cucumber-pepper slaw with feta

I can't believe it's already September. One of the things I am feeling sad about, as we are enjoying the last weeks (days?) of summer, is that I was traveling so much and missed out on so much summer produce. Sigh. I had a great summer, but I wasn't cooking very much and that I am a little bummed about. Anyways, for this fall Michael and I signed up for a CSA share that is run through Brown, so we will get to enjoy the end-of-summer produce as well as fall's bounty. Which will be wonderful.

The last few days I re-made that grain salad with cherries, blue cheese and pecans. And served it on baby kale (which is a very good product - yum yum). It was really good. If you haven't made it yet, do it! Tonight I wanted to make something different and get some more veggies. So I paired some chicken with a jerk marinade with a fresh veggie slaw.

Another variation, if you wanted to make the veggie slaw more substantial and take for lunch would be to dice or more roughly chop the vegetables, and then mix with quinoa or a whole grain (barley, farro, etc). That would be good, too.

ingredients:
1 medium - large cucumber
1 T salt
2 T olive oil
1 scant T rice vinegar
1/4 tsp sugar
fresh black pepper
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, fine diced (or paper-thin slices)
3 oz. feta, crumbled (vegan without the cheese)
roughly chopped basil

1. Cucumber: Cut lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Then cut cross-wise on a mandoline (thin slices) or with a knife. Salt and put in a colander over a bowl. Let sit 15 minutes while you do the other ingredients, then rinse and pat try with a paper towel. 

2. prep other veggies: thinly slice the jalapeño, peppers, and onion.

3. mix the dressing: olive oil, rice vinegar, sugar, black pepper. Don't add salt because the cukes will add some more saltiness.

4. combine everything and serve. Let sit about 30 minutes before serving.

Slaw recipe adapted from Saveur. I found their dressing to be 4x what I needed, also I was afraid of using a habanero!

We had this for dinner with chicken. For the jerk chicken, I just mixed some jerk seasoning with about 2 T olive oil. I smeared this on some chicken drumsticks and let it marinade a few hours in the fridge until dinnertime. Then cook the chicken in a pan on the stovetop, or grill if you have one.

chicken with roasted tomatoes

Ooh, this is a good one. Very easy, 30-40 min prep/cooking time, and amazing flavors. It's the end of summer tomato season! Celebrate it! :)

ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds cherry tomatoes
olive oil
2 tablespoons herbes de Provence
salt and pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or red wine
herbs to garnish

1. Tomatoes: Heat oven to 450 F. Cut tomatoes in half and combine with 2 T olive oil and herbes de Provence in a bowl, salt and pepper, toss, and lay out on a cookie sheet in the oven to roast. They will soften and start to brown and caramelize (about 20-25 minutes).

2. Chicken: Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Heat 2 T oil in an ovenproof skillet. Brown the chicken on both sides, about 6-8 minutes, over med-high heat. Then put in oven and cook 8-10 minutes. Remove to a plate or cutting board and let rest, covered in foil, at least 5 minutes.

3. Sauce: In the chicken skillet, add 1 T more oil, then add shallot and garlic. Stir 1 minute, then deglaze the pan with some red wine or red wine vinegar. Add the tomatoes in at this point and stir the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve chicken in slices with the tomato sauce on top and a nice green salad on the side.

inspired by a recipe from Bon Appetit: Chicken with Herb-Roasted Tomatoes

warm chicken salad with whole grains, hazelnut, broccoli and spinach

Sometimes you just feel like you haven't been getting your vegetables lately... and you want some salad, but it's winter and you don't want cold salad...a warm salad is a good way to get your veggie fix. This recipe has whole grains and warm chicken. It's a little simple, but I liked the combination of ingredients and it felt very satisfying.

Update 3/5: when re-heating the leftovers I added a generous teaspoon of good dijon and it gave the dish another star. Dijon always reminds me of my lovely former roommate Chloe, who would add it to everything, but especially chicken and vegetables. :) I adjusted the recipe for some dijon in the vinaigrette, but also feel free to add liberally to the dish itself. 

hearty soups III: jamaican jerk chicken chili

 This soup relates to one of my favorite cooking memories with Michael. We were making this chili in Berlin , and in German grocery stores you of course can't buy Jamaican Jerk seasoning. So Michael made the seasoning from scratch, combining various spices and herbs with the mortar and pestle. Very impressive. But then he forgot to check how much of the spice blend the recipe called for - just adding all of it to the soup. It was so spicy we were both crying, trying to eat the (really good!) soup with yogurt on it. haha!  Here is the recipe, with the addition of chicken.  It's a good one...Michael said it's his favorite so far in the hearty soups series. Just watch the spice level. :)

By the way, I could have called this post: no horse meat in this chili. Have you heard about the latest Horse Meat Scandal, aka "Burgergate," in Europe? Horse meat has been "masquerading" as beef across Europe, mislabeled in all kinds of prepared dinners, and now in Nestle products. A poll in Britain found that 1 in 4 people is now eating less meat, and 65% mistrust food labels. See also NPR, Why is some food taboo? and Salon's 5 Lessons from the Horse Meat Scandal. It's strange: in the US I very rarely eat meat that has been processed in any way. In Germany, however, where you can get so much good sausage, I do occasionally do so, in Salami form. Stories like this do make me cringe a bit though. What do you think?

Chicken Tagine with Apricots and Almonds served with couscous

My weekly dinner with Katie and Peter ended up being an Ole reunion this week, with another St. Olaf grad, Nicole, joining us. She brought a great spinach salad, Katie and Peter supplied the wine and kitchen, and adorable puppy. We made a chicken tagine with apricots and almonds...mmm...The warm smell of cinnamon is perfect for winter weather!

Mexican Chicken and Potato Stew served with Green Rice

 Tonight I was cooking as my friend Katie's sous chef in her amazing kitchen. Peter was pouring the wine. Raffa was just being super cute. :) My friends are all better cooks than I am, truly, and I love learning new ingredients and flavors I had never known from them. Tonight I discovered the flavors of chipotles in adobo sauce.  There are some meals that photos can just do no justice. Make this. If you're vegetarian, it would be good without the chicken. The flavors are just so unique, and so warming. The pineapple is a wonderful surprise.

chicken curry with cashews

I discovered this recipe through the "best of epicurious." In my mind, this is the best thing about the internet: you can see that a recipe has 660 reviews and 94% would make it again. That's always a good sign. It's a great meal to warm you up on a cold winter night. Also the closest I've ever come to making melt-in-your-mouth chicken curry that tastes like the stuff in restaurants.

frohes Neues! happy new year!

I have decided to start the new year off with -- like so many of us -- some new goals and the best of intentions of keeping them. Cooking is one of my true joys in life, bringing balance to my life and making me healthier and happier. So why not start documenting some of the meals worth documenting?

I got several new cookbooks for Christmas and can't wait to cook my way through them. I'm mostly a follow-the-recipe cook, inspired by some of my favorite cookbook authors and bloggers (see the list in the sidebar). I try to incorporate seasonal and local ingredients, and am a member of a CSA, which forces me to eat more vegetables.

Oh, and the name of the blog? Zweites Frühstück. In Germany after your early "first breakfast" there is sometimes a second...what we might call a "mid-morning snack." It's for people who get up early and are so productive they're hungry before lunch. :) I love how some cultures have these other meal traditions...in Germany it's not only the second breakfast but also the mid-afternoon Kaffee und Kuchen, one of my favorite things about that country which has become a second home to me. So aside from the cookbooks I read like novels before bed, and the recipes I find online or from friends, my cooking is also inspired by my time spent abroad and the meals I've had there.

I hope you enjoy!

K.