Archive for the ‘Nightly Review’ Category

Nightly Review: Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Peppers

Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Peppers

Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Peppers

Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Peppers

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Recipe Link

This is definitely a keeper.  Very good and very simple.  We made a few substitutions though.  First off we didn’t have any fennel seeds so we used caraway seeds, and not having any milk we used watered down sour cream for the potatoes.  Both of which turned out just fine.  Lastly, we used small red potatoes instead of the Yukon Gold potatoes simply because we had some red potatoes laying around.  Unless you’re some kind of potato connoisseur you would probably never know the difference.

As for the recipe the mashed potatoes and chicken were a great pair.  It’s hard to say which was best since both were so delicious.  Luckily, we still had some of our rosemary from the summer that we dried a few months back.  It makes the dish very aromatic, as rosemary often does.  Don’t forget to drizzle the broth from the peppers and onions over the chicken at the end.

Would have liked to have drank a red wine with this.  But it’s about 85 degrees in our apartment and nothing we can do about it.  As such we just had a cold beer with it.

Nightly Review: Bucatini with Mushrooms

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Bucatini with Mushrooms

Bucatini with Mushrooms

Bucatini with Mushrooms

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Recipe Link

What I’m really reviewing here is not the Bucatini with Mushrooms, but the Bucatini with Mushrooms that we made.  The reason I say this is because Dried Porcini mushrooms are just too freakin expensive, as are wild mushroom mixes, and we couldn’t find Bucatini pasta at our local market.  Also we didn’t have any heavy whipping cream.  That being said, we replaced the Bucatini with Thick Spaghetti, and used a crap-load of cremini mushrooms to replace the Porcini and wild mushrooms.  And finally we replaced the heavy whipping cream with sour cream.

Our version of this dish was definitely good.  The recipe calls for a tablespoon of salt to cook with the pasta.  This is what we used, but was too much.  Next time I would go with maybe half a  tablespoon.

All in all I think this recipe is a little expensive as is.  We just happened to have some truffle oil, but if we didn’t we probably would have just skipped it.  So if you have the money to invest in this dish go for it.  Otherwise, there are plenty of cheaper substitutes to use.

Nightly Review: Spanish Style Tuna and Potato Salad

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Spanish Style Tuna and Potato Salad

Spanish Style Tuna and Potato Salad

Spanish Style Tuna and Potato Salad

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

Recipe Link

Don’t get me wrong with the number rating above.  It was a good dish.  My wife really liked it, more than myself.  Nonetheless, probably the biggest turnoff for me was the raw onions.  This is completely a personal preference, and when left up to me any dish with raw onions will be deducted at least a point because I simply just don’t like raw onions.

Moving on.  I love tuna and potatoes, and the sweetness of the cherry tomatoes adds a great flavor to the salad.    The green beans also add a nice texture.  This seemed more to me to be a summer type dish.  But since Adri and I have no control of our apartment temperature and the landlord keeps it about 150 degrees here, this was a perfect cold dish.

Good dish, but just missing something – the lack of raw onions.

Nightly Review: Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Butternut Squash

Monday, January 18th, 2010
Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Butternut Squash

Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Butternut Squash

Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Butternut Squash

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Recipe Link

This is the first of hopefully many recipe reviews to come.

Dear God what a great recipe.  Super simple, but not that quick.  Takes about an hour in the oven.  Make sure you line your baking dish with tin foil, otherwise you’ll have a bit of a mess to clean up.  It’s also a good idea to spray the tinfoil in the dish with some oil to keep the potatoes and squash from sticking.  The greasy drippings on the potatoes and squash, which crisp very nicely, are delicious.  Makes enough for 6 people or so, unless you eat a lot in which case you should maybe just plan for 4 servings.

We served this over rice with Sagres (a nice cheap portuguese beer – around $18 bucks for a 24 pack) and two episodes of The Office.