Cooking on hold.....again :(

In trying to throw out as little as possible, I put onion and tomato skins down my disposal.....That made the disposal and pipes very unhappy :(  Plumber can't come out til Monday so my next recipe will have to wait.  Sadness :(

New Tools!!!

I spent some ...ok, most...of my Christmas money on new tools for my kitchen. Most of these tools are things I have wanted since my husband and I got married, but just wasn't able to justify the purchases.  Well now that I am trying to cook more and writing about my cooking I convinced him that the purchases are justified and that I do actually need these things.

1.  12 qt stockpot - having to split the soup between two pots yesterday was just nuts.
2.  Roasting pan with rack - almost pouring olive oil all over the top of the stove yesterday when removing the tomatoes from the oven was just not fun.
3.  an electric panini press/griddle/grill - the Griddler® by Cuisinart®

Recipes and Cooking on hold for one week :(

I am out of town for one week and was unable to make my second meal before I left.  But I have three recipes lined up for my return :) See you all in a week!

Chicken, Rice, Broccoli and a Crockpot....

This quest started on Monday with me adding 2 cups of  rice to the bottom of my 4 qt crockpot crock.  I then mixed
1 can of  cream of broccoli,
1/2 can of cream of chicken soup,
3 cups of low-sodium chicken broth together and pouring that over the rice.  I then emptied 1 16 oz bag of frozen broccoli on top.  Stirred the whole mix together and then lay 6 chicken breasts on top of the rice-broccoli mix.  After I poured 1 more cup of low-sodium chicken broth over the whole dish.  I then set the crock into the base and set it to cook on low for 6 hours.  After a few minutes I thought it might taste good to add some minced garlic to the dish....so I added 2 tsp of minced (from a jar) to the crock.  Stirred the whole thing and put the lid back on.

6 hours later....the chicken was dry, the rice was burned on the edges and the dish (as a whole) had no flavor :(

I came to the conclusion that I obviously hadn't  added the right amount of liquid or spice.....

Last night I decided to deconstruct the dish on the stove to take a stab at improving the flavors....

I put 4 cups of low-sodium chicken broth in a saucepot and then added 1 tsp each dried sage, dried thyme, and fresh rosemary.  Once the broth was boiling I added 2 cups of white rice and reduced to a simmer and covered the pot. I set the timer for 20 minutes.

Next...the chicken....I wanted to match the spices in the rice so I coated both sides of two chicken breasts with McCormick's ® Roasting Rub French Herb.  Once they were seared on both sides I added 1 cup of the low-sodium chicken broth and  (after removing from heat) a couple tablespoons of pinot grigio.  I then put a lid on the chicken and allowed it to simmer while I waited for the rice to finish.

When there was 5 minutes left on the rice I popped some microwave steam green beans in the microwave and voila ...dinner!!

Alas...all did not go as planned :(

The rice didn't have enough liquid and i hadn't added the liquid/lid to the chicken in time....so the chicken was well flavored but a little dry and the rice was crunchy....it did have some flavor so maybe I need to double the herb quantities and add more liquid  next time...*crunch*