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This evening we made Chicken in a Horseradish Pan Sauce over Orange and Herb Couscous. The central elements were parsley and orange zest in the couscous, and horseradish and mustard in the cream sauce. Unfortunately they just didn’t work together at all. The couscous was overly salty from the chicken stock, which didn’t complement the orange zest and parsley flavours. The competing elements worked against, not with, each other.

The Horseradish Pan Sauce sounded like something that L would really enjoy. Again, unfortunately this wasn’t the case. Somewhere between the mustard, onions, horseradish, thyme, half and half and chicken stock, the end result tasted a little like acrid sludge. And again, it clashed with the orange zest; the whole meal was a big disappointment.

I have a new respect for people who cook real meals, every night. Our kitchen always smells of stale cooking odours. After long days, cooking seems relentless rather than relaxing. It seems impossible to ever catch up on the cleaning and washing up. I always thought it would be great to spend more time with food. To write about it, think about it, test new recipes. At the moment, two months into the process, the food preoccupation seems overwhelming. How nice would it be to just have a bowl of cereal tomorrow night, or maybe cheese and crackers? Instead, we begin the three day balsamic vinegar/ rice pilaf run with Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops with Arugula-Basil Rice Pilaf. The day after it’s Balsamic-Glazed Chicken.

This evening we made Chicken with Sweet Raisins and Apricots on Toasted Almond Couscous, which I may have mentioned yesterday we were not particularly excited about. The reasons for that being our recent overexposure to chicken breasts, an ambiguity towards couscous, and a personal dislike of raisins in savoury dishes (stemming from UK school dinner curry- a yellow slime with lumps of unidentifiable “meat” and raisins). That said, this meal was surprisingly tasty, easy and reasonably economical with the dishes.

The chicken was pan fried in olive oil, then a sauce was made with shallots, butter, flour, chicken stock, cider vinegar and apricots and raisins. We skimped on the butter as there was plenty of olive oil left in the skillet and we are not particularly in need of the extra fat. The couscous was cooked with parsley in chicken stock and olive oil. Toasted almonds were added to the final dish.

The couscous was a subtle, tasty backdrop for the chicken dish. The toasted almonds added some interest and bite to the tiny couscous grains. The chicken was, well chicken, but the sauce was good. It was sweet, tangy and tart. The apricots were good and L really liked the raisins; I still wasn’t one hundred percent convinced by that aspect. The best part of this recipe was the fact that it made a complete balanced meal, with complementary flavours and textures. The worst part for us, you’ll be surprised to hear, is that it is made with chicken. With a pork chop this would have been fantastic. On the basis that pork and peaches go tremendously together, this would really have worked beautifully. Och well, moving on.

Tomorrow, we remake this meal from todays master recipe. In its next reincarnation it will be Chicken in a Horseradish Pan Sauce over Orange and Herb Couscous. This actually sounds like a distinctly different interpretation, which is a bonus. Shame about the chicken.

This evening we spent around 45 minutes making Turkey Cutlet Parmigiano with Warm, Fresh Grape Tomato Topping, Pesto, and Mozzarella. Our dirty dish count stands at two skillets, one wooden spoon, one pair of tongs, two plates, three shallow dishes, one chopping board, one cookie sheet, one knife, one spoon, and our serving dishes and cutlery. In all honesty, this seemed like far too much time and trouble for the end result.

The turkey cutlets were dipped in flour, egg, then breadcrumbs with Parmigiano cheese and chopped parsley. Pan-fried in olive oil, they ended up tasting not dissimilar to cheesy cardboard. Not necessarily in a bad way, after all I’d rather eat pizza base than turkey cutlets most days of the week. The cutlets were topped with the grape tomato/ onion/ garlic/ wine mixture, which in all honesty could have been easily substituted with a good jarred pasta sauce. Let’s not be food snobs about this; whilst the topping was both warm and fresh, it was not particularly tangy or rich or flavoursome. On top of the tomato mixture went the pesto (which was store bought as directed). As an uninteresting observation, this would have been much easier to apply directly to the cutlet, rather than over the tomato sauce. Fresh mozzarella completed the dish and the whole lot went under the broiler for a few minutes.

We used half a pound of turkey for two people. We made five cutlets and three are left over. The recipe calls for half a pound of turkey per person, presumably to keep fighting the good fight against any national poultry surplus. Overall, this dinner was pleasant enough but certainly not worth the trouble after a long, long day. It honestly was a bit like a rather bland pizza. The spinach as side-dish was our prerogative, given that there were no directions to supplement the meal. The one high point in the whole preparation was the fact that one of our cats tried to get into the dishes full of flour, egg and breadcrumbs. They must really hate their food; eating flour is a new all time low, even for that particular cat. They very rarely jump up on the countertop, and are immediately chased away if they do, but it’s normally at least for something worthwhile like tuna fish. But for flour? That’s almost tragic.

Tomorrow, back to chicken, of course. I don’t think we’ll be disappointed with Chicken with Sweet Raisins and Apricots on Toasted Almond Couscous, because our high hopes have already plummeted to rock-bottom. Sometimes it’s good to have ridiculously low expectations.

Big Bird: Jumbo Chicken, Spinach and Herb Burgers with Mushroom and Swiss were certainly big, jumbo, ginormous burgers. Each was made with a full half pound of ground chicken, with some basil, parsley, shallots, Dijon mustard and spinach thrown in for good measure. Topped with mushrooms fried in garlic and a slice of Swiss cheese, the food mountain was served in a bun with tomato, lettuce and more Dijon.

Whilst we would certainly admit that we are pretty indifferent to chicken at this point, to put it politely, there’s something a little disappointing about a burger made with chicken. Beef, pork or lamb would all have been a welcome relief. I understand that chicken is a healthier alternative than red meat or the “other” white meat, but it does fall somewhat on the bland, non-succulent side. The herbs and spinach did help, this was not an unpleasant meal by any means, and there was certainly plenty of it.

However, if we could imagine for a second that we weren’t overdosing on poultry, how would we feel about this dinner? As a burger, it was pleasant enough. The greens flecked within the meat were visually appealing, if not dramatically influential taste-wise. The melted cheese and mushrooms were worth the extra effort. Overall, this would have been a tasty lunch in a beer garden somewhere, washed down with an ice cold beer. And I’m not imagining Minnesota with its current knee-high snow blanket in this picture.

When we started this ridiculous relatively ambitious project, we thought that we would only serve a side dish if Rachael Ray directed us to do so. Today we deviated from that goal- the burger was to be served on its lonesome, yet we decided to supplement with some anaemic-looking boil-in-the-bag Caesar Salad, to offset the meat mountain. The meal is one of the handful that is actually photographed in the cookery book, and there it is served with chips. In fairness, there was so much burger that there was no need for anything else on the plate.

Tomorrow, we break out the turkey for Turkey Cutlet Parmigiano with Warm, Fresh Grape Tomato Topping, Pesto, and Mozzarella. Then we have chicken, chicken, pork chops, then chicken for the rest of the week. The poultry domination continues.

After a day of not looking forward to dinner one iota, we set about making the Halibut Soup. We each decided on a back-up meal that we planned to order from the local Thai restaurant, should the soup be horrendous. Even as we started cooking, we remained sceptical. When L realised that the halibut cost $19.99 per pound, he decided he’d have to eat it regardless of the taste, simply to justify the cost. I was not necessarily in agreement on this point, but then the food actually started to smell really tasty. I am delighted to say that this soup was a surprise hit; it looked good and tasted fresh, original and well-balanced.

The halibut was firm and succulent, infused with flavour and spice from the chorizo, lime and poblano pepper. The broth was flavoursome and strong, without being overpowering. The vegetables were varied, colourful and appealing. We bought hominy for the first time ever for this dish, and despite being pretty underwhelmed when tasting it directly from the can, it actually wasn’t too bad in the soup.

Overall, this is not a dish that we’d ever have chosen to make from a recipe, and I can’t imagine that it’s anything that we would ever crave, nor order in a restaurant. However, this meal really was tasty and the flavours were complementary and reasonably complex. Had we invited people over to brave the winter storm, this would not have been the embarrassment I feared. Maybe we’ll make it again one day, if we remember.

Interestingly enough, this is the first time we’ve had fish in almost two months. From a health point of view, this seems like a bad thing. From a budgetary standpoint, given that we live smack bang in the middle of this enormous country, we’re probably saving some pennies. Tomorrow, we start yet another poultry run with Big Bird: Jumbo Chicken, Spinach and Herb Burgers with Mushroom and Swiss.

Eggs-traordinary Spanish Style Stuffed Toasty Baskets with Lemony Greens was eggs-tremely unappetising, eggs-traspecially rubbish, eggs-actly what we didn’t want to cook or eat. Yes, the bacon was exchanged for chorizo, and pimento stuffed olives were placed on the top. Still not Spanish food, still not good. Nobody wanted to touch this meal.

Moving on, tomorrow we make Halibut Soup. I’m hoping that my preconceptions are all wrong, and that the fishy soup will indeed be fabulous. Please, pretty please.

This afternoon, the egg-shy adults cooked Eggs-traordinary Stuffed Toasty Baskets with Lemony Greens for Baby A who is too little to share our extreme anti-egg prejudices. As I mentioned earlier, L is allergic to eggs and I just really, really don’t like them. I can eat them scrambled or in an omelette, but I cannot stomach poached or hard boiled eggs. Or, more specifically, the egg yolk prepared in such a fashion makes me queasy. This dish was thus never destined to be a great hit in this family, but perhaps if it was easy to make and Baby A enjoyed it, we could adopt it into our repertoire.

Let’s surmise by saying that’s never going to happen. To be honest, this meal is ridiculous. Rachael Ray says it is good for B, L or D,- breakfast, lunch or dinner. Only if you really aren’t hungry. As an enormous contrast to every meal we’ve made so far, this meal was comparatively tiny. One egg is oven baked inside a squashed slice of white bread stuffed in a muffin tin, topped with fried tomato, bacon, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes and cheese. This is just too labour-intensive for the end result. If the egg was poached and the skillet was used to fry up a mountain of bacon and tomatoes, that I could understand. Rather, the sorry little egg in a muffin cup was served with a dressed green salad.

I tried some of the dish, and it was just rubbish. Unless you were desperately trying to impress someone with your egg-cooking-prowess for a fancy brunch, this is just not worth it. Baby A started dinner by trying to throw her plate of food on the floor. After some coaxing, she could be persuaded to try some of the meal. In fairness she did eat a couple of mouthfuls, and seemed reasonably content. Then she had some egg yolk, gagged, and refused to eat any more. Perhaps the apple doesn’t fall so far from the tree after all.

Unfortunately, tomorrow we get to make it again, with chorizo instead of bacon, and topped with olives for Eggs-traordinary Spanish Style Stuffed Toasty Baskets with Lemony Greens. Maybe I can work on perfecting my stuffing a flattened slice of processed bread into a greased muffin tin skills. Who knows when this technique may come in handy? Think of all the things you could stuff inside a Toasty Basket. Chicken sausage, chopped chicken breasts, chicken thighs, chicken stuffing. The options are endless

This evening our allocated dish was Chicken with Wild Mushroom and Balsamic Cream Sauce [recipe]. This was a straightforward recipe to follow and the results were reasonably good. There seemed to be potential in this recipe for a very tasty meal, but unfortunately the flavour fell short, cumulating in a somewhat bland overall result. Essentially the dish consisted of pan fried chicken breasts, cremini mushrooms, button mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, shallots, onion, garlic, thyme and parsley. The sauce was made with butter, flour, chicken stock, cream and balsamic vinegar. Just before serving, I tasted the sauce and added more balsamic vinegar, probably doubling the called for amount. Still, we both felt that something more was required to boost the flavour; perhaps more balsamic, more garlic and some wine.

However, as a basic recipe, this is worth hanging on to. The mushrooms were good and the consistency of the sauce was fine, although slightly on the thick side. I would imagine that this would be a good basis for a meal made with pork tenderloin or steak, rather than chicken. The pasta was orzo, which is one of my personal favourites. L, however, finds it to be like “pasta porridge”. We very rarely eat orzo, as a consequence. I found that the excitement of eating orzo almost compensated for the fact that we were having chicken again. Although not quite.

The Food Network website write up of this recipe, states,

This recipe is a modern take on the ol’ Cream of Mushroom Chicken. This one is more healthful and almost as easy as pouring that condensed, salty mass out of a can. It will heal a long day!

This information seems to perhaps explain the divisive reviews of the recipe on the website, where people either absolutely love it, or find it a little bland. My take would be that those who are expecting an updated Cream of Mushroom recipe, find that it is tasty and “better than fabulous”. I ate a fair share of meals based on Campbell’s Condensed Soup as a student, and a few since moving to the Midwest, and this recipe is better than any of those, no question. However, for those people expecting a Wild Mushroom and Balsamic Cream Sauce, this recipe seems to be a disappointment, with its “severe lack of flavor”. That is where our opinion lies. With $11 worth of mushrooms in this dish, the sauce would definitely have been more satisfying, had it been a little more robust.

Tomorrow we start the egg run, with Eggs-traordinary Stuffed Toasty Baskets with Lemony Greens, followed by Eggs-traordinary Spanish Style Stuffed Toasty Baskets with Lemony Greens. Let’s hope that Baby A has been secretly practicing her words for reviewing food. We’re not sure that tortoise and cracker, eye and nose, mummy and daddy, or hat and shoes will be adequate vocabulary to convey how she feels about her dinner. Or how effectively she feels the chorizo and olives radically revamp the meal, Spanish Style.

In a frantic flurry of cooking activity, L made dinner this afternoon while I prepared for work. The new revised version of the meal of yesterday included roasted red peppers and chorizo, making it “Spanish” in style. So tonight we had Big, Thick, Hearty Thighs Spanish Style, ha ha. The main result was a much oilier sauce with a richer red colour. It was marginally spicier, but there really was not too much to differentiate between the meals. Maybe tomorrow we could add bamboo shoots and call it Chinese Style.

You know what I could really eat? More chicken. Good thing that tomorrow we’re having Chicken with Wild Mushroom and Balsamic Cream Sauce. Can’t wait. No really.

The meal for today was actually pretty good, certainly better than the obnoxious title of the dish- Big, Thick, Hearty Thighs… and That’s a Compliment! I accidentally bought chicken thighs complete with skin and bones, rather than skinless boneless thighs. This added some meat prep time to the whole meal, as L removed the superfluous bits. Other than that, this was a very straightforward dish to make. The thighs were browned in olive oil, with onion, garlic and thyme incorporated in to the pot. Liquid was added in the form of chicken stock and white wine, with some thinly sliced red potatoes thrown in. After simmering for around fifteen minutes, lemon juice, zest, parsley and my favourite food of all time, frozen peas, were stirred in. Served with spinach salad and crusty bread, this was a tasty chicken recipe.

In our run of extreme poultry fatigue, the chicken thighs were a welcome change from chicken breasts. They were succulent and meaty and worked well with this simple preparation. The potatoes and peas were exactly as you would hope them to be. Overall, this was successful, and would be a very easy meal to cook for a large number of people. Having said all that, We’re not wildly enthusiastic about cooking it again tomorrow as Big, Thick, Hearty Thighs Spanish Style. Another day, another set of chicken legs. But next time it will feature chorizo and roasted red peppers. I’m sure it’ll be wildly different. I’m deliberately not making any snarky comments about the meal titles, in case you were wondering.