Recipe: Moroccan Chicken

Amy cooks some really great, easy dinners for us. When she’s not around I have to fend for myself, and while I don’t eat cereal for dinner, it’s often not much more complex than that. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear I was raised by wolves. Who don’t cook. And I wasn’t.

At any rate, here’s one of Amy’s regular recipes. Easy, quick, tasty, and healthy!

Moroccan Chicken

• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• salt and pepper
• 4 garlic cloves, slivered
• 2 T olive oil
• 3 t honey
• 1 1/2 t ground ginger
• 4 tomatoes cored and chopped
• zucchini, quartered and slivered
• 1/2 c chopped cilantro

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-low heat.  Add garlic; cook until starting to soften (1 minute).  Stir in tomatoes, ginger, salt, pepper, half the cilantro, and 1/4 C water.

Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated but is still somewhat saucy, 6 – 8 minutes.

Stir in honey; add chicken and zucchini.  Return to a simmer & cover.  Cook, turning once, until chicken is cooked through and zucchini is tender (10 minutes).  Stir in remaining cilantro.  Serve over Couscous.

Recipe: Braising Greens and White Beans

This blog post is supposed to be about “true secrets.” But you know what? I’m too braindead after this incredibly long day to confess any true secrets to you. Instead, I’ll tell you that Amy’s making a really awesome dinner, even if it sounds wacky.

Braised Greens + White Beans

2t grated ginger
hot pepper
6 cups chopped greens (which can be steamed)
1 can (14-16oz) white beans, drained
2t soy sauce
2t sherry
1t rice vinegar
1.5t brown sugar

Mix soy sauce, sherry, vinegar, and sugar with a can of drained white beans and let them sit for a while. Saute the ginger and hot pepper; add greens to pan and saute. Add white beans + sauce and heat through.

Serve with big hunks of good crusty bread. I also eat it with a beer, but that’s optional.

Super tasty! And now I’m off to eat some and head to bed.

Anniversary Dinner at L’Espalier

For our wedding, my brother, his partner, and their daughter gave Amy and me a gift certificate to the fabulous, fancy French restaurant L’Espalier in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. Last Saturday, the night before our first anniversary, we put that gift certificate to good use and treated ourselves to one of the best meals either of us has ever had.

We both chose the Degustation menu paired with 4 wines selected to match our entrees. Because of the flexibility of the menu, we got to have 8 different items (4 courses each, with a swap halfway through the meal.)

The entire experience was divine, as evidenced by the food hangovers we both had the next day. There are photos of each item we ate in the slideshow below. YUM.

Beer is Tasty

Independently of each other, Amy and I each bought a bunch of beer the other day. What was incredibly amusing to both of us (she walked in the house about 5 minutes after I did) was that of the 4 kinds of beer we each got, two were the same. And it’s not like these are beers we’ve ever purchased before.

UFO Raspberry Hefeweizen

Wachusett Blueberry Wheat Ale

I also picked up a bottle of Chimay and a 6-pack of Sam Adams Winter Ale. Amy got a variety pack from Magic Hat (containing No. 9, Circus Boy, and a mystery brew) and some Guinness. You know what’s really good? Half blueberry ale and half Guinness with a few blueberries thrown in - a black and blue! Yummy!

My Favorite Things (November 2006 version)

There are a few things in my life that I’m really grooving on lately. Rather than hoard that information, it seems only fair to share it with all of you, my numerous readers!

Tivoli Audio Fashion PAL Portable Audio Laboratory AM/FM Radio in sky blue

This small, battery-operated, rechargeable radio is just the right thing for my bathroom. I love the sound, the reception is AMAZING (seriously - I pick up stations from Providence, RI), and it’s so darn cute I could die. Yes, it’s expensive. I splurged on it, because the bathroom is the one place where I need to have peace and calm in the morning. I wanted no cords draped all over the place. This fits perfectly on the bathroom cabinet. I love it!

Kiss My Face fragrance free moisture shave cream

I can’t begin to express how much I love this shave cream. It doesn’t smell (a plus in my book, ymmv), you only need a small amount of it, and it lathers up really nicely. My legs (when I do take the time to deal with them) are always happiest when I use this shave cream over soap or other body washes/shave creams.

No One Cares What You Had For Lunch

Blogger and mightygoods.com writer Margaret Mason offers up the blogger’s version of writing prompts. NaBloPoMo made me realize how stinky some of my posts are (who CARES about all those memes anyway?) and this book gives me lots of ideas to make this blog a wee bit better.

Google Reader

I love how Google Reader has changed my blog-reading habits. It’s so much easier for me to navigate through all the chaff and get to the wheat. And no annoying Bloglines plumber for me!

J. Crew factory store corduroys

You can’t get them online, from the catalogs, or in the regular stores. I know because I tried (no way I’m paying more than $50 for a pair of cord, which always wear out faster than other pants for me). But they have these cords in the outlets which are the Perfect Cords for Me. I’m in the smallest size I’ve worn in literally years - and this is because I’m at my lowest BMI in years too. Hockey plus some dedicated work after last winter’s moving/moping/new job/eatingfest has paid off. But these cords - I got one pair and loved them so much that I braved the Wrentham Outlets outside of Boston a few weeks ago to pick up three more pair. I now own them in: light sage green, dark sage green, grey, and a warm honey-brown.

Milky Way mini candy bars (leftover from Halloween)

Apparently I like candy bars with caramel in them. How do I know this? The Twix mini candy bars are gone from the jumbohumongousgigantic bag of candy we got from Costco. And tonight I think I finally found the last Milky Way in the bag. Granted, I’ve thought that before, and always another one surfaces. We’ll see if my luck holds out beyond tonight.
Timex Easy Reader watch with expansion band

It’s been a looooong time since I owned a watch I liked. Normally I agonize over watch purchases, going for something that is exactly perfectly right. On Monday I was in a bunch of meetings where I was supposed to be keeping time, only it was hard to do without a.) a computer (my normal timepiece) or b.) my cell phone (my backup timepiece). So in a fit of needing a watch now, I headed to Target and found this little dandy piece. And I got it way cheaper than they have it listed for at Times! It’s been on my wrist all day and not once has it annoyed me. That is the sign of a fabulous watch in my world.

On a different note, this is just weird.