Friday, October 05, 2007

i like to cook has landed!

....in our new temporary home in BC.

We arrived sort of late on Sunday night...who knew that there was so much to do when vacating the house you sold?

I've been back in the kitchen finally! Tuesday we made Pasta with Myzithra Cheese. Wednesday night I made chicken and biscuits with some leftover chicken from Sunday. I found a great recipe at Epicuirous. We made some changes and it turned out super. The biscuits were the best I'd ever made. And we forgot to take pictures until we were almost done eating. Durn.

Here's the original recipe.

Chicken and Biscuits with no pictures.
altered slightly from Epicurious.

Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 tb butter cut into small pieces ( I think we used 7 or 8 or more tb, I just eyed it)
1/2 cup low fat milk
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450'. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Cut in the butter until it is in small crumbs. Add the milks and stir just to combine. Move dough onto a floured surface and knead gently for a couple of minutes. Pat into a circle about 1/2" thick and cut into 6 wedges. Place on a baking sheet and bake for approximately 15 minutes, until golden brown.

Chicken and gravy

3 tb vegetable oil
2 carrots, washed and diced
1 small onion, diced
1 stick celery, diced
1 red or orange bell pepper, diced
salt
pepper
1/2 tsp dried sage
2 tb flour
2 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup of a mixture of milk and buttermilk
3 cups chopped chicken

Heat the oil over medium heat and saute the veggies until tender but not brown. Season with salt and pepper and add the sage. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Pour in the chicken stock and simmer until the sauce is thickening, about 5 minutes. Add the milk and buttermilk and the chicken and simmer until the chicken is hot, about 4or 5 more minutes.

Place a split biscuit on your plate, top with chicken and gravy, EAT!

Just wait until I have time to tell you what I made for dinner last night. Oh baby, was it goooooood.


I was going through all my emails last night and I think I'd better take part in a meme I was tagged for wayyyyyy back in July by Shaun. Sorry it took me so long! Shaun's passed me the torch on a meme called 7 Random Cookery Books. I panicked last week at the thought of all my cookbooks being packed up for who-knows-how-long and I grabbed some books to bring with me, totally forgetting that half of my cookbooks had been packed up in the summer and are being stored at my parents house. So I'll adjust Shauns meme slightly and tell you about the four cookery books I brought with me in the car on the weekend.


Super Natural Cooking. I received Heidi Swanson's book this summer as a very thoughtful gift from Mary. I've read it cover to cover but haven't made anything out of it yet. Lots of pages marked though. I'm a bit worried about being able to find some ingredients - like Mesquite flour for the Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.


Simply in Season. I bought this book a week before we moved, using the last of my credits at the used book store by my work. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but from the recipes I glanced at before I bought it, it looks like a good one. I really want to try the recipe for Naan bread.


Feast. Love Nigella, and this is my favorite of her books. All of the recipes I've made from this book have been perfect, a rare treat.


Tofu 1-2-3. Ideally I'd like to get our meat consumption down to only a couple of days a week. This book is a great help. I'll be cooking from this one next week. And if you think you don't like tofu, make yourself a batch of Tofu Chocolate Mousse. Soooo good.

Alrighty, I'm off! Have a great day, I am hoping to have some time to catch up with your blogs this weekend.

9 comments:

Deborah said...

I'm glad you made it!! I can't remember if I told you or not, but I made that Myzithra pasta and loved it! I really need to get one of Nigella's books - I'm glad to hear which one is your favorite.

Anonymous said...

The tofu book looks really interesting. Need to convince my significant other to like it first before buying that book. :)

We too will be packing up our present home soon and move to our new house in another city in 2 month's time.

Peabody said...

Glad you have successfully moved. I am in the middle of packing up our apartment to move to a home and it is such a pain.

Sara said...

Deborah - thanks! I am glad to be here. If you are going to buy a Nigella book, this is the one I would recommend.

CJ - I would buy this book and not tell him.....some of the recipe you would never know tofu is in there. I made a pasta from this book earlier this year, if you look in my recipe archive.

Peabody - well, we've successfully moved into someone's basement. We still have to get a house. Good luck to you, moving sucks.

breadchick said...

YEA! You are back in the kitchen.

AND I was looking for a recipe to use the rest of the chicken from my chicken ham lasagna and now I know exactly what I'm making!!

I am going to check out the Nigella book from the library as well (I'm on a no buying new cookbook phase right now)

Sara said...

Mary - your lasagna looks fab, by the way. Hope you like the chicken and biscuits if you try it! Good luck with the no buying cookbooks. If you can look at that Nigella book and not run out to buy it, you are stronger than I!!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

So how about this biscuit dough with the ham & apple; just add a little grated cheddar.
It's great to be in a kitchen again! Always. There is no chance to anticipate all that goes into vacating a house! Something always surprises you even when you've done it many times.
Interesting choice of cookbooks you grabbed. I've been in Seattle over a month and I probably miss the cookbooks the most;)) I brought 3 breadbooks with me.

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

Moving is extremely **** and exciting all in one go. Hope you've settled in your temporaty home, for now at least.

Shaun said...

Sara, darling - Glad you and Scott arrived safely. I hope you enjoy your temporary space as you look for a more permanent spot.

Like you, I take cookbooks with me everywhere...Well, if we expect traffic, I do, and if we're going on a long drive. Nigella has often been in the car with us. I, too, enjoy "Feast". Her hot cross buns that I made earlier this year are especially good.

Thanks for doing the meme...It's always fun to see what others are reading.