Stuffed Chicken Breasts: A Video Recipe

I’ve been running the idea of a video recipe around in my head ever since my good friend Matt filmed himself cooking for his week in video.  I thought about filming the recent chowder recipe, but decided that maybe it would be kind of boring to watch, since most of it is just adding things to a pot.  There is some chopping involved, but that would mainly be it.

So stuffed chicken it is!  I might eventually post the steps in a more detailed word form, but for now I’ll let the video stand alone.  That way I know you have to watch it.  I also made garlic & parsley mashed potatoes (pictured in the background), but that’s something for another day.

Let me know if you like it!  Also feel free to tell me to never make a video again, or if my hands are too fat, or if you hate what I’ve done with my canisters.

 

Enough stalling for space to clear the title picture.  Here’s the video!

Chowdah

My dad recently gave me some cast iron cookware, and I’ve been dying to cook something in them since.  I made a grilled cheese sandwich in one of the skillets, but, though satisfying, it did not quench my cast-iron thirst.
So I thought:  I’ll make chowder!  I’ve never made chowder before, but I didn’t think it would be too much of a challenge.  I’ve always kind of thought many mysterious processes went into chowder.  How was it so creamy?  How does it taste like that?  I’ve carried these questions around with me without really thinking about them since I was little.  Once I sat down and thought about it, it seemed pretty simple.   Creamy = cream.  Flavor = seafood.  Duh.
So here’s a chowder.  Get cookin’!
YOU WILL NEED:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 onions (about 2.5-3 cups), diced
• 4 ~7 inch carrots, chopped
• 4 stalks of celery, chopped
• 3-4 russet potatoes, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, chopped
• 2 cups white wine
• 3 cans (6.5 oz) chopped clams
• 1 can (8 oz) oysters
• 1 lb mussels, pre-cooked in-shell
• 2 cups shrimp, shelled and chopped
• thyme
• fresh parsley
• 2 cups heavy cream
• salt & pepper

YOU WILL NEED TO:

1. Pre-dice the veggies before you start cooking (will save you stress later).  In a largish cast-iron Dutch oven, melt the butter.  No, you don't have to use a Dutch oven.  But I did.
    
2. Add onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes when the butter is fully melted and beginning to bubble a bit.  Stir well, so that the vegetables are nicely coated in butter.  Cover the pot.
    
3. While these are cooking (for 10-15 minutes – stir occasionally), chop the parsley (if fresh) and mushrooms (if not already done), and open the bottle of wine.  Drink some.  You deserve it.
   
4. After the 10-15 minutes are up (onions will start to be translucent), add the parsley, mushrooms, thyme, and wine.
5. Open the cans of clams and oysters, and drain their juices into the pot as well.
   
6. Bring this to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for around 15-20 minutes.
   
7. Add the seafood (clams, oysters, mussels, and shrimp).
    
8. Cook for another 15-20 minutes.
9. Add heavy cream, and salt & pepper (to taste).  Let simmer for another ten minutes.
10. Serve it up!  Really good with saltines.
    

2011

Today, we got back from Louisville, where we spent New Year’s Eve celebrating with friends we do not see very often.  The idea of spending New Year’s Eve in Louisville was originally brought up by Mike, and we pounced on it with an appropriate amount of enthusiasm.

I would like to hit some of the highlights of the trip, and not go into too much detail about anything else, if you don’t mind.  I’m not feeling very bloggy right now.  It will probably end up being a long one, anyway, so prepare yourself.

We all rode down together:  Mike drove his minivan, and upon his arrival in Lafayette he had already in his possession (for at least an hour) Joe, Matt, Lauren, and Katie.  We loaded up and pressed on. 

We spent the majority of the three hour drive from Lafayette to Louisville playing games, as most people are wont to do on road trips.  Maybe that would be a good topic for another blog post – games we play on road trips.  We will see.

When we arrived in Louisville, we headed straight for Andrew and Kyle’s apartment.  Andrew and Kyle are the very good friends of ours who we don’t get to see very often, so this was sort of a special occasion.  Also in attendance was Alex, who Mary and I haven’t really seen since we bumped into him at a mutual friend’s wedding.  He’s pretty great.  Also also in attendance were several of Kyle’s friends from Purdue, the names of whom I can not remember excepting someone possibly named Morgan.

Anyway, the first thing we did was to go eat KFC at Col. Sander’s grave.  I don’t really think I need to explain why.  It went well.

Having paid respects to a founder of widespread mainstream delicious fried food, we headed back to A&K’s place to put on our fancy clothes and work our way through an $80 bottle of beer.

Appropriately fancied, we headed off around 9:00.  Our destination was The Spirit of Jefferson, a river steamboat on which we would spend New Year’s Eve.  And we got there!  I did not take many pictures, since my phone does not have a flash, but we had a pretty good time. 

The view was great from the top of the boat, the food was delicious, and the weather was perfect – except for a bit of rain right around midnight.  But I can think of no other group of people who I would rather stand out in the rain to count down the new year with.

And in the morning we had mimosas with homemade macaroni & cheese.  Delicious.

 

*And to anyone who was with us that night who does not appear in this post, I am sorry for not taking a picture of you.  I’m sure you’re on Facebook somewhere.