Dang, That Was Good!

Do you ever say that about something you've cooked? I've said it about two things recently. I made what we now refer to as Jamie Oliver Chicken two nights ago and I have that recipe DOWN. There are all sorts of little things to do to push that recipe over the top*, and the stars aligned for me this time and it turned out perfectly. It was one of those meals I'd pay money for in a good restaurant.

*What I do to this recipe: I roast whole heads of garlic, just the way you would oven roast them, in the pan with the chicken by cutting off the tops and drizzling with olive oil then sticking them down in amongst the other ingredients. That's in addition to the garlic cloves called for in the recipe. I also add 3 cans of beans, 2 of cannellini and 1 of dark red kidney beans. I cook the recipe forever with NO LID, stirring at about the halfway point, and possibly once more toward the end of the cook time. It cooks for over two hours, closer to two and a half. The house smells A-MA-ZING the whole time!! I serve it with a loaf of naan bread, which we rip apart and smear with the roasted garlic.

The second thing was today's afternoon snack. I was at our local grocery store when they announced fresh baguettes, hot out of the oven. I went over and asked for two; while I was waiting for them to be bagged up a woman said she was planning to have hers with some Brie when she got home. Ooooh, that sounded good, so I ran back to the deli cheese area and grabbed some Brie, too. When I was ready for my snack I cut a section of the baguette for myself and sliced it almost in half. I opened it up and toasted the inside in a pan with some walnuts, then made an upscale cheese sandwich with the Brie, some honey, and the toasted walnuts on the baguette. When the cheese was melty I pulled it off the heat and onto my plate along with some fresh red grapes and a cup of Irish Breakfast decaf, sweetened with free trade sugar and the honey that stuck to the spoon. It was like I was back in Europe!

Happy sighs.