Veggie Topped Baked Chicken

I was reading Men's Health the other week, and at the end was an article by Chef Eric Ripert. He had to cook for his son after work, and he was lauding the convenience and prowess of the ordinary toaster oven. A toaster oven is a great size for small meals, yet it's nearly the same strength of an oven. Plus, the size means it heats up faster and more evenly. If you wrap the tray in foil, cleanup is super easy. Out of the five recipes he described, I liked his recipe for a fennel topped chicken, so I modified it a bit for an easy chicken entree. Check it out:




Ingredients
Olive oil
Bell pepper
Tomato
Onion
Dried basil
Chicken breast
salt and pepper


Method
1 Preheat oven/toaster oven to 400.
2 Julienne onion, bell pepper, and tomato; cut sticks in half if desired
3 Butterfly chicken breast completely (into two pieces) or pound into 1/2 thickness. Salt and pepper both sides.
4 Wrap baking pan in foil. Brush with olive oil. Place chicken breasts in pan
5 Toss veggies in olive oil and place over chicken. Add dried basil over top. (Lately, I've been sprinkling garlic powder and crushed red pepper, too)
6 Bake for 20 minutes
7 Serve with the juices



You can serve this with another veggie side and/or a starch. In the picture above, I had it with sauteed swiss chard as side. Prepare the swiss chard like spinach. Last time I had it, I had it with blanched broccoli and some sliced potato for my starch. This is a light and easy meal to make, and you have time to clean up/cook your sides while waiting for the chicken!


You're probably wondering why there isn't any details to the ingredients, as in how much of what. Well, after cooking for a while, I no longer confine myself to numbers and counts. I think of how the dish should turn out and adjust accordingly. But, if you must know, the meal in the picture took 2 chicken breasts, 1 small tomato, 1/2 a medium bell pepper, 1/3 of a small red onion, and about 2 tbsp olive oil. It produced two servings; one for dinner and one for lunch the next day. The swiss chard cooks like spinach, so one bunch barely makes two servings. I'd buy more, at least 3/4 bunch per serving.

Ball Square Cafe & Breakfast

This past weekend we made it to Ball Square Cafe & Breakfast for some...*gasp*...breakfast. We had previously gone to Soundbites next door on a recommendation, but I didn't like it. The atmosphere was just a bit too busy and the space too big for the service to manage. It felt more bar-like than a breakfast place. Not so with Ball Square Cafe!

I've been to Ball Square Cafe a several times now. First visit, the place wasn't hard to find. Right on Broadway near the Powderhouse rotary tucked in with all the other breakfast places and restaurants. Walking in, it's a nice cozy atmosphere with a brick wall on the left and a finished wall on the right. Just wide enough for three rows of tables it's not too big and not too small. We were told to sit wherever we wanted and service was very pleasant. We heard the specials right away.

Food came promptly, even if service isn't the speediest. Drinks are self serve, which gives it a slight at-home feel. Food is where this place shines. I've done the whole IHOP/Bickford's deal. Chain breakfast is so...commercial. And Polly's Pancake Parlor is a seasonal roadtrip. But this place is chic, cozy, and tasty. The omelettes are generous, the breakfast combos are filling. Even the diners can be attractive. It's not the regular gramas and grandpas like IHOP.

Ball Square Cafe only opens until 3PM, so definitely a breakfast place. They also serve lunch, but I'd stay away from the burgers. My friend got one medium-rare, but it looked dry and tasteless. Go for breakfast. And if you get an omelette, get the Tabasco Habanero sauce. It's got a great kick!

Dry steak??

I went to Stockyard Restaurant in Brighton off of I90 the other week with some friends. I didn't pick it, but I always see it when I'm on the Pike, so I thought why not? I wasn't quite pleased with the experience.

The restaurant itself has a sort of charm to it. The interior was very woody and gives you a sense that it was around a while. Who knows, it might've been. We sat in the main dining room and there was a this huge bar in the middle. Very open. It took a while for us to get served. There was this larger set waiter that kept flying from table to table, and I was hoping he wouldn't be serving us. I was wrong. After managing to flag him down, he hastily took our order and rushed off. Our first impression of him was that he was either new or a very bad waiter. We mostly agreed on the latter.

I ordered a "Land and Sea" - 8-oz sirloin and three stuffed shrimp. As usual, I got my steak medium rare. We also ordered an appetizer sampler. The sampler was decent, but fatty appetizers tend to be good. Fat makes food tasty. Entrees came a bit later. My steak looked good, but I was very surprised to find that my steak was not seasoned at all. I'm used to places where the kitchen has seasoned the steak enough so that it complements the natural flavors. I very rarely use any other sauces/condiments on my steak, but this steak tasted like unseasoned beef. Salt and pepper kinda helped, but I maintained my no sauce on my steak rule (I probably should've given in to some A1). The steak was cooked right; warm red center. However, it was dry. I was stunned. How can a medium-rare steak be dry? That goes against all laws of nature for steak!! I know it was a sirloin, but come on, it was blood red! To top it off, one side of my steak had this tough chewy fat running along it. Great. On a good note, the broiled stuff shrimp was good. Again, fat makes things tasty. I had a baked potato, too, but you can't get that wrong. One of my friend's had this steak covered in this mushroom sauce. He liked his steak fine, but the sauce probably covered any deficiencies in the steak.

After dinner, we passed on dessert and got the check. The waiter deemed our party of six as large and added an 18% gratuity on the bill. When I got my credit slip, there was a line for "additional tip". I laughed at that. For what I paid, I could've went to Texas Roadhouse for a dependable tasty steak. It's a "No" to Stockyard.

Soup and poultry!

I had the pleasure of being able to cook dinner the other day with a friend. We made a soup, roasted cornish hen, roasted potatoes, and a quick salad. Didn't take much effort and was very cheap. I think the dinner for two wound up being $10 total (I did have some veggies and stuff in the pantry, but still). Anyways, I figure I should quickly put the recipes down. It's unbelievably easy. I don't really measure much, but I'll guesstimate:

Chicken Noodle Soup (though we skipped the chicken)

2 cans chicken broth (low-sodium recommended, can always add salt)

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1/4 lb cooked chicken

1 tbsp olive oil or butter

oregano

basil

salt and pepper

In a pot over medium heat, saute onions and celery in oil/butter until tender (about 5 min). Add chicken, carrots, herbs, salt and pepper. Bring to boil, then simmer for at least 20 minutes. Done! If you're adventurous, make your own chicken broth!

Herb Roasted Cornish Hen

I wanted roasted chicken, but didn't really need all that meat from a 4-5 pounder. So I went and got a 2lb cornish hen. Perfect size!

1 cornish hen, about 2lb

1/3 lemon

dried rosemary

dried thyme

dried parsley

kosher salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

Cut cornish hen in half and remove backbone (you can try to make some stock/broth with the bone and the giblets, but I doubt the small amount would produce a good enough stock. Maybe freeze it with other carcass bits until you have enough?). Drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil over chicken. Add herbs, pepper, and lemon juice. No salt yet, don't want to draw out the moisture from the meat. Let sit for an hour (Do this before you prep the rest of your meal so you're not just standing there doing nothing). Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat a skillet/nice frying pan to high. Add the other tbsp olive oil. Salt both sides of the cornish hen halves. Add to pan and sear till brown. Throw the whole thing into the preheated oven (don't have a pan that can go into the oven? Go here or here! Or you can transfer the halves into something oven safe) for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven (use mitt!) and let sit at least 5 minutes for juices to settle back into meat. Serve!

Herb Roasted Potatoes

I got this recipe from my coworker. When I asked her what she added to her potatoes, her answer was "whatever I got." I use this answer now when people ask me about my potatoes.

Potatoes, cleaned and cut into pieces (as much as you want. I prefer new potatoes, but will settle for red potatoes)

kosher salt

pepper

olive oil

whatever else you want

Drizzle oil over potatoes and add the "whatever I got" ingredients into potatoes. I like to add basil, Italian herbs, dill, a bit of Cajun mix, and onion powder). Don't be shy about the salt. You'll need more than you think. Arrange in shallow pan or casserole dish in an even layer. I would oil the pan, but I normally season the potatoes in whatever I plan on roasting them in, so it's usually coated. Throw in a preheated oven (450 degrees). Half hour should do it. I would mix the potatoes a couple times while they roast to get the entire surface area exposed.

Locally produced food at The Local

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by a cool little restaurant/pub in West Newton. My friend took me to The Local based on recommendations she received. But the main reason was to go check out some fried pickles! Haha.

The Local is a pub/restaurant with a menu that includes locally produced foods. Tucked into a section of Washington Street in West Newton, it's practically on the Mass Pike. Atmosphere is pretty casual, cool, and very lively with the bar taking up the left third and the dining area the rest of the place. The wait was pretty long on a Friday night, 45 minutes on that particular night. But I think it was worth the wait.

The Local has a pretty good list of appetizers and small snacks. We ordered some fried pickles and their warm potato chips. Very tasty, though the fried pickles weren't really my thing. For entrees I had a salmon that had a wonderful crunchy crust on a bed of bacon mushroom salad and some roasted garlic mashed potatoes. I gulped down a beer from Maine to wash that food down.

This is a place I will definitely go again. If it was closer, it would be an awesome place to gather up some friends for drinks and yummy snacks.

Check out more of my posts on food here!

100th post!

Wow. Can you believe this is my 100th post? I know. Not really that exciting. But how about getting $215 worth of pans for $60? That's pretty exciting huh? Well, don't say I don't hook you up:

Calphalon One Nonstick 8" and 10" Fry Pan Set

I bought these myself from the Williams-Sonoma store at Burlington Mall. I saw them then the deal, and I knew I had to have it. I guess I can give my crappy $10 pan away now. Mmmm...Can't wait to try them out.

Good food, good company

I finally made it over to my cousin's to get a taste of his crepes, which he started making ever since his return from a study-abroad trip to France. We went to get some groceries and went over to his place to do some prep work. I don't know why, but I like cooking. Well, I love DIY in general, but cooking is pretty awesome. You got the preparation aspect (I love mise en place), the assembling/cooking, and then you get instant gratification of your creations. How cool is that?


Anyway, we went about prepping our ingredients. We bought ingredients for savory crepes as well as dessert crepes. We also saved some fruits for a chocolate fondue later. My cousin also bought a loaf of Italian bread to accompany the brie I bought, so I couldn't resist and set that up at the center of our table.

My cousin took care of cooking and assembling the tasty crepes. We did ham, cheese, and mushrooms.

Overall, it was a nice night with good food and good company. Although I might have filled up a bit too much.

And make that snappy!

So last week, my friend and I made it into Davis Square to try out Snappy Sushi, a chain of sushi restaurants. We walked in and I was a bit weirded out by the giant wood table to the right where they serve customers. I opted for the bar hoping for a sushi bar experience. We ordered a tuna tartare (recommended by my friend), some nigiri, and a chirashi that I'd been craving for a couple years (pretty long time, but other places were charging $13-20 for a bowl of rice and fish while Snappy charged $9.99).

The decor of the place was pretty nice. It was modern colors and had a zen-like atmosphere. Wait/host staff was young and diverse. I looked behind the bar and was pleased with what appeared to be a Japanese head chef. His assistants were Hispanic, but what do you expect in Davis Square. Sitting at the bar, I was hoping the head sushi chef would at least acknowledge me, but no such luck. It was pure show to have the chefs there. They were just part of the assembly line and did not provide the sushi bar experience that I like at Chung Ki Wa in Medford Square. No biggie, I've only been to a couple of places where you can get that experience, so I don't expect it.

Anyhoot, the quality of the sushi was very nice for the price. I didn't get any makis, but the nigiris were well done. The tartare was interesting for a sushi place. It was pretty much tuna on top of tempura crumbs on top of avocado. It was a good play on texture, but I got most of the flavor from the crumbs. The chirashi was good, but you can't really mess up chirashi. It's sashimi on rice. The one big difference in this place was that they use brown rice for their sushi rice. It gave the sushi a slightly different taste, but the texture wasn't different at all. They cooked the brown rice very well; I would've preferred a little bit more sushi vinegar, but it was still enjoyable.

Overall, the sushi was presentable, tasty, and a pretty good deal. I would definitely come here again for pretty decent sushi for a good deal.

Vacation

I've been on vacation since the Fourth in California, and it's been quite relaxing. If only life was like this everyday! Alas, I am just a regular schmo with a nine-to-fiver, and I will be back at the daily grind on Monday. But I'm am relishing my time here as much as I can.

California's nice. Been to LA before, but right now I'm in San Francisco. My friend lives in the O.C., so after we leave SF we'll be back there. One thing I noticed about Cali that I didn't before is that liquor is sold everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE. Target, yup. CVS, yup. Trader Joe's, yup (I know they sold wine at home, but here they sell spirits too!). And it's cheap!!! Bottle of Patron here is like $35 - $39. Usually $50 at home. Crazy. Needless to say, we had one night where we were quite inebriated.

Food's okay. Nothing that stands out. Although, I did have my first sweet shrimp nigiri at Tadashi Sushi at La Jolla after a day of ocean kayaking. That was an excellent piece of sushi. If you've never had sweet shrimp and you love sushi, you gotta try it. I think it's amaebi in Japanese. I might be wrong.

Anyhoot, more posts when I get back.

Dim Sum and sushi

Two nights ago, I met up with a couple of friends after work for some fresh dim sum at Gitlo's Dim Sum Bakery. I have heard of recommendations from family and friends, but I had yet to try it out. There weren't a lot of people when we got there, so we got seated right away. Menu was all in English with less than 50 offerings. We ordered several dishes and waited patiently for our food.

The wait was a bit long, but they make their dim sum fresh on site. When they sell out of a certain item, that's it for the day. The dim sum arrived at the fresh from the kitchen and not steaming from a push cart as I was used to at dim sum restaurants. Let me tell you, the wait was worth it. There were some interesting twists to certain "traditional" dim sum. From seaweed shumai to fried daikon cake, everything we had was mouthwatering and delicious. Prices were decent as well!

I couldn't really fill up on dim sum, but through no fault of Gitlo's. I had been having a lot of "heavy" food lately and craved some sushi. So as one friend went home, I went to Kotobukiya at Porter Square (I had to pick up some stuff in the area anyway) for some economical sushi. I've been going to this place since high school, and quality can be inconsistent, but that night it was good. We got in a little bit before closing right between customers, so our sushi arrived minutes after we ordered. Not sure if it was because they were not busy, but it was the sushi I remembered from high school. Good quality with a low price. I had some nigiri and three types of makis, and they were all pretty good. Kotobukiya is setup as a sushi bar, so you just go over and sit down and they take care of you. Great place if you're in the area and you don't want to pay big bucks for fresh sushi.

FroYo anybody?

So after a nice long walk around town in flip flops, a couple friends and I decided to head to the Super 88 food court to get some YoBerry. What's Yoberry? It's a frozen yogurt place that specializes in supposedly Korean style frozen yogurt. From what I've heard, it's pretty close to the Pinkberry chain in Cali. The frozen yogurt tastes more like yogurt than traditional frozen yogurt, which tastes closer to soft-serve ice cream. The "vanilla" flavor has a tartness to it, and they usually offer a special flavor as well. Last night, they had wild strawberry. You can add a variety of toppings to the yogurt; I added mochi bits to mine (previously I swore by mango chunks).

Some people don't like the tart taste of the yogurt. Others love it. I guess it's really a matter of taste. Anyhoot, I like it because it tastes light and tricks me into not feeling guilty. I've never looked up the nutritional value of the treats, so I can cling to the YoBerry-isn't-bad-for-you conclusion.

In general, it's a nice light dessert/treat.

Kung Fu class, $1 oysters

I wound up not going to the Aikido open house on Saturday. I had a birthday BBQ to go to, but it was also because I thought it over pretty hard and decided kung fu is the right martial arts class to be in right now for me. I had a discussion with a friend who helped me realize again that my main focus at the moment is to be in good shape again. And the intensity of the kung fu training coupled with some supplemental weights at home will help me reach that more than aikido. So that's the conclusion of that dilemma.

After a week of trying to figure out what was happening on the weekend, I found my the first half of my Sunday open again. So I decided I should go to kung fu class. When I woke up at 11:45AM that day, that was not what I was feeling. But I got up, chowed down some Cheerios, got dressed, and got my butt to class. It was again pretty intense for me, probably because I'm still trying to get used to a high intensity workout that lasts 1hr 15min. But afterwards I felt great.

After showering and unwinding after class, I got ready to meet some friends at 28 Degrees (http://www.28degrees-boston.com/flash.html) on Appleton Street for a birthday celebration we were throwing for a friend. 28 Degrees is a pretty cool place, but the main reason we were there is for the oysters. M-Su, 5-7, they serve oysters on the half shell for $1 each. It's a pretty good deal and they're quite fresh and tasty. Six of us eventually would up eating 10 dozen plus 5 other dishes of food. The liquor was flowing a bit too. The eventual bill wound up pretty pricey, but it was good food, good friends, and good times. If you want a cool sleek place to unwind and eat, this would be the place to go. If your wallet's a little light, then I suggest going there for the oysters and maybe a drink then head elsewhere to fill your tummies.

Sushi in Chinatown

So after kung fu class on Tuesday, I was naturally hungry and wanted something light. I grabbed a friend and tried to figure out where to go. I originally wanted sushi at Kyotoya in Stoneham, but it was nearly 9:30PM, and they close at 10PM. Same goes for the pricier Chung Ki Wa in Medford. After a while of deliberating where we could go alternatively, I decided that I still wanted sushi and that we should just go to Chinatown. I knew the Korean restaurant, Apollo, on Harrison St. opens pretty late so we head towards there. The sushi is pretty decent there, but I don't like the atmosphere. It looks like a restaurant that was just left to deteriorate from it's probably once nice opening.

After I parked, the atmosphere thing was kinda getting to me, so we decided to walk to this place that I always walk by, Suishaya Restaurant on Tyler St. We got there and notice no menu put up. I was thinking, "Boy, must be an expensive place or something." I started thinking maybe we should shell up some extra money and go to Ginza instead, but my friend persuaded me to go in and look at the menu. It turned out it wasn't bad at all and we went in and sat down.

Right away, I noticed the staff was speaking Chinese, but it wasn't a surprise. I don't think there's a sushi place in Chinatown that's run by anybody but Chinese people. Anyway, Suishaya apparently has these great "Midnight" specials starting at 10PM from Sundays through Thursdays. I wound up ordering two combos from the specials for about $24.00 (22 pieces total). My friend ordered a bento box type of meal from the kitchen menu, chicken bulgogi or something like that. Anyhoot, the experience was overall pretty good. I was a little scared when the miso soup came out lukewarm, but the sushi was better than what I would've gotten at Apollo and Kyotoya. The chicken bulgogi was excellent. It was definitely a "find" for us as we now know where to go if we wanted Japanese/Korean food after 10PM. In total, we spent $33 plus tips, which is pretty good at a Korean restaurant. I was stuffed!

So go check it out next time you're in Chinatown - Boston.

Polly's Pancake House

I went to Polly's Pancake Parlor in NH on Sunday. It's pretty much a family tradition to try to go up every year, so there I was. I was looking forward to it all week, and it didn't disappoint. I ordered eggs, bacon, home fries, toast, and (of course) pancakes. What's nice is that the orders are six pancakes, and the server actually is the one making them for you. They offer batters in various types and gives you choice of add-ins. I had three blueberry and three chocolate chip in buttermilk batter (they also have plain, whole wheat, even gingerbread). They serve them three at a time to you so they are always fresh and warm (although they served mine all at once because I split my order with a friend). Afterwards, we went to The Basin to just walk around. There was still snow on the trails and it was 65F+ up there. Crazy!

But it was a pretty good day. Check out Polly's here: http://www.pollyspancakeparlor.com/