Spicy Chicken Pasta

Sometimes it's just about saying that you could and you did.  I borrowed my mom's pasta maker just to see if homemade pasta would be one of those life changing experiences like the homemade tortillas were.  

These little guys were definitely a lot of work.  A lot, a lot, a lot.  Some things that are labor intensive are worth it in the end...like chocolate babka.  Seriously, the first time I made that and then tasted it, I swore I'd make it every single weekend, despite the effort that went into the bazillion turn, roll, fold, refrigerate steps it took to get that awesome flaky bread.   And homemade ravioli and sheet pasta is definitely worth the extra effort on occasion. 

So how about homemade ziti/rigati pasta?  It sure looks like it's something pretty special as it comes cranking out.

After its cooked it looks like it's exponentially better than dried pasta--kind of like the fat chewy yumminess of homemade noodles in chicken noodle soup.  

I figured pasta this substantial needed a bit of bite in the sauce so I opted for a super spicy red tomato based sauce for these little fat pasta guys. 

And the result....drum roll please...........  eh.   After all that work, this was really like any other pasta dish.  It was yummy and I loved the spiciness, but when something takes that much work, it should jump off the plate and into your mouth.  A little dance on your tongue would be nice as well.  Worse than the work of making the pasta though was cleaning that machine and scrubbing the gooey covered molding plates with a mini brush.  Yuck. 

There is however, a little satisfaction in knowing you've tried something and can cross it off your to-do list.  I've shared the recipe below minus the homemade pasta part.  I'd recommend you skip the homemade noodles and whip up some chocolate babka with the time you save. 

SPICY CHICKEN PASTA

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 lb chicken breast sliced

2 cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp red pepper flakes (adjust to your taste)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 cup favorite marinara sauce (my fav recipe coming soon)

1 cup peas 

3 cups hot freshly cooked pasta
freshly grated parmesan

1. In a large sauté pan, heat 2 tsp olive oil over med high and cook chicken just until done. 
2. Remove chicken from pan and turn heat down to med.  Add remaining 2 tsp olive oil to pan along with garlic and 1 tbsp red peppers.  Stir and cook for 1-2 minutes
3. Add chicken back to pan and stir to coat with garlic and peppers.  Add salt and pepper.
4. Stir in pasta, peas, marinara and extra red pepper flakes and cook 3-4 minutes or until all ingredients come to temp.  Serve with freshly grated parmesan. 

Denver Broncos Chili

Truth time.  There's nothing that makes this specifically Denver Broncos Chili except perhaps that it's orange.  Denver Broncos Chili just sounds more kick-ass than "orange colored chili."  Right?  

Monday night games pose a little bit of a food dilemma--when you leave the office and slide in your front door  just a little bit before kickoff, there's no time to pull a lot of food together.  That's where packaged snackies, a previously laid out orange and blue table and deli meat and rolls come in.  A little something cooking all day in the crockpot contributes to the idea that maybe you put a little effort into it.   Chili tastes better when it's cooked in a kick-ass crockpot.  Seriously--way better. 

A crockpot for game days only?  Yes, I justified it by saying I own many other seasonal items that get used far fewer than 15-20 times a year and this just seems like game day essentials.  You can find all teams online here and limited teams online here for a little bit cheaper. 

Isn't this the happiest fall color scheme?  

And the chili?  It's really somewhere in between a green chili and a tomato-based chili.  Pureeing the base after it cooks results in a happy accident orange colored chili that's perfect for game day--the flavor though, is all green chili.  

Denver Broncos Chili

Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken breasts
1 onion, diced

32 oz box of low sodium chicken broth

2 cups of roughly diced peeled and cleaned roasted green chiles (I used half mild, half hot)

28 oz can diced tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 1/2 tsp cumin

3 whole (smaller) potatoes (this makes it easier to find them and remove them before you puree the broth)

1 15 oz can white northern beans

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients except beans to a crockpot.  Turn crockpot to low and allow to cook for 7-8 hours. 
2. Remove chicken and potatoes.  Turn crockpot to high.  Use a stick blender to roughly puree broth/chile/tomato base. 
3. Dice potatoes and shred chicken and return to crockpot
4. Drain and rinse beans and add to crockpot.  
5. Allow chili come back to temp before serving--about 1/2 an hour

Afternoon in Vail

When I started out my career I worked in nonprofit, and at one org, we had an annual sponsor-funded weekend retreat in Vail. This was a highly anticipated weekend each year because when you work at a 501(c)3 and earn a 501(c) salary, Vail is not always the first place you head for a long weekend. 

My friend Mel is in town from Alaska and we'd planned to head up and see the fall leaves.  We pushed it off for a weekend because the leaves weren't cooperating.  And then we pushed it off for another.  Since she's heading back this week, we headed up for lunch even though the reports were that the fall colors had not arrived yet.  We kept our fingers crossed just in case the reports were wrong.  

Not so much...

We couldn't really complain though since Vail is a charming town regardless of whether it's covered in winter snow, the green trees of summer or the golden aspens of fall.  

And look who is feeling much, much better--well enough to bat her brown puppy eyes in hopes that some chicken will come her way. Vail is a dog friendly town and you can easily find a patio to sit under the high country sun and enjoy lunch, while the pups sun themselves under the table. 

I've learned that having this particular dog with me does seriously limit my ability to take actual photos--I grabbed a snapshot when I could and hoped I didn't get pulled over by 18 lbs of excited energy.  She's lucky she's cute. 

I've missed this town with its clean pine scented mountain air, charming shops and coffee stops. Vail, Breckenridge and all of the Summit really is just a relatively short drive from Denver.  I really can't say why I don't head up there more often. 

Drama queen doesn't beat around the bush--when she's done walking, she's done walking and will let you drag her across the grass exactly like this before she will walk on her own. It only takes a shaded patch of grass to convince her that walking is for chumps.

I see her wounds and shaved spots all over and her big toothy smile and know we were very lucky last weekend. 

Burlap Autumn Wreath

It's been awhile since I've crafted anything and with fall quickly coming upon us, I felt the need for a little autumn goodness. 

I'd planned on doing quite a bit of baking yesterday as I was going to have friends over for the Broncos game today.  We had a little incident though that changed our weekend plans....Brooklyn had a stay at the Animal Emergency Hospital and I abandoned her there for a bit (so hard to do) and headed out for a little human medical care.  

My poor puppy.  

Brooklyn and I were out for a walk and I'd intentionally chosen to head back via the route in front of the houses rather than back through the greenbelt we'd started on.  The fences were low and there were a couple of big dogs who came awfully close to coming right over the top of the fence when they saw us.  How can people expect hip height fences to keep dogs in?  You'd think the front of the houses would be safer right? 

Not so much.  

Three large dogs hanging out inside the front door of their house saw one awfully cute Boston Terrier and all hell broke loose.  They opened the door (seriously, these dogs opened their own glass storm door) came flying out and within seconds were on top of Brooklyn.  They say you are not supposed to interrupt a dog fight, but this was really more of a mauling...300 lbs vs 20 lbs is hardly a fight.  I do know that jumping into a pile of riled up lab-pit mix and Bernese Mtn dogs is far from wise but if you see a dog grab your pup by the throat and hear the screams and cries coming from your dog,  you don't really care about what you are or are not supposed to do.  I was right in the middle and by the time the owners  came out and pried their 3 dogs away and had control of them, it was a bit of a bloodbath. 

Luckily there was no damage requiring surgery--Brooklyn's harness was ripped to shreds but she was able to limp around at the hospital.  I walked away with just a sprain.  

As the dogs' owner kept assuring me over and over (while bleeding himself) that his dogs with their blood-soaked fangs did not have a single vicious bone in their bodies (huh?), I was struck by how quickly and easily this attack happened.  These dogs were inside their house and seconds later were on top of Brooklyn...no warning, no heads-up growling, no obvious impetus--just a full force attack.    There were at least 2 mothers on the street walking their babies in strollers--so much for safety in your own neighborhood. Brooklyn's getting a kevlar harness next.  

This is a dog on drugs.  Along with her IV and meds, they gave her a "valium cocktail" at the hospital.  No one offered me one.   

What else can I write after that story?  Not much and as it turns out, I don't have a lot to add to the below photos anyway because I can't actually explain how I made this wreath.  I bought the below wire and and pipe cleaner wreath form at Hobby Lobby for about $3 (40% off their holiday items almost every week). I bought burlap ribbon because I am not ambitious enough to cut strips of burlap.  Ribbon is also a lot less messy.   I ended up using about 12 yards of burlap ribbon (on sale for 50% off or about $6 total) and just started pulling loops through the wire form and wrapping them with the pipe cleaner.  

I searched Google and Pinterest for instructions on making this and couldn't find any that made sense to me even with photos.  It was mostly trial and error but it really is just about pulling loops through and fastening them.  

I've seen much fuller versions and if I had more ribbon, I might have used more but it turned out full enough for my liking. 

I used one roll of ribbon all the way around and then went back with the second roll and filled in the gaps.

I attached a couple of fall berry picks and made accent flowers from orange burlap ribbon.  This is just twisting the ribbon and rolling into a flower----with a lot of hot glue along the way.  I attached the flowers by pulling one of the pipe cleaners through the back of the flower and then securing with hot glue as well. 

 I'm not much of a seasonal decorator outside of Christmas, but have to say that a little rustic burlap on the door does make it all seem quite autumnal. This wreath would also look great on a securely locked, dog-proof door. 

BBQ Pulled Chicken in the Breville Fast Slow Cooker

First I'll start with the disclaimer....I am not a BBQer, charcoal pit queen or carnivore extraordinaire.  If you are a serious BBQ connoisseur, you probably want to skip the rest of this post. If you think BBQ is akin to heaven, well this post will shock you with it's lack of authenticity....I just use bottled sauce.  

You were warned. 

My crockpot broke last year and after blowing through 3 crockpots in as many years,  I decided my next one would be an investment.  I had/have my heart set on the All-Clad 7 Qt deluxe because of the aluminum insert.  I love the idea that it's stove top friendly so you can brown and sautee in the same pan before you begin the slow cooking.  Seriously, how cool is that right?

Then one day my eyes beheld the  Breville Fast Slow Cooker and after a couple of weeks of reading the (limited) reviews and debating, I found that this little baby was quite happy to come home with me.  

What's so special about her?  Well aside from the minor detail that she's quite lovely, she also gives you the option of sautéing/searing in the metal insert pan (score 1), she's a slow cooker (score 2) steamer (score 3) AND  a pressure cooker (score 4).  

Pressure cooking is completely new to me but now that we've been introduced, I am a little obsessed.  You can make just about anything in a mere fraction of the time required to cook on the stove....imagine slow cooked beef stew in under an hour.  I made potato salad last week by adding diced potatoes and whole uncooked eggs in the shell to the steam basket and pressure cooking it for......5 minutes.  It's like magic. 

This Breville is not your mother's stove top pressure cooker.  I'd read so many horror stories about those, but this little beauty is quiet and as easy to use as a regular slow cooker.  

It hasn't been quite cold enough to make pots and pots of soup and chowder yet but can tell you this makes fantastic pulled chicken and pulled pork in almost no time at all. 

Yep, bottled sauce.  I used purchased rub as well. If you are going to use bottled sauce, I will add that I think Famous Dave's is pretty good despite the HFCS.  I love Devil's Spit but just use that as a topping sauce since others don't necessarily agree with me there.  I used the Rich and Sassy in recipe. 

A "crockpot" that sears.  It's genius...why had this not been done decades ago?

There's no recipe really.  I rubbed about 2 tbsp of a BBQ rub on 3 lbs of boneless chicken breasts.  (If you are in Denver, Savory Spice's Platte River Rib Rub is pretty yum).  Turn Breville function to sauté, add 10 minutes to the timer and press start.  Allow to preheat and then sear 3 lbs of boneless chicken breasts in batches.  Add all chicken back to the Breville, add 1/2 cup beer (or water) and 2/3 cup BBQ sauce.  Lock lid, turn function to pressure cook, add 25 mins to the timer and press start.  It's that easy...no shaking, sputtering pans or continual whistling.  There's a little bit of steam whistle  in the beginning as it comes to pressure and then a click and then relative silence.  After 25 mins, I slowly let the steam escape in batches.  Once all the steam is released, open the lid (it won't open with any steam pressure----score 5) and let cool a bit.  Shred chicken and add back to pot.   I didn't have a ton of liquid, but you may want to remove some and add back as needed if you do.   The pressure cooking keeps meat  juicy so you won't need much. 

I think pulled chicken/pork is one of those things that needs soft squishy rolls, but you can of course serve it on pretzel rolls, ciabatta or baguettes.  Top with additional sauce and let everyone think you spent all day making this. 

Go Broncos!!!!!

Berry Patch Farms

As much as I love a good vacation, weekend getaway or road trip, there's also something just so happy about sticking around close to home for a three day weekend.  I have a bit of work to do this weekend so couldn't head far, but truth be told, I love the opportunity to just stay around town and relax.  

While migrant workers and farmers probably don't think of picking farm produce as relaxing, this girl loved a morning spent outside in the early sun with the berries, some baskets and just the grasshoppers and chirping crickets.  My friend Mel is in town for a bit so we headed up to Berry Patch Farms in Brighton to pick some berries.  

What really hit me this time about picking food, is how much work and effort goes into farming.  As I watched the gentlemen pulling weeds and caring for the plants even as we picked, I was struck by the fact that they've been doing this all summer across the farm and the result were berries that we could consume at home within minutes.  It definitely gives you a greater appreciation of the food at the farmer's market and the need to support farmers.  

I had a goal on my 101 to bake a pie with freshly picked berries and the first thought I had after all of my effort was that there was a slim chance that I was putting all of those fresh sweet berries into a pie where their awesomeness would be overshadowed by sugar and crust.  I'll have to rethink that goal now. 

Behold, the berry. 

Strawberries were a bonus...we really headed up for the raspberries which are just coming into season this week. It was a bummer that many were still yellow--next week would have been the better weekend.  

Berry Patch Farms is definitely full of that small farm charm.  We arrived right as they opened at 8:00 and I'd definitely recommend you do the same if you are planning to go.  It was hot by the time we left and the parking was outrageous at that point.  They also pick out of some items in the morning so early is better.  Definitely a fun activity and it's almost guaranteed to make you appreciate the food growing lifecyle.  I know I won't bat an eye at the produce prices at the farmers market again.