Cinco de Mayo and the First Grilling

I just recently moved to a Monday through Friday workweek. Its amazing. I used to have Wednesday and Thursday off, which didn't leave a lot of time for enjoying the Mister's company or doing other weekend things like festivals and going out for drinks. The new schedule came just in time for warm weather, festival season, and the end of the Mister's semester.

This weekend the Mister and I enjoyed not only Cinco de Mayo on Sunday, but also May the Fourth (alert Nerd!). 

We decided Cinco de Mayo would be a good time to break out the grill for the first meal of the season. What better than grilled flank steak for fajitas. We also picked up some lovely looking serrano peppers to grill.

While the mister was playing with his new grill toy (we recently picked up a chimney starter for his charcoal), I was enjoying the fresh cut grass and snapping some pictures of the beautiful lilac tree in our back yard.

I could really get used to this weekend thing.

Fry Sharing

What do you see here?

What I see is a lovely little reminder of why the Mister and me get along so well. I am a firm believer in loving the little things and this is one of those things that makes me smile any time I think about it.

Early on in our relationship, we found out that the Mister always eats the long fries while I always pick out the short little crispy fries. This is not and never was a grand act of altruism, but simply him liking the long fries and me liking the runts. The best part is that no matter what kind of fries, whether they are homemade, fast food, or gourmet...there is always a nice balance of long golden fries and short crispy ones.

I was reminded of this little quirk of ours tonight when we ordered a basket of fries while out to dinner. It happens without speaking and at this point without even thinking, but as I grabbed up all the little fries, I couldn't help but think of the two of us and all of the little things that we do daily with and for each other that make us the pair we are!

Butter Chicken

I have to start out by saying the Mister is an excellent cook! For the first eight years of our relationship he cooked everything (except lasagna, that was my dish). I loved his food and hated cooking so it worked out well. I have never been bad at cooking, it was just never my thing. I baked, the Mister cooked. Recently, I have become more interested in cooking. Our crazy schedules and the fact that we now have every kitchen utensil, ever, has made cooking more necessary and enjoyable for me. On Wednesdays and Thursdays our schedules line up and we get to prepare dinner together. It is one of the best parts of my week!

This week we decided to try something new and adventurous since we had the time. Thanks to our quarterly magazine from the local grocery store (Wegmans, for those of you in the North East. If you aren't familiar with Weggies, I do apologize, they are the best!) we decided on Butter Chicken.

 
The name is kind of misleading since there is a grand total of 1 tbsp of butter in the whole dish. So, if you are a geek like me you can head over to Wikipedia to discover the origins of the name.

The recipe calls for a pre-made "simmer sauce", but after reading the ingredient list and because we actually enjoy the process of cooking, we decided to make our own. The detour to Wikipedia would have been best before we had finished eating the dinner, as it has a list of common spices to be included in the tomato sauce portion of the dish...but it was absolutely delicious anyway.

For our first attempt attempt at Butter Chicken, we started with a simple Tandoori paste marinade.

There are two almost identical versions of this marinade, one with added color and one without. We went with the one without. Easy decision in my book. When we walked away the Mister said "Oh God, we *are* granolas". It's hard to deny when all we eat is fresh or frozen vegetables, lean chicken, and rice, and we go out of our way to make a sauce not containing extra chemicals. But I'll wear the name with pride. Just today, I was thinking to myself how grateful I am for the way we eat. So many people eat what is quick or easy and they miss out on so much wonderful, healthy food that way.

The chicken should marinate in the refrigerator for anywhere from 2-24 hours with 3-4 tbsp Tandoori paste. Ours was in for about 6 hours. There was some discussion about the chicken. I cut it into cubes before marinating, the Mister thought that it should have marinated and cooked before being cut up. Its your choice, really.

For the tomato sauce we used:
1 lg can tomato sauce (contadina is our top choice)
3 tbsp plain greek yogurt
olive oil
3 cloves garlic
diced onion
ginger
kosher salt

You may also want to include:
cumin
cinnamon
cilantro
turmeric
pepper

In a small saucepan, sweat the garlic with olive oil until fragrant. Add the tomato sauce and the rest of the spices. Stir well. Add yogurt one tbsp at a time and stir until combined.

Transfer 2 cups of this mixture to large saucepan. Save the rest for another time (we froze ours). Add 1 cup heavy cream, stir well and bring to a simmer.  Add chicken and continue simmering for 5-10 minutes.

This meal was amazing! It rates right up there with coconut curry chicken. Definitely a keeper!