Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

Working and commuting so much has made me embrace my slow cooker. A familiar fav is my Chicken Cacciatore which I continue to adapt and work on. I don't know what it is but I am not impressed with most C.C. recipe's. They are lacking in flavour and are too simple.

That's right Delia Smith and America's Test Kitchen: your recipes are boring.

Maybe my adaptation is not traditionally Italian. Who cares? It's good.

Miss Loverly's Chicken Cacciatore
4 large chicken breasts, skin on, with bone
A can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup of dried mushrooms (assorted is good)
1/4 cup of Kalamata Black Olives (remove the pits yourself)
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 large garlic cloves, diced
white wine
1 bay leaf
1 heaping tablespoon of dried Italian herbs
salt
pepper
fresh basil if you have it (not necessary)
pasta or rice to serve with

While this recipe may be made in a crock pot, you can as easily make this in a large cast iron pot to cook away slowly on the stove or in the oven.

1. Boil your kettle and let your dried mushrooms seep in half a cup of the hot water. After fifteen minutes, take your mushrooms and dice them. Save the water.

2. Place your chicken in the crock pot. If you are diet conscious, remove the skin. Sometimes I like to do half with skin on and half without. This time it's sans skin. Bone in is ideal for flavour. Salt and pepper your chicken. Add your onions and Italian herbs.

3. Add your garlic, onions and olives. Add the chopped dried mushrooms and it's seeped liquid. Add your can of diced tomatoes, a bay leaf and one cup or more of white wine (just ensure that the chicken is submerged). Make sure your ingredients are well distributed and stir if they are not. Set your crock pot on for 6 hours. If you are to make this on the stove, a slow two hours is good.

4. As there is quite a bit of liquid, you may add rice directly to the crock pot and wait for it to cook, testing it ever so often to see if it is ready. Remember brown rice takes longer! If you are adding to pasta, you may like to take the top off of the crock pot and let some of the liquid simmer off. You may also add a tablespoon of cornstarch and hot water (well mixed) to the sauce to thicken as well.

5. Adding some fresh torn basil is completely optional though it is a great addition.

Why this recipe works:
The dried mushrooms add an earthy-ness to the dish and don't water down the sauce.
The olives add saltiness.
The basil is just darn good and extremely Italian.
It is so easy!

A Visit to Aberfoyle

If you are in the Southern Ontario area, you probably know of Aberfoyle, Ontario. If not, let me fill you in. Aberfoyle is located just outside of Guelph and is home to one of the largest and oldest antique markets. The market is held every Sunday (yes, that's right, only Sunday). And what better way to spend the day then to jumble sail! or is it jumble sale? That's what the Brits call it anyway.

This is one of the "streets" at Aberfoyle, named so you don't get lost.

The market sprawls in and out of trees and into gravel clearings.
Some sellers have little booths, while others are literally set up out of their car!

I feel for the sellers in this area: poor suckers have no shade.

So what can you find at Aberfoyle? Really anything. I went with four items in mind: stereoscope cards (which I used to collect, but have neglected), coins for my friend at Coin Coin Designs & Co. , pie birds, and those Mario Batali antique string holder heads that I desperately want for my kitchen!!! (and which I have previously blogged about here).

I managed to actually find a String Head (is that what you would call them?!) But I didn't like it at all.

Is it a dog or a cat? It's $45, that's all I know.

I noticed some really obvious collecting trends. First: old Crown mason jars were everywhere and ranged in price from $3 to over $12. Another was old carved duck decoys! You should have heard this fellow give the history of this duck from the 1920's. The fact that you can even tell the date of when something like that is carved is amazing. Typewriters and rotary phones were everywhere. The average price for a rotary phone was about $45! Wild!

There were excellent prices on old cameras. Lots of paint by number (ever see Drew Barrymore's collection? It rocks). And all the toys that boys played with in the 80's are suddenly worth something.

Some really neat costume jewelry, military pins and watches...

Where I could have gone crazy but didn't was here: (I am so proud of my restraint!)

WHOA! This is the best selection of antique typefaces yet!!!

Need more information on Aberfoyle? Check out their website.

Canvas Rug Project

I did a little (i.e. big project) over at my friend's blog, Hobby Junkies. It is a Canvas Floor Rug, which is a great craft for the painter and decorator in you.

Check it out, here.

Colour Graffitti

I saw this pic in today's Telegraph and had to post it. Imagine tricking out your house like this! Would the neighbours mind?

Beats Christmas lights in my book!

The Churchill Arms in London, courtesy of the Telegraph.

New Foodie Crush: The Little Paris Kitchen

I stumbled on The Little Paris Kitchen quite by accident. I love Paris. I love Amelie. I love food. Well, The Little Paris Kitchen is just all three things together. The program features Rachel Khoo, who is amazingly beautiful in her Amelie dark brown hair and red lipstick. She wears cute little sun dresses with polka dots. She cooks with large sticks of butter.

Moroccan tiles in her kitchen....the jealousy continues....

You can catch some episodes on YouTube and probably find some cute dresses like hers on ModCloth.com. The food is classic french cuisine. No big surprises but little twists. I think I like the show to reminisce about gay Paris.....oh, I must go back!

Little Paris Kitchen is relatively new and a cookbook probably is not in the forseeable future. As usual, it will be published in the UK (with those damned english weights - I don't own a scale!) and we Canadians will have to wait a year or two to have her cookbook in our hands.

It will probably take a year for Food Network Canada to pick it up too. As I do not have cable, that is no great loss. I just hope I can find all the episodes on youtube!

Car Commuter Tips (or how to live in front of a steering wheel)

Tending to work from contract to contract, I never seem to know where I will end up next. Sadly, I have to commute and while I do prefer public transportation (yay environment!) sometimes I don't have much of a choice. My current employment location is in a town that has a public bus come twice a day. That's right. Twice a day.
I have no choice but to drive.

Yah, I definitely do not drive a Peugeot. But this blog needed a pic.

Here are my suggestions to make your travel a little bit easier.

1. Always have Water in the Car
While I detest anyone even thinking of buying bottled water (seriously, buy a Britta and metal can it), you really should have a bottle within your driving reach just in case you are stuck in traffic congestion.
And if you are lucky to have that bottle of water in your car during the winter, you will be able to do this neat trick.

2. Emergency Car Snacks
I believe this is why your car has a glove compartment. It ain't for gloves. It's for snacks. I recommend choosing something that can last several months, something that can't melt and something that you will actually eat in an emergency. Granola bars? Seriously. They can turn into bricks. Try a soft baked cookie.

Emergency car food of choice: a soft baked cookie.

3. Car Shoes
Wha? you say. Something comfy on your feet works wonders. My shoes currently are sandals. I am not wearing my work boots in my car (that doesn't have air conditioning) during my commute. That is not going to happen. Tight work shoes or heels. Say no. Your feet will thank you and your drive will be much more pleasant. Where you stick your stinky socks when you are driving home is completely your choice.

4. & 5.  An Emergency Car Kit and CAA/AAA
If you don't have an Emergency Car Kit you shouldn't be on the road. Add mittens to your kit, you'll use them. CAA is a godsend too. They rock. And if you use particular gas stations, they can swipe your CAA card to save yourself membership fees next time it needs to be renewed.

6. & 7. Properly Filled Tires with Tire Gauge (and an aside on Winter Tires)
If I hear you whine about gas prices and you don't own a tire gadge, you deserve it. Properly inflated tires save you money on your car's gas usage. The pressure of your tires is listed in your car manual or on a sticker in the inside of your drivers door. If you don't know how to use a tire gauge or an air pressure pump, ask your mechanic. They will probably show you this info for free and this will definitely save you money. I am overly diligent about the air in my tires and criticize my neighbour's tires too.

You should have Winter Tires if you live in Canada. Don't give me that global warming excuse. It should be law and yes, I know they are expensive. But trust me, the first time you try them you will be shocked at the difference. Your car will drive through snow like a hot knife through butter. They are wonderful.

8. Pre-programmed Radio Stations
While radio is not what it used to me, you'll need it to combat your sanity. If you actually have the income to buy satellite radio, go ahead.

Additional Must Haves: Air conditioning in 40 degree weather would be nice (I can dream). Washer Fluid. Good wipers. Clean windows. A cellphone (turned off!!!).

Fishtail Braid

ooooh! I would love to try this fishtail braid. I don't know if my hair is long enough though. Hopefully, you won't have this problem!

Check out the video from the Globe and Mail here.