Comfort Food

Terrible quality on that photo, I know. I was hungry. Sorry.

It's been one of "those" weeks this week and it's barely half over. Kevin's been fighting a cold and the weather has been just unbearable. One of several lingering fallouts of my former pro wrestling career is a ruined lower back, hip and knee. Usually I can manage pretty well, but when the weather is this cold it's real hard for me to move around.

So. Comfort food has been on the menu.

Monday, Kevin chased me out of the kitchen so he could cook us up some yummy dinner. Hooray! When the table was laid out, I discovered fried chicken and other stuff. A mustard sauce on the chicken - I tasted that first. In fact, I tasted that before I took the photo, and you can see where I stuck my finger if you look close.

After a few bites I figured out I had me a plate of fried chicken breast stuffed with bacon, onions & cheese. YUM!! Then there was the mustard sauce on top, and some chicken Ramen with the overly-salty liquid drained away. And, look, fancy sprinkles on the plate all decorative and pretty - parsley and paprika, I believe.
Not pictured: some macaroni salad and lightly toasted slices of the Saffron & Tomato bread.

It was goooooood. Hearty and tasty and fairly simple, and it was just right for the weather and our moods.

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Tonight we had dinner at a friend's house and it was, again, comfort food. We all sat at the table to ground turkey tacos with your usual toppings - lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, and salsa. Nothing fancy - our friend isn't much of a foodie type, really. The taco seasoning came from a packet, the salsa was from a jar, the cheese was a regular ol' bag of shredded Kraft. It was exactly what I ate frequently growing up; it was good then and it's still good now.

Sure, you can make your own taco meat seasoning. You can whip up some fresh salsa easily. You can get queso fresco instead of the Kraft cheese. But, really, who cares sometimes, y'know?

First and foremost, the fact that someone took the time to invite us to dinner and prepare food for us completely negates any ideas about fresh salsa or hand-mixed spice blends. Some people just don't cook, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I'd much rather have a simple meal like this where you can spill and laugh and talk loudly than a gourmet meal at a restaurant alone.

Second - we've all got our guilty pleasures, our junk food that we don't always blog about. I like the packaged taco seasoning because it reminds me of my childhood. Sometimes I like mac & cheese from a box, complete with nuclear-orange cheeselike powder.
I like Manwich. From a can. I may eat it on homemade rolls, but I like Manwich.

I'm not the only one with guilty pleasures as comfort food, am I?

Technorati: comfort food : chicken : The Bizarre Kitchen Incident

Roasted chicken with mango salsa

Okay, I admit...this is a summer meal. It turned out so well that I'm perfectly willing to dig up the photos months later.

Don't let the winter months stop you, though. If you can find tasty mangoes, go for it! The flavors may just find you thinking of warm summer evenings even as snow falls outside.







Roasted chicken

1 whole chicken
1 fennel
3-4 lemons, quartered and zested
1 onion
Fresh Italian parsley
Butter, salt & pepper

Start the evening off by preheating the oven to 475*.
Take the chicken and stuff it with some quarted lemons and half the bulb of the fennel, quartered.
Next, use your fingers to loosen the skin over the breast of the bird. Take some of the fennel fronds, some of the parsley, and a bit of lemon zest and stuff it under the skin.
Put it all in a baking dish and pour melted butter over Mr. Chicken.
Add a healthy few sprinkles of kosher salt and some fresh cracked pepper.
Add some more quartered lemons, the green stalks of the fennel, and a rough chopped onion to the dish.

Bake at 475* for 20 minutes, or until the chicken is nicely browned.
Lower the temperature to 350* and cook until a meat thermometer reads 165* at the thigh.







Mango Salsa


2-3 ripe mangoes, diced
1/2 small red onion, diced
Fresh cilantro, chiffonade
Olive oil
Cumin
Salt and pepper

Mix the mangoes, onion, and cilantro together. Drizzle with olive oil until moistened.
Season to taste with cumin, salt & pepper.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or overnight) to mingle the flavors



Serve the chicken either halved or quartered, depending on your appetite.
We like chicken, so I serve it halved.

Accompany this with fresh seasonal vegetables of your choice. I used some amazingly sweet corn on the cob, and included a generous dallop of my infamous 'mashed taters' on the side.

Technorati: chicken : entree : mango : sides : The Bizarre Kitchen Incident