Ghostly White Chicken Chili

Happy Halloween!! To celebrate this ghoulish nite I made a Ghostly White Chicken Chili.  What you will  need if you choose to take part in the gore is: 2 lbs ground chicken breast, 1 large store bought rotisserie chicken removed from carcass and shredded, 1 tbs canola oil, 4 cloves garlic minced, 2 jalapenos chopped (seeded if you can't handle the heat), 2 poblano peppers seeded and chopped, 1 large yellow onion chopped, juice of 2 limes, 1 large handful of cilantro chopped, 2 tbs ancho chili powder, 3 tbs cumin, 2 tsp coriander, S&P to taste, 2 14.5oz cans cannellini beans rinsed and drained (mash 1 can of the beans with a potato masher), 4 C unsalted chicken stock, grated white cheddar cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips (Scoops are great for this).  Ok, let's cook.  Take a large pot, I used my medium size Le Creuset (if you don't have one of these you should definitely make the investment-well worth the money and will last a lifetime) and heat the oil over med heat.  Add your garlic, peppers and onions to pot and saute for about 5 minutes or until the veg is soft.  Add your ground chicken and continue to cook until no longer pink, breaking the chicken up into bite size pieces as it cooks. Add your spices and lime juice and continue to cook for about 5 minutes add S&P to taste.  Add the chicken stock, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for an additional 20 minutes.  Add roasted chicken, beans and cilantro and continue to cook for an another 5 minutes.  Serve the chili in bowls, topped with grated cheddar cheese and sour cream and use the tortilla chips for scooping, I dare you to try this!!

Gourmet Breakfast Sandwiches

These are not your ordinary breakfast sandwiches, these are gourmet.  So why gourmet you ask? It's all in the cheese.  The cheeses that I chose were a Colliers Welsh Cheddar which is a mature, robust cheddar with a slightly sweet flavor.  This cheese originated from the Welsh mountains in Denbighshire.  The other cheese was a Fromager D'Affinois which is similar to brie with a bloomy rind and a creamy paste.  It's produced in the Rhone Alps and boasts a creamier texture and more buttery flavor than brie.

I made 2 sandwiches, one for me and one for Will.  Will's gourmet sandwich consisted of a toasted Asiago Cheese Bagel with melted Murray's "Colliers Welsh Cheddar" with Wrights Applewood Smoked Bacon, JD mild sausage and 1 large fried organic egg.  My gourmet sandwich consisted of a toasted Everything Bagel with melted Murray's "Fromager D'Affiniois" with Wrights Applewood Smoked Bacon, JD mild sausage and 1 large fried organic egg.  Yummy!  Not the healthiest choice for breakfast, but it's not like we do this everyday.  If you get a chance visit Krogers Gourmet Cheeses section, they have a great selection of cheeses and they also have a section where you can choose small portions of a variety of cheeses, so you're not stuck with a large amount of cheese you don't like and it won't break the bank.  BTW, the Fromager D'Affinois sells for $14.99/lb and I was able to get a small portion for $2.55, the Welsh Cheddar sells for $9.99/lb, but the small portion only cost $1.60.  I also picked up a few other cheeses that otherwise I wouldn't even had thought of buying or trying for that matter had it not been for the small portions with the small price.

Sausage & Peppers with Polenta

Last night we did sausage, peppers and polenta.  I've never made polenta before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  Polenta is just cornmeal cooked in boiling water.  I used an instant polenta, so it only took about 1 minute to cook.  Polenta is a very popular dish in northern Italy and preferred over pasta dishes.  I began by preheating my oven  to 350 degrees and then I took 1 lb of sweet Italian sausage, if you use links be sure to remove the casing and break into pieces.  I browned the sausage in a large skillet.  While the sausage cooked I julienned 1 green bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper and 1 jalapeno pepper and tossed them into the sausage.  I added about 1/4 C of chicken stock and just let this saute for about 5 minutes until the peppers softened and most of the stock had cooked off.  I removed the skillet from the heat and transferred the sausage and peppers to bowl.  I then cooked the polenta, which only took 1 minute to cook.  I then poured the polenta in the skillet and spread out in the pan.  I drizzled a little EVOO over top and then placed the sausage and peppers over the top of the polenta.  I placed this into the oven and baked for 20 minutes.  After is was finished baking, I generously sprinkled the dish with parmigiana reggiano.  That was all there was too it.  I was surprised how yummy it really was.  We both had leftovers for lunch and agreed it was just as good the next day.  Buen Appetito until next time.

Stir Fry Chicken Caston Style

Stir Fry with sriracha 

I love Asian flavors, so tonight I made a chicken stir fry Caston style.  This is easy and quick and this is how you do it:  For your sauce you will need:  4 cloves of minced garlic, 1.5 tbs fresh minced ginger, 3 scallions chopped, 1 tbs fish sauce, 3 tbs soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 2 tbs chili garlic oil, 1tbs sugar, 1 tsp rice wine vinegar, 1/2 - 3/4 C chicken no sodium chicken stock, 1 tbs corn starch.  Add all of the ingredients except the chicken stock and corn starch to a small sauce pan and bring to boil, stir the sauce, reduce the heat and add the chicken stock.  Let this simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add the corn starch and continue to simmer, stirring it until it thickens to a consistency that you like.  For me, it was an additional 10 minutes, and then I removed it from the heat and set it aside.  My stir fry consisted of 1 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, seasoned with S&P and cut into bite size pieces, 1 red bell pepper small diced, 1 green bell pepper small diced, 1/2 yellow onion chopped, 1 carrot peeled &  thinly sliced, 1 8 oz pkg of shitake mushrooms thinly sliced, 1/2  8 oz pkg of white button mushrooms thinly sliced and 2 tbs of canola oil.  I heated the canola oil in my wok over med high heat and added the chicken and just tossed it in the oil and let it stir fry for about 3-5 minutes until all sides were no longer pink.  I removed the chicken from the wok and set it aside.  I added my veggies to the wok and stir fried them for about 4 minutes, I then added the chicken back to the wok and tossed it in with the veggies.  I then added the sauce to the wok and stirred it in.  I reduced the heat to medium and continued to stir fry for an additional 3-5 minutes until chicken was cooked thru.  I like for my veggies to have a little crunch to them, so I don't overcook them to sogginess.  I let this cool for about 5 minutes and served it over a short grain rice, and drizzled some sriracha sauce (a very yummy asian hot sauce- it should be in your pantry) over the top.  Really yummy!   I even have left overs for tomorrow.  Good Eats!!

Caston's Original in the Tummy is Yummy!

If you've read previous posts, you know that Chorizo and I have a love hate relationship.  If you don't know what Chorizo is, it's a sausage that is loaded with spices, and very heavy on the paprika.  It has a very strong flavor and can overpower some dishes.  I've worked with it a lot and tonight for whatever reason me and Chorizo got along very well.  What I used to make this very yummy dish:  3 Chorizo sausages in casing chopped into bite size pieces (these I had grilled over charcoal the nite before), 3 tbs EVOO, 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 4 cloves garlic minced, 1/2 green bell pepper small diced, 1/2 yellow onion small diced, 1 jalapeno chopped, 1 carrot peeled and grated, 2 tbs hot Hungarian paprika, 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander, 1/2 C chicken stock, 1/2 C heavy cream, 2 tbsp cream cheese, 1/4 C sour cream and S& P.  I started by heating the EVOO in a large skillet over med high heat. I seasoned both sides of my chicken with S&P and placed them in the skillet and browned both sides (2 minutes/side) removed from heat and set aside.  I then took my veggies and sauteed them in the same skillet over med heat until they softened.  While the veggies sauteed, I chopped the chicken thighs into bite size pieces. I added the spices and tossed them into the veggies, continuing to saute for about 3-4 minutes.  I then added the chicken stock, heavy cream, cream cheese and sour cream and stirred it in.  I let this simmer and thicken for about 10 minutes.  I added the Chorizo and chicken and continued to simmer for an additional 5-7minutes until the chicken was cooked thru. I served this over pasta with a few sprigs of cilantro.  Next time I will serve it in a bowl instead of a plate, that way I can spoon up all that yummy sauce.  I think that you could serve this dish with rice, or pasta or alone with a nice crusty bread to sop up the sauce.  Give this dish a try and Good Eats!

Pizza Fest

I decided that last night I was going to make some pizza's, it's been quite sometime since I've done that.  Not going into details,  but I made the dough from scratch and it turned out great.  I like my crusts to be thin and chewy and these were just that.  I made a sausage, mushroom pizza, a sausage, green pepper and jalapeno pizza and a white arugula pizza which is a recipe by the Barefoot Contessa.  They were all very good, but my favorite had to be the white pizza. If you make it, it doesn't take 4.5 hours to make, that must be a typo in the website.  Buen Appetito!

Surprise Visit

Miss Olivia having ice cream

I was so surprised the other day when my best girlfriend Sarah, her hubby Michael and their baby girl Olivia who I had not met yet showed up at my workplace.  I can't tell you how elated I felt.  I couldn't stop hugging them.  It was soooo emotional.  They had moved away to Arkansas and I hadn't seen them in 6+ years so you can imagine how shocked I was.  Anyway, after all the tears and hugging we took a trip down to the Village Ice Cream Parlor and shared a banana split.  It was so cute watching Olivia, this was her 2nd time ever that she had ice cream.  Needless to say she was liking the ice cream.  We headed back to my house after the dessert and just hung out, shared stories, ate food, drank coffee:o).  What is so great about our friendship is that it's like we just start where we left off and there's no awkwardness.  I love those guys and it was awesome to meet Miss Olivia, she's beautiful.  I hope it's not 6+ years until I see them again, but if it is I know that it will be just like it was on that day, a wonderful surprise.