Almond Plum

So here is another chicken recipe; I am going to start calling these my cop-out blog posts, because they're easier to write up than a craft post.  No photos needed!  Anyway.

1 chicken breast
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp honey
a pinch of salt
a bunch of almonds (very specific!)
2 plums, not too ripe, cut to 1" pieces

Combine wine, water, and honey until the honey is dissolved.  Cube the chicken and let it marinate.  Grind the almonds until fairly fine; I used my little food processor and it worked great.  I mixed in the almonds just before I started cooking, and dumped everything into my skillet with a bit of olive oil.  Add plums once chicken is mostly cooked, and let everything simmer until the liquid is gone.  Then be like me, and completely forget about vegetables!  We're nomming this one right now with a carrot, half an onion, and cilantro rice, and it's really good!  Now I need to go stop typing and keep eating.

Honey Garlic Chicken, and, a sale!

One of my bowls sold on Etsy!  Apparently it sold last night, but Etsy didn't see fit to tell me until this afternoon, which means I can't send it until Monday morning.  But it'll be very nicely packaged and ready to go, before then!  Later tonight, or tomorrow, I'll have to list the other bowls I finally managed to photograph--I made a few amethyst coloured bowls; it is February, after all.

Tonight on the menu is honey garlic chicken and rice.  I found a recipe at Christmas that worked really well, but I never wrote it down, and I can't seem to find it any more.  So, I'm trying a new experiment today, which I will actually write down.  But we will see how it tastes.  The chicken is marinating in it now, while the rice cooks, and it smells pretty good so far.. of course, it is basically swimming in garlic. Noms...

Honey Garlic Marinade (good for 1 chicken breast)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced

Rice vinegar is starting to be one of my favourite marinade additions. Have I mentioned that yet? It makes me wonder how horrible it is for my health.

Apple Chicken

Here is one of my classic dishes: apple chicken.  I've been making this delicious one for a while, and as usual, I, er, never have the sense of mind to write it down, but it needs to be posted all the same!  Works great with rice or bread.

Ingredients:
 - 1 chicken breast
 - 1 apple (washed but not peeled)
 - 1/2 onion (I prefer sweet onion, though yellow or white are both fine)
 - ~2 cups apple juice
 - ~1 tsp dried basil (honestly, I just shake it in until it looks good)
 - ~1 tsp vinegar (I use rice vinegar, although vinegar can be left out entirely)
 - salt, to taste

Directions:
1. Cut the chicken into cube or strips, whichever you prefer.  Allow chicken to marinate in 1 cup apple juice, salt, basil, and vinegar.

2. Cut the half onion into 8.  For the apple, cut into very thin slices.  I usually use an apple corer (dropping in some lemon juice when the corer is halfway in will help keep it from browning), then cut the apple into fourths, and slice each quarter carefully.

3. Cook the onion and apple in ~1/2 cup of juice, until partially tender and the juice is evaporated. Remove from heat (placing it into a temporary holding plate works).

4. Warm the remaining juice, add chicken and marinade, and cook until mostly done. Add in the onion and apple, and continue cooking until chicken is well done, and juice is mostly evaporated.

5. Serve, and nom!

Today I'm trying out a new mango chicken marinade, one that involves red wine and orange juice. We'll see how it turns out.