Spaghetti Squash with Shrimp and Tomato Sauce

For our Cooking Club in April, Assunta prepared a dish that I absolutely love, spaghetti squash with a shrimp and tomato sauce.  I think this is a recipe that she developed.  She arrived with all of the ingredients: olive oil,  a spaghetti squash, one onion, fresh garlic, fresh Roma tomatoes, about 2 lbs of shrimp, feta cheese, fresh parsley, and fresh thyme.

The ingredients. 

I had set the table.

The table is ready. 

She cut the squash in half and cooked it in the microwave until it was soft. Maybe 20 minutes.

Cut squash in half. 

Cook in the microwave until soft. 

The onion was diced and sauteed in olive oil, the tomatoes were cut into chunks and added to the tomatoes and cooked until they were softened and three or four cloves of garlic were sliced and added.  Lastly, the shrimp were added and cooked until they just turned pink.

Tomato sauce. 

Add shrimp to sauce. 

Cook just until shrimp turn pink.  

The "spaghetti" was scraped out of the cooked squash with a fork.

Just before the sauce was served, feta cheese, parsley, and tyme were stirred in.

The four of us, Assunta, Boguska, Jeanette and I, enjoyed our delicious lunch. Boguska doesn't eat shrimp so some of the tomato sauce and feta were left on the side for her. 

Ready to serve. 

Ready to eat. 

A New Twist to Chicken Salad

I poached 4 chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on) until the internal temperature on an instant thermometer registered 165 F.  I removed the skin and bone and sliced the chicken.  Trying to use some ingredients I had on hand, I toasted about a cup of walnuts and sliced 1/2 cup of dried plums (also known as prunes) and added these to the chicken.

Toasting the walnuts. 

The plums. 

The sliced chicken. 

Chicken with walnuts and dried plums. 

For the dressing, I used about 1/2 cup of sour cream, about 3 tablespoons of Duke's mayonnaise, several grinds of fresh pepper, 2 tablespoons of curry powder, and to thin the dressing I added a splash of balsamic vinegar.  After tasting I added a bit more curry powder.  As you can see, I really don't have a strict recipe for this because I didn't really measure most of the things but just added until I had the taste I wanted and the consistency I wanted. 

Adding more curry powder to the dressing. 

Served on a bed of lettuce from my garden. 

I've been following Chef Mohr's Cooking Classes online, and I am becoming more willing to experiment and in some cases not follow a recipe but use what I have and develop my own recipe for a dish.  I'm having fun!

A Throwback to the 80s: Chicken Marbello

Chicken Marbello

In the May 2 issue of the Washington Post, Sandra Gutierrez wrote about some dated but not forgotten old food trends. One that tweaked my interest was the recipe for Chicken Marbello from the Silver Palate cookbook.  This cookbook was first published in 1979, and back in the 80s, I used it quite a bit.  However, I had never made Chicken Marbello. Interestingly, the first main course that was served when the Silver Palate Restaurant was opened in New York was this dish. 

I checked my pantry and discovered that I had many of the ingredients required. A quick trip to the grocers and I had the other ingredients that I needed. What's so tasty about this recipe is that it combines, sweet, savory, salty and spicy.  For the recipe check out this link.

I veered a bit from the recipe when making the marinade.  I didn't measure exactly but mixed together dried plums, black olives, capers, lemon juice, pepper, fresh garlic, sundried tomatoes, dried oregano, dried thyme, and wine vinegar. 

I placed four bone-in chicken thighs with skins in a plastic bag and poured the marinade into the bag to cover the thighs.  I let this marinate for about 5 hours. 

Marinating in a plastic bag in the fridge for 5 hours. 

 A 9-inch square pan was perfect for the four thighs.  The oven was preheated to 375 degrees. The marinade was poured over the thighs and they cooked until the internal temperature of the chicken was 165 degrees (away from the bone)--this took about an hour.  After 30 minutes, I basted the thighs with the marinade every 10 minutes.

Ready for the oven. 

When done I added white wine and honey to the marinade, and  I moved the thighs to a serving platter. The solids in the marinade were removed with a slotted spoon and placed on top of the thighs.  With some parsley from my garden as a garnish, the thighs were ready to be served.

Ready to serve. 

It makes me wish I was having a dinner party, but Patrick and I will enjoy them no doubt.