The New Chef's Journal

I've been on a big chickpea kick lately. They were featured in my last entry and they're the centerpiece of this one. I'm also planning on making hummus in the near future. I'd never thought of making roasted chickpeas until I stumbled upon steamykitchen.com . This recipe makes for a really great snack. Its simple, fast and it can be relatively healthy depending on what spice blend you use. The finished product should have a texture somewhat similar to popcorn. The one negative with this dish is that it didn't keep very well, so you should be sure to eat it fresh out of the oven. One of the cool things about this recipe is that you can use whatever blend of spices you want to season it. I tried out a sweet blend, a spicy blend and a savory blend. They all turned out really well, especially the sweet blend and the savory blend. I've included them below, but part of the fun with this dish is that you can make up your own. Ingredients: One 15.5 ounce can chic

For dinner on Saturday night I tried a recipe for Spanish-style thin noodles (fideos) with sausage, shrimp and chickpeas. This recipe comes from bitchincamero.com , which is seriously awesome name for a food blog. The recipe looks great on her site, but it didn't quite come out right when I made it. That flavors were still really good, but it was much thicker than the version I was basing it off of. If I were to try this again, and I would definitely consider trying this again, I would significantly reduce the amount of the noodles, as I believe they absorbed a lot of the stock and thickened the sauce up too much. The ingredients and directions below are from the original recipe with my notes in italics. Ingredients: 4 oz. hot Spanish chorizo, chopped (Replaced with 4oz spicy chicken sausage) 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained, but not rinsed 4 cups chicken stock 1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 package Spanish-style thin noodles – fideos, or if you

This recipe for chicken tikka masala comes from the Pioneer Woman, which is without a doubt one of the best food blogs around. I have to resist making my food blog a shot-for-shot remake of her's, because everything on her site looks so excellent. I don't have the culinary or photography skills that she has, but I'm still happy with how this turned out. Chicken tikka masala, like a lot of Indian foods, isn't a particularly photogenic dish. Still, the tastes and aromas from this dish were amazing. Doing this blog and cooking on a regular basis have made me into much more of a stickler about fresh ingredients than I used to be. The fresh ginger, garlic and cilantro really add to the smell and the taste of this dish. Fresh ginger root was an ingredient I'd never tried before, and it's a big upgrade over the grated or minced stuff you get in a jar. I used a different recipe than the Pioneer Woman suggests for the tumeric rice, because I don't have a rice cook

Sizzling chicken fajitas are simple, but they can be truly spectacular. This recipe gave me an opportunity to use both my new cast iron skillet and my new food processor. The marinade I used is a combination of about a dozen recipes I looked at online. It was a bit of an experiment, and I was very pleased with how it turned out. I used some fresh vegetables from Eastern Market in DC, which is one of my favorite spots to visit on the weekend. Ingredients: Small or medium sized tortillas 1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breast 1 red bell pepper 1 yellow bell pepper 1 green bell pepper 1 medium yellow onion 2 tablespoons olive oil For marinade: 4 tablespoons olive oil 6 teaspoons lemon juice 4 cloves garlic 2 cups fresh cilantro leaves 2 teaspoons chili powder 1 teaspoon cumin 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon oregano 2 teaspoons honey Optional toppings: Salsa Sour cream Guacamole Refried beans Shredded cheese Directions: 1. Cut chicken into 1/2 inch strips. Cut bell

These cookies are a staple of my girlfriend's family. She insisted that I give a shout out to Grandma Phyllis for the recipe. My girlfriend also insisted that I call them by their proper name, "cow plop cookies," which refers to their shape and in no way to their taste. I've been assured that this is a Midwestern thing, which as an East Coaster, I wouldn't understand. Regardless of their name, they are very moist and tasty. Ingredients: 2 sticks butter or margarine, softened (Make sure the butter is only softened and not fully melted or the dough will be too runny.) 2 eggs 2 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 tablespoons milk 2 ½ cups rolled oats 1 pkg. chocolate chunks 1 ½ cups coarse chopped nuts 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup white sugar Directions: 1. Beat margarine. 2. Add sugar, and eggs one at a time and beat. 3. In another bowl, mix flour with soda, powder and salt. Add to butter mixt