Broiled Soy Ginger Chicken

Do you ever make something and wonder why you don’t make it more often or use that technique more often?

For some reason, I always forget about marinading meat overnight.  It’s such an easy way to have an incredibly flavorful meal.  Come dinner time, the meat cooks up in a few minutes in the marinade.  So easy.

This soy-ginger chicken is incredibly moist and flavorful.  It is similar to a teriyaki chicken, but not quite as sweet or citrusy.  By marinading in an ovenproof dish, all you have to do is add your veggies, let your dish come to room temperature, and broil.

Venison Tomato Sauce

I think I was Italian in another life.  I love Italy and I love Italian food.  Pasta, tomatoes, cheese, wine:  what gets better than that?

But, for my affection for all things Italian, there is a scarcity of Italian dishes on this blog.  Not because T and I aren’t cooking Italian food, but because Italian nights always become a flurry of a little of this, a pinch of that, maybe three shakes of this one because we haven’t used it in a while.  By the time we’re relaxing, quite content after an amazing meal, we couldn’t recreate the dish a second time ourselves, let alone write a recipe down.  We do like it that way, it keeps things interesting and always just to our tastes at the moment, but this time, we decided it was high time to record one of the dishes.

Turkey Pot Pie – Slow Cooker Style

In a fit of cravings for turkey pot pie, but a lack of time to actually make the pot pies themselves, I decided to improvise with the crock pot.  This dish is a cross between turkey with dumplings and a turkey pot pie.  The creamy turkey stew, made easy with the crock pot and poured over a warm and crispy biscuit, recreates quite closely the flavors of a classic pot pie.  If you close your eyes, you may even trick yourself into believing you’re eating the real thing.

Braised Venison

The March, 2012 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Carol, a/k/a Poisonive – and she challenged us all to learn the art of Braising! Carol focused on Michael Ruhlman’s technique and shared with us some of his expertise from his book “Ruhlman’s Twenty”.

Braising is a technique in which meat is seared before being simmered.  There are so many great braising recipes out there, it was difficult to choose.  But after some searching, I came across a recipe from ArkansasFoodies for braised venison.  Eager to use some of T’s deer that is overflowing the freezer, we set to work.

Coq Au Vin

Whenever I think of Coq au Vin, I have visions of some high class French restaurant and fancy food that is intimidating to even think about attempting at home.  So, I was glad when I had the chance to make this with my mom for a girl’s night dinner.  Turns out, this was one of her favorite dishes to make when she was younger.  So, I got to learn the ropes of making this dish from someone who has French heritage and cooking talent coursing strong though her veins.

While Coq au Vin is a bit labor intensive to make, it’s not quite as complicated as it may seem.  The most time consuming part is sauteing the ingredients individually to lock in flavors before combining them into one dish for the fun part – flambe!  Then everything is either simmered or baked to let the flavors meld.  It’s not a dish to attempt to rush through 30 minutes before you want to eat.  It takes love and attention, but, it is a great dish to make ahead so all you have to do is the final baking before eating.

The flavors of this dish mellow as it cooks, resulting in chicken permeated with the warm flavoring of red wine and an earthy undertone of herbs and garlic.  Even my friend who is not a fan of mushrooms was quite surprised how much she liked this dish.