Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Super Secret Recipe #2: Chicken Tagine

I've promised a couple of people this recipe and so I've been meaning to post it.  When I was in college, I lived in a big house with 50 girls and we would cook dinner every night.  Tagine, a spicy Moroccan stew, was one of the house favorite meals.  It's infinitely adaptable, and can be easily made vegitarian (just add more veggies and chickpeas).  This version is one of my favorite recipes for weeknight dinners.  Chop up everything the night before, stow it in the fridge overnight, and cook it in the slow cooker all day on low.  When you come home, make some couscous (5 easy minutes), and you've got dinner.  This is also tasty with lamb.


Ingredients


5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 pound total) with bones
5 cups chopped vegetables (onions, sweet potatoes, zucchini, carrots, chickpeas)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups couscous, cooked
Toasted pine nuts for garnish, optional

Directions

Layer chicken, vegetables, raisins and apricots in a 6 quart slow cooker. Mix chicken broth, tomato paste, lemon juice, flour, garlic salt, cumin, ginger, cinnamon and black pepper in a seperate bowl.  Pour over chicken and vegetables. Cook 5 hours on HIGH heat or 8 hours on LOW heat. 4. Serve over cooked couscous. Garnish with toasted pine nuts (optional).  Enjoy!

Stainless Steel Finds: Ooooh, Shiny!

I've been working some overtime at work, so unfortunately the blog has suffered.  I want to catch everyone up on some of the great things I've found at estate sales lately.  I seem to be on a stainless steel kick of late, which was definitely popular in the 50's and 60's and is of course popular again.  The best find recently had to be the cool matching set of dry goods canisters I found for $5 at an estate sale this weekend.  They even came with free sugar, flour, and tea!  The jury's still out on whether I should use it or not...

Flour, Sugar, Coffee, and Tea...what else do you need?

Close-up of the sugar container

At one of my local thrift stores, I picked up this amazing stainless steel cake saver.  It was half-off day, so it was $2.50!

How about some cake?

Just in case you don't know what you're supposed to carry in this thing...

Finally, the last stainless item- a three-tier tidbit tray that was in awful condition when I first picked it up.  Near the end of the day, we hit an estate sale and the lady running the sale basically told us we could just take anything we wanted.  I saw this in the garage, completely rusted out (we were afraid of getting tetnus just by looking at the thing).  A little Barkeeper's Friend and it finally looks good enough to eat from.  That Barkeeper's Friend is magical stuff!

Unfortunately I forgot to take a "before" picture- you'll just have
to take my word for it that is was pretty dirty.

Thanks, Barkeeper's Friend!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Practical Encylopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement

Sorry for the short hiatus is blogging- last week was quite busy around here.  I am back to the computer and have decided show my appreciation for your patience by showing you one of my favorite ever finds:  The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement (do you hear angels singing?)!  The PEGDHI comes in an 18 volume set of full color retro glory and was published in 1970. 



Want to know how to decorate with plaid or important things to consider when designing a vacation home? This is the perfect set for you!  My copy is rife with Post-it flags that mark photos I liked.  In the future, I'm going to try and post up a picture a week and tell you what I liked about the room or idea.  Here's a few photos to get you started.

This book is certainly unafraid of color

What an awesome rocker for a nursery- and those green cribs!  I think they might be unsafe...


Neat wall treatment, although it migh induce seizures.  I think it would be cool to do something similar with polyurethane instead of two different paint colors so it wouldn't be quite so hard on the eyes.