Posting will resume after this late Autumn break, and you all will be bombarded with tasty recipes such as...

Sour Cream & Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas!

Hazelnut-Chocolate Tart!

Sweet Potatoes Gratin Dauphinoise (let's see how they're different from regular potatoes...)!

Tasty Dinner Rolls!

Stay tuned...

Don't read your blog posts.

Because the more you reread your own writing, the more you will inevitably grow to hate it and want to delete, erase, or burn every asinine thought that you have unfortunately recorded, every piece of trash you've added to the pile of "things that have been said aloud for no good reason" that accumulates throughout lifetimes of wasted breath. And you will be cranky, as a result, and wonder what good thinking and speaking and writing ever did anyone anyway. Then you will sit silently until you remember.

Chipotle BBQ Chicken Thighs!

I'd like to preface by saying that Mr. Cheap is obsessed with these. On my handwritten version of the recipe, he wrote: "IF YOU DON'T MAKE THESE AGAIN, I WILL DIE." Hopefully that is convincing enough for you.

Marinade Ingredients

2 Tbs. chipotle seasoning
2 Tbs. honey
3 Tbs. olive oil
a few shakes of red pepper flakes

2 medium-large cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar

pinch of oregano

pinch of basil

two grinds of salt from the salt grinder
two grinds of pepper from the pepper grinder

Other Ingredients

One pack of boneless chicken thighs, around 1 Lb.

quarter stick of butter for cooking in pan

Serves 2 - 3

Mix up the marinade in a semi-large tupperware container with lid. Place thawed chicken thighs in the container, put the lid on, and shake it a bit to make sure all the thighs are covered in marinade. Let set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, but the optimal time is 2 hours. This is not an overnight marinade because it has the apple cider vinegar in it, and it could alter the composition of the chicken, A.K.A. make it taste gross!

The BBQ Sauce

When the marinade time is near completion, heat up a skillet at medium-high (about a 6/7 on our electric stove) and let the butter melt. Then add the chicken from the tupperware container (carefully! so you are not splattered with hot, melted butter!) and make sure all of the marinade is added to the pan, as well.

Now, if you added too much BBQ sauce, it will caramelize and then burn if you cook the chicken too long, which brings me to an important point: Do not cook the chicken for too long! Once you put the thighs in, DON'T TOUCH THEM for at least 7 minutes. To have really moist chicken, the key is to only "flip" them once.

So, once the thighs are in the pan, flip them over after 7 - 10 minutes. After flipping, let cook 10 more minutes. After that, they should be done. Cut into the center of one if you're concerned, and if it's not pink or bloody, all is well.

Serve with potatoes for a hearty, comforting, cold-weather meal (sweet potatoes! scalloped potatoes! american fries! mashed with roasted garlic!), and a side of any green vegetable of your choosing. Or eat them plain and with pepperoncinis, like the strange Mr. Cheap is doing in the above picture. 

hodge-podge

Today on the hill I climb to get to my Friday morning class, there was a small group of people with a microphone, standing and reading the names of all of the service people who have died in our most recent war(s). Everyone walking up and down the hill was on their cellphone, wearing headphones, or zoning out.

One of the largest bus-stop areas in the square is in front of a fancy restaurant and many high-rise banks. The contrast between the warm, smiling white people inside the incredibly clean glass windows, lounging and eating $9 salads, and the freezing cold, bundled-up, multi-racial, worn-down looking group of public transit users, waiting for a bus to wherever we're going. The difference between the faces is plain to see, as if there are some people who walk around everyday with overgrown elephants on their shoulders, and others who don't have to.

Three small children with braided hair and white-out nail polish, sitting on each other's laps on ugly blue bus seats, laughing and pointing at a squat wiener dog being taken for a walk.

The feeling of waiting to find out what my last semester of college will look and feel like, of waiting to sign up for the last classes I'll take as an undergraduate. Incomplete completion!

BBQ Meatballs & Julia Child's Potatoes Gratin Dauphinoise!

So, this Sunday felt like a good day for a '50s throwback. It's chilly and gloomy and comfort food is calling. I wouldn't be surprised if both of my Grandmothers were really familiar with these recipes...but one of them would probably be HORRIFIED that I'm making something like this now that we "know better" about healthy food and stuff. Whatever, right? I may almost trust Julia Child more than my own family, to be truthful. Bring on the butter. I started with the potatoes...

November 3rd's Peasant Dinner

Potato Medley. Onions. Garlic. Butter. A fried egg on top.