What I Made for Dinner :: Slow Cooker Garlic Roast Pork

I modified this recipe I found online.

What I Made for Dinner :: Slow Cooker Sticky Chicken Drumsticks

http://www.farmgirlgourmet.com/2013/04/slow-cooker-sticky-chicken-drumsticks.html

What We Ate for Dinner :: Fish Taco

Fish Taco

Cabin John, Maryland

What I Made for Dinner :: Chicken with Fragrant Rice

I'm a huge fan of one pot meals -- what's not to love when you get a great meal and very little clean-up? So I was immediately intrigued by this recipe that uses the rice cooker to make a complete meal. Oddly enough, this recipe for Chicken with Fragrant Rice is from movie critic Roger Ebert's book, The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker. Seriously. Mystery and romance!

The other beauty of this dish is that you can throw in any kind of vegetable you want. I chopped up carrots, baby bell peppers, snow peas, and green onions, but broccoli, green beans, peas, shiitake mushrooms, edamame, etc. would work equally well. I also increased the amount of chicken because I was making this as a main dish.

The thing about this dish is that, even though you cook it in a rice cooker, because of the amount of oil you use, it cooks up more like fried rice ... there was even some crispy rice on the bottom, which I loved about this dish. I'm definitely going to make it again, and it would work just as well as a side dish so it's pretty versatile.

What I Made for Dinner :: Garlicky Pork Ribs and Collard Greens

As part of my intention to do more meal planning, I'm also attempting to take advantage of the weekly supermarket sales and to diversify the foods that we eat. Country-style pork ribs were on sale this week so the meal ended up being pretty economical considering the amount of food we ended up with. Yay!

Today I made Garlicky Pork Ribs with Greens, and I think this was the first time I cooked collard greens. Instead of buying them by the bunch, I purchased two one-pound bags of the prepped greens and that was really easy to use. The greens do wilt down considerably, but it still makes a lot of vegetables. Luckily, since the kids also like kale, they didn't have any qualms about eating the greens. 

[It turns out two pounds of collard greens takes up a lot of room in the roasting pan!]

This is a good dish to make when you have company because it's pretty easy to make, the ingredients aren't hard to come by, and it makes a lot of food. 

What I Ate for Lunch :: Wildwood Kitchen

[Wagyu Beef Burger with White Cheddar, Mushrooms, and Mustard Aioli

served with fingerling potatoes]

We shared the Grilled Octopus with Pipperade and Red Wine Vinaigrette as an appetizer.

Wildwood Kitchen

10223 Old Georgetown Road

Bethesda, MD 20814

(301) 571-1700

What I Made for Dinner :: Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken and RoastedAsparagus with Miso Dressing

I'm really embracing the slow cooker lately, even when I don't have to be out of the house during the day. It used to be that I only pulled the slow cooker out when I knew I couldn't cook dinner in the evening, but why should I limit its usefulness? By using the slow cooker, I get my act together in the morning, prep the food, and then have the rest of the day to myself. It's a win, win!

Tonight's dinner of Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken was a hit with everyone, especially the Husband. I normally don't use chicken breast (I like the flavor -- and price -- of dark meat) but since this recipe calls for bone-in breast, it's not as expensive as getting just breast meat or chicken tenders. (And pulling the skin off of bone-in chicken breast is so much easier than deboning the darn things!). I used four chicken breasts, which meant some of the chicken wasn't entire submerged in the liquid. I moved the chicken around part-way through the cooking time so they would get even flavoring and coloring. 

I didn't use all of the sauce like the Notes section suggests -- it would've been too saucy, I think. Next time I just won't make so much so I don't have to waste ingredients making the sauce. I reduced the slow cooker liquid a bit before adding the cornstarch, and I enjoyed having the onion bits in there. And don't skimp on the sesame seeds and green onions.

To accompany the chicken and rice, I used the recipe for Miso Roasted Scallions and roasted asparagus instead. Unfortunately, I over-roasted the very thin asparagus and they came out like fries. But the dressing is easy to make and quite tasty; it would definitely work with other roasted vegetables.