Dinner: Italian-Style Stew
It’s cold here right now and soup always sounds good. I’ve never been a stew person and neither has Eric. For me, because it normally involves some sort of pork roast or beef (I don't eat either). For Eric, it’s because it’s the word stew. I also haven’t ever made soups but once or twice in my life. This recipe called for white wine and I immediately thought of my cheap wine disaster from two weeks ago and almost put the recipe aside until I realized they provided a “Make it Red” variation. I was also drawn to this recipe because it involved placing the chicken in a flour mixture first and I really liked that technique from a previous recipe. The red variation involved canned diced tomatoes, red chili flakes and black olives instead of white wine, potatoes and green olives. Have I mentioned Eric is not a fan of olives? The only real problem with this variation was that it did not tell me an exact amount of chili flakes. I get nervous when all it says is “add chili flakes”. Why doesn’t it say “a dash of” or “ ½ tsp”? At any rate, I have no idea how many shakes of the jar I put in but it was slightly too much. Both of our tolerances to spice have gone up dramatically in the last year, but I thought the spice out weighed the overall flavor in this dish just a little too much. It definitely didn’t ruin the meal and it did make me want to make it again to see if i could get the heat under control. As a side note, I didn’t serve Eric’s bowl with any olives and he didn’t think the dish had any olive-y taste. I enjoyed the extra helping of olives.
Fun fact:
I’ve had this recipe ripped out of the magazine since December 2006.
Things I learned from this recipe:
I’m not ready to believe I know how much spice is the right amount.
New techniques (flour-coated chicken) sink in the best for me when I do them a few times with great success.
Please serve this dish with rustic bread.
Would I make this recipe again?:
Absolutely
The recipe
Dessert: Chocolate chip banana muffins
It didn’t take me long to want to try another one of the muffin variations. I knew I was taking a chance on the banana aspect of this recipe because Eric hates bananas (Anyone keep track of all the things my husband doesn't like to eat?). I am also not the biggest fan of pastries with banana flavor, but I have really grown to love zucchini bread (with a strong dislike of zucchini in general) and I was hoping these muffins would have the same effect on us. I was right. They are pretty delicious without the banana-y taste you might not enjoy, but I do think the chocolate chips helped with that.
Things I learned from this recipe:
I could probably make this recipe without bananas and it would be just fine. This recipe is another example of how variations are extremely simple and shouldn’t be feared in baking.
Would I make this recipe again?:
Sure