Spiced Oatmeal Cookies

Sorry for the long break in posts.  Jeremy and I just moved to Rochester!  Since graduating we've been so busy with traveling and moving that I haven't had time to post.  I've cooked (a little) but nothing worth putting up here... just a couple burgers and stir fries.  We've just been too busy trying to get oriented in our new neighborhood and trying to set up our new apartment.

After tonight's burgers, I was feeling a little peckish and in need of some dessert.  And since my cupboards aren't fully stocked yet, I made do with what I had on hand.  These were delicious!  The mixture of spices I used was really yummy.  I would've added some ginger if I had it but I didn't.  Good anyway.  :)

I made these by hand because my parents still have my electric mixer.  (They took a bunch of stuff that I don't use frequently so that the movers didn't have to take it...)  I'll get my stuff from them eventually... By making sure that the margarine was fully softened, I was able to bring these cookies together with a whisk and a spatula.

You could add nuts, raisins, or chocolate chips to these and make them even more awesome.  I didn't have any of those... so they were just spiced cookies.  So easy and so versatile.  I <3 oatmeal cookies. :)

Recipe:
3 tbs. margarine, softened
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. rolled oats
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (or the non-freshly grated if that's what you have)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the margarine, light brown sugar, and egg in a bowl.  Whisk until fully combined and creamy.
2. Add the flour, oats, and spices.  Use a spatula to combine fully.
3. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet.  Portion out the dough into tablespoons and space evenly on the baking sheet (about 2" apart).
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden brown.  Allow to cool slightly before eating.

Roasted Chicken with Fried Chickpeas

Tomorrow is my last law school final.  After that, it's just graduation.  So tonight, since I needed a break from studying anyway, I made a chicken.  I think there are few things more satisfying and so easy to make as a roast chicken.  Season it, throw it in the oven, take it out when it's done.  Yum.

Continuing our quest to use things up, I was trying to come up with side dishes to serve with the chicken.  I'm out of rice, pasta, and don't have any potatoes.  So a starch was hard to come up with.  I didn't want to put the time into making my own noodles tonight so I made chickpeas instead.  These were AWESOME.  Slightly sweet and spicy.  They were really quite easy to make.  Since I used dried chickpeas I had them working most of the day between soaking them and then simmering them.  But the actual time cooking them wasn't bad.  If you don't want to do all that, you can substitute canned chickpeas instead.  I always use dried beans now because they're so cheap.

I served this with some frozen green beans that I just microwaved and topped with a little margarine.  (All that's left in our freezer now is a small amount of peas and ice cubes... it looks so sad!  But all will be fixed after we move in a week and a half...)

The herbs you put on/in the chicken can be adjusted to your taste.  I often like to put some garlic or lemon in the chicken but since I didn't have any, I just left it with the herbs.  The water in the bottom of the pan helped to keep the chicken moist and it prevented the fat from burning when it rendered from the chicken.  I didn't use it to make a sauce but you could strain and separate the juices to make a gravy.

I have a lot of leftover chicken from this meal (and some of the chickpeas).  Jeremy ate a whole breast and I had half of one.  That leaves most of the dark meat and some of the white meat for another meal.  I'm already planning on making a pizza tomorrow with some of the chicken. Yum!

Overall a great meal.  Wish me luck on my last final tomorrow!

The whole chicken -- so crispy and delicious!

Recipe:
Chicken:
1 5-6 lb. whole chicken, rinsed and patted dry
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary (crush the leaves in your fingers before sprinkling on the chicken)
2 tbs. canola oil
approx. 2 c. water

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Rub the oil onto the chicken.  Sprinkle the seasonings over/in the chicken.
3. Place the chicken on a rack over a roasting pan.  Add water to the bottom of the pan.  (You want enough water to cover the bottom of the pan without touching the chicken.
4. Roast for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until a thermometer inserted in the thigh (but not touching bone) registers at least 165 degrees (A lot of cookbooks (and my digital thermometer) recommend 180 degrees... but the USDA says 165 is sufficient...).  (I usually go a few degrees extra -- to 170 or 175... just to be safe.)
5. Allow the bird to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.  Enjoy!

Chickpeas:
8 oz. dried chickpeas (or 2 cans, drained and rinsed)
1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 tbs. minced cilantro
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flake
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbs. vegetable oil

1. If using the dried chickpeas, soak the chickpeas for 6 hours or overnight.  Drain and rinse.  Place in a medium sauce pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 45-60 minutes until tender.  Drain and set aside to dry a bit.
2. Heat a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add oil and crushed red pepper flake.  Cook for 1 minute until the oil takes on a reddish hue.  Add onions and garlic.  Saute for 2-3 minutes until slightly tender.  Add chickpeas, season with salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chickpeas are golden brown, 15-20 minutes.  (Adjust heat as necessary to avoid burning it.)  The onions will caramelize slightly.
3. Add the chopped cilantro and stir to combine.  Cook for 1 more minute.
4. Serve and enjoy.

Eggplant Parmigiana

In our quest to use up as much of our food as possible before we move, I decided to make eggplant parmigiana.  Not that I had eggplant sitting around... but I did have breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, and a half a box of pasta.  Since I have a whole chicken that I'm planning on cooking tomorrow, I decided we didn't need to have our normal chicken parmesan.  So instead, I bought an eggplant and made this.  Delicious!

While this dish took a while to put together, a lot of it was passive.  The eggplant sitting after being salted didn't need to be attended to (got plenty of facebook checking -- umm... I mean studying -- done during that step).  And once it was in the oven, you can leave it alone except for checking on the cheese (although I was cooking pasta at that time... so I didn't make it back to my books to study).  And overall, this is a really easy dish.  A few steps but nothing too complicated.

Jeremy and I had a salad first and then I served this with some whole wheat pasta in more of the spaghetti sauce.  We have 1/3 of the eggplant parm left (we were hungry...) and some of the pasta.  There might be a fight over these leftovers. :)

Recipe:
1 large eggplant (mine was 20 oz.)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. dry breadcrumbs
1/2 c. parmesan cheese, divided
1 tbs. dried parsley flakes
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 eggs
approximately 1/4 c. olive oil (or vegetable oil) for frying
salt and pepper to taste
1 jar spaghetti sauce (23.5 oz.)
8 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded

1. Slice the eggplant into 1/2" slices.  Spread a layer of paper towel on a large cutting board or baking sheet.  Lay the eggplant in one layer.  Sprinkle evenly with 1/2 tsp. of salt.  Allow the slices to sit for 1 hour to draw out some of the moisture.  Pat the slices dry before continuing with the recipe.  (If you're pressed for time, you can skip this step.  But I think it makes for a more tender, tastier eggplant.)
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs.  Add 1 tbs. water and mix well.  In a separate bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, 1/4 c. parmesan cheese, parsley flakes, and garlic powder.
3. Grind some pepper on the eggplant (to taste).
4. Heat a large frying pan over medium high heat.  Add olive oil and heat until just shy of smoking.
5. Coat the eggplant slices in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs.  Fry in the oil (in batches as necessary), flipping halfway through until they are golden brown on both sides (2-3 minutes per side).
6. In a 13"x9" casserole dish, spread 1/3 of the sauce.  Place one layer of eggplant in.  Top with another 1/3 of the sauce and 1/4 c. of the mozzarella and 1/8 c. of the remaining parmesan.  Top with another layer of eggplant.  Then add the remaining sauce and cheese. (My slices fit in just 2 layers... if yours don't, divide the sauce and cheese further so each layer gets some.) (Add more salt to the layers if you want... I added a pinch because my sauce was no salt added and needed a little bit.  It all depends on your taste.)
7. Bake in the oven (uncovered) for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is slightly browned on top.

Triple Sec Marinated Skirt Steak Tacos with Sauteed Corn

Happy Cinco de Mayo! To celebrate, we had some delicious steak tacos (this would also be delicious with chicken, pork, etc.).  We normally would go out to dinner (because there are some local Mexican restaurants that I love...) but we expected they would be too busy  so we stayed in.  Since we're moving soon, I made a corn side dish to use up the rest of the corn that I had in the freezer.

Normally I would have marinated this in some tequila but we don't have any left.  And I wasn't buying more just to marinate some meat.  I used triple sec so the meat had a slightly sweet citrus flavor.  The skirt steak was nice and juicy and flavorful from the mix of spices.  Despite using a whole jalapeno in the marinade and some cayenne pepper, it wasn't spicy at all.  (At least not to us...)

We had some Dos Equis with our dinner (more Mexican spirit!) which rounded it out nicely.  Jeremy actually put the corn side dish into his tacos (his flour tortillas are bigger than my corn ones...).  Overall a great meal.  The only thing I'd change is that I'd add some chipotle Tabasco to the tacos.. would've been delicious!  (I didn't have any... and again, not buying it before we move...)

As a note, since I didn't know and had to look it up... the skirt steak grain runs the short way on the meat.  (Picture the 3' long skirt steak... it's 3' long by 4" wide... the grain runs b/t the two sides the 4" way...)  So this means that if you want 4" pieces, you should slice the 3' long piece into 4" pieces and then turn each of those 90 degrees and slice thinly.  This will give you the shortest meat fibers in each slice and thus the most tender meat.

Recipe:
Steak Tacos
Marinade:
1/4 c. triple sec
1/3 c. olive oil
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 jalapeno, sliced

Rest of the taco ingredients:
1 to 1.5 lbs. skirt steak (I had 1.15 pounds)
Desired Toppings: lettuce, cilantro, diced tomatoes, diced onion, salsa, avocado, etc.
Tortillas: Corn or Flour, whatever you prefer

1. In a gallon zip-top baggie, mix the marinade.  Add the skirt steak.  Seal tightly and massage the marinade into the meat.  Refrigerate for 4 hours or up to overnight.
2. Heat a grill pan (or outside grill if you have one) over high heat.  (Mine is non-stick so I don't use any added fats.  If you need to grease your grill pan, do that.)  Sear the steak 3-4 minutes on the first side.  Flip and sear 3-4 minutes on the second side (for about medium). (Timing depends on the thickness of the skirt steak.)
3.  Remove the steak from the heat and let it rest for approximately 5 minutes.  Slice thinly across the grain.  Place a few strips in a tortilla and top with any combination of toppings you like.  Enjoy!

Corn:
1 lb. frozen corn
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 jalapeno, sliced (I left the ribs and seeds in, if you don't like spice, take them out.)
1/2 tbs. ground cumin
1 tbs. chili powder
1/2 c. water
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbs. olive oil
small handful of cilantro leaves, chopped (about 2-3 tbs.)

1. Heat a medium sauce pot over medium heat.  Add olive oil.  Add bell pepper, onion, and jalapeno with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Saute for 4-5 minutes until softened.  Add the corn, cumin, and chili powder.  Stir to combine.
3.  Add the water.  Mix to distribute the spices.  Cover the pot and let it simmer together for 3-4 minutes.
4. Stir in the cilantro and adjust salt and pepper to taste.  Serve.