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.

Curried Waffle Turkey Sandwiches

You're probably in your final preparations of tomorrow's thanksgiving meal. Personally, I made the big meal last week! That means that I have been feasting on leftover turkey and stuffing for a few days now. That's the big problem when you cook a full bird for just two people. We had lots and lots of leftover turkey.  After two days of reliving the meal, with a plate full of turkey, stuffing and potatoes, the BF and I needed to change things up.

Peanut Chicken with Asian Slaw

Happy birthday America!  You're looking pretty fine for being over two hundred years old!  As a patriotic citizen of your shores, I plan to spend your big day enjoying the glory of the outdoors.  I'll be biking over your hills, playing frisbee on your glens and resting under your trees.  Thanks America!

How are you spending your Fourth of July?  Personally, boyfriend and I went to see fireworks on Monday, along with hearing the musical stylings of the Glenn Miller Orchestra.  There were little kids running around, families picnicking on the lawn and adorable older couples dancing at the stage.  Come sundown the announcer called for fireworks and we enjoyed a serious half hour of colorful explosions, loud bangs, crackling sparkles and arches of fireworks that looked like "anti-aircraft fire" according to boyfriend.

For today we'll be taking it easy and not fighting with the crowds of folks heading to Manhattan and Hoboken for the Macy's fireworks (we did that last year!).  Whenever you drive to fireworks, you wind up spending just as much time waiting in traffic to get home.  Luckily the events on Monday were at a park that was only three miles from our house.  Boyfriend and I biked ourselves over to the park, a workout and fun, all in one!

I hope you have a great Fourth and get to have some relaxing time of your own!

Pasta with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce

What would you choose as your last meal?  Would it be a big, juicy steak with a heaping side of mashed potatoes?  Or maybe a creamy asparagus soup topped with crunchy croutons?  Perhaps you would go for a large cheese pizza with some chicken wings.  Thinking back, I wish I had gone for the pizza and wings, but no, this was my last meal.

No, I'm not dying, but I won't be eating chicken wings any time soon.  Yesterday evening I journeyed to the orthodontists office and had my brand new braces affixed to my teeth.  Yep, I'm thirty years old and I just got my first ever set of braces.

I always thought that I needed that I needed braces when I was little.  It's not that my teeth are crazy out of place, they just need a little rearranging.  When I was in middle school, everyone had braces, it was not uncommon for half of the people sitting at your lunch table to have them.  I was even a little jealous of this one girls braces, I liked the way she talked with them on her teeth.

When I went to my new New Jersey dentist this past fall, he told me something that I didn't really want to hear, that I would need to wear braces for at least a year.  I had just turned thirty the day before and this was not quite the birthday present that I was hoping for.  I made appointments with local orthodontists and went over my options.  In the end, I told myself that 18-24 months in braces was a small time in comparison to the rest of my life with straight teeth, so I scheduled my appointment. 

Tuesday night I cooked boyfriend and I a lovely Valentine's day meal, pasta smothered in a creamy sauce along with crusty bread and a chocolatey dessert.  This would be my last real meal until my braces come off.

Now, with my new ice-clear braces adhered to my teeth, I dust off my smoothie cookbooks, buy cans of oatmeal and jars of arborio rice.  I'm ready to perfect my egg-making skills and become an expert in panna cotta preparation.  I'm also reaching out to all of you, you former wearers of braces, for your favorite food options!  Help me out in my time of need!

Ravioli di taleggio con salsa alle spugnole

After our journey through Paris and our trials in getting a rental car, we made our way through Switzerland into Italy via train.  We decided that it would be a bad idea to try and learn how to drive a manual transmission car and drive it through the Swiss alps.  This was the best decision of our entire trip.  While we ended up missing out on a day in Interlocken, we gained so much more time by travelling by train. 

Rather than focussing on maps and driving directions, we took our time on the rails to learn about our next destination, play games and talk with fellow travellers.  We travelled through the mountains, skirted lakes and pulled into Venice, from our window seats.

After we checked our luggage at the baggage drop, we made our way through the winding streets of Venice.  A pair of American tourists gave us their vaparetto passes (their friends gave us a second pair, which we passed along to a couple on their honeymoon), which allowed us access to the Venice boat busses. 

We rode the vaparetto along the grand canal and under the Rialto bridge, passed by gondolas and ancient churches.  As the grand canal opened up into the lagoon boyfriend turned to me and "This is completely surreal."  Even though we had seen so many famous landmarks, climbed an unbelievable amount of stairs and taken hundreds of photos, this was truely a surreal moment.

Of all the days we spent travelling across the continent, I remember that day in Venice so vividly.  Our walk around Piazza San Marco, the amazing mushroom tortellini from a hidden bistro and the hazelnut gelato we ate while watching a crazy house dog, all combined for a perfect day in such a unique city.  It would have been a perfect day, had our hotel not given away our room and sent us to the Hotel Marco Polo.


At least it has one redeeming quality, it's PINK!



Brining memories home with mushroom ravioli



Country Sausage Pasta

I have been enjoying a week with very few things on my calendar.  My meeting reminder has only been going off about once a day and I was even able to ignore the ones from yesterday!  It's a nice change from last week, where I had meetings non-stop from Monday through Wednesday.  This quiet calendar week also comes with perfect timing as I am crazy busy with lab work right now!

It hasn't been since I was a postdoc that I've had this much time to spend in the lab and my feet are wondering what I'm doing!  At this very moment, I am transitioning from one project to another.  The only problem is that I'm not quite finished with the first project and I need to dive right into the second one.  So this means that I'm working double duty to try and make both project leaders happy.

Luckily my multi-tasking skills haven't atrophied since I left Connecticutt.  I've been running reactions, purifications and analysis, all at the same time, over the past few days.  This makes me happy, I like seeing reactions stirring in my hood and I like checking the analytical data and seeing that I have indeed made what I wanted to.  Let's share a happy moment from earlier this week, with a little background information.

As a non-chemist, you may imagine me in my lab, surrounded by multi-colored beakers and flasks, all bubbling away.  Steam pours out of the reactions and there are miscellaneous coils full of colorful liquid in the background.  Dry ice bubbles in water baths, white smoke pouring from the bowls.  Bunsen burners alight with their blue flames, heating reactions and making chemistry happen.

Sadly, none of the above is true.  Firstly, nobody uses beakers.  I keep my dirty stir bars and spatulae in them.  Secondly, and most sadly, organic chemistry is a science with very little color.  If you want to see reds, blues and greens, become an inorganic chemist.  Everything in organic chemistry is either clear or yellow or light yellow or if you're really lucky, bright yellow.  It's so sad...  Which is why my week was made on Tuesday afternoon while running a new reaction.

The chemicals were added together at -78 C (that's cold) and slowly warmed to room temperature.  The reaction started off yellow (of course) but as the temperature warmed, magic in a flask happened.  The reaction turned blood red!  As it got closer to room temperature is lightened and eventually settled on a bright pink hue.  It was seriously pink, like I took a My Little Pony and stuck it in a blender pink.  I was so sad to add water to the reaction to end it, where in it turned back to boring old yellow.

Sausage and Gorgonzola Mac 'n' Cheese

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I was so happy to learn that people around the world are starting to celebrate Thanksgiving. While Thanksgiving is technically a "new world" holiday, celebrating the feast between some of the first settlers of the Americas and the native American indians, the idea behind the holiday is something that everyone can get behind.

In essence, Thanksgiving is about taking a moment to think about all the great things in your life. In the United States, we take the fourth Thursday of the month of November to give thanks for all of the positives. We give thanks for family and health, new successes and old friends, sunny weather and juicy turkey. Well, those last few things might just be what I like to throw in there at the end, I really like sunny weather!

Whether you are here in the United States with me, or celebrating somewhere else around the world, Happy Thanksgiving to you. I hope that you have lots to celebrate this year, I know that I do.

Newman's Pizza

I arrived home to a package recently.  It was filled with delicious goodies.  I was particularly struck by this pair of items.  Mostly because of the label on the pasta sauce...

Do you see it?  No, it's not those mysterious lady hands, growing out of the bottom of the bottle.  No, Newman's is spelled correctly.  It's up there, on the top left...  See it?  Yep, it says "Industrial Strength."  Why?  I have no idea, it didn't taste like it was extra strength or full of special chemicals (I'm a chemist, trust me on this).  It actually just smelled like tomato, and basil.  Have you ever opened a bottle of "Pasta sauce with basil" and you couldn't taste/smell the basil?  Well, you won't have that problem with this jar.  Mmmm, basily. 

It made one delicious pizza...  Look at all that deliciousness!

That basil flavor persisted, even after being layered over with sausage, peppers, onions and cheese.  Lots and lots of cheese...  Mmmmmm...

Oh, and I made a salad too.  Because vegetable are good for you.  Eat your vegetables.

Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

By the time this recipe makes its way to the internets, I will be winging my way over the Pacific ocean!  That's right, the Wilde household has flown the coop and we're on our way to Thailand.  It's our first trip over the Pacific ocean and we'll be in the air for sixteen hours.  That's one long plane ride.  I'm sitting here, trying to figure out if the whole trip is going to be in the dark, flying in perpetual night.

The way that I'm thinking my way through this "forever in the dark" question is as follows...  We are taking off from New York at 1:00 in the morning, Thursday morning.  We will be flying away from the rising sun as it comes up over the Atlantic.  As we cross the international dateline (somewhere over the Pacific), we will cross into Friday morning.  We will land Friday morning in Hong Kong, effectively skipping out on Thursday and travelling into the future.  I'm like the Doctor!

Catch you on the flip side!  (heehhheee, get it.  I'm on the other side of the world!)

Chicken and Herb White Pizza

First, I want to thank everyone for their birthday wishes!  Well, my blog would like to thank you for your birthday wishes.  And really, writing without having all of you out there to read and chat with would just be no fun at all!  I can't believe it's been a whole year since I started Wilde in the Kitchen. 

I remember the first time that I got a comment from someone that I didn't know and how excited I was.  I thought "I've made it!"  Then there was the first time I broke ten pageviews, fifty, one hundred, one thousand!  I look back at some of the crazy recipes that I've posted, the oddball stories that I've told and the unusual pictures that I've taken.  Everyday is exciting when writing a blog and I've got to thank you all for following!  You've made it all totally worth it.

On other news, I'm going on vacation!  It's my first, official as a member of the workforce, vacation, taken with earned time off!  As of October 4th I had been at my job for a full 90 days and gained access to the use of my days off.  Sure, I took vacations when I was a graduate student and as a Postdoc, but this is different.

As a member of the academic working class, taking vacations is nerve-wracking.  You realize that the longer you stay away from the lab, the longer you'll be there.  For every week you take off, you add a week to your tenure as a student.  So, you try to minimize vacations (especially if you have a crazy boss) (which I didn't!  Hi former bosses!) and feel bad when you are away.  Toward the end of your vacation you are edgy and want to get back into the lab.  Gotta run that reaction!  Let me at my chemicals!

Now that I've made it into the real world, I've worked hard and earned my vacation days and I'm really going to enjoy them!  This Thursday morning at 1:00 am, boyfriend and I are boarding a plane and flying halfway around the world.  We're heading to Thailand!  We'll be spending half of our time in Bangkok, then heading south to Phuket for some fun in the sun.  Well, hopefully sun, it's the tail end of the rainy season and it's been raining and flooding in Thailand.

Worry not, I've got you all set up for some delicious meals while I'm gone.  I'll try to pop in and update you on our trip through Thailand, although I'm not promising anything...  I tend to fall asleep early when I go on vacation...  All that sun!  Here's hoping for lots of sun, not only for boyfriend and I, but also for the people of Thailand, stuggling to clean up the flood waters.

Parmesan Chicken and Thyme Gnocchi

Sometimes you just need to eat something unhealthy for dinner.  I'm not advocating going to Popeyes (Love that Chicken!) every night for dinner, stopping at the cupcake factory on the way home and washing it all down with a two liter of soda.  No, no, no!  I'm just saying that there are those days, the days that you some how struggled through, scratching and clawing to the finish line.  You barely make it through the safety of your front door and when you do, it feels like a victory.

You need to make a little victory lap around the foyer as you shed your coat and shoes.  You're high fiving your roommates, spouses, children and pets as you drop your purse/briefcase.  The day is finally over and you deserve something special, something delicious, but most importantly, something simple.  A day like this doesn't need to be topped off with an hour in the kitchen.

My Thursday was that kind of day.  Usually Thursday is a great day because Thursday is bagel day at work!  Unlike most Thursdays, this week we had a meeting.  The king of all meetings.  The monthly meeting.  It was scheduled to last from ten o'clock until three o'clock.  We all knew that this was a lofty goal and were all unsurprised when we stumbled out of the room at four o'clock.

After my long day sitting in a meeting, I was looking forward to a quiet trip home on the train.  Apparently the New York Yankees didn't think that was a good idea and had to play a game last night.  The train was packed with dudes, drunk dudes, drunk dudes wearing Yankees jerseys, LOUD drunk dudes wearing Yankee jerseys.  Ugh, so much for doing my crossword puzzle in peace.

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!

Butternut Squash Risotto

Each morning I transfer from the New Jersey trains to the Long Island railroad. While I've described my evenin transfer as an Olympic event of toddler-jumping and granny-dodging, my morning commute is much more relaxed. In fact, I have thirty minutes between my morning trains. There are a few options open to me for filling this time and I've explored them all.

In my first few weeks of commuting I stayed in Penn stationand waited for my LIRR train. I brought books to read and stood around in the main corridor reading. One morning I decided to sit in the LIRR waiting area and read and that was the last morning I stayed in Penn Station. A quick note for all, the waiting area is where the really chatty and crazy people like to hang out. I'm not big on conversation that early in the morning.

Option two is to go outside of Penn Station and get some fresh air. This idea was spurred on in mid-July, when the temps inside of the station were reaching two hundred degrees. While getting outside for some air is a great idea, this is also he same idea that the smokers have. The fresh air I desired would not be found there.

Option three has become my favorite. It's a game. How far can I walk and still make it back before my train? I'm becoming increasingly familiar with the streets and avenues around Penn Station. My favorite Starbucks is at 39th and 8th, it has a second floor seating area!  I can make it to the Jamba Juice at 23rd and 7th with time to spare. It's a great game and good exercise too!  You might even see me strolling by Good Morning America on the days that I head north!

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!

Italian Sweet & Sour Chicken

When you move, you try to use up all of your ingredients.  It's no fun to try and move bottles and bottles of oils, vinegars and sauces.  In the last few weeks in your old house, your meals are planned around whatever you have sitting in the cupboard, and frozen in the freezer.  The bottles are emptied as you make salads with champagne vinaigrette, Chicken breast with balsamic glaze and soy sauced vegetables.

When you arrive in your new home, you have to start from scratch.  Collect your oils and vinegars all over again.  And sometimes you plan your meals around items that you think you own, but in fact, do not.  Like when I was trying to make this sweet and sour chicken.  I was in need of a simple red wine vinegar.  While making the grocery list I thought to myself "Of course I have red wine vinegar, I didn't use it all before I left New Haven."  Wouldn't you know, Tuesday night came around and I was without red wine vinegar. 

I did however have a bottle of balsamic vinegar!  So we went in a different direction with the flavors in this dish, more italian, less asian.  It worked out so well, because I recieved a box goodies from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program!  Inside the box were these delicious items...

Look, risotto!  That will work perfectly with my italian sweet and sour chicken!  And it was perfect.  While it's not going to equal spending a half hour at the stove, Bird's Eye did a pretty good job!  The mushroom risotto was what I decided to pair with our chicken dinner.  (Boyfriend ate the rest of the items while I was out of town this weekend!  He said they were good and that the risotto was his dinner one night!)  Apparently they are coming to stores in September, aka, tomorrow!

Pasta a la Boyfriend

I made it home from Buffalo very early yesterday morning.  My day went as follows...

3:00 am - Wake up and take a shower

3:30 am - Wake up parents and take puppies outside (romp romp romp, bite bite bite!)

3:45 am - Head to the airport (Ooo, it's dark out.  Hey, the bars aren't even closed yet.)

4:15 am - Welcome to the Buffalo Niagara Airport!  (It's pretty quiet here, oh, I'm on the first flight out of the airport)

5:23 am - Yes, that's what it said on my ticket, 5:23 am - Take-off in the Dash-8 (Ugh, hate the Dash-8)

6:55 am - Welcome home!  Kinda, welcome to LaGuardia airport!

7:10 am - Figure out how to get to Jamaica Station...  How about a bus?

7:35 am - Well that worked, now I'll hop this subway and get to Jamaica.

7:55 am - Phew, made it to Jamaica!  Ooo, I can catch my regular train to work!  Score!

8:45 am - 5:00 pm - Chemistry chemistry chemistry

5:00 pm - Heading home (So tired....  Fall asleep on the train...)

6:30 pm - Home!  Ooo, boyfriend is making dinner!  It looks delicious (It was).  He is even using all of my Foodbuzz Tastemaker goodies! 

So, not only did he manage to make a delicious meal, he completed some work that I needed to get done! 

As a member of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, I was lucky enough to receive samples of Crisco's new Olive oils!  I was super excited when I received not one, but three different bottles!  For dinner last night, boyfriend used the traditional olive oil, I have big plans for the Extra Virgin (can anyone say Salad dressings?!!?). 

For someone who doesn't really cook (other than mac'n'cheese and cheesey chicken nibblers), he liked the Crisco olive oil, especially the lid.  It has a different  pour spout than I've seen in any other olive oil.  It allowed it to slowly come out of the bottle, without having to wait forever.  The flavor was light and was great to cook up the mini meatballs!

Ginger Chicken with Snow Peas

Living with a boy seems to mean eating a lot of carbohydrates. This is one thing that I have learned in the first two months of living with boyfriend. Pasta is a totally acceptable meal for every day of the week. But as I've said before, I'd like to continue to fit into my pants, so I'm working on some pasta-free meals.

So, I can't find my camera...  Enjoy some puppy pictures instead!

While boyfriend was out of town last week, I spent the week making tasty pastaless meals. I think this works well for me as a meal, but boyfriend would be wondering where the rest of the food was. That must be the thing, boys have bigger stomachs and need all those carbs to fill them up.

If you need a little something more to eat with this meal I would suggest cooking up a batch of brown rice, should keep you full and happy. It might even keep those male members of your household away from the cookies for the evening as well.



My mom has been taking some pretty awesome pictures of my little, puppy, sisters!

Pork Tenderloin Salad

I hope that you all had a fabulous weekend.  I spent this weekend all on my own, for the first time since I moved to New Jersey.  Since I moved in with boyfriend!  He's away this week, spending time with his parents then off to a meeting in Florida.  I was invited along, but being a newbie at my job, I haven't got access to my vacation time until I hit the 90-day mark.  So, here I am, chilling out in New Jersey on my own.

What did I do this weekend?  Terribly boring things!  Saturday I spent the afternoon in New York City, shopping.  Now that might sound exciting, but I had a shopping list full of boring items.  I was on the hunt for new t-shirts, tank tops and underwear!  Underwear shopping might be exciting for us girls, but I think boys care very little about the actual purchase of these things.  Same thing with my trip to the Gap to buy black and white t-shirts.  Saturday night was spent watching HGTV and eating a huge Panera salad.

Sunday I had big plans to make lots of candy for Candy Challenge 2011.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for me.  The torrential rain that poured down all day Sunday was not the best weather to boil sugar, make toffee and temper chocolate.  Instead, I wandered around my new town, stopped by the library and watched a movie at our local theater.

Boyfriend doesn't come back home until Thursday, which means I can take up the whole bed, sleep with the windows open and turn on all the lights when I wake up.  Generally I try to be more courteous, since I wake up at 5:30 in the morning.  This week I can do whatever I want!  Sadly though, there is no one here to taste test my food or bring me drinks when I'm too lazy to get off the couch.  Who will do the dishes when I make a mess in the kitchen?  Come home boyfriend, I miss you!