Recent meals

I made a potato, onion and mushroom gratin from one of Martha's cookbook, except that we had no mushrooms. So it was just a potato and onion gratin. It could have been great; it is a lower calorie/fat version of a gratin as it has no milk or cream or butter. But I made a mistake. The recipe calls for thyme. Scott and I have recently decided that we don't care that much for thyme. But instead of just easing up on the thyme, I eased up on all the seasonings, leaving it quite bland. But I'll make it again for sure.

We had Black Bean Chili from Delia's webiste the other night. I have never cooked chili in the oven before, or made chile with steak. I've always used ground beef. This was pretty good, but Scott didn't think it tasted very chili like. More like a tomato based stew. But it's true, it doesn't have the usual chili spices in it, like, CHILI POWDER!

Another meal we had was from Nigella's book Forever Summer, a butterflied lemon and rosemary chicken. We cut the backbone out of the chicken and marinated it overnight with onion, olive oil, lemons and rosemary. Then we roasted it and ate it with roasted blue potatos and brussel sprouts. It was pretty good, although the chicken was not as lemon-y as I expected from an overnight marinade.

When the weather warms up some more, I am going to cook a butterflied chicken on the bbq. Did anyone see the episode of Cook Like a Chef on Food Network when the chef deboned the chicken but left it whole and intact?

Tonight I made Sunday Night Chicken Noodle from Nigella Lawsons website as well as one of her cookbooks. Eh. It NEEDED something. Maybe some ginger, or hot sauce, or something. I think I'll make it again, but there will be changes made. Also, I used big fat noodles; next time I'll use a skinnier type.