my other special sauce.

every thursday i have dinner with my girls, and by have dinner i mean i cook and we drink a bottle of wine and watch grey's. this week we decided that we anted comfort food. mac and cheese, buffalo wings and brownies comfort food. usually i bring the food and pans to amy's because she has the biggest kitchen, but this week i hadn't gone grocery shopping and neither had amy, so we went to meijer to get inspired. well, meijer probably has the best gluten free/ organic selection of any store here in chambana (except strawberry fields, but it is a little far from the bus). we bought some brown rice pasta and lots of cheese when amy decided that we needed chicken. so, we bought chicken breasts pre-cut into tenders, and what we got was an amazing meal of comfort food to go with the celebration wine that we busted out to celebrate my post-graduation employment.



buffalo chicken with the other special sauce:
1/2 bottle frank's red hot sauce (the smaller size, should be about 3/4-1 cup)
2 -3 T stone ground mustard (this is approximate, i just squeeze it 3 times)
honey to taste

1 package of boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips (1-1.5 pounds)

whisk all the ingredients together and taste. if there is too much of a kick add a little more honey, but keep in mind that the sweetness pops as it cooks. if it isn't too hot but the flavor seems a little flat, add more mustard. marinate for about 15 minutes in a large bowl.

cook chicken in a large skillet on medium-high for about 5 minutes on each side. pour extra marinade in the skillet with the chicken. serve with ranch dressing for dipping (i make this one).

you will have to soak the skillet to get all of the sauce out of it, but it is a tasty way to prepare chicken and is one of my special sauces. the secret to everything is in the sauce, and this sauce is impossible to ruin.

the mac and cheese was a slightly less successful experiment, and although it was delicious, it was very much dumping cheese, milk and butter into the pot with the rice noodles and seeing what came out. and it was delicious, but i definately used too much cheese. and i made my brownies. i must say, i love comfort food.

anyways, pardon my rambling and my inability to create scientific recipes. my cooking is really just a little of this and a little of that...

damn, im good :)

i made a fabulous dinner from all things left in the apartment (i am moving in 4 weeks and am attempting to eat as much food from my pantry as possible as to avoid having to move as much of this as possible). and besides there is a forecast for snow. snow? in the middle of april? in cental illinois? yes. and i really don't want to turn my heat back on...so, hearty dinner made from the goodies in my panty.

Red Quinoa with my special sauce
(and yes i call it my special sauce...it is just that good)

ingredients:
1 cup inca red quinoa
2 cups chicken stock or water
1 can muir glenn fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 large cloves garlic (you can add more if you love garlic and don't have a hot date)
1-2 teaspoons thyme
1-2 teaspoons marjoram
olive oil
1 cup red wine (i used a wine cube cabernet sauvignon)

to make the quinoa (i used inca red simply because it looked like fun when i was shopping) put a teaspoon or so olive oil in the bottom of a large sauce pan over medium heat. when the pan heats up add the quinoa and toast (?) the grains for about 2 minutes (it will start to smell nutty) add the liquid (either stock or water) and bring to a boil. stir and reduce to a simmer stirring occaisionally for about 15 minutes (all liquid should be cooked out and the germ layer should be translucent).

while cooking the quinoi add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a saute pan over medium heat. when pan is hot add garlic thyme and marjoram. cook until the carlic starts to turn gloden brown. add the cann of tomatoes and the wine. cook sauce until it thickens. add salt and pepper to taste. if you like more sauce/ toppings double the ingredients or add a can of organic tomato sauce and add more garlic, wine and herbs to taste. if the sauce is too acidic you can add a pinch of cane sugar to augment it.

mix together, and voila, red quinoa with special sauce.