recipe reviews: braised country-style pork ribs with chipotle and slow cooker mustard herb chicken and creamy orzo

a hit and a...not a hit this time around.

this week's entree (note: login/subscription may be required) was a hit. bone-in country style ribs were on sale, and it was easy enough to pick up a couple of red onions, orange juice, and whatever seasonings i didn't already have on hand. skipped the cilantro and pomegranate seeds. used harold's '83 honey ale for the beer because i had a few cans of it in the fridge and also because i am absolutely totally biased towards this beer. not sorry. oh, and in my world, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic came out to about 3-4 cloves of garlic, and i think i used maybe 1/3 cup of beer. this has some kick (thanks, chipotle pepper and cayenne!) but it wasn't overpowering imo. 

last week's entree? not so much. i tried the slow cooker version and cooked the chicken on high. used black box pinot grigio because it's a boxed wine i'd actually drink (and i finished the rest of it a couple of days after i made this dish). dried thyme and dried sage, chicken broth instead of apple cider b/c i already had chicken broth, unsalted butter instead of salted, and heavy cream instead of coconut milk.

the chicken was fine. the orzo? yeah...no. i added 20-30 minutes to the original 20-30 minutes of cook time because the orzo was more crunchy than al dente when i first checked it. i wound up freezing some of the chicken to use later and picked out some of the broccoli and orzo for lunches. good thing i'd made these mustard/apple butter pork chops (note: login/subscription may be required) for easter dinner so i could use those leftovers later in the week. those pork chops, though? i had bone-in chops and added 10-15 minutes to the cook time and they were delicious. would absolutely make those again. 

oh, and if you're new here from my twitter bio or if you haven't visited in a while, this is basically what i post about these days. one of these days/weeks/months/years/decades, i'll try to get my shit together enough to discuss other topics rattling around in my brain. maybe. possibly. who knows? the world's still on fire and there's still a whole entire pandizzle happening. just do what you can and i'll do the same, mmmkay? 💜

recipe review: honey-garlic chicken

this happened primarily because i had everything on hand already. well, everything except the toasted sesame seeds. i'd bought scallions for another recipe and of course forgot to use them here. oops. made this in the crockpot on high for 3 hours. if/when i make it again, i'll adjust the cooking time to 2.5 hours, give/take 15 minutes. the chicken was just dry enough to annoy me but still flavorful. i don't remember how much garlic i used, though. the recipe calls for 4 cloves of garlic so let's assume i used at least 4 and probably 5-6. this is a good recipe for when you don't have the spoons to chop all of the things or do other labor-intensive prep. sometimes you just need a mix and dump kind of thing that you can have for dinner and then repurpose into lunch with leftover veggies, which is exactly what i did. 

recipe reviews: sheet-pan chicken with zucchini and basil and marinated charred green beans

i was out of town for work for a few days last week and had taken a couple of days off before that, so i hadn't bought groceries in a couple weeks. i had fun just pulling stuff together from whatever i had on hand for a couple of days, but by the time the work week ended, i was ready to get back into meal prep mode.

these marinated charred green beans are one of my new favorite veggies. the roasted broccoli on the florian's bar menu is another new fave, but i haven't figured out if/how i'm going to recreate that yet. i used my grill pan and cooked the green beans in two batches. i didn't grab any fresh herbs while i was grocery shopping, so i used a teaspoon of dried oregano instead. also used 2 cloves of garlic because why not? they were great yesterday with dinner while still slightly warm, but were also delicious tonight at room temperature. the recipe note suggests adding them to a green salad and i'm actually making salads for lunch later this week, so i might try that out as well. 

confession: i'd forgotten all about the basil in this sheet-pan chicken with zucchini and basil (note: login or subscription may be required) until i looked at the recipe again while writing this. oops. skipped the lemon too. my bad. in my defense, i was hungry by the time i got around to cooking yesterday and barely waited for the chicken and veggies to cool before i dove in. i made this with all chicken drumsticks, used dried oregano since i already had it out, used 3 cloves of garlic, and skipped the coriander. i had an extra onion from making short ribs in the crock pot on saturday, so i chopped that and added it to the zucchini/yellow squash. no regrets. i'll probably have more of this for dinner tomorrow so maybe i'll remember the lemon and basil then? doubtful, but it could happen, right? right.