Cheever Sauce

Sometimes I get carried away with what kind of food I can whip up in this little kitchen of mine. I have that mentality that if some of the top chefs in NYC can work out of some of the smallest kitchens in the United States, so can I. But I hear your plea for faster, easier, less ingredient dishes, so I am going to begin posting “Super Super Easy” meals that can be prepped in as little at 5 minutes, and ready to eat in less than 20 (Because I still feel that a lot of my recipes are just Super Easy).  I’m not talking about plain baked fish and steamed veggies here…I do have a certain caliber for what’s considered a delicious dinner. Just some basic ingredients that you might not think to put together, that can offer a wonderful, easy to make meal. 

So if you’re strapped for time, and looking for a last minute meal, resist the urge to visit your best friend Seamless and cook up a Super Super Easy CheeverSauce dish - you’ll surprise your closeted chef self with how easy it can be. The other week I only had salmon, bok choy, and other limited ingredients in my fridge, but this recipe is a classic case of how a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, goes a long way.

Onto the recipe from Serious Eats:

Nothing encourages a stay at home and cook all day marathon like fresh fallen snow. Seems a bit backwards that during my first winter snowfall, a time when most people are out skiing, sledding, ice skating, and enjoying the fresh powder, I chose to spend the day in my kitchen. I’m not sure whether my pessimistic New Yorker attitude, dreading the thought of trekking through street sludge, only to discover that ongoing traffic won’t even slow down for me when I inevitable slip on ice while crossing the street, was keeping me indoors today. Because even without these homebody thoughts, something about the crisp winter air was telling me it was a day for cooking, and that same voice was telling me it was a day for cornbread.

Like I’ve stated before, baking isn’t my thing. But the chilly air was making me crave something that would compliment the warm and cozy atmosphere of my apartment, and nothing screams soul and comfort like corn bread. I love this particular recipe because it’s different than the cornbread I am used to in restaurants. Don’t get me wrong, I love the taste of a nice, sweet, fluffy, cake-like bread, but I try to keep things on the lighter side here, and this recipe does the trick.

This bread contains no butter, minimal sugar, and the sour cream (I used low-fat and it didn’t affect the flavor a bit) gives it a nice gooey consistency. The best addition is the Aleppo, which is a Turkish bright red pepper flake. This adds a subtle kick to the bread, which is a perfect addition to the corn flavor (If you don’t have aleppo flakes, feel free to use red pepper - but just use a fraction of the amount). The taste feels like less of a dessert and more like a bread with it’s grainy, hearty texture. It’s delicious on it’s own with butter and honey, but also amazing alongside a warm soup or chili. I will most certainly be serving it for breakfast tomorrow with a fried egg or two…

Onward for the recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Welcome to part 2 of the dinner party I had 3 weeks ago (I’ve got to get better about posting quicker). CheeverSauce Dessert! This dish couldn’t be a more perfect official first dessert post. It’s so easy to make with relatively healthy (for a dessert) ingredients. Crumble/Crisp = oats = no buttery crusts. It’s a great healthy alternative to a mixed fruit pie and packs a nutrition punch with its high levels of antioxidants, vitamin E and C. Another plus? When served in a small mason jar - your proportions are kept in check. 

Nectarine’s will only be available for another two weeks but this recipe would work with any fruit. Will I be apple picking in the fall and doing another variation on the original of all crisps? Yes. But in the meantime enjoy your end of summer/early fall fruits with this delicious sweet ending to any meal. 

Onto the super easy cooking directions. 

It has taken me four days to get around to posting this meal. I was so exhausted from the night’s events and have finally calmed down enough to relay what went into this dish. Let me first mention that my mental exhaustion certainly didn’t come from the recipe itself, (this is CheeverSauce after all and as promised everything is easy to make) but rather certain…unfortunate “causalities” that were taking place around me in the kitchen as I was cooking. 

The night started off on a positive note because I was super excited to have my cousin Taylor over for dinner. There’s nothing that excites me more than a dinner guest. I feel the same way about dinner guests as Anthony Weiner feels about the unlimited uses of social media (and no, that doesn’t mean that I send inappropriate pictures of myself to them via twitter). 

Wanting to impress Taylor, I decided to step it up a notch and research some recipes that would really justify my position as a food blogger in his mind. I love recipes that combine foods you wouldn’t normally think to cook together because they usually create fresh, intense, mouthwatering flavors your palette has yet to experience - which is why as soon as I read this recipe I knew it would be a CheeverSauce winner. The original recipe called for skewers which I thought was a GREAT idea - unfortunately I forgot to buy skewer sticks so I had to end up just cooking it all together. 

Read on for cooking directions and all my kitchen mishaps.

To Prep:

1. Peel and cut 1 large sweet potato. Steam your cubed sweet potatoes until almost fully cooked. (Casualty 1 & 2: A melted colander and burned/charred saucer pan. Caution: If you don’t have a steamer never try and improvise by placing your rubber-rimmed colander on top of a pan with boiling water) (Casualty #3 : two burned fingers from trying to lift and carry the colander off of the pan to the sink) USE A STEAMER PAN OR JUST BOIL THEM
2. Slice 4 peaches, 1 medium large onion
3. Cube 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or have your deli guy do this for you like I did!) 
4. Combine in a small mixing bowl 1 tbsp. of honey, 3 dashes of pumpkin spice, 2 dashes of cumin, a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil, and two handfuls of chopped walnuts. Mix until walnuts are evenly coated. 

To cook:

1. Cover the bottom of saucer pan with honey (around half a cup), add a cup of red wine vinegar, some olive oil, 5 dashes of cumin, and some lemon juice. Let your mixture simmer until it reduces. (Its consistency should be thick enough to glaze over your ingredients. If it is too thick add some drops of water to the mixture until it loosens)
2. Glaze your cubed chicken with half of your honey mixture and let sit for 5 minutes on a separate plate away from your other ingredients. 
3. Lightly coat a large sauté pan with olive oil over medium heat (I used my grill pan for this one!) (Casualty #4: Two stove burners that won’t light. Damn these gas stoves. And yes, I did have to cook the rest of this meal with half a stove top). 
4. Add all your ingredients to your sauté pan and then pour your remaining glaze over the peaches, sweet potatoes, and onions. (Casualty #5: 1 broken plate all over the kitchen floor. Lesson: Don’t hang your dishes half off your counter as you transfer ingredients.)
5. Cook all the ingredients on one side until golden and slightly charred (The chicken will take a little longer then everything else - around 4 minutes) 
6. Flip ingredients so the other side gets cooked through as well. (Here I really had to play around with how much each ingredient would cook as I didn’t want my peaches too wilted, or my sweet potatoes to burn. Just make sure you watch the food as it cooks to prevent overcooking.) 
7. Toast your walnut mixture in a small sauté pan until warm - around 2 minutes. 
8. Arrange the chicken, sweet potatoes, peaches, and onions on a plate so they are all combined next to each other. 
9. Top it all of with your candied walnuts and serve!

CheeverSauce suggestion: stack ingredients on skewer sticks like recipe originally called for. Makes this 10 times easier to prepare and cook.

Was worth all the trouble - this dish tasted AMAZINGGGGGGG. Will for sure make it again, which will hopefully be a more easy breezy experience. 

Special thanks to Jess for helping me prep and Taylor for stopping by and bringing the wine. I really needed it once this was all through. 

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I eat yogurt and berries a lot. It’s a great, healthy breakfast but I am sure, we can all admit it gets a little boring. So I decided to jazz up this morning staple - parfait style.

In a mug or glass layer Fage 0% yogurt, granola, berries, drizzle layer with honey. Repeat. 

The best part about a layered dish like this is, is when you scoop down there are more goodies at the bottom. This keeps all the flavoring consistent which makes for a more satisfying yogurt/berries/granola mashup experience. Another plus you ask? It’s pretty and makes you feel all fancy and refined, like you should be eating it, wrapped in a plush white bathrobe on your hotel balcony in St. Tropez…rather than on your NYC fire escape right above the garbage men picking up last nights trash… (sigh). 

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