systematic unification

Until last night we thought that Lindsey was going to be going on a business trip today, so I pulled out a few recipes to try to make dinner a bit more special. (Turns out she's going out of town next week, but that's good, because we have a lot of leftovers.

A sweet tasting Mexican inspired fried chicken recipe came out of an old Gourmet magazine ("Chicharrones De Pollo", September 2007). Lightly pounded skinless boneless chicken thighs were marinated in equal parts dark rum, soy sauce and lime juice for half an hour, then dredged in flour and paprika before being fried 6-7 minutes in vegetable oil, then served with a (not very) spicy marinara sauce. The latter recipe came from one of the contestants on The Next Food Network Star, but was simple. Two cups tomato puree, one cup vegetable broth, a blended mix of celery, carrot white onion and garlic, simmered on medium for 20 minutes or so and flavored with salt and red pepper flakes. I like using my own vegetable broth, which I make huge batches of every few weeks. You can do it for free by saving the scraps from your vegetables in the freezer.

When that bag is full I boil the whole thing on low in a stock pot for 90 minutes, with a few sprigs of thyme from the garden and big pinches of kosher salt, drain the pot, and I've got vegetable stock for a month (with way lower sodium content than anything store-bought).

To go along with the chicken I made a sesame spinach, which was just tossed raw spinach, lemon juice (one lemon or so), sesame oil (1 tbsp or so) and toasted sesame seeds.

So far so simple, and it doesn't get any tougher. I rounded off the meal with a tomato, pasta and bean soup.

Combine in stock pot:

28 oz can diced tomatoes

One cup bloody mary mix

One cup vegetable stock (see above)

Juice of one lemon

5 garlic cloves thickly sliced (this is my favorite way to feature garlic in a meal)

Half of white onion, rough chopped

1/2 teaspoon cumin (I'd add more next time)

1/2 teaspoon tobasco

Tbsp fresh basil chiffonade

Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add:

One rough chopped green pepper

Two cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed.

Simmer for ten minutes. Then add half a pound (or so) or dried elbow macaroni and let it cook through. By this point was running low on liquid and I added two more cups of vegetable stock.

It all came out fairly well...I'd have liked the soup and sauce to be a little more flavorful (more salt, cumin, pepper next time) and the spinach to be a little less (less lemon juice) but it was a lovely dinner.

Afterwards, Lindsey does the dishes. Because around here gender roles are no joke.

The spinach and soup recipes both come from The Healthy Heart Cookbook by Joseph Piscatella (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2004) which I've made regular use of since I was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2004 (a diagnosis that has since been withdrawn, but as I strive to be healthy in general, heart health seems a most important thing to pay attention to, no?).