Dinner lately ...

My, how time flies!  I hope life has been good lately.  I'm nestling into fall and in this sometimes crazy world that we live in, I find comfort and a little insulation in a good book and, of course, in the kitchen - by cooking meals to enjoy with my family.  

Recently, I've been trying some new things on the savory side.  I'm still baking but leaning on the treasure trove of great recipes I've already discovered from the past 6 years of blogging.  Since I wanted to pop in here and say "hello", I thought I'd indulge in a little dinner "show-and-tell" today. No specific recipes per se (in most cases, I took ideas from several recipes at a time) but just a little walk through of dinner lately around here...please pardon the hodgepodge of different-quality photos; many of them are my casual Instagram snaps, taken when lighting is not at its best around dinnertime.  

First up, there was my stuffed peppers project.

When we went to Charleston, we had a lovely dinner at Magnolia's where I had the most amazing vegetarian dish.  I wasn't exactly sure what would arrive but it turned out to be stuffed peppers, filled with the chewiest rice and topped with pepperjack cheese and a sweet tomato chutney.

It inspired me to make my own at home.  While the version I came up with was quite different from the amazing restaurant dish, it had similarities and I was very happy with dinner that night!  I filled my peppers with jasmine rice (cooked in chicken stock and some saffron), onions and corn sautéed with a touch of curry powder, garlic, and herbs, diced tomatoes, and some ground turkey.  The pepperjack cheese adds just the right touch of richness, making them all the more satisfying.

One-skillet beef mac & cheese

This easy, one-pan, beef mac & cheese immediately became a favorite at my house after I tried the recipe a few months back.  It is one of my son's favorite dishes and he can devour it in minutes (and could likely eat the entire pan himself if you let him). So after making it so many times, I thought I'd post it here on the blog for quick reference; I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots before the sunset as I plated it for dinner last week.

And with summer essentially in the rear view mirror (how did that happen!) and the change to cooler temps making us crave heartier meals, macaroni and cheese comes to the rescue.  This one-skillet dish comes together in less than 30 minutes so it's easy enough for busy weeknights.  

As I've mentioned before, I'm a big fan of Christina Lane's blog, Dessert for Two.  My son loves a bunch of her recipes, which I make over and over again. This skillet mac & cheese recipe is one and it comes from her savory cookbook, Comfort and Joy: Cooking for Two. Honestly, my son could eat the entire skillet so as time went on, I've snuck in a bit more meat and pasta (as much as I can without overflowing my 10-inch skillet) to amp up the portion.  If you're feeding more than two people as a main for dinner, I suggest some garlic bread and/or a big platter of roasted vegetables to go alongside.  

This macaroni and cheese gets its creaminess and thickness from a combination of milk, water, cornstarch, and, of course, cheese - cheddar cheese, to be exact.  The cheddar gives it such a great familiar flavor but I've also made this with some pepper jack cheese thrown in, and since it melts so well, it gives the mac & cheese a great texture.  In other words, don't be afraid to personalize it.  

I think the same goes on the flavor front when it comes to the spices.  A mix of spices including chili powder and smoked paprika give this mac & cheese a nice smokey flavor but I've experimented with different proportions and I sometimes throw in other spices from my spice box. When I first made this recipe, the flavors were a bit too strong for my son so I tampered down the spice levels.  But now...he's grown used to it and I'm pretty heavy handed with the spice.

Another way to mix and bulk this up - add some vegetables into your mac & cheese.  I often toss in some broccoli and when all else fails, there's always frozen peas on hand. It's fair to say that almost everything tastes good in a creamy cheese sauce!

Chicken teriyaki

Teriyaki sauce...who doesn't love the stuff.  The savory sweetness of it is just so appealing.  You can pretty much put it on top of anything and it's going to be addicting.

Since we have dessert often, I tend to shy away from sweet sauces for my stir-fries. However, this is a worthy exception.  Also, I have to admit that I was sometimes reaching for a store-bought teriyaki sauce anyway whenever I was looking for a quick flavoring so when I spotted a recipe for homemade teriyaki sauce a couple of years ago, I gave it a try.  It was truly so much better than what you can get from a bottle!

So I've been making this sauce once in a while for the last couple of years.  The other day, I realized I should post it here and spread the word so I cooked up some chicken teriyaki for dinner.  Of course, you could use this sauce for many things - from seafood to meat, vegetables to tofu.

The sauce is made with soy sauce, water, sweet rice wine (or mirin), brown sugar, granulated sugar, as well as grated garlic and ginger that give it such great flavor.  I simply place the ingredients, with the exception of the grated garlic and ginger, into a measuring cup, warm it for a handful of seconds in the microwave and stir until the sugar is melted.  Then, I stir in the garlic and ginger, and the sauce is done.  

I use it as a marinade, as a glaze or sauce.  If you want a thicker consistency - to create a sauce you can pour over a final dish - you can thicken it with a cornstarch slurry.  In this case, I took some of the teriyaki sauce to marinade chunks of chicken (I used thighs) that I tossed with a small amount of cornstarch, then I stir-fried it in a skillet until cooked through.  Near the end, I add the remaining teriyaki sauce I reserved to the pan.  The sauce will thicken slightly and coat the chicken as you stir it all together.  You end up with plenty of sauce to pour over the final dish.

Of course, you need rice!  I served this chicken teriyaki with brown rice, letting it soak up all that sweet teriyaki sauce.

Ina's weeknight bolognese

As the weather turns cooler, I feel an even bigger urge than usual to turn on the stove/oven, cook heartier meals, and then gather around the table with family and friends to enjoy it leisurely.  This past weekend, we had a lovely family meal here with my sister and her family.  I deemed it "pasta night" because I like to pick a loose theme for our dinner gatherings.  It's fun and makes the menu-planning flow a little easier. 

Pasta always hits the spot and feeds everyone's hunger properly.  I decided on a simple menu of Italian cold cuts, pasta bolognese, and garlic bread for dinner. Yes, there was dessert but I'll save that for another day.

As I was planning this dinner, I decided it was a great opportunity for me to sing the praises of this bolognese recipe that I've been making in the last couple of years.  It's Ina Garten's "weeknight" bolognese.  It's aptly named because while we enjoyed it over the weekend, it is easy enough to cook on a weeknight because it's ready to eat in just about half an hour!  And the result...is magically delicious!  This bolognese is meaty and robust, packed with flavor from red wine, crushed tomatoes, oregano, and a hint of nutmeg.

I have Marie at little kitchie to thank for discovering this recipe because she posted about it a couple of years back on her site.  Sadly (for me), Marie hasn't been blogging for a while now and I sorely miss her but when I make this recipe, I think of her.  

And thank you Ina Garten because this bolognese rocks!  It's straight-up delicious, and all the more so when you consider just how fast and easy it is to make!  It's great for entertaining because it's hearty comfort food that resonates with almost everyone, and you can also make it ahead.  In this case, I made the sauce the day before and simply heated it up before tossing it with pappardelle while the garlic bread baked in the oven.  I often make a pot of this sauce, divide it up, and freeze a couple of portions for another time.  It is just fabulous and always a hit with my family.

If a meaty bolognese appeals to you and you haven't tried this weeknight bolognese recipe from Ina, I highly recommend it.  

Garlic-tomato (paste) pasta with peas and basil

Once in a while, you find yourself at home without a lot of groceries on hand and you need to make a quick dinner.  You haven't thought much about it in advance so you need to come up with something using what you have in the house and you want it to be relatively quick to prepare.

Using tomato paste is not only convenient but gives the sauce a deep, rich flavor

That was me last Sunday night.  It was a busy weekend, mostly because my husband and I were tackling a little home project of painting one of our rooms in preparation for new carpet installation.  

Even when it's busy, I still like to cook for my family on the weekends as much as I can.  In recent years, our cravings for take out and eating out has dwindled so much and weekends are when I get the chance to make hot meals we can all dig into together at the same time.  So last Sunday, I started thinking about dinner and remembered a pasta recipe I'd pulled out from a magazine recently.

Here's what I like about this pasta dish...you use tomato paste as the basis for the sauce.  So no tomatoes, no problem!  When I buy a new container of tomato paste, I like to portion out the extra in tablespoon mounds and freeze them.  This way, I can grab what I need from the freezer when a recipe calls for it.  I often use tomato paste - loosened with a bit of hot water and seasoned with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and dry oregano - to make a tomato "sauce" base for pizza at home.

This dinner comes together in under 30 minutes.  Olive oil, thinly sliced garlic, tomato paste, and some red pepper flakes get cooked down with some pasta water.  Finish cooking the pasta - thin spaghetti in this case - in the liquid and stir in some peas (always in my freezer) and a handful of fresh basil (which I snip from my little herb box).  If you like and have time, add a little protein like I did with shrimp.  I also grabbed that from the freezer and simply cooked it up in the same pan before starting the sauce.

The pasta turned out flavorful and hearty.  I served it with garlic bread, which I'd made a few days earlier and tucked away in the freezer (maybe I was subconsciously planning this meal, but my son loves garlic bread).  That went in the oven while I made the pasta and we had a fortifying dinner!

Baked "fried" chicken

This is a rare savory post today.  I wanted to post it because I love this chicken dish - it's easy and delicious.  Plus, I've been making it often enough that I'd like to be able to pull the recipe up right here rather than dig out my paper copy when I need it.  It is baked "fried" chicken or "fake-fried chicken", as it's called in the recipe I discovered from theKitchn.

I saw this recipe a few months ago and have been making it pretty regularly since.  It is really good!  It doesn't require much advance planning to make and it's easy - baked on a wire rack in a 425 degree oven for about 25 minutes - and you end up with crisp chicken that when dipped in some ketchup (the little one prefers barbecue sauce) reminds me of that famous fried chicken with three initials.  Needless to say, it's a whole lot healthier than the fried variety and something you can cook and eat often and feel good about it.

I've baked chicken before but this one is the most crisp I've made thanks to the use of panko breadcrumbs.  And for me, the best part of this dish is the flavor - the chicken is very flavorful thanks to a well-seasoned, dijon mustard based wet dip.  I use chicken thighs, which besides being more forgiving to cook, leaves you with a richer flavor and moister result. 

A typical weeknight dinner - Baked "fried" chicken and roasted sweet potatoes

So if you're looking for a dinner idea or another good chicken recipe, check out this recipe.  I hope you like it as much as we do.