Roasted Chicken and Vegetables with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

So here I was, enjoying a beautiful day off, watching the Food Network and working on a chicken breast recipe that I've been mulling over for the past couple of weeks. I had my tweaks and ideas written down and decided to run downstairs to the kitchen to make sure I had all of the ingredients I needed.  Well, I popped open the fridge... and realized that I had cooked my chicken breasts the other day and instead I had chicken thighs defrosting in there. Bah!

Oh well, at least I had something defrosting to make for dinner. I hopped on here to see what I could whip up with chicken thighs that wouldn't take much work. (By this point, I was a tad hangry. Having my cooking plans thwarted so makes me both hungry and angry.)

To my surprise, I realized that I had never posted this recipe. I've made this dish several times a month since Christmas, as it is yet another dish inspired by something I found in Joe's Cookbook. In his version, he uses whole chicken legs, sunchokes and a fancy preserved lemon gremolata. At this point, about the only thing my recipe has in common with his is the fact that it roasts in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Quinoa-Black Olive Cakes

I may have mentioned a big bag of white quinoa that we have sitting in the kitchen.

Well, I finally found a recipe that I wanted to try.

It's delicious. Now, I usually cut recipes down when I'm making them for myself. In the future, I will probably do so with this one too...

Our mixing bowl situation in this house is, shall we say, sparse. So I mixed up the "batter" in this baking dish and realized that (thank goodness) I did not have to cook up all of these at once. I can actually pop the remainder in a tupperware and have the makings for quick, filling, vegetarian superfood cakes any time.

Did I mention that these were delicious?

Burger in the Oven

I'll admit it. I am an Adam Roberts fan. You could say that he is one of the top 5 influences of this humble experiment of mine. So naturally when I googled "How to broil a burger in the oven," I was very happy to see this 2011 post of his come up first. It gave me all of the inspiration that I needed to make a delicious burger out of the 1/3 lb of lean ground beef that I took out of the freezer this morning while I was making coffee.

Some of you may still be stuck on one part of that last sentence.

Yes, this burger was made with 95% lean ground beef.

Do not fear for my (remaining) sanity, my friends. I will admit, up front, that I stuffed this burger with 1/2 tablespoon of cold butter before I put it into the oven. So yes, you can keep reading. I'm not blowin' smoke here.

I'm not going to go into a tedious step-by-step for this recipe. All I did was mix the meat with a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, stuff a chunk of butter in the middle of the patty, and roast the burger on a rack at 475 degrees for 14 minutes, plus another 30 seconds to melt the sharp cheddar I placed on top.

Next time, I may cut the cooking time down by a minute or possibly two, but if you're looking for a solid medium (cooked all the way through with the interior meat retaining just a hint of beefy color,) 14 minutes is perfect.

Double Dill Tartar Sauce

My sister calls me "Condiment Boy".  This does not bother me at all.  In fact, I embrace it.  I love creating interesting sauces, dips and spreads.  They're usually easy to create, easy to put together and easy to clean up after.  Also, you can eat the same basic meal over and over and over and by simply switching out the condiment(s) you use, you will never get bored.  Or at least I won't get bored.  You might... but then, you aren't "Condiment Boy".

This fascination may stem from a deeply ingrained need to avoid being bored.  A ham and cheese sandwich is a perfectly tasty lunch. Some snooty restaurants may try to spice this up with Spanish ham and shaved truffles.  For me, some jarred roasted red peppers and some homemade honey mustard makes this boring lunchbox fare into something... fancy.