Skillet Baked Tuscan Style Chicken

Winner winner chicken dinner! There's no shortage of chicken dinners to choose from out there -- baked whole chicken, poached chicken, glazed chicken, fried chicken…so why is this Tuscan Style Baked Chicken worth sharing?

It is so delicious, if you're in a chicken dinner rut, this is your quick fix. Best of all, this is a one skillet meal with minimal prep work needed. You'll never guess how easy this is judging from the tender, juicy chicken you get, smothered in roasted tomatoes, melted onions, sweet garlic, rosemary and thyme, and a rich sherry wine sauce.

This baked chicken recipe comes from the unlikeliest of places -- my hometown public library. The place has really spruced up since my days of researching book reports there. And, the community events have beefed up too. Tai Chi? Oh yes. Zumba? Boogie down. The library even hosts Chef Nights where chefs from restaurants in the area come in and do a little demo and tasting. During my last visit home, I accompanied my mom to watch chef/owner David Venitelli demo some of the northern Italian fare he makes at Giulio's by Harvest Moon in Tappan, NY. There in the basement of our local public library, Chef Venitelli showed the housewives of Upper Saddle River and me just how easy this dish is to make.

Start out with chicken quarters, separated into drumsticks and thighs. Rinse and thoroughly pat them dry. Heat up your skillet and add a few tablespoons of oil, then sear the chicken, skin-side down, until a golden brown crust forms. Then, flip the pieces of chicken over and turn the heat off.

Add sliced onions

To the skillet, add one large onion sliced up, a can of whole peeled tomatoes (I prefer San Marzano or Muir Glen tomatoes) squished through your fingers, half a dozen cloves of garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper.

Add tomatoes, garlic, and seasonings

Then, the whole thing goes in the oven where the chicken gets braised in its own juices and those of the onions and tomatoes that melt down. After an hour, take the skillet out and add a cup of sherry. This deglazes all the tasty browned bits on the bottom of the pan and creates a rich sauce. You don't even need to stir anything or scrape the pan, just drizzle the sherry on top. Back into the oven everything goes for another half hour.

And that's it! Dinner is done. The chicken is super moist and falling-off-the-bone tender. The onions get caramelized, the tomatoes and garlic roast up nice and sweet, the herbs get infused throughout, and that sherry wine sauce makes itself. Served over rice, with a side of Potato Smashers, and that is one fine chicken dinner.

Where's the beef? These days, as numerous workshops at the recent EcoFarm Conference revealed, it's on the farm—right alongside the sheep, the chickens, the ducks, and the goats.

From a farming perspective, biodiversity used to mean replacing typical fenceline-to-fenceline monocropping (which you can still still see down in the Central Valley: huge tracts of dirt planted with nothing but straight lines of strawberries or lettuce) with a more photogenic mix of pollinator-feeding flowers, orchards, hedgerows, and assorted vegetables in colorful profusion, all working in sync to make the farm a happier habitat for beneficial bugs, predators, and people.

Now, however, more and more small farms (and vineyards) are getting livestock into the mix. Whether they're providing milk, eggs, meat, or labor, animals and poultry are taking their place again alongside the tractor and the compost pile as integral parts of the contemporary, sustainable organic farm.

The 2011 conference had a much more concentrated interest in horns and hoofs than in years past. At least half a dozen workshops focused on animal issues, ranging from "Ecosystem Services in Livestock Production" and "Cattle and Carbon: Rangeland Conservation & Climate Protection" to "Healthy Herds, Healthy Markets: Raising Heritage Breed Livestock and Poultry" and "Building a Local Meat Supply Chain."

Putting the proof onto the plate was Marin Sun Farms, our own local grass-fed meat company, whose in-kind sponsorship of the conference put excellent local chicken, bacon, and lamb onto the menu of Asilomar's dining room throughout the conference (which made, for the omnivores among us, a welcome alternative to the usual beans, kale, and quinoa).

Why have animals on a farm? Well, as one of the owners of Full Belly Farm pointed out, a productive, diversely-planted organic farm produces a lot of surplus food. Restaurants, retailers, CSA and farmers' market customers all want the good stuff. They'll pay for it, but it has to look and taste the best. And if you're not bathing your produce in pesticides to keep it the boring, munching, scarring bugs at bay, well, you're going to end up culling a whole lot of not-so-pretty, overripe or undersized stuff along the way.

Some of it feeds your family and your workers. Some of it can feed your compost. But if you want to turn oversize zucchini and beat-up tomatoes into usable, high-quality protein (not to mention plenty of fertilizer), well, nothing beats feeding it to pigs, goats, or chickens.

Backyard goats and chickens enjoying some sweet and crunchy discards from Star Route Farm

It's all part of the closed-loop system advocated by Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian polymath who mixed biology and soil science with folk wisdom and time-tested peasant farming practices, codifying it into what we now call biodynamics. Stripped of its more arcane spiritual elements, it's more or less the same down-to-earth, interconnected system advocated by Joel Salatin, the nattily dressed farmer/author of Virginia's Polyface Farm, who gave an impassioned speech last month in Point Reyes Station. Drawing from his latest book, The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer, Salatin turned the hay-lined Toby's Feed Barn into a tent revival for smart pasturing practices and mixed-use farms. Real pork, he insisted, wasn't a "white meat;" instead, if the pig's been raised right, rooting around, living out its full pig-attude, its meat should be iron-rich and consequently rosy pink.

Joel Salatin. Photo by Stephane von Stephane

Even wineries are getting in on the act: at Robert Sinskey, in Napa, part of the vineyards' biodynamic practice involves grazing down the weeds with sweet-faced Romney sheep, whose wool is sold alongside the wine in the tasting room.

But, as much as we might hope to be going back to a more natural practice with grass-fed meat and pastured eggs, few consumers are ready to think of steak and omelets as exclusively seasonal products, dictated by water, daylight, and temperatures just as much as asparagus or raspberries. If you have backyard chickens, you know that laying slows down dramatically as the days get shorter. Grass-fed cows have to be managed according to the ecosystems of their particular pastures.

Rearing animals on grass takes time, and as talk with numerous small farmers and ranchers at the conference proved, no one small farm or ranch can provide a year-round supply of freshly slaughtered meat. The answer? Co-ops and partnerships. As the workshop "Are CSAs Sustainable?" proved, a single farm limited by acreage, climate, and resources can't always produce enough variety to keep customers coming back for a box year-round. Your cool, moist, ocean-fogged farm might produce spectacular greens and kales—but what happens in July, when "greens fatigue" sets in and your members are longing for peaches and tomatoes? You can preach the virtues of chard; scrape up another loan, lease another parcel of land and increase your payroll; or partner with an inland neighbor already dripping in stone fruit and create a box that shares the wealth.

Niman Ranch does this on a large scale; Marin Sun Farms, Straus Family Creamery, and North Coast Meats on a smaller one. Partnering with other ranches helps produce a steady supply, while selling meat through a CSA, like the one described by Tyler Dawley of Barbarosa Ranchers in Red Bluff, insures not only a pre-sold market for the animals, but a chance to familiarize customers with cuts beyond the usual chops and tenderloins.

Cooperatives can also help with the biggest snag in the local-meat supply chain: getting access to a small-scale slaughterhouse, then finding a way through governmental wrapping and packing regulations scaled for the likes of Tyson Foods.

As State Director Dr. Glenda Humiston of USDA Rural Development pointed out, one of the top requests her office gets from rural communities (right after broadband) is access to small-scale slaughterhouses, particularly mobile ones that can move from community to community. Throughout the workshops, farmers with pigs, goats, sheep, and cattle on their land got up to beg for solutions, giving details of sudden shut-downs at nearby slaughterhouses (some affiliated with local ag-training universities) or wrapping/packing facilities.

No one, even the most carnivorous among us, likes to think too hard about how their main course went from animal to ingredient. But with meat moving out of the supermarket and into the farmers' market, thoughtful consumers have more and more chances to find out how their dinner lived, and to put their food dollars towards supporting land-healthy, humane practices.

For more background on the challenges of creating a local meat supply chain, read the report Where's the Local Beef? by Food and Water Watch.

A steaming plate of enchiladas is one of my favorite meals. I love how the depth of flavor in a good enchilada sauce wakes up the tongue; and then of course there's the added bonus of melted cheese. But the process of making enchiladas is a bit fussy. Baked while sitting rank and file, nestled against each other in a queue, they demand a tidy symmetry. The result is a row of neat and snug packages wrapped in their own corn tortillas, which is lovely on the plate, but unnecessary for a family dinner. Anyone who has gone through the process of making homemade enchiladas knows that filling each individual tortilla can be time consuming and messy; plus traditional enchilada sauce is difficult to make from scratch and it's hard to find a good one in a can or jar. It is for all these reasons that I abandoned making red sauce enchiladas at home and instead converted my recipe into a casserole. Little did I realize how good this dish would be, how inexpensive it would be to make, nor how much my family would love it.

The casserole's innate unruly character seemed like a perfect fit for enchilada's zesty ingredients. I figured I would use many of the same components -- chicken, cheese and a red sauce -- and then crossed my fingers that I would end up with something that was close to enchiladas. Yet as with so much in life, making what seemed a paltry amendment to preparation instructions ended up altering the finished product's essence. With the ingredients now added in a hodgepodge of layers, the spices and flavors were given the freedom to intermingle while chilies, sour cream and cheese were at liberty to melt into each other. And while conventional enchilada sauces are made up of dried chilies, I felt that the freewheeling nature of the casserole gave me license to be a bit more innovative. Okay, fine, I only added in tomatoes as a sauce base, but I never would have done this if I'd been making old-school enchiladas. When all was said and done, and I removed that bubbling cheesy dish from the oven, I found that enchilada casserole tastes even more luxurious than its authentic cousin.

As with enchiladas, this casserole is full of southwestern ingredients. Fresh Anaheim chili peppers cooked with chicken (or vegetables), onions, tomatoes, cumin, and Mexican oregano, not to mention a nice dose of chili powder, provides the satisfying Mexican flavors you expect but also a little more. You can also add in a jalapeno for some heat. If you want to keep this dish meat-free, just use roasted butternut or acorn squash instead of chicken (and savor the sweet earthy taste of those vegetables against the mildly picante flavors of the sauce).

Making the filling for this one-dish meal is a breeze, but assembling it is even easier. After toasting the tortillas a bit in a pan, you just layer half of them in a casserole dish, top with half the filling, some cheese and sour cream, and then add on another layer. That's it.

So if you love enchiladas, but aren't crazy about making them; or if you simply crave an easy-to-make hearty one-dish meal that will please your entire family, here is my recipe for Cheesy Enchilada Casserole. The main recipe uses chicken but I've also included a vegetarian alternative that uses butternut or acorn squash at the end. Both are great choices for an easy and hearty dinner at home.

Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Makes: one 9 x 13 casserole

Ingredients:

12 corn tortillas
5 chicken thighs (or two cups leftover chicken)
½ cup chicken stock or water
2 large Anaheim peppers chopped
½ large onion chopped
1 Tbsp plus ½ tsp Ancho or Chipotle chili powder (regular chili powder can be subbed in, but the Ancho and Chipotle are so good they're worth seeking out)
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp Mexican oregano (or regular)
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
2/3 cup sour cream
¼ cup milk
1 cup shredded Monterey jack, Colby or cheddar cheese (use 1 ½ cups if not using Cotijo)
½ cup Cotijo cheese (optional)
1 Tbsp lime juice
¼ cup chopped cilantro (optional)
1 Tbsp corn or vegetable oil (or enough to thinly coat the bottom of a large pan)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. If using fresh chicken, place thighs in a pan, sprinkle with salt, pepper and about ½ tsp chili powder and then cover with chicken stock or water. Cook covered for 7-10 minutes, turning over after about 4 minutes. Simmer until cooked through and then remove both chicken and broth from the pan to cool. Shred chicken and keep the broth in a separate dish.

3. Heat the same pan (now empty) to medium heat and then add in the oil, chopped Anaheim peppers and onions. If using jalapeno, add now. Sauté for 10 minutes.

4. Add in the rest of your chili powder plus your cumin and oregano. Be sure to crush the oregano in your hand first (as this releases the flavors more thoroughly into the dish). Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Add in your shredded chicken (if using chopped leftover chicken add in now), broth, and tomatoes and stir until everything is thoroughly mixed in. Taste and then add more salt if needed. Simmer for 15 - 20 minutes on low heat.

6. Heat a medium pan (I like to use cast iron) to warm up your tortillas. I use medium high heat. Add in a little oil (must enough to barely cover the bottom of the pan) and fry each tortilla until warmed through and slightly crisp. Set aside on a plate.

7. Mix the cilantro and lime juice into your filling and stir. Taste one more time to see if you need to add any salt or pepper and then remove from heat.

8. Mix the milk into your sour cream (whisking to combine) and then set up a workspace with your 9 x 13" pan (which you should spray or line with oil), tortillas, grated cheeses, and filling.

9. Using a ladle, scoop mostly sauce (i.e., not much meat or vegetables) into the bottom of the casserole dish and then lay 6 of your heated tortillas into the bottom of the pan. Top with half your filling followed by drizzling on half your sour cream (making sure you even distribute). Set half your cheese on top of that and then repeat by laying on the remaining tortillas, filling, sour cream and cheeses.

10. Set dish in the oven for about 30 minutes (25 if using a convection oven) or until the entire casserole is warmed through and the cheese is bubbly.

11. Serve and enjoy.

Cheesy Squash Enchilada Casserole Variation
Follow the above instructions with the following alteration:

1. Instead of cooking the chicken in step 1, roast your peeled and chopped squash in the oven with some olive oil and salt until al dente.

2. In step 5 leave out the chicken (obviously) and add in ½ cup vegetable broth instead. Also, do not add in your squash yet as you don't want to overcook it. Instead just simmer your other vegetables in the tomatoes and broth.

3. Add your cubed and roasted squash in step 7.

When I'm sick, worn out, or just plain down in the dumps, I want chicken soup. I don't care if it's fancy. Heirloom turnips and herb pistous are not necessary. Just chicken soup, please -- nice and brothy with big chunks of chicken and minimal vegetables. Rice, pasta or matzo balls are all fine as long as the soup is homemade.

I've had a terrible month. The deaths of two people I love have made this autumn, with its golden leaves and dazzling sunshine, a little less bright. So it was no surprise when I came down with a cold. After being emotionally spent for a couple of weeks, and with two memorial services behind me, I think my body just decided it was time to spend a couple of days in bed.

In need of both emotional and physical comfort I turned to chicken soup. I hate to admit this as it seems the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series has turned this fundamental dish into something trite and hokey. Yet as much as I roll my eyes when I see those titles at my local book store, I have to admit the marketing department for the series publisher was on to something: there are few foods that heal and console like chicken soup.

Following is a very basic recipe that I used this week to cheer and bolster myself. You can easily find many other techniques out there that have more bling and panache, but when you're tired and sick, the essentials are the best choice to calm and reassure. Chicken. Broth. Carrots. Celery. Rice. United in a big steamy bowl, my nasal passages started to clear, and, I'm reluctant to admit, my soul was given a little boost.

Simple Chicken Soup
Chicken soup is made in two stages. First you need to make a rich stock using chicken, water and a few aromatics. This can be accomplished a day in advance. You then use the stock as the base of the soup, adding in the precooked chicken and anything else you like.

Chicken Stock
Makes: Enough for one large pot of chicken soup
Ingredients:
1 whole 3-4 lb chicken cut up (or 3-4 lbs chicken wings and thighs)
1 large yellow or white onion roughly chopped
1 large celery stalk roughly chopped
2 medium carrots roughly chopped
1 large or two small bay leaves
1 sprig fresh thyme or rosemary (not chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste
Enough water to cover ingredients by about 1-2 inches

Preparation:
1. Rinse chicken and place in a large stock pot along with all other ingredients plus 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper and then add water.
2. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer. Cook covered for 1/2 hour.
3. Skim any foam that has formed off the top of the liquid and then simmer for another 30 - 40 minutes uncovered (you may need to raise the heat a bit).
4. Skim any remaining foam and then add more salt and pepper to taste. If the stock seems too watery, simmer uncovered for another 10 minutes.
5. Take chicken out of the pot and let cool while you strain the stock into a clean pot or bowl. Press the vegetables to make sure you release all the liquids and flavors.
6. Remove meat from the chicken and set aside. Refrigerate cooled stock and chicken if making ahead.

Chicken Soup
Makes: 1 large pot of soup
Ingredients:
Chicken stock (see above recipe)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large stalk of celery chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 large or 2 medium leeks cleaned and sliced thinly (you can substitute in onion)
Any other vegetables that sound comforting
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of your favorite rice or small pasta

Preparation:
1. In a large pot, sauté leeks, celery and carrots in olive oil over medium heat. Add a dash of salt and pepper and cook for five minutes.
2. Add chicken stock and chicken bring to a boil. Simmer on low for 15-20 minutes while you cook your rice or pasta.
3. When your rice or pasta is cooked, turn off soup. Spoon about 1/2 cup rice or pasta into a bowl and then ladle in soup. Eat and feel warm and soothed.

Note: Do not add rice or pasta to the soup pot as it will soak up the stock, making the rice or pasta mushy and leaving you with less liquid.

I have a new favorite way to cook chicken. I know. I know. How many "new" ways are there to cook the most commonly-eaten poultry in America? You've had it all, right? From roasted, fried, and sauteed to stewed with dumplings, baked with sauces and turned into soup. But how about slowly cooked on a rotisserie -- at home?

Yes. At home. I'm not talking about buying one of those birds encased in a plastic shield at the grocery store -- the ones that were supposedly cooked on a rotisserie earlier that day -- but really… who knows when they were roasted? I mean preparing a chicken that you cook in your backyard or on a deck -- slowly with the seasonings you like. What I want you to do is take your chicken right off the spit with your own hands and then eat it while it's hot and juicy. Sounds primal but delectable, right?

A couple of years back I gave my husband a rotisserie attachment for our grill and although we've used it a few times, we've amazingly never thought to barbecue chicken with it. But this Labor Day, our poultry world was turned upside down. We were having guests over so we wanted to try something special. My mom was staying with us, but because she's watching her cholesterol we wanted to grill something healthier than the ribs I had been originally contemplating. While Mom and I chatted with my favorite butcher Phil, I caught a glimpse of the beautiful chickens in the refrigerator case -- big and plump organic birds from Sonoma County -- and immediately bought two for our holiday barbecue.

Normally I would bake my chicken, but as Labor Day was one of the only warm days of the summer, I rejected this idea. I wanted to be outside. I suddenly remembered the rotisserie spear hanging in the broom closet (yes, that's where we keep it). I then brined my birds and followed this up with a nice olive oil, lemon zest, garlic and herb marinade. The next day we were ready to go.

Once those chickens roasted on the rotisserie in our grill for an hour and a half, they were perfect. There's something about the rotisserie that is just right for cooking chickens. You get that great caramelized grill flavor, but without the risk of drying out the meat. All that spinning on the rotisserie spit seemed to melt the marinade into the chicken, heightening the flavors and making it succulent and moist. My only regret is that I didn't stick a pan of potatoes underneath to catch those amazingly delicious juices that slowly drip drip drip while the bird cooks. I'll be sure to do this next time.

Following are some general directions for cooking a chicken on a rotisserie spit. These are more guidelines than an actual recipe because using the rotisserie is not an exact science. There is so much that could vary the outcome, from the weight and number of the chickens, to whether you brined the birds or not. But don't panic. If you just check on your chickens after about a half hour, you should easily be able to see when they're cooked through. Just be sure to use an instant read thermometer to double check and then you're good to go.

General Guidelines for Making Rotisserie Chicken
1. Brine and marinate chickens the day before cooking. Use whatever marinade you like best. I am partial to mixing olive oil with lemon zest and juice, crushed garlic and fresh herbs.

2. BEFORE you heat the grill, remove the grates and heating elements from the barbecue so you'll have enough room for the chicken to spin.

3. When ready to cook, heat grill to 350 - 400 degrees. Don't heat it all the way up or it will dry out the chicken.

4. Place marinated chicken onto the rotisserie spit (using the directions that come with the attachment) and place in the grill. Turn motor on and grill for 30-40 minutes.

5. Check on chicken to see how it's doing, but don't leave the cover raised for long. When the chicken is cooked through (about 1 hour for one 4 lb bird or 1 1/2 hours for two chickens), turn off motor and remove chickens from the spit CAREFULLY making sure not to burn yourself.

6. Let chickens sit for about five minutes and then carve.

I was confused by Morocco before I even left the plane. Looking down at its Mediterranean coastline after a stretch of late-Winter rains, I turned to the friend sitting next to me and said with more than a little disbelief:

"It's green. Is this normal? I didn't think it would be this... green."

I had always imagined Morocco clad in the colors of sand and dust. I'd allowed for certain man-made outbursts of color-- the blood red of the flag, the ornate vibrancy of their pottery and woven goods, but that green caught me completely by surprise. It was like some sort of unexpected welcome gift.

Though exhausted and thoroughly disoriented by travel, I was excited by the prospect of spending the next three weeks in a country about which I knew precious little and, after a good night's sleep, I couldn't wait to find out what other surprises Morocco would show me.

That is, of course, if the Customs official would let me into the damned country. In filling out the line that read "occupation," I wrote "waiter" in what I thought was clear block printing. The man who held the key to my entrance-- the passport stamp-- misread my job. It was as though The Spellbinder from The Adventures of Letterman had changed the "a" in "waiter" to an "r." The official scrutinized me.

"You are a writer? Do you plan to write of your visit to Morocco?" When I told him that I was a waiter, not a writer, and that I did not plan on writing about his country, he seemed skeptical.

"You are a writer who says he will not write?" He then muttered something in French to his partner, who was now looking at my passport. Oh, yes, I thought. French! I can explain to them my situation in French and clear things right up.

"Je n'suis pas ecrivain," I told them. And then I couldn't remember the word for "waiter" in French. "Moi, je... je... j'habite au restaurant." In my bad, nervous French, I told them that I lived in a restaurant, which wasn't too far from the truth.

Whether they believed me or felt sorry for me or both, I will never know. Once I promised them that I was in their country strictly for pleasure and that I would not write about it (or them), the man with the little stamp finally inked my passport.

So here I am, four years later, writing about it. Did they know something I didn't?

As my friends and I piled into the bus that would take us to our hotel, we began to wonder aloud what our guide would be like. We had bought out a tour group excursion and would have said guide all to ourselves. How old was he? What would he look like? Would he be hot? When we got to the hotel, we were all looking for our idealized tour guide-- an attractive 30-something Moroccan man.

And then I noticed that the only person hanging about outside the place was a young blonde woman with a clip board. She introduced herself to us. Her name was Summer. The disappointment of my little group was palpable.

"Her name is Summer? You've got to be (expletive) kidding me," whispered one friend. She was 25, from Southern California. This was her first time leading a group of tourists. It was just her luck to get handed a group of smart-assed gay men ranging in age from 34 to 50.

I knew she was going to be eaten alive. I felt sorry for her. She whisked us off to dinner and a little orientation. We followed, hungry, tired and very skeptical.

When we sat down to dinner, she began the orientation. One of my friends muttered some bitchy remark which she was more than likely meant to overhear. And then, with barely a turn of her head, she countered the attack with something that not only cut the man down to size, but had him laughing at the same time (I wish to g-d I could remember what it was). The mood of the entire room changed in an instant. Within an hour of meeting her, she had all of us eating out of the palm of her hand, which isn't too far from the literal truth, since one eats nearly everything with one's hands in Morocco.

We adored her.

Over the course of those three weeks, she hauled us from souk to souk in cities like Meknes and Fes and Rabat; showed us Roman ruins and attack geese in the still-green hills of Voulibilis; organized a birthday party with magic tricks and Berber musicians in the arid plains of Midelt; allowed us to stop play in the snow of the Atlas Mountains; took us hiking in the Todra Gorge; had us ride mangy, horny camels into the Sahara desert to sleep in the dunes under a full moon; and had us doing about a thousand other fascinating things that would require too much time to write about today.

We were overwhelmed, exhausted, and very, very happy.

My only complaint was that every activity seemed to be fueled by the consumption of tagine, kefta, and "Berber whiskey"-- otherwise known as mint tea. As over-stimulating as our trip had been, the food had become monotonous-- a hand-washing, tea-pouring, couscous-eating bore.

Until, that is, we entered the town of Ouarzazate where we embarked upon one of the most delightful and surreal lunches in my memory. If one considers that Ouarzazate is the center of the Moroccan film industry, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. A city whose Atlas Film Studios has added footage to such films as Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, and Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra makes fantasy it's primary business. But our lunch had very little to do with the movies.

Instead, it had everything to do with a children's book.

"I saw a little French place down the road the last time I was here," Summer said," but it wouldn't be included in the tour price-- it will cost extra." A "civilized" luncheon at a French restaurant in the middle of the High Atlas plateau after days of hiking and sleeping on camel blankets seem appealing. We all agreed that we would pay for Summer's meal, too. We'd pay for anything-- especially if there was wine involved.

There was.

The "little French place" Summer had in mind was a shrine to Antoine de St. Exupéry, author of The Little Prince. My brother had sent me a copy of the book in the original French when I was a boy, hoping that I would someday be able to read it as well has he could. I never could keep up with him. However, that wasn't going to stop me from enjoying my lunch. I marveled at the randomness of finding such a treasure in a place that-- though very Big City to me after spending several days in the wildness of North Africa-- still felt a bit like the middle of nowhere.

As with most mysteries, however, randomness had nothing to do with it. We soon learned from the chef-owner of the restaurant, Jean Pierre, that St. Exupéry was an airmail pilot. His route took him from Marseilles to-- guess where-- Ouarzazate, Morocco. Though the mystery of its placement had been solved, that didn't make it any less marvelous in my eyes.

As we sat down to our lunch we were offered what most of us considered a minor miracle in Morocco-- a cocktail. We lubricated ourselves with gin and tonics and Americanos that were cooled with something even more miraculous, given our location-- fresh ice. In an area known as The Land of 10,000 Casbahs, I felt as if I had found just the right, need-specific oasis out of the other possible 9,999.

And while there was indeed tagine offered by Chef Jean Pierre, it was not of the customary chicken or lamb, but fresh camel. I was hoping one of my friends would order it so that I might try it and be able to honestly say that I had now ridden, smoked, worn, and eaten camel within the space of one week. I would have ordered it myself, but there was something else on the menu that held my attention:

Bastilla. Real bastilla made with real Moroccan pigeon. Of course, I thought that the pigeons caught and prepared for my meal might very well have been from some other country and merely had the misfortune of landing in the wrong spot at the wrong time, but I let that go. I was about to eat them baked with almonds, spices, and eggs into the flaky pastry of my favorite Moroccan dish of all time. And in Morocco, of all places, too. I longed to nearly suffocate myself under it's heavy layer of powdered sugar and cinnamon.

As we ate, I noticed one of the drawings from The Little Prince that hung across from me on the wall:

By the end of the meal, I knew exactly how that serpent boa felt after consuming an elephant. We gorged ourselves that afternoon.

We ate and drank and laughed. We toasted Summer, the Southern California chick who showed us more than our brains could ever process, who mothered us and kicked our asses, taught us how to say "No!" to the annoying street children who were always trying to sell us packets of facial tissue, and gave us an absolutely unforgettable experience.

So, shukran, Summer. Thank you very, very much. You were the nicest, most unexpected gift of all.

Bastilla

To the rest of you, I say bessah'ha, or "to your health." Eat up, habibi. The preparation of this dish is time consuming, but nonetheless simple to prepare. I couldn't find any fresh pigeon here in San Francisco willing to give up the ghost for me, as it were. Not that I'd want any of the locals to-- they all look as though they could use a trip to Lourdes. Chicken works (almost) as well. Give it a shot if you have the time and have your own Bastilla Day celebration.

There are a multitude of variations on the bastilla recipe. This happens to be one that I have culled from several different sources. As long as you've got chicken (or pigeon), turmeric, cinnamon, almonds, egg, and phyllo (Warqa is the dough traditionally used. Good luck finding it, however), you can most likely get away with calling it bastilla.

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients:

6 to 7 chicken thighs, bone and skin on

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

A good pinch of saffron

2 cinnamon sticks

About 1 1/2 cups water

3 whole eggs

1/4 cup currants, soaked in orange blossom water

1 tablespoons orange blossom water

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter

1 box of phyllo pastry (because you will invariable rip several sheet to shreds if you're anything like me.)

Powdered sugar

Powdered cinnamon

1 egg lightly beaten with about a teaspoon of water (for egg wash)

Preparation:

1. In a medium-sized Dutch oven (historically, the Dutch have had no significant political or economic interest in Morocco, so this is a good, neutral vessel), heat olive oil and brown the chicken thighs in two batches over medium high heat. Remove chicken and add onions to cook briefly (but do not brown). Return all of the chicken to your pot, covering the onions. Add enough water to the pot to nearly cover about 3/4 of the chicken (we're braising here, not boiling), then add the cinnamon sticks, powdered ginger, turmeric, and saffron. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for about 45 minutes, periodically rotating the chicken in the liquid.

2. When the chicken is tender enough to separate easily from the bone with a fork, remove and set aside, let cool and shred the meat. Remove cinnamon sticks and discard. Look at your fragrant, onion and chicken fat-dotten liquid. Smell it. There is no reason to do so other than the fact that it just smells really good.

3. Take your three eggs and beat them. Not as harshly as if they had, say, committed adultery, but more roughly than if they had simply snuck a bag of Cheetos before sundown at Ramadan. Gently scramble the eggs with about 1/3 cup of the fragrant chicken liquid. Cook until curdled, but not dry, since they will continue to cook when baked into the pie. Set aside.

4. Preheat your oven to 350ºF.

5. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a medium sauté pan. Add almonds and fry them until golden brown. Remove, pat with paper towels and toss with a tablespoon of powdered sugar, about 1/4 teaspoon of powdered cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon of orange blossom water. Can you guess what you're going to do with these next? That's correct-- you set them aside.

6. Melt the remaining 1/2 cup of butter. generously brush the inside of a 9" round baking dish or sauté pan. Open box of phyllo pastry and place sheets between two lightly dampened (clean) kitchen towels to prevent their drying out. Fold one sheet of phyllo in half and center it in the pan. Let the overhang do just that-- overhang the sides of the baking dish. Brush with butter. Take another sheet that is folded in half and place it at a 90º angle. Brush with more butter.

7. Add the shredded chicken to the pan, making a good, solid bottom layer. Sprinkle the orange blossom water-soaked currants over the chicken. Next, add the lightly scrambled eggs to cover the chicken, then add the almonds to create a final layer.

8. Fold the overhanging sides of phyllo dough over the filling and brush with butter. Add one more sheet of folded-in-half phyllo over the top. Tuck in the edges to create a smooth top. Brush with butter and then brush that with egg wash.

9. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until the pastry has turned golden brown. Remove from the oven. Generously dust with powdered sugar-- enough so that one might choke and cough is one stuck one's nose close enough to the pastry to inhale. Decorate in the geometric pattern of your choice with powdered cinnamon.

10. Serve to people who will look at you and say, "You made this? Wow, I didn't know anyone actually ever made this." If there is someone at your table who tells you he's not really into the sweet-and-savory combination, allow him to remain at your table because you wouldn't dream of insulting a guest in your home, but make a mental note to never invite him over again.

This week, there will be many boxes of chocolates given in the name of love; we'll also see a lot of stuffed teddy bears and bouquets of flowers. And although I would never turn any of these down (well, maybe the teddy bears, but definitely not the chocolates), when I want to tell my family I love them -- whether for Valentine's Day or any other time - I cook. And, at least as far as I'm concerned, nothing quite says I love you like a homemade pot pie. After all, this relative of the savory meat pasty contains the homiest comfort food ingredients: butter crust and gravy (oh yeah, and chicken too).

As I mentioned last week, making a pot pie is a great way to use leftovers from a roasted chicken. But you shouldn't only think of this dish as a method for getting rid of that dark or white meat no one wanted the night before. After all, pot pies -- with gravy bubbling out of the cracks of its buttery crust -- are so good that I often roast a chicken simply so we can have pot pies the next day. And, unlike other dishes, this meal tops the favorites list for both kids and adults alike, which means everyone is happy on chicken pot pie night.

There are various ways to make chicken pot pie, but I think the easiest (and tastiest) is to use leftover chicken with its drippings and a bit of fat. As my Italian Catholic mother would say, it's a sin to throw away those lovely pan juices after roasting a chicken. Those drippings contain a chicken essence that is impossible to replicate with butter and store bought chicken stock. No, the most richly-flavored gravies are always made with the source material.

But it's not enough to make a great gravy; the key to a fantastic pot pie is making enough gravy to fill your dish. Your chicken and vegetables should be swimming in brown gravy goodness, because really, who wants to eat a dry pot pie. This is why saving all the ingredients from a roasted chicken is so important. In addition to the drippings, you should also save the carcass and wings, which you'll use to make a rich chicken stock that is essential for producing a hearty supply of gravy. I usually have some store-bought broth on hand, but trust me, use this only in case of emergency as your gravy will have more nuanced flavors and a fuller taste if you make your stock from scratch.

Now don't shake your head and mutter something about not having the time to make that stock, because – yes I know I say this all the time – it's easy and fast. Really. It is. You just add some water to the carcass along with a half onion and some celery, carrots, and a bay leaf and you're done. Truly. That's it. Plus you only need to cook it for around 20 minutes – okay so that's not super fast, but it's also not so time intensive that you can't do it. How often do you spend 20 minutes digging around your refrigerator and pantry trying to find something easy and fast to cook? By the time you've finished searching, your stock could be made.

As for the fillings, they are really up to you. In addition to your chicken, you can add anything you like. I personally like potatoes, mushrooms, peas and carrots in my pot pies (I'm a savory pie traditionalist, at heart), but my daughters hate the carrots, so I only add them to my own serving. If broccoli and zucchini sound appetizing, add them in. Hate mushrooms? Leave them out. Wondering what to do with those turnips you bought? Just use them instead of the potatoes. It's your pot pie, so make it the way you like it.

When it comes time to throw everything together, you can make one big casserole in a porcelain or glass dish, or, if you have individual casserole dishes (mine look like large ramekins), you can use those instead. If you are big on crust, feel free to line your casserole dish(es) with crust (and then prebake so it's not soggy) and then also top the pies with another layer; I, however, think one layer on top is usually sufficient (and less caloric – not that I'm counting calories after using chicken fat).

So this year, forget the flowers and express your love with a chicken pot pie.

Chicken Pot Pie

Makes: One large or four individual pot pies

Ingredients:

Leftovers from a roasted chicken (around 3 cups meat plus the carcass, wings, pan drippings and 1 Tbsp chicken fat)
5 cups water
½ large onion
3 carrots
1 stalk celery
1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
½ tsp dried thyme or 1 tsp fresh thyme
1 cup cubed potatoes or turnips
6 brown or white mushrooms sliced
¾ cup frozen peas
1 round of pie crust (recipe below) or puff pastry
Butter for greasing your casserole dishes

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Set the chicken carcass (stripped of meat), wings, and neck in a large saucepan and cover with water. Include your pan drippings, which should have settled in the bottom of your container overnight. Leave out the fat for now. You may have to break up the carcass so it's fully submerged. Add in 2 chopped carrots, the chopped celery stalk, the half onion (also chopped) and the bay leaf. Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes or until you have a decent chicken stock.

3. While your stock is simmering, chop up 3 cups of chicken meat. You can use dark or white meat or a combination of the two (which I think tastes best). This is also a great time to peel and chop up your potatoes or turnips, slice your mushrooms, and chop that last carrot (or whatever vegetables you're using).

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4. Once the stock is ready, strain the liquid and set aside. You should have about five cups.

5. In a large pan, heat up 1 Tbsp chicken fat plus another Tbsp butter. When bubbly, add in the flour and thyme and then mix to create a roux. Whisk in 4 cups of your chicken stock slowly, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Salt and pepper to taste.

6. Add in the potatoes or turnips along with the carrots and cover. Simmer for 7-10 minutes or until the vegetables are al dente.

7. Add in the chicken, mushrooms and peas. Mix in more stock if the gravy is too thick, or if it's too thin, create a slurry in a separate dish with a tablespoon of cornstarch and enough water to create a thin paste and then mix in as much as needed to thicken. Taste again to see if you need more salt, pepper or thyme.

8. Turn off heat, cover pan and let sit while you roll out your pie dough or puff pastry. If using small individual casserole dishes, cut the dough to fit each dish.

9. Butter the inside of each dish and then fill with your chicken and gravy mixture. Top each dish with your pie dough or puff pastry. Cut a hole or slit into each piece of dough so the casserole can breath in the oven.

10. Bake for 30 minutes. When crust is golden brown and gravy is bubbling out of the cracks, remove pot pies from oven. Let sit for five minutes and then serve with a big salad.

Flaky Pie or Tart Dough
Adapted from a recipe by Kim Laidlaw

Makes: Enough for one 10-inch tart

Ingredients:

1 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
6 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/4 cup ice water + 1 tablespoon

Preparation:

1. To make the crust, in the bowl of a food processor, stir together the flour, and salt. Sprinkle the butter over the top and process for a few seconds, or just until the butter is slightly broken up into the flour but still in visible pieces. Sprinkle the water over the flour mixture evenly, then process until the mixture just starts to come together.

2. Dump the mixture out of the bowl onto 2 large sheets of plastic wrap. Press the dough together into a mound and then wrap with plastic and press into a flat disk. Refrigerate the dough until chilled, about 30 minutes or up to 1 day, or freeze for up to 1 month.

Long long ago (which in this digital age means a few decades prior to now) people used to eat chicken for fancy Sunday suppers. After a day at church, the family would gather around the dinner table. Bobby, with his favorite baseball cap set next to his dish, and Sue, with hair in pigtails, claimed the drumsticks. Meanwhile Mother in her apron and Father in a button-down shirt had their fill of the breasts or thighs. After dinner, Ma would collect the remainder of the chicken -- carcass, drippings and all -- so she could make a nice soup or meat pie later in the week. Doesn’t that sound homey, and well... quaint?

Well, in the modern-day equivalent of this scenario, this is my house on a Sunday (although insert a morning reading the New York Times instead of church, bickering kids who roll their eyes at their parents for the mild-tempered Bobby and Sue, and jeans with t-shirts and sweaters for the clothes. Oh, and toss in a crazy dog and a messy house). I've also been known to make a whole chicken on a Tuesday or Thursday (or, as you've probably picked up by now, any day of the week). So although my version of this American tale is a little different, the premise remains the same: I bake a whole chicken for one dinner, and then wrap up everything (and I mean everything) that is left for another meal (or two) later in the week.

Although my method for cooking chicken was once de rigueur in America, it now seems old fashioned. Chicken, however, is more popular than ever. According to the USDA, "Chicken consumption more than doubled between 1970 and 2004, from 27.4 pounds per person to 59.2 pounds." Yet during this time of increased chicken eating, the tradition of baking a whole bird for a family dinner has almost disappeared.

Most poultry eaters these days simply pick up a package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts at the grocery store (and that’s only if they're actually cooking dinner instead of picking up take-out). They think that not having to deal with those bones makes cooking easier (a notion I will argue in a second). Plus most people are also more interested in the breasts because they have less fat than those delicious thighs and legs. But if you're cooking from scratch (that is, not purchasing something pre-cooked with a ton of fat, salt and starches added to it) one leg or thigh will not clog your arteries or make you fat, especially if you eat it with a large serving of vegetables. According to the Daily Plate (a food calorie site), a thigh has 237 calories, while a grilled skinless breast has 120 calories; sure the calorie count is almost double, but 237 calories for a main part of your dinner is quite good when you consider that a chicken burrito has 334 calories in it. Also, if you eat that chicken breast lightly breaded and fried (as many people will), you jump up to 247 calories with 133 fat calories (the baked thigh has only 12 fat calories). That thigh is no longer looking so fattening, is it?

Now I realize that many people don't like to make a whole chicken because they think it’s difficult and time intensive. But, just like pudding and pancakes, nothing could be further from the truth. Unlike boneless and skinless breasts, which often need to be dolled up in a pan with other ingredients because they become dry and a bit tasteless when baked on their own, a whole chicken is a simple endeavor that has juicy results. In the name of full disclosure, I need to admit that baking a chicken takes about an hour and a half, but other than the first 5-7 minutes of prep work, this is all baking time.

Making a whole chicken is also a great way to stretch your food dollar as it will bear two to three meals for your family. After our roasted chicken dinner, I often make a soup out of the carcass, chicken pot pie with gravy (which I'll cover next week), or creamy chicken and rice casserole. If I get an especially large chicken or if I make baked potatoes with the first meal (which fills everyone up) I then usually have enough chicken left over for a third meal where only a minimal amount of meat is required, such as tacos, quesadillas, or stir fry.

Here are some general directions for baking a chicken. I am not providing a recipe because this meal is so easy that strict instructions aren't necessary. Give it a try and you'll see how good this traditional family meal can taste, while also saving you a few bucks later in the week when you’re eating some delicious pot pies.

How to Bake a Chicken

Preparing Your Chicken

Remove the offal from the chicken (I like to cook these up for my dog, but you can do whatever you like with them, which includes sticking them in the compost bin) and rinse out the bird, including the inner cavity. Set your chicken in a baking pan and pat dry with paper towels. You want to keep the skin fairly dry so it's crispier later.

Decide what type of fat you want to use to flavor your chicken. Now is the time to get creative. I've used olive oil mixed with lemon zest, fresh rosemary and garlic; butter; and even a bit of bacon fat (only about a tablespoon for the entire bird, which ends up tasting pretty amazing, by the way). Whatever you use, be sure to also season with salt and pepper (less salt if using bacon grease), as well as any herbs you like (I usually go with thyme). Spread everything all over the chicken and also under the breast skin.

Place a chopped half onion inside the cavity. This will help flavor the chicken as well as the drippings. You could also add a half lemon, herbs, or an apple.

Baking the Chicken

I bake my chicken in a 375 degree convection oven. If you don't have convection, just bake at 400 degrees. Be sure to get the oven nice and hot before you place the chicken in it.

The key to baking a great chicken is to cover it for about 60 minutes and then finish it off, uncovered so the skin gets crispy, for another 20-30 minutes or until clear juices run from the meat (the USDA recommends cooking until the chicken is 165 degrees). The larger your chicken, the more time you'll need to bake it. Don't be afraid to use a meat thermometer. Better to be safe than sorry.

You can use a pan with a top (such as a Le Creuset Dutch oven) or you can simply tightly cover a standard baking dish or large cast-iron pan with aluminum foil. I've tried both methods with equally succulent results. Either way, covering the bird will keep the juices from evaporating in the hot oven. You'll also get some nice pan drippings that you can use later in the week for a soup or chicken pot pie gravy base.

If your chicken drippings start to dry out once you uncover your pan, simply add between ¼ and a ½ cup of water or chicken stock to the pan. This will keep your drippings from burning. Don't worry about the extra moisture in the oven. I've done this numerous times and the skin on my chicken was still crispy.

Serving the Chicken
Carving a chicken can seem a bit daunting, but once you see how easy it is (below) you’ll hopefully feel ready to conquer the job. I found this great video on You Tube (what would we do without You Tube?), which stars Norman Weinstein of the Institute of Culinary Education giving instructions on how to carve a chicken. Well done, Norman!

Saving the Leftovers

Be sure to save EVERYTHING that is left over from your scrumptious chicken dinner. This means stick the carcass, leftover meat, wings, drippings and even the fat into a big container to be used later. Next week I'll show you what to do with all this; in the meantime, happy chicken eating.

Which came first: the chicken salad or the egg salad? It's a question I'd never bothered to ask myself before this year.

Until recently, I don't think I've ever much cared, since I've never considered myself much of a creamy, protein-based salad person: egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, you-name-it salad. Boring stuff, all of them.

So maybe I was wrong.

Thanks to my friends, the Rosas, I have suddenly and quite firmly changed my mind. I developed a mad crush on Coronation chicken salad, thanks to my friend Shannon's mother when she made them for a egg-and-chicken salad, Creationism, eggs salad, evolution, Henri Bergson, recipecharity tea party. More recently, my disdain for egg salad melted away amid the hungry cries of three members of the 10-and-under set. When their father, Craig, asked me if I could whip up some egg salad for the kids, I didn't bat an eye, though I realized that I had never before in my life thought to make such a thing.

It was a simple affair: hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper. Uncomplicated, unfussy, and just the thing for three sometimes-fussy and anything-but-uncomplicated kids. And it was good-- it left me wanting more.

A Moral Pickle

As my mind turned to thoughts of lunch for the week, I couldn't make up my mind as to whether I should make a batch of chicken salad or egg salad. The annoying old chestnut "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" came to mind? Frankly, I had no idea. It's a frustrating scientific/philosophic question that has no business complicating my luncheon plans. But I thought about it some more.

"Now who are the people that believe that chickens came first?" I thought. Creationists, of course. But then, I wondered, did the chickens of Eden actually lay eggs? What would be the purpose of that, apart from providing the occasional treat for Adam and Eve? Did the necessity of egg-laying or, at least, egg fertilization occur after The Fall? Were these chickens tainted with the mark of Original Sin along with the humans who caused all the trouble in the first place? These were questions I refused to answer on an empty stomach.

"And who falls into the egg-first camp?" I wondered. I figured it must be the Evolutionists or, if one wants to be less 19th Century about it, Scientists. If I were to make a sandwich to please those who believe that all life on earth began with single-celled organisms which gradually evolved into more complex organisms like, oh, chickens, it seemed to me that I might want to start with a simpler, earlier version of the animal. In other words, eggs.

I was a little overwhelmed by now and uncertain as to whether or not I should even bother with lunch at all-- I was losing my appetite. "To hell with it," I thought, "I'll just make a salad with chicken and egg and make everybody happy." I thought I might couch it as a Creative Evolution sort of thing. Of course, people have been trying to reconcile the two camps ever since Darwin came out with that book of his more than a century and a half ago. Some people are still trying. I'd like to think that, should the great minds belonging to each camp ever sit down together to try and hash things out, they might like to have this sandwich for lunch.

The Henri Bergson
Makes about 6 sandwiches

Of course, Bergson's theory of Creative Evolution doesn't really cut the mustard with scientists anymore. And it certainly doesn't give much in the way of time-of-day to the Creationists. But he coined the term which I borrowed, so he gets the sandwich. Besides, there was a certain élan vital-- a natural creative impulse (in this case, the need to please myself by the avoidance of inner conflict)-- that caused the evolution of this here sandwich.

When making this salad, I discovered, much to my own mayo-loving horror, that I had only about two tablespoons left of the stuff in my refrigerator. Hmm. And then it dawned on me: why on earth does one need to add mayonnaise to an egg salad, when it's already, well, so eggy? What is mayonnaise anyhow but egg yolk, oil, acid, and a few other things? Necessity or, at least, an unwillingness to make an extra trip to the grocery store is the mother of culinary invention. And it's excellent for its purpose, in case you were wondering. I might never add mayo again.

Oh, and the apple? Totally works, too. Though the apple isn't specifically mentioned in Genesis Garden of Eden story, neither is celery, with is more traditionally used for crunch in egg and/or chicken salads. And, well, I'm just not a huge fan of celery. In terms of Western mythologies, the apple is the traditional trouble maker. Think Adam and Eve, think Judgement of Paris. It's sexier and much, much tastier.

Ingredients:

6 large eggs, hard boiled

2 breasts of chicken or whatever other parts you prefer/have on hand, diced. I poached the bird pieces for this recipe, but bits of roasted chicken would work well, too. Just make sure to yield 1 1/2 to 2 cups.

1 apple finely diced, your preference. Something sweet and tart, like a Pink Lady will do nicely.

About 5 tablespoons of olive oil

1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons dijon mustard

The juice and zest of one lemon (Meyer, in my case)

1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (or more to taste)

A heavy pinch of salt (or two)

Capers (as many as you like)

Chopped chives and dill for garnish

Freshly ground pepper, to taste.

Preparation:

1. Peel and slice your hardboiled eggs lengthwise. If you haven't the faintest idea as to how you might properly hard boil an egg, you are not alone. To hard boil eggs for this recipe, place the eggs in a single layer at the bottom of a pan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil, then immediately turn off the heat and let sit for seven minutes. Run cold water over the eggs to cool down the hot water, then add ice to the pot to stop the cooking process entirely. Congratulations, you now hopefully have six hard boiled eggs.

2. Remove yolks from the whites of your eggs and place them in a medium-sized bowl. Chop egg whites and add to another, larger bowl.

3. Mash yolks with a fork and to them add olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, and salt. No need to worry about emulsifying-- everything will blend together. And there's no need to worry about lumps-- it's an egg salad, for God's sake.

4. Add diced chicken, apples, capers, and lemon zest to the chopped egg whites and toss together. Now add the egg yolk dressing, chives, dill, and ground pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.

5. If you are not currently feeling rushed by the cries of cranky, hungry small children, you might want to let the salad sit in your refrigerator overnight. The results will charm the pants right off of you.

6. For best eating results, let salad warm for several minutes to shake the chill of refrigeration off its shoulder. So to speak, since it should be (hopefully) obvious to you that chopped salads do not, as a rule, have shoulders unless they have been molded to into the likeness of something with shoulders, in which case, it still wouldn't have shoulders, but merely looks as though it might have them. I think you know what I mean.

7. Serve over lightly-dressed greens or between two slices of toasted, hearty bread, like pumpernickel (as shown above).

I've been reading a lot about the rising cost of food. The general media is painting a fairly dim picture of the current state of food prices and accessibility, and Jennifer Maiser's recent articles on BAB helped enlighten us about the politics behind these stories and the reactions to them. Anyone who has walked into a grocery store lately, however, doesn't need to read about escalating prices to know they're real. Food is simply more expensive, and feeding one self, let alone a family of four or five, is getting more cost prohibitive each day. So what is a parent who needs to feed a family on a fixed budget to do? Luckily, there are quite a few options out there for the frugal home chef.

Cost-effective home cooking can be simple and the results just as satisfying and flavorful as any high-cost dinner you make. You won't be grilling any T-bone steaks or putting giant prawns on the barbie, but all types of meat are within reach as long as you choose the right cuts.

Following are three recipes that will feed a family of four, and may even provide some leftovers. One costs less than $5 to make, the next less than $10, and the last just over $10. The costs were calculated using a trip to my local farmer's market (where I can often purchase a bunch of greens for only $1.00 or $1.50 each) and a trip to Trader Joe's (which I think is the most affordable place to buy staples like canned beans, pastas, rice, and organic milk). I didn't include prices for dried spices as they are often standard in any cupboard; also, the minor cost doesn't really affect the final dollar amount much, so I opted against the extra math involved in calculating something like how much a teaspoon of cumin will cost. I've included one vegetarian, one chicken, and one beef recipe to cover all the bases (well, except fish).

Under $5
This vegetarian dish was a staple in my house when I was growing up and is something I frequently make for my family now. You can make this traditional Italian peasant dish year round with whatever greens are in season. It's the cheapest meal of the three and probably also the healthiest. Be sure not to drain out all the pasta water as you'll need some to finish off the dish.

Linguine with Greens and White Beans = $4.18

Ingredients
1 bunch of chard, broccoli rabe, mustard greens or any other leafy green ($1.50)
1 12 oz can white beans drained and rinsed ($.69)
2 cloves of garlic
¼ tsp crushed red pepper (if desired)
1 lb linguine ($0.99)
3 Tbsp olive oil
Some pasta water
Top with Parmesan cheese ($1.00)

Preparation
1. Cook linguine in salted water until al dente.
2. Meanwhile, in a large pan, heat the olive oil and cook the garlic until lightly browned. If using the crushed red pepper, add it now.
3. Add the greens and partially cook until warmed through. If using a tougher green, add about a ¼ cup of water and cover to help cook the vegetable.
4. Add the beans and a little pasta water.
5. Stir thoroughly and cover for one minute.
6. Once the beans are heated through and the vegetables are wilted (but not soggy) add the cooked and drained pasta.
7. Add more water or olive oil if necessary.
8. Add salt to taste.
9. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Under $10
Chicken legs are the least expensive cut of chicken you can buy. As dark meat is far juicier than white, the legs are also one of the tastiest cuts and are great for barbecuing, roasting, or braising. Most kids also love drumsticks as they are easy to pick up and fun to eat. The following dish can be baked or barbecued. If you do the latter, be sure to set the potatoes on the grill in a pan and be careful not to overcook them. With a salad, this dish is a complete meal that is both filling and nutritious. The salad I've included is one of my favorite spring salads as it uses baby arugula, which is so perfect this time of year, and pink grapefruits, which add a lovely sweetness to the entire meal.

Roasted Balsamic Chicken and Potatoes with a Baby Arugula, Pink Grapefruit, and Candied Almond Salad = $9.75

Roasted Balsamic Chicken and Potatoes = $5.00

Ingredients
6 chicken legs (just under $2.00)
¼ cup olive oil (about $.50)
¼ cup balsamic vinegar (about $.50)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
3 large russet potatoes halved and sliced into 1/4 –inch pieces ($1.50)
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley ($.50)

Preparation
1. In a large pan, mix the olive oil, vinegar, mustard and some salt and pepper. Marinate the chicken in the mixture for at least an hour or up to one day in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. Add potatoes to the pan with the chicken and mix in the marinade. Top with a little more olive oil if needed.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove chicken from oven and top with chopped parsley.
6. Bake another 15 minutes or until done.
7. Serve.

Baby Arugula Salad with Pink Grapefruit and Candied Almonds = $4.75

Ingredients
1 medium bunch of baby arugula ($2.00)
1 large pink grapefruit, peeled and cut into ¼-inch pieces ($1.00)
½ cup unsalted almonds ($1.00)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp water
¼ cup olive oil ($.50)
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar ($.25)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
1. Heat almonds and sugar in a dry pan on medium-high heat.
2. Toast the almonds in the pan until the sugar starts to meld into the nuts.
3. Add the water and quickly stir so the sugar melts into the nuts. Turn off heat.
4. Wash and dry arugula and place in a large salad bowl.
5. Add chopped grapefruit (with its juices) and candied nuts.
6. Mix salad dressing ingredients thoroughly and then add to the salad.
7. Mix and serve.

Just Over $10

Beef, Poblano, and Potato Tacos with a Corn and Avocado Salad with a Lime-Cilantro Dressing = $10.53

I've been adding potatoes to my beef tacos for most of my adult life. It all started in my early 20s as an attempt to eat less red meat, while retaining the beef flavor in some of my favorite dishes. A food article at that time suggested cutting the beef in some recipes in half and adding potatoes for extra heft. I tried this with my tacos, and was surprised by how well the potatoes worked with the beef in corn tortillas and how nicely the flavors melded. Later, I decided to add some roasted poblanos to add even more flavor to the dish and loved the results. The salad I serve the tacos with uses fresh corn and avocado and has a lime and cilantro dressing that screams Mexico. Served with some canned black beans, you have a quick, hearty, and healthy meal. Parents should note that my daughters don't like the poblano peppers much, but I think they taste great and so let them pick them out on their own.

Beef, Poblano, and Potato Tacos = $6.09

Ingredients
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
½ lb ground beef (I used Niman Ranch) ($3.00)
¼ red onion chopped ($0.25)
1 medium potato chopped into cubes ($0.50)
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp oregano
1 large poblano pepper roasted and peeled (see directions below) ($0.80)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro ($0.25)
¼ - ½ cup water
10 corn tortillas ($1.29)

Preparation
1. Heat oil in a large pan.
2. Add the onion, beef, and potato. Cook until both are mostly browned (around 5 minutes on medium heat).
3. Add the cumin and oregano and mix in thoroughly.
4. Deseed and chop the poblano pepper and then add it to the potato/meat mixture.
5. Add ¼ cup of water to deglaze the meat and potato bits on the bottom of the pan. Add more water if needed.
6. Add the cilantro and stir.
7. In a separate pan (I use a large cast iron pan), add the remaining tablespoon of oil. When hot, brown each tortilla on both sides.
8. Fill browned tortillas with beef mixture.
9. Serve with lime, sour cream, or crema if desired (these will add to the price of the dish, but are not necessary).

Corn and Avocado Salad with a Lime and Cilantro Dressing ($3.75)

Ingredients
2 ears of fresh corn ($2.00)
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro ($.25)
1 avocado chopped ($1.00)
Juice from 1 lime ($.50)
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation
1. Add all ingredients in a bowl and mix.

Can of Black Beans = $0.69
I like to serve this meal with some warmed black beans. A can costs 69 cents at Trader Joe's. If you add this, the grand total goes a bit over $10 to $10.53, but it's worth it.

How to Roast Poblano Peppers

Method One: On a gas stovetop
1. Turn a burner on high and set pepper on top of the grate.
2. Roast on all sides until the pepper's exterior is completely charred.
3. Place in a paper bag and close tight for about five minutes. This will allow the skin to steam off.
4. Tear open bag and peel off the outer skin of the pepper (it should now come off very easily).

Method Two: In the oven
1. Turn on your broiler
2. Set your pepper on a pan and place on the top shelf under the broiler.
3. Char on one side thoroughly, and then turn over.
4. Char on the other side and then remove pepper from oven.
5. Place in a paper bag and close tight for about five minutes. This will allow the skin to steam off.
6. Tear open bag and peel off the outer skin of the pepper (it should now come off very easily).

Here are some links to other recipes that I thought looked good and seem to fall in the under $10 range. I have not actually added up the costs for these ingredients, but they look inexpensive to make. About a year ago, I made the falafel recipe and thought it was great. And, although I've never made the chickpea ragout, I completely trust all of Jacques Pépin's recipes.

Falafel from Mark Bittman's NY Times column
Chickpea Ragout from Jacques Pepin's Food Made Fast site
Beans and rice from Recipe Zaar
Tofu and Bok Choy Stir fry from Epircurious