What are you cooking the week of September 2, 2018

[BakerAunt]

I wanted to do my maple-glazed chicken and sweet potato sheet pan recipe this evening. I experimented with reducing the saturated fat. I spread the sweet potato chunks, rubbed with a little olive oil, on a parchment-lined, rimmed baking sheet, drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with rosemary. I put the chicken on a rack in a separate, deeper pan, and drizzled just a bit of olive oil on each (crisp skin would be easier to remove later). I baked the pans side by side in the oven. (I did check first to make sure that both would fit.) The sweet potatoes actually came out superior to my other method because with less fluid, the maple caramelized. I was, however, thankful that I used the parchment, which made clean-up easy. The chicken also roasted well, and I was surprised at how much fat ran off. I’ve heard conflicting information on skinning chicken pieces before roasting, which the American Heart Association endorses, and leaving the skin on to keep the chicken from drying out, then removing it before eating. My take is that unless a coating is added to replace the barrier the skin provides, chicken is best roasted with the skin on but on a rack above any fluids.

[Mike Nolan]

I tend to skin bone-in breasts before cooking them, and you have to do something to keep them from getting tough on the outside. Coating them with oil isn't quite enough, coating them with a sauce (often tomato-based) or cheese seems to work better. Adding wine seems to help, too, so I've wondered whether the acid in wine or tomato sauce is what's keeping them from drying out.

I tried covering them with cabbage leaves once, it worked well, but the cabbage leaves weren't very edible. Spinach might work better.

[BakerAunt]

When I cook boneless chicken breasts, I halve them, then rub them with low-fat mayonnaise and coat them in a mixture of panko, freshly grated parmesan, and some herbs. Maybe the egg in the mayonnaise helps keep them from drying out? I'm not sure the panko mixture provides that much insulation.

[Joan Simpson]

I made lima bean soup with left over,limas,rice,tomato and added onion,celery and carrot in chicken stock turned out well.

[Joan Simpson]

Baked a pork loin roast, mashed potatoes and fresh cooked carrots.

[BakerAunt]

I made Lentil-Barley Vegetable (onion, celery, red bell pepper, garlic), using saved potato water for the liquid. I seasoned it with 1 tsp. Penzey’s Bouquet Garni and some freshly ground pepper. We ate it with the Pizza Margherita for Friday night dinner. I called it Mediterranean diet night.

[BakerAunt]

This post is what I am NOT cooking today. The honey vendor at the farmers' market was going to bring me 5 pounds of their Granny Smith apples. I even dug my food mill out of the stuff in the shed in anticipation. This morning, she had to break the news that their Granny Smiths were no good. She cut open a couple of good looking apples and found the lady bugs had gotten to them.

We are going to Michigan in October for my husband's family reunion, so I will be on the lookout for apples there.

[Mike Nolan]

The u-pick-it orchards here seems to be running a bit behind schedule this year, and the last week's rainy weather won't have sped that up much.

I've still got quite a bit of apple pie filling left over from last year in the freezer, but I may make one trip out to get some Winesap apples when they're available in early October.

When we've driven to Pittsburgh there are some u-pick-it orchards in western Ohio that appear interesting, but we're never going through there during apple season.

[Joan Simpson]

I made Taco salad...easy and fast!

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