My Daughters Favorite Chicken Dish

I cooked dinner for the family last night. Its easier to cook for more than myself. I didn't bring any recipes so I did old time favorites from my dusty brain. I'm sure many of you have a similar recipe since this one is so universal so don't expect anything exotic, just delicious.

I take a pint of sour cream, a cup of dry sherry and 1 can of cream of golden mushroom soup. (the store didn't have it so we sub'd with cream of chicken with roasted garlic). I mix these all together in a separate bowl. I take chicken thighs, (depends on who you're feeding but I used 6 for 4 servings here) and season them with marjoram, rosemary salt and pepper, then I place them on a warmed skillet sprayed with pam and with some olive oil added, just a bit so things don't stick. I brown them about 4-6 minutes over medium (we have electric here) turn them and brown the other side.

Once they are sufficiently browned, not fully cooked, I drain out the fat, add a bit of sherry to deglaze the pan then add the sauce and chicken back to the skillet and cover and cook for 30 minutes over medium. I don't walk away and ignore them or they will stick to the skillet so you have to turn them occasionally and baste them with the sauce. They're done when you poke them and no more red surfaces add another 5 minutes and serve over rice with some steamed broccoli for bright green color.

This morning I had the leftover rice with sauce - heated it up and put two over medium eggs on top for breakfast! It was really satisfying with my cup of tea.

No photo here as I thought the camera would get sauced and eaten once I plated it!! LOL

Great Cabbage Salad

I LOVE this salad. Its easy to make. Thinly slice some cabbage (I used a third of a half cabbage), add chopped green onions (I used 3) chopped cilantro (a handful) and some diced avocado (3/4 of one b/c I love avocados). I sprinkle garlic powder, salt, pepper to taste then squeeze lime juice (1 lime), vinegar and olive oil. I toss it then wrap it in saran wrap and put it in the refrigerator to blend the flavors. Should feed two.

I usually make it with my "Chicken with Hats" which is basically roasted chicken thighs with marjoram and rosemary, salt and pepper. Sometimes I add sliced garlic in between the skin and meat if I have time. I called them hats because the skin is so crispy that the skin comes right off like a hat. You have to put the chicken closest to the top of the oven to get it crispy like that. I usually don't eat the skin but it's soooo good and crispy! I also had to come up with interesting names for food so my young daughter would be more interested in eating it at 4 and 5 years old. She still refers to it as Chicken with Hats at 23 years old. Sometimes I'd serve it with "Little Trees" (broccoli) to interest her. I'm sure lots of young moms have resorted to this culinary subterfuge to get kids to eat.

At this point in my blog I'm doing the BASICS of my cooking recipes. Also because I'm packing my stuff daily and realize that I don't have the gadgets and tools I need for more elaborate stuff because they're packed.

Also, a lot of my friends, family have asked for the easiest stuff to make life easier. I won't be cooking too many unique things from now until I move to San Francisco for Culinary School.

Life is tasty.