Desperation in the Kitchen: Cauliflower Kuku

Since Josie was about a month old, we've been receiving WIC benefits, and those help immensely. One of the ways we've benefited from them has been fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as eggs, dairy, beans, and baby food.  and  Another has been the magazine they put out for Kids, Chop-Chop. We get an issue every 3 months, and Ella loves them.

We found this recipe for Cauliflower Kuku, an Iranian egg dish in one of the first magazines we got. We love cauliflower and cheese and eggs and trying new things so this was an obvious to-make. I even converted my husband and boss, who both said this sounded "really weird." Boss is now looking for different variations to try, and my husband always says "yes!" when I make "that Iranian egg thing."

On Monday, I made the same dinner twice. Once for my boss, once for my family. It didn't take long, either time, and my boss even had leftovers for breakfast the next day (mainly because he doesn't have an always-hungry husband, an always-hungry 11 year old, and an a growing baby in the house). It's good hot or cold.

Cauliflower Kuku

What you need: 

*Olive Oil
*Onion
*Garlic (I used garlic powder)
*Coarsely chopped cauliflower (I used a medium size head)
*Salt, pepper, cumin
*1/4 cup of water
*parsley (but dill is also incredible) 
*3 eggs, beaten
*Shredded cheese, to your liking. I used swiss this time, but have had great success using mozzarella, cheddar, and feta.

Also, I completely forgot to photograph the eggs, so you get to see them by themselves in all their egg-y glory.

What you do: 

Before anything, preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Saute the onion in oil, until it's translucent.

add cauliflower, water, spices, and parsley. Cook down until cauliflower is soft, about 10 minutes

push the cauliflower off to one side, and add more olive oil

add eggs and cheese, and cook until set, about 4 minutes

Bake for 7-8 minutes. Top with additional cheese, if desired. Amazing!

Desperation in the Kitchen: My Famous Chicken Stew

I'll start off by saying that this is the first time I've ever written the recipe down and that the stew itself was an accident.

Back when we moved into our first NC house, and I was playing (part time) stay at home wife and mom, and trying to cook because 1) this is the sticks and there is NO place to get takeout on the regular and 2) we couldn't afford it and 3) I was in my late 20's and goodness, I NEEDED to learn how to cook. The original recipe was for chicken rice soup and I think it came from the Pioneer Woman. I think. It's been almost 8 years, you guys. I have no idea.

Eventually, I added a bunch more vegetables to this soup and replaced the rice with noodles. It's a texture issue with me, the rice.

But, let me wax poetic about this stew (and apologize about there not being a picture of the finished product in a bowl, the vultures descended shortly after I turned off the stove). If someone in the house gets a scratchy throat or just feels snotty, this stew gets made. Two days ago, Gabe came home from work and complained that he was feeling off. I asked him if he wanted me to make this stew and his face immediately lit up. My boss wasn't feeling well this weekend, so I made it on Saturday. He says it's the best chicken soup/stew/whatever he has ever had and y'all, this man has TRAVELED THE WORLD. High praise! Basically, I've made the stew twice in about 4 days, and I've already got an 11 year old asking me to make it again *sigh* It's a bit exhaustive of a recipe, but so worth it, I promise. Here goes!

Jo's Cure All Chicken Stew 

What you need:
Chicken Thighs (I'm not picky about many things in a recipe, but the thighs are a must)
Water
Salt, pepper, garlic powder
various vegetables (here's where I'm NOT picky: this time I used onions, peppers, carrots, celery, a green pepper, and some spinach)
butter (take two sticks, just to be safe)
all-purpose flour
chicken bouillion cubes
pasta (I had leftover bow tie pasta left, but I've used all kinds)
yellow food coloring (for color purposes only)

What you do:

Season your chicken thighs, throw in a pot and cover with water. Boil until meat is cooked through. When meat is cooked, remove it from the chicken stock (you just made chicken stock!) and leave it to cool a bit.

Chop your veggies. This is just my celery (and my super cool copper knife from Gabe!), but you guys get the picture.

Put 4 Tablespoons of butter into a pan. Melt. Add some flour (whatever looks right) and make a roux. Make it golden brown and pretty.

Add the roux to the chicken stock. My boss said this is where my recipe differs from most of the recipes he's seen. I add the roux at the beginning, and most of the time it is added at the end.

Throw a bit more butter into your roux pan, and add your veggie. Season with salt/pepper/garlic powder/whatever, and cook just a bit, until crisp-tender.

Toss veggies into the simmering stock.

This is a bouillion cube. It has way too much sodium, and I don't use them often. My grandma used them, and they never killed anybody. So, take one of these babies, and toss it in that pot.

Shred your chicken and throw that in the roux pan with some melted butter.

Throw that in the pot, add a few drops of yellow food coloring and simmer about ten more minutes til all the flavors meld together. It hasn't failed me yet!

Desperation in the Kitchen/Bucket List Cross Off: Spaghetti Squash

Have you ever wanted to cook something but the darn thing just looked SO weird that you felt a bit intimidated?

                                                        Enter the spaghetti squash. 

I have this weird obsession with eating seasonally (because that's when stuff goes on sale, and I'm cheap, y'all) and then I got this spaghetti squash...and it sat in my kitchen for four days because I was legitimately scared of it. Scared. A grown woman scared of a vegetable.

And then I grew up and realized if I didn't do something with it, it would go to waste and being wasteful is pretty much punishable by prison time in my house.

This recipe is a mish mash of a bunch of recipes I found on Pinterest....

What you need:
*One Spaghetti Squash
*Olive Oil
* Water
*Salt, Pepper
*Some kind of Spaghetti Sauce (I made a meat sauce)

What you do:
**Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

**Slice your squash in half lengthwise. Side note: This was probably the most time consuming part of the entire ordeal. 

Creepy looking, huh?

**Scoop out the seeds. We dried and saved ours to grow in the spring. 

**Put some salt and pepper on your squash

**Poke a few holes in your squash halves and lay them face down in a bit of water in a baking dish

**I baked mine 45-50 minutes

**Shred the flesh with a fork. It looks like spaghetti! 

**Serve with meat sauce

The verdict: It was GOOD. And even my husband who has for years refused to eat anything remotely squash-like because squash traumatized him as a child...(even though I've been putting zucchini and yellow squash in EVERYTHING, sorry honey)  LOVED it. 

Definite make again. 

As a matter of fact, there is currently a squash in my kitchen staring. me. down. 

Desperation in the Kitchen: Chicken A La King (aka my return to blogging)

I would preface this with a lengthy apology, but y'all, it's almost 1:30 a.m. and the baby is sleeping, so I need to get this typed up ASAP.

My boss made this and it was amazing. So, I stole his recipe.

This is the recipe. I tweaked a few things (like I added frozen peas, but then so did my boss, he just didn't write that up in the recipe)

The ingredients.

sauteing chicken and onion in butter, and cooking rice (it's in the covered saucepan)

Making a roux and adding the frozen peas

Cooking low and slow, and the rice, of course.
Quick backstory: until very recent years, I sucked at making rice. SUCKED. It would always turn out gummy. There's no secret as to why I don't suck, I literally googled "how to cook rice" and I've just stuck with it.

Deliciousness!

Gabe and Ella definitely approved of this dish, and I will be making it again. Bonus: I got to cross a food off my bucket list!

Desperation in the Kitchen: Chicken Gloria

Ever since I saw the idea for this dish on Sandra's Blog , I decided that I HAD to make it. You know, one of those bucket list foods. I can now cross this one off! (It's since been replaced by about 3 other dishes, but that's how it goes!)

Chicken Gloria

Recipe adapted from here .

Here's what you need:

*3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, fileted in half lengthwise (this is probably the most labor intensive part of the recipe)
*salt, pepper
*1/2 cup flour
*olive oil
*2 Tablespoons of butter
*8 oz container of fresh sliced mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
*1/2 cup of sherry wine (I used cooking wine)
*1 can of cream of mushroom soup
*1/2 cup of milk
*6 slices of muenster cheese
*chopped parsley for garnish

Here's what you do:

*Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

*Season your chicken breast halves with salt and pepper and dredge in flour

*Brown it in olive oil. It doesn't have to be done all the way. It will finish cooking in the oven.

*Place the chicken in a 9x13 casserole pan

*Melt butter in the skillet over medium heat, add mushrooms, season to taste with salt and pepper

*Cook until golden brown, then add in sherry wine. Cook another minute, then add in cream of mushroom soup and milk.

*Pour the sauce over the chicken.

*Cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes.

*After that, remove the foil and cover with slices of muenster cheese,

*Broil for 2 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly

*Top with parsley

You're done! It's delicious!