Chicken and Potatoes in Parsley Sauce

Well, we have jumped right into our new eating plan for 2013. It is taking a little getting used to keeping track of everything, but we are already seeing a difference on the scale which is satisfying. Eating at home is, of course, the easiest and I feel like I'm eating more than I did before actually. What we really have to learn is how to eat out and still stick to our goals. Other than that, the biggest change has been giving up my many trips a week to Caribou Coffee for Chai Lattes and Dark Chocolate Mochas. All and all though, we are still eating very well.

Yeah, does this dinner look like we are suffering? The sauce for this meal came about because I had a ton of fresh parsley leftover after making homemade chicken noodle soup over the weekend (by request of a sick Matt). The sauce is quite delicate and fresh, but a little pinch of cayenne really boosted the flavor. I liked it much better on things, than by itself. I also like the fact it was a good sauce for the main and side.

Chicken and Potatoes in Parsley Sauce

1/2 T olive oil
salt & pepper
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 t unsalted butter
2 T diced shallot
1 1/4 t all-purpose flour
3/4 c skim milk
1/2 t Dijon mustard
pinch or two of cayenne
2 T chopped fresh parsley (or more to taste)
270 grams small red potatoes, boiled, hot

In a skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Salt and pepper the chicken breasts, add to the skillet and cook through. Remove to a plate and tent to keep warm.

Add the butter to the skillet and melt. Stir in the shallot and sauté until translucent. Sprinkle the flour over the shallots. Stir while cooking for 1 minute. Slowly stir in the milk until the sauce is thicken and bubbily. Stir in the Dijon and cayenne. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the parsley.

Serve the sauce over the hot chicken breasts and potatoes.

Two servings. (If you just served the sauce over chicken or potatoes, not both, you could get 4 servings)
96.5 calories per serving for the sauce alone. 238 calories with a chicken breast. 135 grams of potatoes comes in a 100 calories. For a total of 338 per serving.

Oh I should mention, last week I said I wasn't thrilled with the Loseit website, but after the first of the year rush it is working much better. I have to say I really love the recipe function where I can put in ingredients and get the calories for a recipe. This works great for people like us who don't eat much prepared food.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2013 Kathy Lewinski

Changes for a New Year

If you've followed this blog for any amount of time you know Matt and I love food. We love to cook it and eat it. Well, 7 years of enjoying food together has taken its toll on our figures, so this year we decided we needed to do something about it.

Now, we aren't going to go on a fad diet or start fasting or anything. Instead we are going to focus on the basics, counting calories and trying to get more exercise. Not glamorous at all. Counting calories can be a little tedious, we are using the free Lose It app to help. (So far, I like the app, but hate the website.)

This doesn't mean A Good Appetite is going to turn into a weight loss blog. But it does mean you will probably see calorie totals with our recipes in the future and less recipes for things like Mac & Cheese. I'm interested to see how much we eat has to change to meet our goals and what the recipes we already use come in at calorie-wise. (I was already surprised to see my Sweet Potato Curry is only 201 calories per serving, not bad for a curry.)

Our plan is to still have lots of interesting, tasty food to share with you, while we pay attention to our health at the same time. Happy New Year!

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2013 Kathy Lewinski

Beef, Mushroom and Farro Soup

We are so busy this time of year getting ready for Christmas. Meals tend to be hearty and easy. If they give us leftovers, all the better. Soup seems to fit the bill a lot.

This classic soup is fill of umami and will keep you satified on a cold winter night.

We used farro in this soup because we didn't have enough barley on hand, you can certainly substitute.

Beef, Mushroom and Farro Soup

1 T olive oil
1 lb stew beef
8 oz button mushrooms
2 yellow onions sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 c beef broth
2 c water
2 T soy sauce
1 t crushed, dried rosemary
1 c farro
salt and pepper

In a large heavy soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Salt and pepper the beef. Add the beef to the pot and sauté until cooked through. Add the mushrooms and onions. Sauté a minute or two until the onions are tender and the mushrooms have released their liquid. Add the garlic sauté another minute. Add the broth, water, soy sauce and rosemary. Bring to a boil. Add the farro. Bring to a boil again. Reduce the heat, cover leaving the cover open slightly and simmer for 20 minutes or until the farro is tender (it should still have a slight toothiness to it). If it seems too thick add another cup of water. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.

Serve with a crusty bread.

Makes 6 servings.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2012 Kathy Lewinski

Macaroni and Cheese with Pickled Onions

Oh my gosh, where did the time go? This past month has just been a blur with Christmas shopping, a minor surgery, traveling for the holidays and work and lots of holiday craft projects. It's time I got back to sharing food with you all.

If you remember when I was last chatting with you all, I told you about the amazing dinner we had at Geranium in Copenhagen. One of our favorite dishes was this Hay Cheese Soup with Pickled Onions and Bread Crumbs.

Matt thought it was a fantasic inspiration for a macaroni and cheese. He was so right, though perhaps it is not as refined a version. This could top the list as my favorite version of our homemade mac and cheese. The pickled onions add such a wonderful bite against the creamy cheese while the pumpernickel bread crumbs add crunch and a toasty flavor.

It is really quite an easy dish to make, you just have to remember to pickle the onions ahead of time. I like to do them in the morning for that night's dinner. The longer they sit in the brine the more pickled they will get.

Macaroni and Cheese with Pickled Onions

Pickled Onions

1/2 c white vinegar
1 1/2 T sugar
1/8 t crushed red pepper
1/4 t salt
1 c sliced onion

In a small microwave safe bowl heat the vinegar, sugar, red pepper & salt in the microwave on high for about one minute. Stir until the sugar & salt are dissolved. Put in a jar or plastic container. Add the onions & stir to combine. Refrigerate covered for at least 30 minutes. They get stronger the longer they sit.

Macaroni and Cheese

3/4 lb spiral macaroni
1 Tbs unsalted butter + extra for the top
1/8 C flour
1 C milk
1/2 C heavy cream
9oz mild cheese, chopped into small pieces (we wanted to use Vlaskaas, a Dutch cheese made with flax, but it was out of season, so we went when a young gouda instead. Graskaas made when the cows eat the fresh spring grass would be fabulous too.)
pinch dry mustard
salt
pepper
pumpernickel bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cook pasta according to directions drain and set aside.

In a small saucepan melt butter over med-low heat. Add flour an stir constantly for 1 minute. Do not allow to brown. Slowly whisk in milk and cream. Stir until hot and smooth and slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Turn heat to low and add cheese. Whisk until melted. Add a pinch of dry mustard and salt and pepper to taste.

Drain the pickled onions. Mic the cooked pasta, cheese sauce and pickled onions together. Spoon into a casserole dish. Top with pumpernickel bread crumbs and scatter a few small pats of butter around the top.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Makes 4 - 5 servings

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2012 Kathy Lewinski

Eating Copenhagen - Geranium

When we first decided to go to Copenhagen this year our goals was to eat at Noma, called the best restaurant in the world for 5 years. So, that found Matt on his computer at 3am one July morning when the October reservations for Noma were open. After 70 minutes of not even getting into the reservation system he gave up. We hear approximately 20,000 people try to get a reservation each month they open up. We were a little disappointed, but we knew Copenhagen offered lots of other modern Scandinavian cooking.

Fast forward three months and we find ourselves at the national football stadium in Copenhagen. Yes, football stadium. We weren't there for a match, but to experience a meal we'll never forget.

Around the back of the stadium a modern entrance and elevator whisked us to the eighth floor and a sleek, window filled restaurant called Geranium. Our meal started in the lounge of the restaurant for snacks and champagne.

Danish design, candles and a modern fireplace give the space the coziness that the Danes so love. We'd settled in with our choice of bubbly and the courses began arriving. Each course was beautifully presented and described by the staff. We were given the choice of adding a wine or juice pairing to the meal, we went for the wine pairing (might has well go all out).We've got 22 course so let's dive in.

Seaweed chips with a little creamy dip on them. Crispy carrot and seabuckthorn. The carrot was a delicate shell around the seabuckthorn filling. We had seasbuckthorn at a few places in Copenhagen, an ingredient we'd never had before. It has a flavor a bit like persimmon. The silver dish

Bread sticks with sea salt cheese and ramson. Ramson is a form of wild leek not too unlike ramps. Dried flowers and apple. Edible flowers were something we were to see in a few dishes throughout the evening and looks so lovely as well as tasting good.

Pickled mushroom soup served in an egg cup. "Razor Clams," really these were a clam salad inside a cracker shell, so clever. Jerusalem artichoke "tree" and walnut oil. I love jerusalem artichokes and they made for such a wonderful cracker. Plus the presentation of the edible branches and leaves with the real was stunning.

Burned Potatoes and sheep's milk butter. This dish had a fun story about being a boy scout and cooking potatoes over an open fire until they were black on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside. These were not burned on the outside, but soft and perfect with the spoonful of butter.

Now that we were done with snacks, it was time to head into the dining room for the rest of our meal. I can't say enough about everyone who served us during the meal, they really added to the experience. You are served by a handful of servers and chefs from the kitchen. We didn't realize until after the meal that we were actually being served by the head chef and co-owner, Rasmus Kofoed.

Jellied ham and tomato water, a light little jewel of a soup with surprisingly crisp flavors. "Dillstones" and fermented vegetables, such a stunning dish. The dillstones are actually a dill gel filled with smoked salmon. They were served with a fermented vegetable dip.

"Elements from Ocean & Beach" was certainly a wonderful scallop dish, but the way it was served was the highlight. The broth is aerated in special two chamber glass which makes it all frothy like the ocean hitting the shore. Then it is poured into your bowl.
Heather-smoked hake, picked heather and moss. The heather smoke add such flavor to this and the moss was quite a surprise with a lot of texture.

Rather than leave bread out through the whole meal this warm emmer and spelt bread is served as its own course with some beautiful butter. Next came a course that could have been our favorite, onions and melted hay cheese. A cheese soup studded with pickled onions. Bread crumbs are sprinkled on top from the inside of a horn. The mild cheese with the pickles was a perfect combination.

"Irons and Minerals" consisted of types of cabbage topped with an oyster sauce. Lobster and hay aroma was presented with the lobster on a cover tray and a smoking bunch of hay. We were so surprised at how much flavor that hay added to the lobster even if it was just the scent.

For the next course, herbgarden, the broth was seeped at the table like a tea and then poured over a bed of herbs. This was actually the least successful dish for me as I found the herbs to be overly bitter. The final dinner course was venison, red leaves and stems. Beautifully cooked venison was served with beets and a vanilla bean. I thought this would be heavy after so much other food, but the little bit of red meat was actually just want we wanted.

Next we were invited into the kitchen for a palette cleanser. The kitchen was pretty calm as it was later in the service, but it was really fun to be back there and see everyone at work. I love the picture with their Bocuse d'Or awards watching over them. While in the kitchen, we were served and elderflower soda, really a jelly with a foam on top.

Now it was time for desserts. First was a frozen herb tea with white chocolate, bright and light with a cold you don't expect with those flavors. The next dessert was gorgeous, "Flora Danica" and goat's milk cream. Look at those beautiful flowers against that white cream and dish. It tasted good too.

The green chocolate eggs looked almost too pretty to eat on a bed of pine needles. Finally, we were served thin sweet carrot leaves to end the evening.

As we left, we were both given a folder with the menu from the evening and list of the wines we had (we had twelve wines throughout the meal), plus a box of sweets to take home for later.

Details: Our dinner reservation was a 7:30pm and we were there until almost 11:00pm, we were eating or drinking something that whole time. Geranium has one Michelin star and was named 49th best restaurant in the world this year. Eating there is an amazing experience, but one you will pay a lot for (Copenhagen is a city where a coke can easily cost you $6), Matt and I gave this dinner to each other as an anniversary present. They have a set tasting menu, but are will try to work around dietary restrictions. I think it would be very hard to eat there though if you didn't eat fish and seafood. They take online reservations and we had no trouble getting one a couple months out. Lastly, we found Geranium and a few of the other great restaurants we visited thanks to the wonderful Danish blog, Very Good Food.

I still have one more Denmark post for you, next time we'll visit the meat packing district...

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2012 Kathy Lewinski