Thai Chicken with Peanuts

Don't want to spend a ton of time in the kitchen, prepping dinner and sweating over the oven? Make a stir fry! At least once a week during the summer you can find me tossing ingredients into a big pan and pouring on different sauces. Stir fry isn't really a science. I usually don't follow a recipe and cook up whatever we have in the fridge.

Yes, the stir fry is the ultimate pre-vacation meal. You can clean out the fridge and use up any meats and vegetables. For this stir fry, had a bunch of sweet peppers and carrots, as well as a pack of chicken sitting in the fridge. With a business trip coming up on Thursday, I decided to use up the stuff in the house, rather than buy groceries this week. Also, since I tend to make a lot of stir frys, I had all the ingredients for my sauce already. My pantry is a well-stocked stir fry zone!

What is your go to "Use it up" recipe? With so many business and personal trips this year, I find that I've been tossing way more food than I would like. Resorting to eating out each night is not the best plan either, for the wallet or the waistline!

Two Years Ago: Milky Way Cake
Three Years Ago: Peanut Chicken with Asian Slaw
Four Years Ago: Banana Coconut Muffins
Five Years Ago: Indian Chicken Curry

Butternut Squash Galette

This recipe is not really summer appropriate. I wound up with a bunch of extra butternut squash and was looking for a recipe to use it all up. I came across this recipe in The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and knew that it would be perfect. While the flavors are more suited for Fall, this dinner tastes wonderful all year long.

This meal won't keep you cooped up in the kitchen for long. You can cook the squash and onions at the same time and use pre-cooked chicken. The summer months are the perfect time to use those roasted chickens from the grocery store. The hands on time for this recipe is pretty small, especially if you use a pre-made pie crust (my savior when it comes to pie crusts are those Pillsbury refrigerated crusts).

This is the perfect dinner for four people. Have a larger group? Just double the recipe! The boyfriend and I had this galette for dinner and then enjoyed the leftovers for lunch the next day. It's just as good hot as it is cold!

One Year Ago: Neapolitan Cake
Two Years Ago: Bacon & Strawberry Pizza
Three Years Ago: Buffalo Sponge Candy Cake
Four Years Ago: Pomegranate Moon Pies
Five Years Ago: Chocolate Cupcakes (High Altitude Recipe included)

Thai Chicken Pizza

It's Friday, so I think that means we need some pizza.  Though let me give you some insight on my usual Friday night. It has been the same for almost three years...

Every Friday night, the boyfriend and I go to the same restaurant. Only occasionally do we stray from this restaurant, mostly because we aren't in the mood for burgers. The restaurant is a ten minute was from our place and we only drive in cases of extreme cold or rain.

Each week we order almost the same thing. It's gotten to a point that the wait staff knows us, not by name, but by order. We sit down with our food and play trivia. Specifically, Sporcle trivia on the iPad. It's so much fun. I know so many random facts now, I would probably be really useful in a trivial pursuit game.

Do you and your favorite person have any weekly or monthly traditions? The boyfriend and I have been trying to branch out and eat at different restaurants, but how many places will let you just sit there for an hour playing trivia and taking up a table?

One Year Ago: Peanut Butter Macaroon Brownies
Two Years Ago: White Chocolate - Raspberry Cheesecake
Three Years Ago: Peanut Butter Cup Blondies
Four Years Ago: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Swiss Chard, Pear & Gruyere Tart

Sorry I skipped out on posting a St Patrick's day recipe yesterday. It's actually one of those holidays that just pass me by. I don't go for green beer and I'm not particularly fond of corned beef. The boyfriend and I went to the local diner last night and had eggs and toast. Nothing was green and it was terribly un-festive! If you feel like I really dropped the ball, here is a recipe I made a few years ago for March 17th...

Moving on to something that I am a huge fan of... Tarts! 

I love how you can throw just about anything into a tart and call it dinner. This one takes advantage of those delicious pears that are out in the markets right now. The filling is full of vegetables, making this the perfect option for a "Meatless Monday" dinner. Or an everyday meal in my world!

You'll notice that only half of my tart is topped with pears. That's because the boyfriend hates pears. I know, he's insane. In order to ensure that he ate dinner, I just ate the rest of the raw pear myself. No complaining from either side!

The flavors of this tart were amazing. It might have something to do with the copious amounts of gruyere and parmesan cheese that have been shredded over the top! Whatever the reason, I wound up eating a full quarter of the tart for dinner, then another large slice for lunch the next day.

Hoisin Chicken Stir Fry

It's another snow day here in Central New Jersey! The snow is coming down steady and it's a good heavy snow. The kind of snow that makes perfect snowmen. You can start with a tiny snowball and roll it up into a giant car-sized ball, perfect for carving out into an igloo. Have you ever made a snow igloo? Growing up in Buffalo, we had many winter igloos in our yard each year!

Sadly, I'll be working from home today, not playing outside and making giant snow igloos. On the bright side, I made this stir fry last night! Lunch hour will be tasty leftovers. This recipe comes together so quickly, I probably could prepare this fresh again today in less than fifteen minutes. Plus, this recipe has hoisin in it and I love anything with hoisin!

Are you stuck inside again today because of the weather? This snowstorm is huge! Stay safe and warm everyone, Spring is coming soon! Until then, I'll be looking out the window at the falling snow, drinking hot chocolate.

Two Years Ago: Biscofferoos
Three Years Ago: Homemade Greek Yogurt
Four Years Ago: Sugar Crisp Cookies

Sauteed Chicken with Pears

I have been obsessed with pears recently. I've been adding them to my oatmeal, eating them raw and cooking them into my dinner dishes. It might be because pears are in season in the winter and all other fruits have just about zero flavor right now. I don't know why I buy strawberries in the winter, it's really a lost cause.

Pears however are delicious right now! I went with Anjou pears in this dish because they caramelize really well and hold their texture a bit better than Bartlett pears.

If you have everything chopped and ready to go, this dinner comes together very quickly. Brown the chicken, brown the pears, make the sauce. It's the perfect meal to make after a long day at work.

One Year Ago: Chocolate Heart Cookies
Two Years Ago: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Yogurt Popsicles
Three Years Ago: Dutch Cheese Pancakes
Four Years Ago: Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread

Sauteed Chicken with Pears

A Wilde Original

3 tablespoons olive oil
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 Anjou pears, peeled, cored and cut into 16 wedges
3 small shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh sage
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon heavy cream

Place chicken in a bowl, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and toss to coat. Season with kosher salt and pepper.  Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to the pan and saute until browned on both sides and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side (or less, if your chicken is thinner than 1 inch). Transfer chicken to a plate and wrap with foil to keep warm.

Set another skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add pear wedges and saute until golden, turn once and cook until softened.

While the pears are sauteing, come back to the first skillet and reduce heat to medium. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pan and add shallots and sage.  Saute for 2 minutes, until shallots are softened. Add sherry vinegar and white wine. Stir shallots and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let bubble and reduce for about 3 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together chicken stock, dijon mustard and cornstarch. Add to the skillet and whisk until everything is combined. Cook until bubbly, about 2 minutes. Whisk in cream and remove from the heat.

Slice chicken on a diagonal, add pears and spoon sauce over the top. Enjoy with these root vegetables!

Gingered Chicken Stir Fry

If you live on the East Coast, you are probably in the midst of "Snowstorm Juno." If you are in the New Jersey area, then you might be a bit underwhelmed by the amount of snow that has actually fallen. I was told to expect thirty inches of snow at one point, we'll be lucky if more than a foot of the white stuff comes down here. I'm calling shenanigans on this snowstorm. I'm also calling out The Weather Channel on this whole named winter storms thing. Stop trying to make it happen! We don't like it!

Thirty inches of snow or not, I still get to have a snow day from work today! To celebrate a random Tuesday off, I made this stir fry for dinner last night. And I made enough of it so that there was lunch for my snow day. Now, I have major plans for a few hours of work and a bit of baking.

If you are in Massachusetts, stay safe and warm! You guys are supposed to get a whole bunch of snow!

One Year Ago: Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookies
Two Years Ago: Yogurt with Raspberries and Mint
Three Years Ago: Soft Pretzels
Four Years Ago: Chocolate Marshmallows

Rigatoni & Meatballs

Winter is the time for hearty foods. Conversely, January is the month of healthy eating.  How does one rectify these two very different ideals?

You make chicken meatballs!

Then pile them high on pasta!

Filling, but not full of calories. Unless you make a tube of crescent rolls to go along with this dinner...  Which you should... Crescent rolls are awesome.

One Year Ago: Wilde Chocolate Chip Cookies
Two Years Ago: Cavatappi Pasta with Sausage and Butternut Squash
Three Years Ago: Country Sausage Pasta
Four Years Ago: Mini Zucchini Breads

Smokey Baked Chicken Wings

Some people are spouting on and on about "New Year, New You!"

I'm eating chicken wings.

And French fries. French fries that I deep fried myself. (But we'll talk about those another day)

Sure, I could spend January lecturing you all about "eating healthy!" and "turning a new leaf!" and "detoxifying your body!" But that's not my thing. We make candy here in the Wilde Kitchen. No date on the calendar is going to change my cooking habits!

To be serious though, these chicken wings are actually not terrible for you. They are baked in the oven and flavored with a spice rub and minimal oil and... THEY TASTE AMAZING! You seriously need to make these wings tonight. You need a bunch of different spices for this recipe, so you may need to hit up the grocery store for this one.

Go to the grocery store. Make these chicken wings.  Do it do it do it!!!

CTB 2014 - Giada's Family Dinners

We officially moved into our new house two months ago. It is only now that I've started cooking dinner. It's been a combination of laziness (after hours of renovating, take-out is awfully convenient) and kitchen inaccessibility (I literally couldn't get into my kitchen). What did I make for my inaugural recipe? No, it was not this chicken. I actually made oatmeal. In the slow cooker. Totally a low energy input meal.

I actually made this chicken at the old apartment, I just haven't had a moment to post it yet! Sorry for the fake out. I will be cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner this coming weekend and really giving my kitchen a run-in. Until then, it's been pretty easy recipes coming out of the kitchen - baked chicken tenders, soup, risotto. We are planning a major kitchen reno after the New Year and I don't want to make too much of a mess before then!

Even though I made this chicken dish at the old apartment, that doesn't mean it wasn't tasty! If you are looking for a quick and easy chicken dish, this one will fit the bill. This is definitely not a healthy chicken dish, what with all of the heavy cream, but we can pretend, because it sits on a bed of spinach.

This recipe comes from my collection of cookbooks. I realize that I have totally failed at cooking something from each cookbook this year. That is, unless I cook two recipes each day, until the end of the year. Not gonna happen.  Perhaps this challenge will continue into next year. Or maybe I'll just replace it with something else entirely. Something a little bit more creative...

One Year Ago: Apple-Cinnamon Dulce de Leche Sweet Rolls
Two Years Ago: Cinnamon-Walnut Butter & White chocolate peanut butter
Three Years Ago: Tomato and White Bean Soup
Four Years Ago: Stuffing Cupcakes

Chicken Florentine

Adapted from Giada's Family Dinners

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied in two
Salt and pepper
All-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 large shallot
2 teaspoons minced garlic
3/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 (10-ounce) package, frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Coat in flour, shake off excess.  Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil. Cook chicken until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side.

In another large skilled, melt butter over medium heat. Add shallot and garlic and cook until shallots are translucent.  Add white wine and stir, scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Raise heat to medium-high and reduce volume by half. Add heavy cream and continue to reduce again by half.

Microwave spinach for 1 minute, stir, microwave 1 minute more. Add spinach to a serving bowl, top with chicken, pour sauce over top. Sprinkle the whole dish with parsley and serve.

CTB 2014 - Williams Sonoma - New York

I have two full containers of corn meal in my cupboard. I was making pizza and bought some. Then I was making another pizza and bought another one. What's a girl to do with all that corn meal? 

Make fried polenta!

This stuff is so freaking good. It's a side that takes a bit of preparation, but it's totally worth it. 

I made a similar recipe many many years ago, when I was still in grad school. When I happened on this recipe in the Williams-Sonoma - New York City cookbook, I knew that I had to make them again. Especially since this recipe was classed up with mushrooms and mascarpone cheese. 

You should definitely make this for dinner. It's ah-mazing!

CTB 2014 - The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Two recipe posts in one week? This is crazy!

To tell the truth, I made this chicken to accompany the asparagus from Tuesday. Would I do that pairing again? No way. There was way too much sauce preparation that was necessary for both dishes. When I cook this chicken again (which I will, because it was amazing), it's getting paired with steamfresh vegetables from the microwave.

I will also remember that when I put pans in the oven, the handle of the pan also gets hot. I think that I need to buy one of these pan handle covers, because I always grab the handle and burn my hand. I don't do this to pull the pan out of the oven, I realize that it's warm at that point. It's after I return the pan to the burner and begin reducing the sauce. I'll grab the handle to rotate the pan and Yeouch! That's hot!

Burnt hand or not, this chicken was the perfect dinner. I always have chicken thighs in my freezer for some reason, so this is an easy dinner for a weeknight. Pick up some grapes and olives from the grocery store and you've got yourself a flavorful meal.

CTB 2014 - Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook

I have owned a slow cooker for at least the past ten years. The majority of recipes that I've made in it? Oatmeal. I once made white hot chocolate in the slow cooker. We had a cookie exchange and I decided white hot chocolate would be super festive.  It was not popular. Anyways... I've only recently taken to using the slow cooker for other, more time saving purposes.

CTB 2014 - Nigella Express

I have been meaning to post some more savory items on the blog recently, but the early sunsets really hamper my endeavors at photography.  I'm thinking I need to invest in some new lights.  I've also been planning on sharing some healthy dinner items with you, today I totally failed.

Today I made you the quickest, easiest and baconiest chicken ever.  I guess that's what happens when you fry chicken in bacon grease and then pour crumbled bacon over it.

Healthy?  Probably not.  Delicious?  Totally.  You know you want to make this for dinner.  Do it do it do it!


One Year Ago: Pasta with sausage & butternut squash
Two Years Ago: Soft Pretzels
Three Years Ago: Chocolate & Peanut Butter Mousse Entremet

Bacony Chicken

Adapted from Nigella Express

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
4 strips bacon
2 chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2-inch thickness
1/3 cup white wine

Heat olive oil in a medium-high skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant.  Add bacon and fry until crisp, remove bacon from the pan and wrap up in foil.

Fry chicken in the olive oil and bacon grease, about 2 minutes per side.  Once chicken is cooked through and no longer pink, remove to your serving plates.  Crumble bacon in the pan and add white wine, cook until slightly reduced.  Pour over chicken and serve!

CTB 2014 - Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie

I have a new favorite dinner - Chicken Pot pie.

Chile-spiced Chicken with Mango Salsa

How is it August 6th already?  It was just fourth of July like two days ago!  This summer is running away from me and I'm even unemployed and can enjoy every day in the sun.

July was jam-packed with travel.  I spent a week in Buffalo, visiting family I hadn't seen in years, eating locals treats and playing with my parents puppies.  After that I was in Arizona with BF for another week, sweating it out in the Phoenix heat, being awed by amazing geography and taking the longest hike I've even done in my life.

Upon our return from Arizona, we returned to New Jersey to find milder temperatures and rain.  Lots of rain.  That's okay though.  I use the rainy days to focus on my future career plans.  I'm really ready to head back to work after three months off.  I'm running out of things to do at home and I really miss working in the lab!  I'm going to try to make the most of my remaining time off (which hopefully isn't too much more!) and enjoy the last few weeks of summer!  Mostly by eating more fruit.

I made this chicken dinner last week and knew I would love it.  I also knew that BF would leave every last bit of mango on his plate.  He just really doesn't like fruit.  Such a weirdo!  Personally I love fruit with savory dishes and loved the mango salsa with the spice rubbed chicken.  I also got to use one of my new OXO tools - the mango splitter!  While it's totally easy to pit a mango without one, it took about three seconds to pit the mango with it!  I also thought I would show my step-by-step how-to cut a mango pics.  Now you know and it's so much easier than you thought!

Thanks go to OXO for sending me an amazing package of summer fruit tools, including this mango splitter, through the blogger outreach program.  All opinions about the tools are my own, but I have yet to find an OXO tool that doesn't do it's job!  Check out some of their fruit tools and enjoy the summers bounty!

Pasta Rustica

Most of the time I dictate the menu around the Wilde household.  That's why you see a lot of chicken, plenty of salads and lots of vegetables.  Apparently, man cannot live on healthy food alone!  At least, this is what boyfriend told me this weekend.  When looking through cookbooks, planning my grocery list, I asked what he would like for dinner this week.  He replied "pasta."

Okay, there are lots of pasta options.  My next question was "Hearty or light?"  "Hearty" was the request.  Getting closer, one more question "full of vegetables or cheese?"  Obviously the answer was "cheese."  He's a dude and dudes like cheese.  With those simple guidelines I decided on a hearty, baked pasta dish. 

There were a few things that I decided on for this meal.  The protein is not beef, it's chicken sausage.  There are onions in the sauce, because you can't have a pasta sauce without onions.  Finally, the pasta was served with whole grain garlic bread.

So, with boyfriends suggestions and my finessing, we came out with one delicious meal.  It was even ready in just 30 minutes, which is good, because my train was late getting me home and I was tired!

Peanutty Noodles

I'm looking forward to this week because I get to have this for lunch!  You remember last week that I bought boyfriend NHL 2012?  Well, my plan worked!  I had a whole hour to mess around in the kitchen yesterday and make something to eat for the week.  I even made some quick and dirty ice cream, which I'll share with you all later in the week.

While boyfriend was happily playing Xbox hockey I was in the kitchen throwing together this pasta dish.  It literally took me ten minutes to take this dish from fridge to Gladware.  All you have to do to prepare this dish is boil some water!  I have had this cookbook for a few years now and haven't cooked nearly enough of the recipes.  This weekend I made two of the recipes in thirty minutes!  I think that I'll be making a few more of Nigellas dishes because I sometimes want a really quick dinner when I get home from work.

Sunday was a good day for all in the Wilde household.  Boyfriend beat some kid over Xbox live and I got to make lunch for work.  Happy people all around!

Tortellini Soup

Spring is starting to creep into the Northeast, at last! I was able to bust out my spring coat this weekend, although I paired it with a scarf. Fifty degrees just isn’t warm enough for me yet. Although, I have known many people who would claim that fifty degrees is shorts weather.

Rainbow chard, it's so pretty!

Living in Wisconsin, I met lots of people from the Midwest. I found that the people of the Midwest are of heartier stock than I. The people of Michigan are particularly hearty. Once the mercury would inch up past freezing, my Midwestern friends would break out their shorts and t-shirts. There could still be snow on the ground, but the streets of Madison would be filled with students wearing shorts. Crazy people, all of them.

My rainbow chard looks alive!

I am a fan of pants. It needs to be at least eighty degrees for me to have the desire to put on shorts. For this reason, I own approximately one pair of shorts. Maybe two, I can’t remember. It’s been that long since I thought to put on a pair of shorts. The second problem with shorts is my work environment. Wearing shorts in the lab is just a bad idea, especially for a girl, they just don’t cover nearly enough leg! Plus, it’s always about two degrees in the lab, I’d freeze to death.

So, while I’m enjoying the warmer days, I will still bundle up until the temperature stays at seventy. My winter coat will stay out until May and my shorts will remain in the dresser until July. And I will eat soup all year long, especially this soup.



Stay tuned later this week for that foccacia recipe!



Pork, Cranberry and Pear Salad

Oh boy! I just had the best dinner! In order to properly feed myself, and make my mom happy, I decided to make a real dinner. My mom is slightly concerned with my wacky eating habits of late. Let’s just say yesterday for breakfast I had a slice of chocolate tart. For breakfast this morning I had some cookies. Several nights last week dinner consisted of lettuce.

Now it’s not that I’m a bad eater, it’s just that there was no food in my house! I returned from my thanksgiving vacation Monday afternoon to a slice of bread and some far-past expiration milk. There were a few onions and maybe some mustard. It was a sad state of affairs. This is how things usually are when I return from a trip, except this time I came back with a cold. It slowly took over and made me lazier and lazier. I managed to buy some milk and cereal from the Dollar General across the street, but beyond that, I had eggs.

After some concern from my mom (talking about protein and nutrients) I decided I should probably go to the grocery store. Armed with this recipe, I bought my ingredients, substituting here and there for what was one sale (I’m cheap too!). I was not disappointed; this was the best meal I had in a while. Please enjoy, and eat your vegetables!