Food for Thought Thursdays: Scary Spice

Janet here: At first glance, my spice rack does not seem to be a problem ... except this is not the only place I store spices, as this other photo will illustrate.


I'm not proud of my spice storage, and as I get more into uncluttering my life — thank you Erin Doland of Unclutterer — this spice issue is making me a little crazy. I remember walking into my friend Julia's home when she and John first moved it. It was a lovely home, but the thing that would have made me buy it without walking beyond the kitchen was this fabulous former fold-down ironing board in the wall that had been turned into a secret spice storage area. I would kill to have something like that.

In my day job as the editor of a home and lifestyle magazine (among others), I wander through people's homes and invariably lust after their kitchen storage space, in particular their spice areas. Secret storage areas by the sides of stoves that slide out and let you see the spices and/or food from both sides in particular make me drool.

Given that our kitchen is a set size and a renovation (other than new counters — ours are embarrassingly dated, but that's another story) are not in the budget cards, I'm going to have to become creative. A friend suggested turning my current utensil drawer into a spice spot. That, of course, would mean cleaning out some other drawers, which really means I'm talking about redoing all my kitchen storage. A few years ago, I became fed up with the invariable tumbling out of Tupperware and errant plastic storage bins minus covers etc. that happened every time I opened that cabinet to get something to store leftovers in. I pulled everything out, matched up the tops and bottoms, and threw out the rest. The new family rule is nothing goes in there without its top on.

Maybe it's time to tackle the rest of the kitchen. What are your storage solutions?

Rachel here: When we moved in January it was one of those moves where there were few things we were sorry to leave behind in our old apartment (besides the memories and our fabulous walk-in-closet-turned-bedroom). There was, however, a built-in spice rack over the stove that I find myself missing on the regular at our new place. Cooking in the old apartment meant not having to hunt for spices and, instead, while stirring your soup just reaching up for a pinch of cayenne or whatever you needed. Not so much in the new apartment. The spice rack,however, was really the only good thing about the old kitchen. In our new place, we have a walk-in pantry filled with shelves and cupboards and a massive kitchen (with original turn of the century hardwood floors) in which I appreciate the space to move and cook every time I'm making food. My solution so far has been to create a spice drawer. In addition to spices, I keep my cupcake/muffin liners, rolling pin (which has a metal core for freezing and I am in love with and a better baker for owning), toothpicks and cookie cutters. It's not a perfect system (though it will be as I accumulate spices, one of those inevitabilities in life it seems), but things don't shift around too much currently and, with the tops of the jars labeled and the drawer right by the stove and main prep area, it's pretty darn convenient.


A note here about my mother and me. I am somebody who (sadly?), for fun, will go through all of her cupboards/drawers/bookshelves/whatever and reorganize them. One time in high school my family left me home alone for a week and I cleaned out and organized my mother's entire pantry (what I found in there I will keep between her and me). Last summer when John and I were visiting I pulled everything out of her linen closet, refolded and re-stacked and reordered...for fun (it just crossed my mind that this might drive her insane). As you can see, my mom and I are not exactly birds of a feather when it comes to my (admittedly sort of sick) propensity for giving things a neat and precise place. I think our spice situations speak to this a bit. Someday I will bite the bullet and show you the inside of my cupboards (where everything is in a labeled mason jar) or my linen closet, but until then I think I'm going to spend a little time envying my mom's more, shall I say, relaxed approach to life. Where do you fall on this spectrum?

Variations on a Theme: A Chicken in Every Pot

Rachel here: For our final installment of variations on a theme this week we figured we should offer up an entree to assure you that we don't actually only eat appetizers and desserts (although neither one of us would be opposed). Since there are very few meat items that we both eat, we settled on chicken as the jumping off point. In my house, chicken is a staple of sorts, a go-to dinner ingredient due to its quick and easy-to-cook nature. My partner works and goes to school, I go to school (like it's my job...we are talking a majorly type A personality here) and often by the time we are both home and the rest of our lives have been dealt with, we crave something warm and filling with minimal effort (with effort for us translating also into number of dishes generated since we don't currently have a dishwasher...but, as I've said before, more on that later) and so, with regularity, we find ourselves staring at plates with chicken on them. Earlier in our relationship when all we wanted was to feast on dreamy stares across the table at each other our chicken was often similar: pounded, cut, marinated, cooked and served on top of salad. There was and is nothing wrong with this approach. These days, though, our chicken (oh, and our relationship) takes a little more effort to hold our interest. The recipe I've chosen to share below is an easy one with just that little extra pizazz to liven the dinner table up and leave us both feeling a little warmer and fuzzier after a long hard day.




Goat Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts
serves 4 (half a stuffed breast per person)

Ingredients
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1.5 oz. goat cheese
1 tspn. unsalted butter
3/4 tspn. minced chives
1/2 tspn. minced parsley leaves
1/8 tspn. minced thyme
1/8 tspn. lemon juice
1/8 tspn. minced garlic
salt and pepper
1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 egg
1 tspn. water
vegetable oil
1 1/4 T. paprika
1 T. garlic powder
1/2 T. onion powder
1/2 T. cayenne
1/2 T. oregano
1/2 T. dried thyme

Method
Preheat your over to 350 degrees. Lay the chicken flat on your cutting board and, about 1/3 of the way down the thicker side of each breast, cut a deep pocket horizontally into the center of the meat, roughly 3/4 of the way down the side. Be very careful not to cut all the way through.
In a small bowl mash together the goat cheese, butter, chives, parsley, fresh thyme, lemon juice and garlic, adding salt and pepper to taste. Divide this cheese mixture between the pockets you cut into your chicken breasts and then press the edges of the meat to seal the mixture in. Season chicken lightly with salt and pepper.
In a large bowl (large enough to lay your chicken breasts flat in it), combine flour and all of the ingredients from the list above that follow the vegetable oil (paprika through dried thyme), adding 1 T. of salt and pepper each. In a second bowl of comparable size beat the egg and water together.
Lightly dust the chicken on both sides with the flour mixture, dip it in the egg and water mixture (shaking to remove excess), and then place the chicken in the flour mixture a second time. Shake off excess.
In an oven-proof skillet (if you don't have a cast iron skillet, you can buy them at your local hardware store for less than $20...I highly recommend owning one if you don't and have found that searing is never easier than in cast iron), heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and sear until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side.
Place the skillet in your pre-heated oven and bake until the chicken is cooked through, about 7-10 minutes.

As you can see in the photo above, I usually serve this chicken with a simple salad. It makes a hearty and nutritious dinner that tastes like way more effort than it takes. I whisk together a little oil and vinegar to make a simple salad dressing, add some local seasonal veggies (or, this time of year, some mandarin oranges) and serve the chicken and salad together. The meal is a bit of a staple in my house. Though I have yet to branch out beyond this version, I imagine you could stuff the chicken with any number of delicious cheese-based combinations. Any ideas? Anyway, hope you enjoy!



Janet here: Okay so my daughter decided to show me up making something that looks gorgeous on the plate for this meat staple. A little annoying, but while we are doing this blog together, the underlying theme is obviously Who is the Better Cook? It's a competition I don't intend to lose. Anyway, I'm in a cook-ahead mode of life for a variety of reasons, so this chicken stew satisfied that need and also my need to make something with chicken. I didn't actually follow a recipe but rather made this up after looking over some other recipes. In other words, there's lots of room for experimentation. Instead of tomatoes, for instance, why not try a white sauce to hold it all together? You could also make it more like a chili by using more southwestern spices, like chili powder, red pepper flakes, that kind of thing. The point is don't be afraid to branch out.

Chicken Stew
serves 4-5

Ingredients
1 yellow onion, diced
3-4 potatoes, cubed into bite-size pieces, skin on (I hardly ever remove the skin even when I make mashed potatoes; lots of vitamins there)
1 to 1 1/2 cups diced carrots
2 skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-size pieces
1 16 ounce can diced tomatoes
spices to taste: salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, basil

Method
Saute the onion, potatoes, carrots and chicken in a large pot with the spices. Once they're nicely sauteed, add the tomatoes. Adjust spices to taste.