffed cheese buns. On a list of things I love, there are two things that fall shortly after Ollie and fried chicken. Bread and cheese. I’ve definitely on more than one occasion gone to the store in search of dinner and ended up with a baguette and a couple cheeses. That’s kind of my perfect dinner. So when I came across these golden buns filled with gooey cheese, I knew I had to try them out and quick. I love that this recipe is adaptable for any sort of cheese you might have on hand. I didn’t stray too far from the recipe and filled my bread dough with mozzarella cheese but topped my baked buns with rosemary-infused butter. Delicious. Next time I make this recipe I might get crazy with a little brie and jam. Or maybe some smoked Gouda with bacon. Oh! What about blue cheese and honey? I feel like a mad scientist! One with a PhD in cheese. Yeah, I went there.

Maple Bacon Scones

Who doesn’t love bacon? Ok, besides you veggie types, who doesn’t love bacon? That’s what I thought. These scones combine the best of both worlds: sweet and savory, and are great alone with a hot cup of coffee or used as the bread in your favorite breakfast sandwich. Yeah, I just went there. Throw on your apron and pump up the jams, let’s get bakin’.

Fry up a few slices of bacon until almost crispy. No need to get them well-done as we’ll be baking them in the oven. Whisk your dry ingredients and then cut in the butter. Once your mixture looks a bit flaky, add your bacon crumbles. Get your bacon nicely incorporated, then add the maple syrup and milk. Mix until you get a nice dough.

Knead the dough a little on a lightly flour surface. My dough wasn’t as firm as I’d like it to be, so I let it chill in the freezer for about five minutes. Roll at about 1 inch thickness and using a round cutter, cut out your scones and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Once you’ve cut out all of your scones, place in the fridge to chill while the oven heats up and you mix your egg wash.

Boom. Egg washed. Bake in the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Drizzle your golden brown scones with some maple syrup and place in the oven for an additional three minutes. We’re going to get a nice sticky coating of syrup on our scones.

So soft and fluffy and the bacon and maple syrup get along just swimmingly,  creating that tasty sweet and savory flavor we were talking about earlier. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to indulge in a scone while Ollie serenades me on the piano.

Do you happen to know Desperado, Ollie?

Maple Bacon Scones

• 1 package bacon
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 sticks butter
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tbs heavy cream

1. Fry bacon until just done and place on a paper towel to drain. Crumble cooked bacon into small pieces.

2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in diced butter and mix until flour mixture is the consistency of flaky oats. Stir in the bacon, then the maple syrup and milk. Mix until you get a dough.

3. Dump dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll into 1-inch thickness and cut using a round cookie cutter. Place scones on a lined baking sheet and chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

4. Heat oven to 350 degrees and prepare your egg wash with the egg and heavy whipping cream. Brush scones with the egg wash and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Drizzle golden brown biscuits with maple syrup and bake in the oven for an additional 3 minutes. Remove scones from oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Potato Latkes

While I was living in Berkeley, there was a delicious deli up the street from my work that served delicious latkes. Ever since trying them, latkes are something that I’ve wanted to try making. With only a few ingredients and a couple minutes by the stove, latkes proved to be super simple with a quite tasty payoff. The potato is super crispy on the outside, but quite soft on the inside with flavorful chives and garlic. I ate them hot, right off of the stove, and just had a cold one which was just a delightfully yummy.

The look like little birds’ nests! Tasty, tasty birds’ nests.

Potato Latkes

• 2 large Russet potatoes, peeled
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• chopped chives, to taste
• salt and pepper, to taste
• Canola oil for frying

Grate your peeled potatoes into bowl. Add garlic, chives, eggs, flour, and salt and pepper and mix until nicely blended. Heat a good amount of canola oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Once heated, form a large spoonful of the latke mixture in your hand to make a good-sized pancake. Place in the pan and cook on each side until golden brown (about two to three minutes). Place on a plate lined with a paper towel and allow to drain. Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream or apple sauce. Also enjoy the cold leftovers later as a snack.

Tartine’s Walnut Cinnamon Slices

My BFF Kate got me the Tartine cookbook for my birthday this year. I was stoked. Tartine is a San Francisco institution, baking up the most delectable pastries and sweets at its Mission location. The cookbook is made up of impressive recipes ranging from the traditional croissant (someday I will make you) to their famous tarts. I decided to start off with baby steps and attempt to make the Walnut Cinnamon Slices. I had all the ingredients on hand (a rare occurrence) and had a hankering for some cinnamon.

First thing’s first, lets mix up our dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, ground cinnamon, and baking soda. Whisk, whisk, whisk, and set aside. Take room temperature butter and mix with sugar until smooth and creamy. I don’t think there’s anything I love more than sugar and butter mixed together. Ok, maybe fried chicken. Whoa, did Paula Deen just take over because I think she did…y’all.

Next, whisk one egg and a little salt together. Add that to your butter and sugar mixture. After that’s nicely incorporated, slowly add your dry ingredients until you get a nice dough, then mix in the walnuts. Take your dough and form into a rectangle shape. Wrap tightly and keep in the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours.

Dust your baking sheet with sugar and brush your dough with heavy cream. Dredge the dough in the sugar and until nicely coated. Then slice up your dough into rectangles and bake until the edges are golden brown.

Let cool for a couple of minutes before diving in. Check these puppies out.

My apartment smelled like Christmas when I took these out of the oven. The cinnamon flavor is so subtle and the actual cookie itself has a nice crunch along the edges, but super soft in the middle. My favorite type of cookie. This pairs well with a cold glass of milk (duh).