Happy Middle of January !

Winter had finally arrived here in New England.  It’s cold, it snowed (not enough to really shovel but enough to look pretty), the sun is out and it’s cold.  Just the kind of weather for hearty yummy carb-laden goodies made in the Big Gray Pot.

This week (so far) I made risotto with shrimp and peas.   Risotto is one of those dishes that everyone in the house loves, but I kind of forget about when I’m thinking of things to make.  It is super easy, I use the basic recipe from an old, old Williams Sonoma “Risotto” cookbook.  There is half an hour of minding the pot on the stove as you add the chicken stock but easy to do while you are puttering around the kitchen making salad or cleaning up.  Add to that peas in the freezer and frozen cooked shrimp on sale at MarketBasket and it’s risotto for the win!

The night I made it was my basketball carpool night, after the risotto was finished, I put the lid on and put it in a 200 degree oven to stay warm while I picked up and dropped off hoop stars.  I’ve never “held” risotto in the oven like that before and I think were I to do it again, I’d add a little extra water on the top to keep it moist.  The rice kept sucking up the cooking liquid and wasn’t dry but not quite as creamy.

Hope you try something like this, I love the fact that I can cook something on the stove and then hold it in a warm oven rather than letting it get cold and them microwaving to heat up later.

Have a great day everyone!!

Happy New Year!

As I opened up the blog this morning, I realized that i averaged about one post a month last year … let’s see if we can do better this year shall we??  So much good stuff to share, so busy doing I never took to write it down!

Last month for my birthday, my beloveds gifted me with a big new Le Creuset dutch oven.  Swoon and be still my heart!  I have wanted one of these in my kitchen for years.  Charlie joked that I used it 3 times the first week I had it… and the problem with that would be????  I thought it might be fun to share what I’ve been making in my new toy this year.    We are in the season of basketball now and I am finding that planning a soup/stew item and a casserole that can be time-baked in the oven gets us through the dinner hour on the nights we are out over dinnertime and want to come home to a hot meal.  It worked during soccer season and seems to be working so far for hoop.

This week my “in the pot” recipe was the Pioneer Woman’s “Chipotle Chicken Chili”.   I love Pioneer Woman and have had great success with her recipes, this one was no exception.  Easy to make with not crazy ingredients, easy to alter for our taste (1 chipotle pepper rather than 3 eeekkk!)  and scoring high on the yum-o-meter with the offspring.  Chili for the win!  This one was deemed a keeper.   My alterations were chicken stock rather than beer and the aforementioned reduction in chipotle peppers (love the flavor need to moderate the heat).   I also tried using some boneless chicken thighs instead of some of the chicken breasts…won’t be doing that again, waaaay too much trimming for the picky eaters so chicken breast it will be next time I make this.   I highly recommend, give it a try!!

Have a great day everyone!!