Tonight is as good a place to start as any

Well, Happy Easter Thursday. I hope you all are having a blessed Easter week. I wish I'd taken a picture of an asparagus dish that I made on Easter- I'll have to make it again and send a picture along. Let me just take a minute to talk to you about asparagus- ahhh, the "King of the Vegetables." Hands down, my favorite vegetable- I cannot walk past a bunch at the store without inviting one to come home with me. Spring is busting around here and the asparagus stalks are hearty and gorgeous- I don't know how long this season lasts down here, but I'm enjoying it while I can. Stay tuned for more asparagus recipes.

If I wait for the "perfect" time to start posting, this blog will never take off. So, let's just start with tonights dinner. After being away for a few days and a horrible trip to Whole Foods with 3 kids 4 and under, I decided to resort to my fresh food, my freezer, and my pantry. Here's what we came up with. From beginning to end, with prep included, dinner was on the table in 30 minutes.

Chicken braised with red wine vinegar and tomatoes: I only had 1 pound of chx thighs in the freezer- this recipe would be easily doubled, tripled, made ahead......for those of you that cringe at the thought of cooking with vinegar- do yourselves a favor and try this, it's suprisingly sweet and we should have a chat all about cooking with vinegar (mental note.....) This comfortably served my family of 5 with a few bites of leftovers for me to put on top of my lunch salad tomorrow or in a side bowl of pasta/rice.

INGREDIENTS

- 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 1 pound)- sliced into 4 pieces

- 2 T flour, salt and pepper (1/2 tsp. salt and count to 40 with your pepper grinder)

- 2 T olive oil

- 1/2 small onion, halved and thinly sliced. I happened to have yellow, but white or red would've also worked- not sweet because the vinegar sweetens the dish enough

- 1 large clove garlic, minced

- can diced tomatoes- "technically" a 14 1/2 oz can is probably too much for this amount of chicken but I was NOT about to split a can of diced tomatoes in to 2- 7oz portions- what do you do with 7oz diced tomatoes? In the interest of curiosity, I put in the whole can but reserve the other half for your eggs the next day if you'd like....

- 1 bay leaf (dried)

- 3T red wine vinegar

- 1/4 cup (homemade) chx stock- make your chx stock ahead or purchase low-sodium stock and freeze it in a muffin tin before popping the blocks out and freezing them in 1/4-1/2 portions so you have a small amount in a pinch without wasting the rest

- freshly chopped parsley or any other herb- I like to walk out to the garden and see what inspires me. Tonight nothing inspired me, so I went herb-less.

Technique:

First of all, while I think of it, I want to emphasize the importance of seasoning as you go. Taste your food as you go. Adding salt as you add ingredients to your pan is key when trying to build flavor. If you wait until the end to add your salt, your dinner will just taste salty. The depth of flavor that develops when you add salt as you go cannot be recovered by "catching up" with the salt at the end. Don't be afraid......salt is your friend. You'll quickly know how to add salt to your meals without ever having to take that little measuring spoon out of the drawer.

Put the flour, salt and pepper into a plastick sip-top bag. Close and shake to combine. Add your cut chicken into the bag, close tight and shake vigorously to coat with flour.

Heat 1-2 T olive oil in a 12-inch (cast-iron is pref.) skillet. over medium-hight heat until shimmering hot. Add your chicken (brown @ 1lb at a time if you're doubling recipe) in a single layer and cook, flipping when golden brown underneath, about 2-3 min. per side. Trasfer the chicken to a bowl. At this point add another tablespoon of olive oil and brown the rest of the chicken, as before, if you're doubling this recipe.

Add the onion to the pan and cook, stirring, until slightly softened, 1-2 min. (side note: currently I cook on an electric stove top (bane) so my onions will get done maybe a bit quicker than you gas people out there.....ahhhh....gas stoves...) Add the garlic and cook until fragrant (nope, I'm not going to tell you how long that takes- don't walk away, let your nose tell you) Stir int he tomatoes, and bay leaf and raise the heat to hight, cooking until tomatoes begin to break down. ( I used the whole 14.5 can for 1lb chx and in my opinion, it was a few tomatoes too many, though still good. Let me know if you'd like a suggestion on how to use that other 7 oz, I've got a bunch) Add vinegar and boil vigorously until almost evaporated, 30 seconds. Return the chicken and any accumulated juice to pan, along with chicken broth, 1/4 tsp slat and 1/4 tsp pepper and stir well to combine (I only add the measurements of the salt and pepper here for those of you who have not been seasoning as you've been adding ingredients. If you have NOT been sprinky-dinky-ing some salt and pepper with each ingredient that you add to the pan, then add it NOW before it's too late!)

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through- it took 8 min. for me! At this point you can stir in your fresh herbs of choice, total of 2T, and cook for one minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper if needed. Serve with crusty bread to soak up that sop! (that's what my kids call anything juices you can dip bread into.)

Now, you may be exhausted from all the side comments. But you have to realize that after reading this recipe and technique, trust yourself into making this meal without referring back to the recipe. Read it over and picture yourself making this- think of the meal as a series of steps rather than a "recipe" and you can use this technique interchangably with other proteins and veggies.

My sides were: 1. Crusty bread ($1.19/loaf-nothing fancy)- thick-slice to sop up chicken juice

2. Thick asparagus which I washed, patted dried, than drizzled EVOO, s + p, then roasted in a 425 degree oven for 8 min (while my chicken was cooking- 2 birds!)

3. Feta, watermelon, yellow cherry tomato salad: a handful of each, chopped and lightly mixed- don't overhandle or the feta and watermelon will weep their liquids. No vinaigrette just some chopped fresh mint from my garden. I did not make the salad large- just made to order because I can't imagine all those water-y ingredients being very happy together in a leftover tuppeware container.

Now, these are items that I had in my fridge- I buy what I see is in season and looks fresh. I always have 3-5 cheeses on hand to play with. I try to base my menu on what seasonal and fresh ingredients I've purchased vs. being addicted to following recipes 7 nights a week.

The chicken dish recipe came from an adaptation I've made to one found in the most recent Fine Cooking magazine- a magazine that I cannot recommend highly enough. Now, I realize I've talked quite a bit here tonight- this is my first official blog post and I'll be experimenting every step of the way. If my side comments deter your from reading further, PLEASE let me know- you won't offend me. Are the comments helpful and enjoyable or do you want just the recipe and then that's it. I could go on and on.....talking about cuts of chicken and cooking time or the benefits of cooking with vinegar- but I'll get to those topics here and there.

Upcoming post: The most delicious scones I've ever made (so far- I haven't found a recipe to beat this one yet) and it's recipe coming your way. I know the winter is behind us, but I bake what I crave and this week, it's scones and biscotti....recipes coming soon.

I mentioned in the beginning that I have a deep affection for asparagus- can't pass it without putting some in my grocery cart. What about you? Do you have an ingredient that you love no matter how much you consume? What's your "asparagus?"