We all love fish but I'm not great at changing up how we eat it. We have two family favorites - homemade fish sticks and tilapia francese. I buy a club pack of frozen tilapia filets and those are the two dishes I make over and over again.

Then Ina's recipe for Mustard-Roasted Fish came into my life. I follow Ina's page on Facebook and it was re-posted there as an easy weeknight meal recommendation. I've had a jar of grainy mustard in my pantry for ages just waiting to be used and this sounded easy and delicious.


Ina recipes never steer me wrong but this was outstanding. I loved the flavors in the sauce (I was glad I made rice to sop up the extra) and it really was one of the easiest meals I've ever made. All you do is mix the sauce ingredients, put the fish in a baking dish, top with the sauce and bake. I'm happy to have a new fish dish in the rotation.

Mustard-Roasted Fish
From Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics

Cooking spray
4 fish fillets (tilapia, cod, red snapper, etc.)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces creme fraiche
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 teaspoons drained capers

Preheat the oven to 425.

Spray an ovenproof baking dish with cooking spray. Place the fish fillets in the dish. Season with salt and pepper.

Combine the creme fraiche, 2 mustards, shallots, capers, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl. Spoon the sauce evenly over the fish fillets, making sure the fish is completely covered.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. You want the fish to flake easily at the thickest part (test by pulling at the fish with a fork).

Serve hot or at room temperature with the sauce from the pan spooned over the top.

Another Sunday dinner prepared by SP. As I've mentioned before, he's loving Ina Garten right now. Her Penne with Five Cheeses sounded not only easy, but delicious. I've never seen a cream sauce like this before - you don't cook it ahead of time, just add the cooked pasta to the sauce and cheese and bake. I was skeptical but it worked.


We all loved this but, unfortunately, it doesn't reheat well. I was so excited for the leftovers the next day, too. Oh well - that just means we get to eat it all next time. The only thing he changed was the cooking method. We don't own enough large ramekins to make individual servings, so we put the pasta and sauce in a large baking dish and baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes, until the sauce was bubbling.

Penne with Five Cheese
From Ina Garten

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup crushed tomatoes in thick tomato puree
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano (1 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup shredded Italian fontina (1 1/2 ounces)
1/4 cup crumbled Italian Gorgonzola (1 1/2 ounces)
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
1/4 pound fresh mozzarella, sliced
6 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 pound penne rigate pasta

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all the ingredients except the penne in a large mixing bowl. Mix well.

Cook the penne in boiling, salted water until al dente (1 or 2 minutes less than the recommended cooking time on the package). Drain well in a colander, then add to the ingredients in the mixing bowl, tossing to combine.

Add the pasta to a large baking dish (9x13 or larger). Bake for 20 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly and the edges are beginning to brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.

Note: due to the cream in the sauce, this doesn't reheat well.

I've mentioned before that SP has taken over cooking Sunday dinner. He's been on an Ina Garten kick lately and was very excited to make her Indonesian Ginger Chicken.


This was some seriously awesome chicken. Incredibly flavorful from the marinade and really easy to cook. He used two cut-up chickens from the grocery store and we noticed that the white meat wasn't nearly as flavorful as the dark meat. You could really taste the marinade in the dark meat pieces. As much as I love white meat, I think this would be best with legs and thighs rather than whole chickens.


He served the chicken with herb basmati rice and roasted carrots. At my recommendation, he boiled the marinade to thicken it into a gravy to serve over the chicken. That was a big hit as well.

Indonesian Ginger Chicken
From Ina Garten

1 cup honey
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup minced garlic (8 to 12 cloves)
1/2 cup peeled and grated fresh ginger
6lbs total bone-in chicken legs and thighs

Cook the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger in a small saucepan over low heat until the honey is melted. Arrange the chicken pieces in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan, skin side down. Pour on the sauce. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the baking pan, still covered with the foil, in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, turn the chicken pieces skin side up, and raise the temperature to 375 degrees. Continue baking for 30 minutes or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh and the sauce is a rich, dark brown.

If you want, remove the chicken pieces to a serving platter and cover with foil. Strain the sauce from the baking dish through a sieve and add to a small pot. Boil the sauce until it thickens slightly. Serve as gravy to spoon over the chicken.

You may remember our friends C & T from Mexican night, Italian night and our previous try at Southern night. Unfortunately, the last Southern night was a disaster. Undercooked fried chicken, way too salty collard greens and disappointing cornbread. We didn't eat until almost 9pm because of the darn chicken. We knew we had to try again. Thankfully this time we nailed it.


Since T's fryer isn't very big, and because we'd undercooked the chicken the last time, we decided to use Ina Garten's oven method for frying the chicken. This is a truly brilliant method. You fry the pieces so they get a nice, crispy, golden brown crust and then you finish cooking them in the oven. This ensures the chicken is cooked through, but the best part is you can cook a lot of chicken at one time so you're ready to feed a crowd all at once.


T brined the chicken all day and then she (once again) conned me into breading the chicken while she took pictures. It's a good thing she's an excellent photographer. I dipped the chicken into buttermilk first and then into the seasoned flour, then back into the buttermilk and finished with the flour.



We were able to fry 4 legs or two breasts at once. As each batch was finished, we laid the pieces on a cooling rack. Once the rack was full it went into the oven. Thirty minutes later we took it out and tested each piece with a meat thermometer to make sure it was 165 degrees.


Look at these gorgeous pieces of chicken. Moist and flavorful. We SO nailed it. In addition to the chicken I made cornbread and collard greens. Stay tuned for those recipes to post next week.

Oven Fried Chicken
Prep compiled from various recipes, cooking method from Ina Garten

bone-in chicken pieces (legs, thighs, breasts)
Brine:
kosher salt
sugar
thyme
onion powder
Tabasco sauce
water
Vegetable oil
Breading:
buttermilk
flour
salt
pepper
paprika

Place the chicken pieces in large plastic food storage bags. Fill each bag with water and add some salt, sugar, thyme, onion powder and a few dashes of tabasco sauce. Just use as much as you want - T didn't measure. Refrigerate overnight or at least 6 hours.

Take the chicken out of the brine and let sit, covered, at room temperature for at least 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil into a large heavy-bottomed stockpot to a depth of 1-inch or a deep fryer. Heat to 350 degrees.

Pour some buttermilk into a large bowl. Combine the flour, salt, pepper, and paprika in another large bowl. Coat each piece of chicken in buttermilk then in the flour mixture, back into the buttermilk and into the flour again.

Working in batches, carefully place several pieces of chicken in the oil and fry for about 3 minutes on each side until the coating is a light golden brown (if using a deep fryer, cook for 6 minutes). Don't crowd the pieces.

Remove the chicken from the oil and place each piece on a metal baking rack set on a sheet pan. Allow the oil to return to 360 degrees before frying the next batch. When all the chicken is fried, bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink inside and registers 165 degrees on a thermometer.

It's official - SP is now in charge of Sunday dinner at my parent's house. Weekends are really the only chance he has to cook since he's got such a long commute, so it's a win-win. As much as I love cooking, it's nice to get a break every once in awhile.

He's been on the hunt for new recipes and came across Ina's Chicken Stew with Biscuits. This is a dish I've had my eye on for years but, and this may be sacrilege, I'm not really a chicken pot pie fan. I know, I know. And since this is basically chicken pot pie filling topped with biscuits, I wasn't sold on the idea. But everyone else loves chicken pot pie so I took one for the team.


This was incredible. And that's saying a lot coming from me. The chicken was moist and tender, the veggies were perfectly cooked. Everything was perfectly proportioned. The biscuits were just OK, not very flaky or fluffy, but SP has plans to make different biscuits next time. My parents also loved it, so it's a good thing the recipe makes enough to feed an army. SP, my mom and my stepdad all had seconds and we still had 6 servings leftover. Sheesh!


This does take quite a bit of prep work and time, so it's not a weeknight meal, but you can make it on a weekend and bake it during the week. And the leftovers reheated quite well.

Chicken Stew with Biscuits
From Ina Garten

6 split chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 cups chicken stock
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup half and half
2 cups medium-diced carrots (4 carrots), blanched for 2 minutes
1 10-ounce package frozen peas (2 cups)
1 1/2 cups frozen pearl onions
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

For the biscuits:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 stick cold unsalted butter, diced
3/4 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 375.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 1 hour. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin. Cut the chicken into large dice.

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and the half and half. Add the cubed chicken, carrots, peas, onions, and parsley. Mix well.

Put the stew in a lasagna pan or 10 x 13 x 2-inch oval or rectangular baking dish. This will NOT fit in a standard 9 x 13 dish - you need something deeper. Place the baking dish on a sheet pan lined with parchment or wax paper. Bake for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the biscuits. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is the size of peas. Add the half-and-half and combine on low speed. Mix in the parsley. Dump the dough out on a well-floured board and, with a rolling pin, roll out to 3/8-inch thick. Cut out twelve circles with a 2 1/2-inch round cutter.

Remove the stew from the oven and arrange the biscuits on top of the filling. Brush them with egg wash, and return the dish to the oven. Bake for another 20 to 30 minutes, until the biscuits are brown and the stew is bubbly.

Note: To make in advance, refrigerate the chicken stew and biscuits separately. Bake the stew for 25 minutes, then place the biscuits on top, and bake for another 30 minutes, until done.

I've mentioned before that SP has been trying to get back into the kitchen. Recently he decided he wanted to use some of our overripe bananas to make this Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.


He and Baby Girl made this together, which was so cute to watch. Due to her nut allergy we had to leave out the walnuts, but we didn't miss them. Being a chocolate lover, I had hoped SP would be open to adding chocolate chips instead but he wanted the banana to really shine.


This was excellent. The cake was moist and flavorful and cream cheese icing is pretty darn fantastic. The recipe made a nice, thick layer of it, too. This takes a bit of planning since you need very ripe bananas and the ingredients have to come to room temperature, but otherwise it's very simple.


Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ina Garten, from Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?

3 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Grated zest of 1 orange
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)
Walnut halves, for decorating (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting:
6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (1/2 pound)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 by 2-inch round cake pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the bananas, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on low speed until combined. With the mixer still on low, add the oil, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and orange zest. Mix until smooth.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in the chopped walnuts, if using. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, turn out onto a cooling rack, and cool completely.

Spread the frosting thickly on the top of the cake and decorate with walnut halves, if using.
Cream Cheese Frosting:

Mix the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on low speed until just combined. Don't whip! Add the sugar and mix until smooth. Yield: frosting for one 9-inch cake.