Chicken & Sausage Scarpiello Arrabbiata

Here's another sauce that was sent to me by Bertolli - Arrabbiata sauce. I followed their recipe for chicken & sausage scarpiello arrabiata. Again, I was surprised to find that the sauce needed more salt. I also would have preferred pasta over potatoes, but the recipe called for potatoes, so that's what I used. Otherwise, it was tasty and made a great meal.

Recipe:
6 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 lb. hot or sweet italian sausage links, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 small fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup red vinegar
1 jar (7 oz) roasted red peppers, drained and thinly sliced
1 jar Bertolli Arrabbiata Sauce
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 lb. all-purpose potatoes, peeled, cooked and cut into wedges

Heat oil and brown chicken and sausage in 12 inch deep nonstick skillet or 5 quart saucepot over medium high heat; remove. In same skillet, cook onion and fennel over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, 6 minutes or until tender and starting to brown. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds. Stir in vinegar and roasted red peppers and cook 1 minute. Stir in Bertolli Arrabbiata Sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add back chicken and sausage. Simmer covered 30 minutes. Stir in potatoes and parsley and cook 5 minutes.

Clam Chowder

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!

While I didn't do any cooking for the holidays, I still haven't finished my Thanksgiving posts, so here's one more.

I was a bit worried that the soup wouldn't get eaten and that I'd have a ton of leftovers, but apparently, it wasn't something that I needed to worry about. I made the clam chowder the day before and then popped in the crock pot in the morning to heat it up and left it there during dinner to keep it warm. Anyone who wanted it, had to get up off their butts, walk over, pour themselves a bowl, and bring it back to their seats.

The crock pot happened to be near my father-in-law who took it upon himself to tattle on people who went for seconds. I told him it was fine and that we had plenty - people could go for seconds and thirds as much as they wanted. Apparently that wasn't the reaction he was looking for out of me, so he decided to report to everyone, how many bowls each person had helped themselves to. Luckily, that didn't deter anyone from going back for more and we had less than one bowl's worth left at the end of the night. I'd call that a success :)

Happy New Year!!!


Ingredients:
- Clams and clam juice (I used canned clams that were packed in its own juices)
- Stock (clam stock would be best, then fish, then veggie or chicken. I used chicken because that's all that I had on hand. Water will do too if you don't have any stock at all)
- Milk (I used soy milk)
- Cream (I used half & half though I'm sure heavy cream would have been wonderful)
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Celery (optional)
- Parsley
- Salt
- Pepper
- Flour
- Butter

Directions:
- Peel and dice the potatoes.
- Finely dice the onions.
- Finely slice the celery.
- In a heavy bottomed pot, add a bit of butter or oil and the onions and sweat them until softened.
- Add the potatoes and celery.
- Saute everything until the potatoes and celery have softened a bit. They don't need to be totally cooked through yet at this point.
- Remove everything.
- Make a rue by mixing equal parts of melted butter and flour and cooking it until it is just starting to turn a bit golden in color.
- Add any of the liquids (milk, cream, stock) and whisk the mixture until the rue has been fully incorporated into the liquid and it has thickened nicely.
- Add the rest of the liquids, the clams, clam juice, onions, celery, potatoes, etc and bring everything to a simmer.
- If the soup is not thick enough, either add more cream or make more rue in a separate pot, add a bit of the liquid from the soup to the rue and add the entire mixture back to the soup once it's been fully incorporated.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the parsley at the last minute.

Chicken Orzo Soup

The weather is getting cooler and while I'll definitely miss the summer, I will also enjoy the fact that it's also soup season! Plus I've been saving all the bones from all those summer bbq's in my freezer and have lots of stock on hand for some great soups.

This is a simple and easy classic, but instead of using noodle, I used orzo. I love the fun shape and texture of orzo, it's like fat rice!

Ingredients:
- Chicken (I used chicken breast)
- Onions
- Celery
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Orzo
- Chicken stock (recipe can be found here)
- Salt & Pepper

Directions:
- Dice the onions, peel and chop the carrots, and chop the celery. Set everything aside.
- Heat a heavy bottomed pot and add a bit of oil. Add the onions with a sprinkling of salt and saute them until they're soft.
- Add the carrots and celery and cook until they've softened as well.
- Add chicken stock to the pot and bring it to a boil.
- Add the potatoes and orzo and chicken.
- When the chicken is cooked through, pull it out, let it cool, shred it, and put it back in.
- Salt and pepper the soup to taste and let it warm you up on a chilly night.

Tortilla de Patatas

To go with the delicious tri-tip that my husband grilled up, we wanted some potatoes. Having just come back from Argentina and having eaten some great Spanish Potato Tortillas there, I wanted to try making it at home.

This is a great alternative to boring old mashed, baked or fried potatoes. It looks so fancy but is really not difficult to make at all. Well, actually, I don't know that for a fact because I didn't make it. The hubz made it while I watched. But he didn't seem to have any trouble with it, so I'm going to say that it's not that difficult to make, though he might have a different opinion :)

The hubz probably did a better job of making this dish than I could have. It turned out crispy, flavorful and delicious, not to mention pretty! If it were up to me, I'm sure I would've broken it or dropped it during the flipping process and it would've come out a dreadful mess. Thanks goodness for my hubby!
Look how perfect that is!

Ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Onions (optional)
- Eggs
- Oil
- Salt
- Pepper

Directions:
- Slice the potatoes as thin as possible. A mandoline or the slicer blade on your food processor would work nicely. My husband decided to do it by hand and it turned out fine.
- To speed up the whole thing, a nice little shortcut is to pop the sliced potatoes in the microwave until they are slightly soft, but not so soft that they fall apart. You can also fry the potatoes in oil to be more traditional and less healthy :)
- Dice the onions and saute them in a bit of oil until softened. If you want to skip the onions altogether, that's totally fine.
- Beat some eggs in a bowl, mixing in the onions, salt and pepper.
- Carefully stir the potatoes into the egg mixture, being careful not to break too many of the potatoes.
- Heat a heavy bottomed skillet and coat the bottom with oil.
- Pour the egg, potato, onion mixture into the pan and let it cook on medium until the sides have solidified and you can easily slide the tortilla around without it falling apart. The edges and bottom should also be a nice crispy brown.
- Using a large plate, flip the tortilla upside down onto the plate.
- Carefully slide the tortilla back into the pan (adding oil if necessary) to finish cooking and crisping up the other side.
- When the other side is brown and crispy and the tortilla is cooked all the way through, remove it from the pan and slice into wedges to serve.

Potato Salad

So I make my potato salad a little differently than how most people make it. I have no idea where I learned it from, maybe my mom? But honestly, I don't remember her ever making potato salad growing up.

Regardless of where I learned it from, it's the way I like it these days, and this is how I make it...

Ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Eggs
- Bacon
- Ham (the real stuff, not sliced lunch meat)
- Peas
- Mayo
- Salt
- Pepper
- Cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions:
- Peel and boil or steam the potatoes until they're cooked through but not falling apart (a knife should go through it smoothly but still meet a bit of resistance)
- Drain the potatoes and dunk them in an ice bath to cool them down if you're short on time, or just set them aside and let them cool down on their own.
- Hard boil a few eggs and set aside or dunk them in an ice bath to let them cool.
- Crisp up some bacon and set aside to let cool.
- Thaw the peas if using frozen or cook them if using fresh.
- Dice the ham into 1/2 inch cubes.
- Peel then dice the eggs into 1/2 inch cubes.
- Crumble the bacon.
- Cut the potatoes into 1 inch cubes.
- If you're using cheddar cheese, either shred it or cut into 1/2 inch cubes, depending on your personal preference.
- Mix the potatoes, eggs, ham, bacon and peas (and cheese if you're using it) with enough mayo to coat everything.
- Season generously with salt and pepper.
- You can either serve it immediately or make it ahead of time, cover it, and store it in the fridge until chow time.

Potato Slabs

I saw these at Amber's Delectable Delights and knew that just I had to make them for our Super Bowl party. How she got them to be so evenly sliced, I have no idea. But regardless of how they look, they taste great!

Both the hubs and I like them better than traditional potato skins. Potato skins, although crispier, are often too oily. If we could just get these crispy like potato skins, they'd be perfect. Maybe deep fry them instead of baking them next time?

Source - Amber's Delectable Delights
Ingredients:
- Potatoes (I used russett)
- Bacon
- Shredded cheese
- Sour cream, chives, etc (optional)

Directions:
- Cut the potatoes into ~1/4 inch slabs.
- Lay them out in a single layer on a buttered baking sheet and put them in a 350 degree oven until soft (about 30 minutes).
- Crisp up the bacon and crumble into small pieces.
- Sprinkle the cheese and bacon bits on the potatoes and put them back in the oven until melted.
- Top with sour cream and chives if desired.

Homemade french fries

I've always avoided deep frying things at all costs. It just seems scary and messy. I always try to bake things instead of frying, such as egg rolls, potato wedges, and carnitas.

The hubz was craving a good homemade burger, so while he made the burgers, I worked on the fries and decided to finally face my deep frying fears. And you know what? It really wasn't bad at all! I'm definitely going to be frying more often in the future (maybe not such a good thing for my waistline, but whatever).

The key to great homemade french fries is to fry them twice. As you can see, after the first fry, they're pasty white and a bit on the soggy side.

They remind me of In-N-Out fries, so if you like that style, stop after the first fry. But if you want them to be crispier and more golden brown, fry it a second time for these results -

Ingredients:
- Potatoes (as many as you'd like)
- Oil (one bottle 48 oz)
- Salt to taste

Method:
1. Cut the potatoes into strips.
2. Heat the oil in a cast iron pot until it reaches 325 degrees (The cast iron is important because it holds the heat and also brings the oil back up to temp quicker than regular pots). If you have an actual deep fryer, that works too.
3. Slide the potatoes slowly into the oil to avoid hot oil splattering onto your hands. Do them in batches of about one potato at a time. This will give the potatoes enough room to cook and not stick together. It will also limit how much the oil temperature drops per batch.
4. Turn up the heat to high to bring the oil back to temp.
5. Using a wire spider, stir the potatoes around gently. Then remove the potatoes onto a wire cooling rack after about 3 minutes.
6. Bring the oil back up to 325 and repeat steps 3-5 until all the potatoes have been fried once.
7. Bring the oil up to 375 degrees.
8. Slide the potatoes back into the oil in batches of about one potato at a time. Make sure the heat is on high so that the oil comes back up to 375 asap.
9. Stir the potatoes with your spider and remove when they are golden brown and crispy.
10. Sprinkle them with a bit of salt or whatever other seasonings you would like while the fries are still hot.
11. Repeat steps 8-10 until all the fries are beautifully golden brown and crispy. Serve while still hot!

Baked Potato Wedges and Accidental Chips!

I looove french fries. Unfortunately, my double chin and muffin top do not. These potato wedges are usually good enough to satisfy that french fry craving when I get it, and is much healthier, and pretty easy too!

Look what I let happen to my potatoes. How embarassing!

I had a whole bag (10 pounds), untouched, all with some monstrous sprouts. Oops. Normally I just give the potatoes a good scrub and leave the skin on, but this time, I had to peel them. I peeled them down a few extra layers to get down under the sprouts, and then the potatoes were as good as new! After peeling them, I sliced, seasoned and baked all 10 pounds. We ate what we wanted, then I layed the rest in a single layer on a cooling rack, froze them, and then transferred them to a plastic storage ziploc baggy to be rebaked and enjoyed at a later date.

Ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Seasoned salt*
- Oil (optional)
* You can season it with anything you want. Garlic powder, onion salt, etc

Method:
- Peel or scrub the potatoes, then cut into wedges. I actually don't cut them into real "wedges". Instead, I cut them in half, then cut them into thin slices. The thinner the slices, the faster they cook, and the crispier they will potentially be. As you can see here, I sliced a few so thin that they turned out like those fancy kettle potato chips! (Hence my title of "Accidental potato chip") Crispy and delicious. Next time I might slice all of them that thin and make potato chips instead!

- (Optional) After cutting, you can toss them in a bit of oil and seasoning. I was being super stingy with the oil because I was trying to make them as healthy as possible. I even did a few batches with no oil at all and found that they were still tasty and still crisped up nicely, so oil is actually completely optional.
- Lay out the wedges on a silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet in a single layer. If you want (especially if you skipped the previous step and didn't use any oil), you can sprinkle on additional seasoning now.

- Put it into a 450deg oven until browned and crisped to the consistency of your preference. The timing will also depend on how thin you cut your wedges. Mine were pretty thin and took maybe 25-30 minutes. You can probably also precook them in the microwave for a bit to cut down on baking time, but I didn't try this.
- (Optional) If you want, after one side is done, you can flip them to get both sides cripsy, but I'm too lazy for that and felt like they were good enough with only one side toasty (I'm always looking for shortcuts).
- Serve plain, or with a dipping sauce of your choice (a nice aoli would probably be good) or as a side to your main dish. When it's just me and the hubz, I just bring the baking pan straight to the table and we eat them off of that =)


* The picture above is the baked potato wedges with frozen corn that was heated in the microwave and tossed with a squeeze of lemon juice and some seasoned salt and a tri-tip that the hubz marinated and grilled. He won't tell me what he marinated it with, but I do know there was some tequila, lots of brown sugar and some paprika among other things. It was VERY tasty.