Chicken and Cashew Stir-Fry with Ginger-Scented Rice

For some reason, I always have trouble with jasmine rice. It isn't as forgiving as my old-reliable Uncle Ben's. I can't turn my back on it for a minute or it sticks and burns to the bottom of the pot. So I guess it's a good thing we've started eating early on Sundays because I had time to make a second pot of rice after scorching the first batch. Burned rice has an unpleasant smell. My family was kind enough to point this out to me as I chipped rice off the bottom of my pot in hopes of scrubbing it clean enough to try again. Because you can't have stir-fry without rice. (Although you could have it with noodles. Next time I'll try noodles.) Actually, once I managed to cook the rice properly it was really good. The first batch used up most of my fresh ginger so it wasn't quite as ginger-scented as it might have been, but it worked well with the chicken and cashew stir-fry. And the hardest part of that dish was cutting up the chicken, which I delegated.

Black Label Chicken Parmesan

This past Saturday I was gifted with a big bag of PC Black Label food products. Which came in very handy Sunday night when I was faced with deciding on dinner. I had my eye on the big box of Fiorelli pasta that was in my bag but wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, since I wasn't on grocery duty this weekend and wasn't sure what I had to work with. Then I spied a jar of Black Label Marinara sauce in the pantry that David happened to pick up, having been inspired by our gift bag bounty. Rustling through the fridge I found some chicken breasts while the freezer yielded up some grated mozzarella cheese. A quick Google search later and I decided on Baked Chicken Parmesan, using my bottled marinara and Fiorelli pasta.

Black Pepper Molasses Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

These sandwiches are great when you feel like pulled pork but it's Monday night and that isn't going to happen. I didn't quite believe these sandwiches were going to work the first time I tried the recipe. I've never cooked with boneless, skinless chicken thighs before and I was a bit suspect that they would cook in 20 minutes. But cook they did, and cook well. The meat is moist, tender and made all the more flavourful by a sweet/spicy sauce that all of my boys enjoyed. I served these on little slider buns (because then I could have two) but obviously you can use regular-sized buns if you like. 

Bourbon Molasses Chicken Drumsticks

The last two years we have hosted the annual 'Friends Cottage Weekend' we have been blessed with perfect weather. We knew our luck would change eventually. Turns out, this was the year. Wet, wetter and wettest would be the best way to describe our Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (That's not totally fair. It began to clear up Sunday as we pulled away from the cottage. Of course.) All of the signs that our good weather streak was about to be broken were there. The one I noticed in particular was the weather forecast. All was not lost though. The kids still went outside and played baseball. The canoe was taken for a spin around the lake. And we still managed to BBQ.

Chicken Normande

While the cold weather is allowing me to enjoy some of my favourite Winter dishes like Chicken Normande with Mashed Apples and Potatoes, I must say I am very tired of this:

How you feelin?

If you finished that thought with 'hot hot hot' then you too have been over-exposed to the tune "Hot Hot Hot" written by one Buster Poindexter. D. and I heard this song every day multiple times a day for a whole week the first time we went to the Caribbean Beach Resort at Disney. The themed food court didn't exactly feature Caribbean fare, but the music more than made up for it, and definitely lent our trip that island vibe we were going for when we visited in October.

Snow Day!

So remember when I said it started snowing Sunday afternoon? Well it hasn't stopped since, which means we've shoveled our driveway a bazillion times and we have a backyard that looks like this:

After rolling out of bed this morning I checked the web and discovered that school was closed as was my place of employment. Woo-hoo! Snow day! Serious snow day. In fact I'm not sure where we're going to put all of the snow that is rapidly (re)filling our driveway. The kids went out to play this morning and I briefly considered attaching some kind of lead to the younger one in case he went under. Between no school, unlimited snow play and discovering Netflix can stream SpongeBob cartoons the boys are pretty much in heaven. My idea of heaven on a snow day? Baking, of course! I thought it might be a good afternoon to try out Julekake, a recipe that caught D's eye in his quest for a Christmas morning breakfast treat. More on that in another post.

Another great thing about having a snow day is that you can have Sunday dinner leftovers for lunch. I made the most scrumptious Skillet Chicken Pot Pie last night. It's from The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook (page 40) which I picked up for half price on Boxing Day last year. I love this cookbook, which is brought to you by Cook's Illustrated. I also love Cook's Illustrated, although they are one of the few recipe sites on the web that require you to pay for access. Which I totally understand since a revenue model of 'let's give away everything we do for free' isn't all that sustainable. So I'm not going to reproduce the recipe here. I'll show it to you though:


This Chicken Pot Pie is such a great concept. It's made in one pan (apart from the biscuits, which are baked separately) and uses convenience products like boneless chicken breasts and frozen peas/carrots. The sauce is butter, flour, chicken broth and cream. You can likely note specks of thyme in the sauce as well, along with some chopped onion and celery. This is seriously good stuff. I'm glad I took a picture of this dish in the kitchen because by the time I got to the dining table with my portion, the plate beside me looked like this:

Happily there was more than enough for seconds. D. actually made the biscuits for this dish since I was working on a new Christmas cookie recipe, the details of which I will share later. I even caught him in biscuit-making action:

Why yes, that is a 'vintage' Tupperware pastry rolling mat. I stole it from my mom and she either hasn't noticed or is too polite to say anything.

Sandwiches. Again.

I think I've talked about my obsession with sandwiches before. It continues. I borrowed this book from the Library a few weeks ago:


Basically both mom and daughter cook, but they have different styles. Mom is a little more traditional with what I would call 'fussier' dishes. Daughter makes food that is simple and perhaps more 'modern'. Whatever that means. Both are blond and thin and stylish. So 'dishes' is a kind of double entendre, right? Right. Anyhoo.

I copied a bunch of recipes from this book with a few selections from both mother and daughter. Last Saturday I tried the Mona Lisa sandwich (courtesy Devin) and it was very, very good. I'm always amazed at how often simple recipes become my favourite recipes. And not because they are simple - because the results are just so good.

The Mona Lisa is a chicken sandwich. I loved how the chicken for this 'wich was cooked because it used on-hand ingredients and it was fast. Egg white, bread crumbs, chicken fillet. Dip in egg, dip in bread crumbs. Cook in 400 degree oven for 12 minutes. I did this the other night and ended up cutting up the second chicken fillet for my kids, who enjoyed their Mona Lisa chicken but were less than satisfied with the name. They know the Mona Lisa is a painting of a woman, not a chicken. So what gives mum?

Once you have cooked the chicken all that is left to do to make the Mona Lisa sandwich is melt some mozzarella on top of your fillet, which you accomplish while also toasting your bun. I used ciabatta buns picked up from a local bakery. You spread a mixture of pesto and mayonnaise on the toasted bun and top with a nice slice of tomato (just bought some at the local outdoor market - so much better than plastic tomatoes from the supermarket) and fresh basil leaves.

Both my husband and I loved this sandwich. Which is why I enjoyed it both on Saturday and again mid-way through the week. But once again, no picture. I seriously remember thinking I should take a picture but I didn't want to stop eating. Seriously. That good.