Spanish Braised Chicken

1 T of butter (not pictured)
4 large chicken breast halves
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 t dried thyme
3 bell peppers, sliced (I used red and orange)
1 medium yellow onion, sliced in rings
1/2 cup cooking sherry (you could use apple juice)
2 t orange juice
12 large green olives, chopped

Plug in your crockpot and turn it to low. Add the butter to the bottom of the stoneware insert. Add the chicken--my chicken was frozen, but thawed would work, too. Add all of the dried spices to the chicken. Cut the peppers and onion, and chop or mince the garlic, to add to the mix. Top off with the cooking sherry and orange juice. Chop up the green olives, and sprinkle them on top.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

This recipe for Spanish Braised Chicken comes from A Year of Slow Cooking, my favorite place to find crockpot recipes. I copied and pasted the recipe from the blog, so the comments in the recipe itself are not mine.

This recipe is a crockpot recipe, but I needed a quick meal so I decided to try this on the stove-top. It worked! The exact cooking time is going to depend on the thickness of the meat, but I've used several different pieces of chicken and found them to all cook up quite quickly. To convert this to stovetop, all you do is simply put the ingredients in a frying pan in the order specified. I then turned it on high until the wine started to boil, and then turned the heat down (anything from medium to simmer works).

As for the wine, I had to substitute red cooking wine, as the store was sold out of cooking sherry. Yes, I know that you shouldn't cook with wine you wouldn't drink, and that cooking wine is very inferior. Once my confidence in cooking with wine increases, I promise I will branch out more. ;-)

My alterations were:
1 bag of frozen pepper/onion mix (instead of fresh onions/peppers)
red cooking wine (instead of cooking sherry)
Stovetop cooking (instead of the crockpot)
Different pieces of chicken (I think they were thighs, so just about any chicken would work)

Other possible alterations:
If you end up like me and need dinner ready in fifteen minutes (like I did yesterday!), here is another variation.
One fresh bell pepper (I was out of frozen peppers and fresh green peppers are cheaper than the others)
White cooking wine (discover you used the rest of the red cooking wine last time you made Spanish braised chicken, so you use this as a substitute)
Powdered garlic (a.k.a. forget to put in garlic, so you sprinkle some powered garlic on top after adding the rest of the ingredients).
Chicken tenderloins (they cooked extremely fast).
Omit the orange juice (or forget. Same thing. ;-).

This is some of the most delicious, juicy, tender, moist, flavorful chicken you'll ever taste. Yep, I love it! :-)

The Best Potato Salad Ever

Quite frankly, I have no idea where this potato salad recipe originated from as I learned how to make it from my mother. We've served it for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas for as long as I can remember. I have never seen or tasted any potato salad like it, but it is certainly the best potato salad I've ever had. Keep in mind the measurements are approximate, so feel free to add more as less as your palate dictates.

Here's what you'll need:

White Potatoes, one 5 lb bag

3 Tablespoons Mayo (plain yogurt can be substituted)
3 Tablespoons Mustard

3 chopped eggs (hard-boiled)

1 cup chopped pickles

1 cup sliced green olives

1/2 cup diced bell pepper (can be green, red, or yellow)

A splash of apple cider vinegar

Bake the potatoes, naked, in the oven at 400 degrees until tender (30-45 minutes). Slice the potatoes in half and scoop the potato out of the skin into a large bowl. (If the potatoes are too hot to handle, then let them cool for several minutes after slicing them in half before scooping out the potato) Add the mustard and mayo. Mix well. The potato mixture should be creamy at this point - if it isn't, add more mustard and mayo until it is. ;-) Throw in the chopped eggs, pickles, green olives, and bell pepper. Mix well, making certain to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. You don't want to get to the bottom of the bowl and discover a mound of empty potato mash! Add a splash or two of apple cider vinegar, and mix well one last time before serving.

Roasted Carrots

Say hello to the best cooked carrots you'll ever taste. The recipe is courtesy of The Pioneer Woman. The dish is so basic you just about don't need a recipe.

What you need:
Carrots (about 12 or so)
Olive Oil
Fresh Thyme (though dried may work)
Salt
Pepper

Slice the carrots in half so that they are approximately the same size. Lay them out in the pan and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, then throw a handful or so of thyme on the top. Slide the pan into a 400 degree oven until the carrots are all nice and wrinkly (about thirty minutes or so). Take a picture quickly before they disappear, or you may end up without a trace that you actually made these.