Duck Curry (not) in a Duck

Last Thanksgiving, I took this really great trip to Chicago. I hadn't really been to Chicago before, so I took this random trip. One really great thing about it was that I secretly met up with Scott (who was living in SLC at the time), back when we were in the kind-of-sort-of-I-don't-really-know-what's-going-on phase. (Well, I was anyway. Clearly he was past that phase, since he flew to Chicago to spend a few days with me.) We just got married in August. Anyway, that's another story. The point of this post is that while we were in Chicago, we ate at this fantastic Thai restaurant and Scott ordered this:

It's duck curry! In a duck! Duck curry in a duck. This dish was so exciting, we still talk about it. Regularly.

Tonight we recreated the dish in our own kitchen. We followed a recipe for duck curry from the Pioneer Woman, including making our own Thai red curry paste. The result:

This was amazing. It was very flavorful and spicy, and although the fire in my mouth felt contained, I soon realized I was sweating through all of dinner. (I'm not even kidding. And it wasn't because we didn't have the AC on.)

Duck curry in a duck.
From: September 22, 2013

Teriyaki Chicken Bones

Scott and I decided to buy chicken at Costco, and we accidentally bought chicken thighs. Oops. Anyway, we planned to make this chicken tikka masala, and so had to get the raw chicken off the bones to marinade it. That's hard work, and the bones still had some meat on them. So we ended up frying them up, and then threw together a quick teriyaki sauce. Drizzled that over the chicken, and added sauted vegetables and pineapple. Turned out great!

From: June 14, 2013

Microwave Cake

For some reason, lately I've been seeing a lot of random recipes on Facebook that I feel like trying. Like this one. Devil's food cake mix + angel food cake mix + water + 60 seconds in the microwave = cake-like substance. Not as good as real cake, but so easy it's almost worth it. Almost.

From: March 31, 2013

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Several years ago I went to a conference in Baltimore (even before I moved there!) and I ate dinner one night at a little pub and had chicken pot pie soup. I loved the idea, so I investigated how to make my own. This dish is great! Basically it's just a creamy chicken and vegetable soup with crumbled pie crust on top. Yum! P.S., as a bonus, this creamy chicken soup is completely dairy/gluten free (until you put the pie crust on it, but you could leave that off...but why would you?), and fairly low in fat and calories. As a thickener I use garbanzo bean flour; got that tip from a food storage cookbook from my sister Sue.

From: March 19, 2013

Maple and Garlic Pork

I don't have enough superlatives to adequately describe how good this was. As per the recipe, I put the leftover marinade in a saucepan to heat it so I could serve it over the pork. At the advice of one of the comments on the site I found this recipe, I also used a cornstarch slurry to thicken it up to more of a gravy consistency. YUM. Only regret is that I didn't make more. Served with boiled red potatoes and asparagus (what I had on hand). Recipe is here. Make this. You won't regret it.

From: February 13, 2013

Pancetta Bacon Pasta (sans pancetta)

This recipe was made in an attempt to get rid of some of the food in my fridge. I found the recipe on the internet, but made a few liberal substitutions....bacon instead of pancetta, evaporated milk instead of heavy cream. It kind of turned out weird, but I guess it was alright. Served with garlic bread (that was, of course, delicious.)

From: February 1, 2013

Chocolate lava cake

I bought this set of corning ware a few months ago and haven't had a chance yet to use my ramekins. I read a friend's blog about how she made chocolate lava cake recently, and so that's what I wanted to make too! She didn't post the recipe, so I scoured the internet for one. I happened across a super simple one, and somewhat lower fat, so hey why not! I present "Guilt Free Lava Cake for One." Yes, that's right. A recipe that actually is designed to create exactly one little lava cake. Perfect. It was tasty. Not as sweet as I'd like, though I bet if next time I use vanilla yogurt instead of plain yogurt, that'll do the trick!

From: January 20, 2013

Shepherd's Pie

I had a few of those beef patties left, so I searched online for recipes I could make with ground beef. I got the idea to make shepherd's pie, which I've never really tried before. I found a great, simple recipe, and gave it a try. Originally it called for thyme and rosemary in the beef mixture, but I don't like those herbs. Instead at the last minute, I added some worcestershire sauce, and yum! That was the key. Super tasty. Though I didn't make nearly enough mashed potatoes to go on top!

From: January 20, 2013

Roasted Vegetable, etc. over Pasta

I don't know what to call this recipe. While I was in Utah for the holidays, I had dinner at my good friend Sarah's house, and she made this super scrumptious dish for dinner. She has a tendency to make up her recipes as she goes, and so recreating this in my own kitchen a few weeks later was tricky. Basically this is a creamy squash-based pasta sauce with various roasted vegetables, bacon, and sausage, served over pasta. Surely the sauce could be served as a standalone dish. My attempt was not quite as flavorful as the one Sarah made (not sure why), but still tasty!

From: January 18, 2013

Grilled onions, beef, and vegetables

Between holiday and work travel, I haven't tried very many new things lately, although I still have been cooking (most of the time). This week I bought these beef patties because they were on sale. There wasn't anything particularly special about them...they were just on sale. Tonight I had evening plans (that would have included dinner) that ended up being canceled because of a snow storm that never materialized here, but supposedly did where I was going. So I put together a dinner on the fly. I decided to grill up one of those beef patties, and threw on a bunch of grilled onions and served a sweet potato and blanched asparagus.

From: January 17, 2013