Balsamic Chicken

Balsamic vinegar and I have had a long love affair, dating back to my time in New York.  My roommates and I frequently ate at a restaurant called Bianca and I always ordered the balsamic poached chicken.  It was wonderful and it's something that I really miss.  I've tried a couple of times to recreate it but have never pulled it off.  I think it's probably an old family recipe that requires many hours of cooking and a few secret ingredients.  Even though this isn't quite the same, here is a great balsamic chicken recipe.

Pork Chops and Rice

Pork chops and rice is a dish my mom has been making since I was a tiny little kid.  Dad and my brother loved it because it's stick-to-your-ribs man food.  I hated it and gave Mom all kinds of grief every time we had it for dinner, flat refusing to eat anything.  Eventually I agreed to eat the rice.  I later agreed to eat the pork chop, but only with a heaping helping of ketchup.  Now I love it so much that I almost requested it for my birthday dinner.  It may sound bland, but, trust me, if you like pork, you'll love it.

Spicy Mustard Salmon

I love salmon, but it's rare that I get to cook it because Mom greatly dislikes fish and we generally eat our meals together.  However, she doesn't eat lunch, so when I'm not substituting (like today), I try to prepare fish for lunch.  This is a great Asian-ish recipe that includes soy sauce, garlic, and spicy mustard.  Really, how could that combination of ingredients taste bad?  I hope you enjoy it!

Chicken Tetrazzini

Chicken tetrazzini is another of our traditional family dishes.  Both of my grandmothers prepared it when they were hosting a crowd.  It's pretty cheap eating, as the cost of the ingredients is low and it makes a lot of food.  It's a creamy, cheesy casserole that I'm perfectly happy eating on a regular basis.  Here's our recipe.

Spinach and Bacon Quiche

 

I don't care what diet I'm on, I will always eat quiche.  And like so many other recipes I've shared, I think Mom's is the best.  We just made it for the first time since I moved home and it lived up to all the hype I'd created for it in my head.  I've happily eaten it for breakfast and lunch the past three days.  It's also much less difficult to make than I thought it would be.  For some reason I thought it was one of those complicated precision dishes.  It's not.  Any cooking rookie can pull it off.  Here's the recipe.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Last year at school a couple of my roommates made stuffed bell peppers.  They were very good but at the time I wasn't much of a vegetable person, so it never occurred to me to make them again.  Then I evolved into a vegetable lover, the grocery store put bell peppers on sale last week, and I stocked up.  I made the pepper soup again but we still had a lot left, so we decided to try to make stuffed peppers.  They were delicious.

Goulash

Beef goulash is another of those recipes that sounds disgusting but tastes delicious.  We eat this very frequently during the fall and winter because it's the perfect cold-weather food.  Suck it up and try it, even if the sound of it grosses you out.  You'll thank me later.

Pinto Beans

There is nothing simpler than a pot of pinto beans.  Though I love beans and cornbread now, I spent my childhood hating it.  Unfortunately for me it was Mom and Dad's favorite, so this was a dinner that we had at least twice a month.  I have, however, spent my adulthood making up for all the pots of beans that I missed.  I crave pinto beans, cook them often, and request that Mom cook them even more frequently.

Pot Roast with Pan Roasted Vegetables

I've already shared Mom's recipe for pot roast with mushroom gravy.  As good as that pot roast is, this recipe is my favorite.  Oddly enough, the inspiration for the recipe came from a Weight Watchers recipe, which, as you all know, is very unlike my family.  But it's so tasty that's it has managed to stick around.

Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and dumplings is a dish that brings back wonderful memories for me.  My grandpa, Pap-Paw, owned a cafe here in Rush Springs and chicken and dumplings was one of his specialties.  Unfortunately, Pap-Paw didn't really have recipes, so we've had to come up with our own.  It's very, very close to what he served.  This is also a rare recipe where Mom and I each have our own version.  The variations are slight, but I'll point them out where they exist.

Chicken Chilaquiles

After two days of Christmas leftovers, I was in desperate need of something different today.  I woke up craving Mexican food, so I decided to make chicken chilaquiles for breakfast.  It's probably not meant to be a breakfast food, but it reminds me of great brunch food and I love it for that.

Feijoada

The Barefoot Contessa  has done two shows on roasted fruits and vegetables today.  On one of her shows, she said roasting is a great trick for the wintertime when vegetables have less flavor, because it concentrates the flavor.  I've been on a roasted vegetable kick lately, so it's all I can do not to go to the grocery store, buy a bunch of veggies, and spend the day roasting away.

Anyway, Mom is feeling much better today.  She's buzzing around like a very annoying little bee, putting away all the Christmas decorations.  I told her if she'd chill for a bit, I'd gladly help her.  Her response was, "I can do it.  And, if I'd a felt like it yesterday, it'd already've been done, ya'll."  Buzz, buzz.

Although she's feeling better today, yesterday was probably the worst of Mom's cold, so I was on my own to concoct dinner with a house full of food.  Brother Jason and I ate at a Brazilian restaurant in OKC last week and I had an amazing dish called feijoada, which is Brazil's national dish.  It's a black bean stew with pork and beef served with rice and collard greens.  Since I didn't have access to all the ingredients included in a typical recipe, I came up with my own using the ham leftover from Christmas dinner.

Pineapple and Brown Sugar Ham

A few years ago, Mom got really sick right before Easter and spent several days in the hospital.  She was still pretty weak once she got to come home, so some of her teacher friends cooked Easter dinner and brought it to our house the Friday before Easter.  She had a appointment with her doctor that day, and when we got home we walked into a house that smelled incredible thanks to her good friend Beth's amazing pineapple and brown sugar ham.  Since then, we have co-opted this recipe into our family's recipe repertoire.  

Pot Roast with Mushroom Gravy

Since it's Christmastime and the house is full of sweet treats, I have been subsisting off candy all day.  I had turtles for breakfast and chocolate balls for lunch.  Fortunately, Mom came through with a nourishing meal for dinner, making one of her two fantastic pot roast recipes.  She even added some green stuff to the plate.