Chicken n’ dumplings!

Today was the first day of September, as well as the beginning of a whirlwind semester. Once September rolls around, I emerge from a summer of (usually) gallivanting, TV binge-watching, and laziness into weeks that consistently average 60 hours of work. It might be safe to classify me as a workaholic, but I’ve still (somehow?) got time to sleep, and certainly time to cook, so who knows what to call me?

One of my main concerns, however, is eating healthy despite a wildly stressful schedule. My body – thankfully! – tends to ward off any and all illnesses while I’m buried so deeply in responsibilities, but regardless, I (read: all of us) always need to stay nourished and well-fed. In my case, specifically, I am also enjoying a recent weight loss of nearly 30 pounds. Sure, that takes an hour of exercise, but also 23 hours of mindful eating; this is naturally the hard part in a busy schedule: how are you going to cook while spinning countless other plates? Cooking thus becomes a high priority. I can’t stray from all the progress that I’ve made, so I aim to make my recipes as easy, yet nutritious, as possible.

I came home tonight, from an 8-hour teaching orientation, sweaty, exhausted, thirsty, and mostly, hungry. So I made chicken n’ dumplings! What’s that, you say? You decided to make a “down home,” Southern-inspired dish, usually dense and full of fat? Think again! Adapting this recipe from Weight Watcher’s 50th Anniversary Cookbook, this has become a regular star in my menu rotation.

Pour 2 teaspoons of oil into a large saucepan, and set on medium.

Dice one onion…

…Try not to cry.

And add to the saucepan, once hot. Also add one clove of minced garlic, a dash of thyme, and a wide variety of vegetables. The original recipe calls for diced carrots, celery, and green beans, but to save myself time, before adding to the saucepan, I just partially steam a package of frozen mixed vegetables. I highly recommend Steamfresh Baby Broccoli Blend, but my grocery store doesn’t carry it — you go, Supermarket K! As a substitute, I chose a package of mixed vegetables containing corn niblets, green beans, diced carrots, and lima beans:

Since the frozen vegetables are already partially cooked, I just let the onion sweat, mingling with the garlic for a bit: 5-7 minutes. At that point, once the veggies are tender, add your chicken and (4 cups) stock!

Based on the image, you see that I buy a big carton of fat-free, low-sodium stock, and then boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are already cut up! How nice.

Bring everything to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer.

While the chicken mixture simmers, in a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. Then, gradually add 1 cup of water, stirring until just combined.

Then, directly into the simmering pot, drop rounded teaspoons of the batter into the stock; these will form your dumplings.

All those beige clouds that look kind of like mushrooms? Dumplings!

Cover your pan and let simmer for 20 minutes. Go watch some TV. Call a friend. Write a lesson plan. … Just don’t disturb the dumplings.

Once time is up, this is ready to serve! No sides required. I ladled myself 2 cups’ worth, and left the table not only satisfied, but ready to head back to work.

A meal that works for a workin’ lady!

INGREDIENTS:

2 tsp oil

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

Thyme to season

1 package frozen mixed vegetables

1lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Parsley as garnish, if desired

METHOD

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, set on medium.
2. Heat (microwave) your vegetables for only half of the time (e.g., if the package calls for 10 minutes, cook for only 5.)
3. Once the saucepan is hot, add onion, garlic, vegetables, and thyme. Let the onions sweat until translucent, and let the vegetables finish cooking.
4. Add the chicken and stock. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer.
5. While that’s simmering, in a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. Gradually add water until just combined.
6. Drop teaspoons of the batter directly into the stock; these will be your dumplings.
7. Cover the pot, and let cook – undisturbed – for 20 minutes.
8. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Meatloaf: The Ultimate Comfort Food

We’ve been back in the city for about 8 hours now, and things are already hectic. Ben took the bus basically right into work, and I’ve been unpacking and writing lesson plans for next week. It seems with the end of this vacation, summer’s ending with it. Sad!

But nothing quite like a good meatloaf to take the edge off.

I watched my mom make her meatloaf, in the same brown, plastic mixing bowl, for nearly 2 decades. Ground beef, bread crumbs, eggs, spices. It used to gross me out that she would taste the meat (I mean, it was raw!) to check the seasoning.. but it always came out so good! When I lived on my own in college, I wanted to replicate her recipe, but not only was it unwritten, but I also had to overcome my fear of…well, meat.

In time, after a series of big trials and perhaps even bigger errors, I developed this recipe all by myself. It’s tailored to my weight watching, but also adds punches of flavor with low-fat shredded cheddar and raw onions.

And I gotta say, nothing gave me greater pleasure than Ben saying, “This is the best meatloaf I’ve ever had.” WOOP!

For your experimenting and enjoying pleasure…

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take a shallow baking dish – on the longer side – and coat it with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, combine – using your hands! – all your ingredients: bread crumbs, ground meat (I use 99% lean ground turkey), 1 egg, oregano, garlic powder, salt, pepper, about 1/2c of low-fat shredded mozzarella, and half an onion, diced.

Don’t mind the banana in the background!

It’s literally this easy. And fun.

Now here’s the hard part, though. I can’t give you measurements for the herbs and spices because, well, you have to taste as you go, in order to give yourself the best layering of flavors. As a rule of thumb, I start with hearty dashes, and after tiny tastes (not too much or you put yourself at risk for food-borne diseases…), if you need salt, add some! You’ll know when it’s right.

Then shape these ingredients into an oval-shaped loaf:

…And transfer to the baking dish. Top with the other half of your onion, sliced into rings..

…and a bit more cheese.

Pop in the oven for about 45 minutes, and serve immediately!

There’s always the debate between tomato sauce/paste (GROSS) and brown gravy, but honestly, this is so juicy on its own that we eat it plain. Tonight I served it with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Enjoy!! Oh yeah, this definitely psyched us up for the crazy week ahead.

RECIPE for 4-6 servings:

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground beef or turkey — fat percentage is your call

1 egg

1/2c of Italian-style bread crumbs (you may increase this, though, if you feel the loaf is too wet)

1c of low-fat shredded mozzarella cheese

1 medium onion: half diced, half sliced

Salt, pepper, oregano, and garlic powder (see above for the lack of measurements)

METHOD:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Coat a shallow, long baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your ingredients by hand, tasting as you go to get the right amount of seasoning: bread crumbs, meat, egg, spices, cheese, and the diced onion.

Form into a loaf shape, and transfer to baking dish.

Bake for 45 minutes, and serve immediately with sides of your choice!

Moqueca!

As my time at the Jersey Shore comes to a close, I just wanted to share with you some highlights of our “Last Supper” with our extremely gracious hosts…. 

So we went to Stone Harbor to a little (seriously, it couldn’t have been more than 1000 square feet) place called Quahog’s Seafood Shack. Remember this name. Write it down if ya gotta. The experience was kinda unforgettable. 

Ben and I had been sleuthing before our vacation for places to eat should we be on our own for dinner. On Yelp, along with our go-to connoisseur, Guy Fieri of DDD, Quahog’s kept coming up. For obvious reasons:

   
A “mojito shooter.” Complete with cucumber, mint, citrus, oyster meat, and topped – who knew? – with some goooood añejo tequila. 

 
Oyster on the half-shell, dressed with some vinegar and lemon juice, and a piece of whitefish sashimi. 

   
Underneath all that green is cornmeal-crusted calamari, served with barbecue sauce. Ben said it reminded him of Burger King’s sauce, and he’s a good judge of sauces. Oddly enough, they married well together. 

 
Ben with frog’s legs! A first for the both of us. Chewy, but no regrets! 

  
And behold. Moqueca. What on earth is that? This is a Brazilian-inspired fish stew, that reminded us a whole lot of paella: fish, rice, spices, and some veggies. A real “kitchen sink” type of meal, and mamma mia, did it impress! The broth was garlicky and creamy from coconut milk, and the fish was all cooked perfectly: steamed clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, salmon, squid…drooling. I think my favorite part were the rolls that accompanied the stew. Why? Because sopping up that broth, and topping the white bread with pieces of tender fish and vegetables… with the juices running down my chin in a hopefully somewhat-elegant way.. Gosh. My senses were overwhelmed!

And so with that, our trip is over. Back to New York in the morning. Goodnight Jersey.. Until next summer! 

In the meantime, dreaming of that moqueca….. 

The irony of hideous lobsters

I woke up this morning with my index finger stinging. Why? Because there is a pinhole-sized cut right in the middle of the action. Why? Because I don’t know for the life of me how to work with (Alaskan King!) crab legs, lobster tails & claws.

Spiky shellfish – 3; Niki – 0. Beat out by these creatures!

Let’s back up for a second. Let’s start with lobsters themselves. If you really look at a lobster, it’s disgusting: two black, beady eyes and forever-wiggling antennae. Lobsters – as I once learned from Alton Brown’s incredible show, Good Eats – are bugs! They are relatives of insects. Ew! But yet, as a kid, every time I’d go with my dad to the fish market, I’d make an immediate beeline (excuse the pun?) for the big tank, overcrowded with these hideous creatures.

Likely because of this aesthetic reason, they were once hailed “poor man’s food.” Forget about today’s mysterious “MP” – market price – label; back then, nobody wanted to touch these vermin.

And definitely for this reason, they are not Kosher. Impure. Dirty. Gross with sick-green, mushy entrails. Meaning, I should not be eating them. But I gave myself a Mulligan, because I cannot get enough!

But when it came to taking on a whole steamed lobster, I lost big-time. Ben and I are on vacation at the Jersey Shore this week, and we were invited to an absolute feast of lobster, crab, and corn on the cob (why even mention the veggies, I have no idea). We were each given a cracker and a poker to extract the meat (seriously, it felt like an operation), and the savagery began.

I should mention that I only cracked into a lobster when I was 11, at my grandma’s church fundraiser, aptly named “LobsterFest.” So this was a disaster. Cuts, defeat, and lots of help from my co-diners. Why should I, a strong, capable woman, need help from anyone when it comes to eating? This is what I do, after all, day in and day out! I left the table feeling messy, inept and poor, especially with respect to everyone else at the table.

Is this how the lobster once felt? Shall I ever give the beasts another try? 

…outside of bisque, of course, which just might be one of my all-time favorite foods. But maybe he’s best contained to soup. Who knows?

Shabbat Shalom! …with a side of lemon chicken

Shabbat Shalom, one and all! Today’s entry will actually present my first recipe! (Well, I shouldn’t say my; it’s my boyfriend’s family’s recipe, that they occasionally ate on Friday nights.) But before I spout out the “2 cups of this, 1 cup of that,” it might be best to pair this with an (hopefully not too long-winded) anecdote.

I was born and raised in a fairly strict Catholic household. Both grandmothers went to Mass very regularly; baptism is a must; and the calendar is centered around the big days, Christmas and Easter. But this is not without its caveats.

It’s hard to place faith in an institution that denied my older, autistic sister Eucharist. They said that she would never understand that she was consuming Jesus in the process of Communion. Strike one.

It’s hard to place faith in someone who yells at a 16-year-old boy when he was simply doing a crossword puzzle. This boy woke up especially early to meet the priest, who was supposed to be coming around giving Communion, and the priest was almost a no-show, he started working on some puzzles; the priest bellowed, “You should be thinking about God!” This boy had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, staying at the hospital to receive treatment for his then quite-malignant cancer. This boy was my dad.

My dad and I before my college graduation; May 2012.

When the Church could not provide me with the answers, the solace, that I was seeking after he had died in 2013 — losing out to complications caused by his cancer —  I felt totally empty; I had lost my best friend, and in turn, I was beyond lost. To whom could I turn now?

After much reflection, and realizing how serious my relationship was getting with Ben, and after several meetings with Rabbi M, [Reform] Judaism was where I had then placed my faith. I’m more than OK with a religion that embraces the here-and-now: seeking to answer the question, “What will you do while on Earth to make this world a better place: to achieve tikkun olam?”, rather than the ever-daunting, “What will you do while on Earth to not get that one-way, first-class ticket to Hell?” And, summing this all up, I could not be happier with this journey I have been on since Sept. 2014.

So anyway, back to Shabbat. Shabbat is a key pillar of Judaism, where for 25 hours, starting at sundown on Friday, there is a God-mandated day of rest. The world isn’t complete without that seventh day of rest. And in order to make this world a most perfect place, we, like God, need to recharge our batteries.

Depending on who you ask, while Shabbat is reflective, it can be restrictive: no electronics, no lights, no writing, no cars, no touching money. But, for me, this is not so much about those rules, as it is supposed to be a day of restful joy: the one day of the week where I can take sheer pleasure in my life as it stands, with my loved ones and community.

For me, you know that means FOOD.

Shabbat dinner is the highlight of my week. Ben and I start discussing what we will make that week as early as Tuesday (what can I say, I’m a planner!), and we have made curried chicken, paella, roast chicken with sweet potatoes, but last night, we made lemon chicken.

You can more or less guess what lemon chicken is. It’s breaded, pan-fried chicken cutlets, that then bake in a sauce consisting of chicken broth, lemon juice, and dry vermouth. But let me break it down for you here:

First preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Heat about 3 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan (we eyeballed it), set on medium heat. [Make sure this frying pan can hold a fair amount of liquid.. we’ll discuss later.]

Bread your chicken, dipping them first in egg mixture and then in Italian-style breadcrumbs.

Beer — for refreshment purposes, obviously — is optional 😉

Once the oil is hot, take a couple of those breaded cutlets and put them in the pan, browning them until they get golden and crispy…

How ’bout that frying face? PS, aprons recommended, in case the oil splashes and spurts!

Transfer the cutlets to a baking dish — we used a 13″ x 9″ metal, but whatever you have to fit the chicken — and, once all the cutlets have been fried, start to work on your sauce in the same frying pan.

For one package of chicken cutlets (we got 5 big, thin-sliced cutlets), the sauce takes 1 cup dry vermouth, the juice from 2 lemons, and 2 cups of chicken stock; this all gets combined and cooked for maybe 2-3 minutes in the frying pan you used for the chicken.

Lemon juicer! Super-handy!

Ben’s pouring out the vermouth. We had half of that bottle left, which equated to the one cup.

Pour this sauce over the chicken cutlets, and put that tray into the oven, uncovered, for 45 minutes.

Pull that sucker out and enjoy! We paired it with white rice — it soaks up the sauce really nicely — and peas & carrots. And Shabbat candles, of course.

Top it with parsley for a nice, “colorful” touch!

Shabbat Shalom, from our home to yours!!

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 package chicken cutlets — as said, we used 5 big, thin-sliced cutlets

Oil for pan-frying

1c Italian-style breadcrumbs

2 eggs

2 lemons

2 cups chicken stock

1 cup dry vermouth

Parsley as garnish

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. On a medium setting, heat the oil in a large frying pan (one that you can later make a sauce in).
3. Beat the 2 eggs together in one bowl. On a plate, pour out the breadcrumbs.
4. Dip each chicken cutlet into the egg mixture, and then coat each side thoroughly with the breadcrumbs.
5. Once the oil is hot, pan-fry a couple of chicken cutlets at a time. Transfer to a baking dish when golden-brown.
6. When the chicken is all fried, in the same pan, combine 2 cups of chicken stock, the juice from the 2 lemons, and 1 cup vermouth. Let simmer for 2-3 minutes.
7. Pour sauce over the chicken, and bake uncovered for 45 minutes.
8. Garnish with parsley, if desired. Serve immediately, and I recommend serving with white rice for maximum sauce absorption!

Shabbat Shalom, from our home to yours!!

What’s in a supermarket?

Not to bore you with Shakespeare when you’re here for the good eats, but let’s start with Juliet’s soliloquy on love: “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose/
By any other name would smell as sweet”… You get my jist.

The theme this afternoon is, “What’s in a supermarket?” And my reactions are far from “sweet,” but rather, they err on the side of visceral, and I just have to wonder what people exactly want out of their grocery store.

On Friday mornings, I generally sleep in absurdly late, and then head to the supermarket to buy all the ingredients we need for our Shabbat dinner. On the docket this week is Ben’s lemon chicken, complete with — you guessed it — lemons, breaded chicken cutlets, and vermouth to tie it all together (stay tuned!). So off to…let’s call it Supermarket K… for the essentials..

First up, produce. As said, I needed 2 lemons for the dish. Which of these should I choose from?

Brown spots, white spots, pock marks, and overall tough lemons. When life gives you lemons…. there’s no making sweet lemonade out of these babies.

Then I took a quick gander at the fruits hanging out nearby: pears (not in season) and plums (in season). Either way, what the heck is going on?

Bruised, discolored, beat-up pears. Did they get into a fight with the apples, or the produce truck?

Those nectarines (left) look mighty fine, but no wonder the plums are on sale! Look at those gashes and discolorations!

I know, I know. Living in Brooklyn, unless I want to pay top-dollar for organic, pesticide-free fruits and veggies, I shouldn’t be picky about my produce. But what about my eggs?

Should I be going 3-for-3 on cartons with cracked eggs?

Look. It’s one thing to attempt to keep Kosher, where I can’t consume eggs that have blood-spots, or, really, show any signs of impurity or imperfection. But cracked eggs — and in multiple cartons, no less — are just sure transmitters of food-borne diseases, salmonella topping that list. I’m not trying to be like this guy….

Clerks (1994)

…But it’s just not safe. (AND the dozen of eggs came to $5.49! 12 plain, white New York – bred eggs. Any sort of negligence insurance built into that price?)

And I’d also like to say that today certainly isn’t the first time I’ve had problems with my groceries from Supermarket K…

Recently I bought a family-sized pint of blueberries — curiously on sale for a great price — when I found webs of white mold at the bottom.

I also bought a can of Reddi Wip fat-free whipped cream, where the nitrous oxide just…didn’t want to launch… so I was left with gloopy, lifeless liquid rather than the airy, whipped goodness.

And right after moving to Brooklyn in May, I bought a pack of Snack Pack caramel puddings — the non-refrigerated kind — only to find that one of the wrappers was slit open, inviting a host of teal mold to blanket the pudding. Yuck. No thanks. No coupons can really correct my loss of appetite.

….But where else am I supposed to turn? I go to Supermarket K because it’s conveniently located; the prices are decent (a 6-pk of beer, for one, is on average $9.99, which for NYC is pretty good); and I can easily locate the brands I want and like. …But it’s at the [big] cost of quality.

Supermarket P, meanwhile, boasts some of the best produce in town, but there’s not only a financial cost of $125 — let’s call that an entrance fee — but you also have to pay for your groceries with manual labor. I’m all for a co-op, but convenience and ease are key.

So this begs the question: What do you look for in your supermarket? And I’m not just talking about Coke and ground beef. What do you and your family value when it comes to groceries? Dying to hear the wide mill of responses!

Inaugural post!

Hi all,

I suppose it’s only fitting to introduce myself, and to introduce what my site is all about.

My name is Niki, aka the Queen of Cibo. Up until recently, I thought my life was centered around one thing, and one thing alone: languages. It began with jibberish, talking to imaginary friends, using words and vocabulary that was lost even on me. Then came Spanish. Then Italian. French… languages that kept unlocking pieces of my iron-clad heart, whisking me away from the Big Apple on worldwide travels (20 countries and counting!), and making friends across the globe.

July 2011 – Moscow, Russia. Enjoying some midnight dumplings and vodka with my new Russian friends, Roman and Yuri.

July 2013 – Vinci, Italy. On the left is my friend Silvia, an English teacher.

July 2015 – Hirado, Japan. (L to R): Me! with a kindergartener named Sakura, and my student, Sam. Sakura had to help me open my milk. She’s 3, by the way.

Languages mean not only all of the above (which in itself is tremendous), but languages kept me going during some troubling times: break-ups, deaths, lost friendships…you name it. Speaking in these once-foreign tongues allowed me to live a life that felt outside of every trauma: a life untouched by pain and loss.

Now, as a graduate student in Italian, my career is officially centered on Romance languages. You know what they say: “Do what you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life?”

I soon realized that I also love food. Comida. Dejeuner et diner. Il cibo buono, pulito, e giusto. Right alongside the tricky yet sensual subjunctive tense, and all those words that just have no translation into English, there was another thing that makes me downright tick: also excites me, also comfortably fills those voids and losses, and also connects me to people across the world… or just the dinner table. (Indeed…notice how all the photos are over lunch trays, [empty] Styrofoam plates, and bubbly, gooey pizza? We’re onto something here..)

First, there was Queen of Cibo, Part I… let’s call her the wise, pioneering predecessor: As my senior project in Communications at Tufts University, I studied and voiced the importance of learning to cook and eat healthy and sustainable food while in college. Ages 18-22 are crucial, formative years — the first time many are on their own, away from Mom & Pop — and frozen waffles and Ramen just won’t cut it in your post-grad days (sorry!).

Now, there’s the Queen, Part II. This blog has the same overarching mission: to share with others how to eat clean, but to enjoy eating. Choices surrounding food far surpass “chicken or fish” or, better yet, your quick thinking at the drive-thru. Food is much more than an assortment of starches and proteins. The cultivation, preparation, presentation and consumption of foods not only define an individual and her culture, but microcosmic food decisions multiply to define a nation’s politics, laws, and economy. Through Part II, I aim to touch upon the “big picture,” but my heart lies in those beautiful microcosms: What’s for dinner? What’s on your grocery list? Who’s joining you at the table, or — even more awesome — at the store, the stove, and sink to help wash all those dishes?

Ben, my main squeeze! My teammate. Stay tuned for our adventures at the grocery store, in the kitchen, and around the globe. (Here we’re sharing some cheesecake and cava in Barcelona; March 2015).

This blog is my microcosm: one small story in a whole universe of breakfasts, after-school snacks, coffee dates, happy hours, and desserts with two spoons (but who are we kidding with that one…seriously).

Welcome to my little kingdom!

Buon appetito…. Niki

My spiky hair almost looks like the points of a crown. Almost.