Anne Can Cook

Aw, the first meal made in our new apartment.
I think I've mentioned on here that Andrew and I have a less than perfect track record when it comes to me cooking for him. I think I'm a pretty decent cook, but when I've cooked things for him, it's never turned out just right.
Consequently, he always seems a bit hesitant to let me cook anything beyond (his favorite) chicken tenders.

We do not have the internet at our place yet, so the other day we sat around and flipped through some of my Taste of Home cookbooks, tagging recipes. This one I pulled out of the Taste of Home Ultimate Chicken Recipe Book. It was quick(ish), easy, and really pretty tasty. I should note that I halved this recipe for the two of us, and we still had enough for seconds AND lunch time leftovers.



Creamy Chicken Angel Hair

"1 pkg angel hair pasta
1 1/4 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1" cubes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 large carrot, diced (I used a handful of baby carrots)
2 Tbsp butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 celery rib, diced (I left this out, but I'm sure it would a good addition)
3 large cloves garlic, minced
2 cups heavy whipped cream
5 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 c. Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute the chicken, salt and pepper in 2 Tbsp oil until no long pink. Remove and keep warm.

In the same skillet, saute carrot in butter and remaining oil for 1 minute. Add the onion, celery and garlic; saute 3-4 minutes or until tender.

Stir in the cream, cooked bacon, lemon juice and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring constantly. Return the chicken to the pan.

Drain pasta; toss with chicken mixture. Garnish with Parmesan cheese."

Pictures soon! Andrew really liked it, and I have photo proof!

ETA: I told you so!

Anne Can Cook has a Facebook page now! Check it out, like it, tell your friends!

I didn't think anyone in my family was interested in any of the weirder stuff* I cook. While I was looking around for recipes to try while I'm at my parents' house, I came across this recipe for what I've been calling avocado spaghetti. I thought it sounded interesting, and like it might be a nice, summery alternative to heavier spaghetti sauce.
My parents weren't too interested, however. Amazingly, my younger brother agreed to give it a try. Since it was just the two of us for dinner tonight, I went for it.
Since the website is in Italian, and GoogleTranslate can only do so much, I made a few guesses on the preparation. For instance, I toasted my almonds in the toaster oven, since I have no idea what pentolino refers to.
Gaps in translation aside, this was incredibly easy to assemble. I toasted the almonds and mashed up the avocado cream while waiting for the water to boil. It took me maybe 10 minutes to do all of that.
In terms of flavor, it was about what I expected. The flavor of the avocado is dominant, with hints of thyme. Running across little toasted almonds is pretty delightful, but it is apparently just as good without. My brother skipped them on his and he loved it.
The bread in the picture is a three-cheese foccacia from the local grocery store bakery. I can't stop eating it.

*includes curry, pesto, and anything with avocados.

I finished my first AmeriCorps term this past Saturday, and I promised a reflection in my last post. I can't recall if I ever discussed my reasons for going into AmeriCorps here before, so let's recap.
During my senior year of college, my thoughts for the future included grad school and not a lot else. Long story short, I dropped the ball on things like taking the correct GRE test and it became apparent that I wasn't going to make the deadlines for grad school applications.
I did what any well balanced English major would do. I had a little melt down. Then I went and talked with my adviser, who mentioned that her eldest daughter had done a term of AmeriCorps before enrolling in law school.
Now, I admit, I was knee deep in what I like to call the Catch-22 of Service. My only real volunteer experience came from being required to serve for various classes. I was really bitter about this, because it seemed like being required to volunteer defeated the purpose. However, without requirement, it seemed very unlikely that I or any of my classmates would get out and volunteer.
However, AmeriCorps has the draw of being very vast. You can apply to serve in any number of capacities and industries.
I didn't come to this right away, though. At first I saw this as an opportunity to hang out at my alma mater for another year. Which, admittedly, is the best or most noble reason to apply, and it is probably for the best that I did not land the position at my campus. Instead, I lucked out and landed a job that fit more conveniently into my interests in education.
Here I am, an entire year after I accepted this job that was formatting to take shape as it went. I only had a vague idea of what it would entail, and so did everyone else.
It was an entire year of playing things by ear, and I actually enjoyed it a lot.
My year in AmeriCorps has redefined my thoughts on service. I think the best thing I have taken away from this year is a desire to be useful. If I could pick buzzword for my year, it would BE "useful." It is no longer enough for me to keep my head down and achieve my goals. That's all very well, but I am not the only person on the planet. Instead, I have discovered this desire to be useful in anything I do.
My VISTA year has also reaffirmed for me that education is definitely the career industry I should be in. I did not anticipate loving the eighth grade classroom, but I did, and I cannot wait to work exclusively in a junior high this year. While my ultimate goal of being a college professor hasn't changed, I now have passions in pre-college education that I fully intend on continuing forever. I also feel, in terms of the bigger picture of service, that education is the springboard for everything and anything. In education, I achieve my new primary goal of feeling useful.

Most people do not do more than one term of AmeriCorps. One of the other VISTAs at my site this year was very determined to land a "real job" after the end of his term, while another sought something similar that would be, perhaps, more political. For me, another AmeriCorps terms seems ideal. For one, I will be in a job that suits my interests even further while providing me an outlet to be useful. I am also going to be moving to the Twin Cities, which I have always loved and always dreamed about moving to. This is all very win-win to me.

In terms of anyone considering AmeriCorps, I would recommend checking it out. Look through the available positions and search through your interest clusters. For this secondary term, I applied primarily in the education and environmental clusters, but there is really something for everyone. Having said that, doing a year of AmeriCorps is not necessarily for everyone. VISTA and NCCC do not allow you to have outside jobs, but are also usually full time, year long positions. VISTA is usually office work and behind the scenes jobs, while NCCC is an intensive hands on ordeal. State and National allow outside jobs, but are usually part time and vary in length from a few months to about a year.

Anyway. I liked my AmeriCorps term. I liked my job, and I liked my coworkers. I liked my apartment. My only real issue was feeling isolated, as the other VISTAs at my site already had built in social circles. I think that sort of potential varies from site to site.

It feels weird now to have this little hiatus between terms. I mean, I slept in until 1 this afternoon. Ridiculous.

I'm hoping food posts will resume soon. I made this Moroccan Couscous for my family last night (no pictures, sorry!) and it was their first time eating couscous ever.
I'll be here at home for another week and a half or so before moving north. Hopefully things will settle down at that point.

This weekend, Andrew and I will be doing some apartment hunting. We're trying to eat in more, so I thought it would be fun to bake something for the weekend. Andrew's not a big breakfast guy, but I think muffins are good any time of day.
Technically these are supposed to be a surprise, but I keep posting about them, so Andrew will probably figure them out.
The recipe is from Simply Recipes, which I found by googling "blackberry muffins."
Google wanted me to search for blueberry muffins. Nice try, Google.

In non-food related news, my current AmeriCorps term with Iowa Campus Compact ends in about two weeks. In terms of logistics, I'll be moving back in with my parents for about two weeks before heading up to Minneapolis. Andrew and I are going to move in together, and I'm going to start another VISTA term with the St. Paul Public School Foundation in early August. I'm very excited about the whole prospect, but apartment hunting is hard work! It's definitely been more stressful than I anticipated, and I'm looking forward to finding the right place so we can be done with it.

I'll probably post a reflection about my current VISTA term sometime soon. Now, however, I need to pack for the weekend and get some sleep.

Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends, and happy Fourth of July weekend to my American friends!

On my last trip to the Twin Cities, I bought a container of fresh jalapenos. I promptly brought it home and said, "Ok, so now what do I do with all these jalapenos?"
Enter this simple recipe from Cooks.com.
Of course, I did things slightly differently. I just used one chicken breast, which I vigorously poked with a fork in an attempt to mimic a meat perforater. The whole point of that process is to allow the marinade to get down into the meat so that it flavors it throughout out. At least, I'm pretty sure that's how Alton Brown explained on "Good Eats" that one time.
Anyway, it totally worked. Instead of grilling the chicken (which I'm sure would also be good), I baked it at 350F for about 30 minutes. I also baked some of the jalapenos, because I like them.
The flavor of the marinade made it into the whole of the chicken, with the wine being the primarily flavor. The jalapenos gave the whole thing a nice after-burn, but it wasn't too spicy. Well, the baked jalapenos were pretty spicy, but I like that. You may feel differently.
I cheated and served ate this with some Knorr Rice Sides Spanish Rice. I've sort of gotten away from that sort of thing, but I can't deny how convenient they are. They also taste perfectly decent.

In other news, I also tried my hand at homemade pop tarts yesterday morning. I used Smitten Kitchen's blog post as a guide. Again, I cheated and used store bought pie crust. I regret it. The store bought stuff wasn't awful, but it wasn't good either. It had that distinctive Pillsbury taste (you know what I mean?) which is strange considering it was store brand. The texture was fine, but the taste distracted from the filling, except for the tarts I had rolled extra thin. I'm not sure how that might differ using SK's dough, but for store bought, the thinner the better.
I ended up with a dozen small (about 3" x 3") pop tarts. I did 6 with blackberry preserves, and 6 with Nutella. The Nutella ones turned out better, and were also incredibly sinful.

I think I'm going to try my hand at homemade ginger ale this week. I had some really good unfiltered Jasmine Tea Ginger Ale when I was in the Cities last week, and I've been itching to try to duplicate it.

I had a craving for guacamole. I did a little research, and it turns out that most premade guacamole dip you can buy at the grocery store doesn't contain any actual avocado. Insane! Luckily, it's not too hard or expensive to make your own, or so I learned from BrokeAss Gourmet.
I didn't look closely at the recipe while I was whipping this up, so I ended up with 1/2 onion and 1/2 tomato. Otherwise, the ingredients are the same.
Somehow mine turned out a bit bitter. Maybe too much onion? Too much cilantro? I'm not sure. A hearty dose of lemon juice seems to have helped.
If I were to do it over again, I would omit the tomato and add more garlic. Hmm. I'll have to ponder this.
Oh, I also gave this a run through with my new immersion blender for a smoother texture.


Summer is for dip!