GCC: Chicken-Filled Enchiladas with Tangy Crema Tomatillo Sauce

September 18, 2011 by Monica in Chicken, Cooking Club, Gutsy Cooks Club

And after a very hot summer, the Gutsy Cooks are back in action. With a new format, new cooks and new visions we are ready to rock on in our kitches the rest of the year.

This time around we are using tons of different creative outlets to set our monthly menus. Inspirations now can come from a cookbook, or a particular chef, or a theme, maybe a particular technique or even our own cookbooks/recipes – because after cooking with this group of gutsy home cooks, there is huge amount of talent there and I’m really excited to see what they come up with.

For the month of September I decided to go the Mexican route

Mediterranean Chicken [on the fly]

September 11, 2011 by Monica in Chicken, Dinner, Family, Family Cookbook, Main Courses, Savory

That is what I’m calling this last minute, “lets-see-what I have in the refrigerator to cook the chicken with”.

As I mentioned before, I’m supper gutsy when it comes to cooking savory recipes. I tend to go a bit off the beaten path and cook with my heart and with no set of rules.

Sort of like how my mother cooks - By the seat of our pants.

I cannot help myself from deviating as soon as I start any given recipe that I’m trying out. I blame the fact that I read tons of recipes – I have over 100 cookbooks, 5 different subscriptions to major food magazines and over 50 feeds to food blogs that I read daily in my reader. When I want to make a recipe with one single ingredient, I tap all of these motivation sources by pulling bits and pieces of every single thing that I read, saw or even tasted.

Lemon, Tarragon and Thyme Chicken

May 30, 2011 by Monica in Chicken, Main Courses, Quick Meal

You know when you read recipe after recipe after recipe, something just sticks somewhere and when you are cooking you have that brain of your work as a file system.

You start with a specific idea of the dish, then while you are dicing and sautéing you see a half lemon and your brain does a quick search and then tells you, why not add it? You see the fresh herbs in the garden and why not? You see the wine bottle and you think, perfect.