This isn't the exact dish, but it gives you the idea!

Well, it’s about 5 ingredients plus your usual suspects salt and pepper and olive oil. We’ve made this dish twice in 2 weeks. It’s cheap, really cheap and simple and the fresh oregano is a perfect winter herb. Definitely get the fresh oregano, it’s not the same with dried. The second time around I used drained diced tomatoes instead of going through the tomato peeling process you’ll see below. You could also use leftover mashed or boiled potatoes to cut down the assembly time. Chicken thighs are a cheap cut of meat, so try to splurge for the organic/free range, plus it tastes better than chicken breasts (boring!). It only serves 4, and you might want seconds so it doesn’t stick around your fridge for too long! Bon Appetit!

Crispy and sticky Chicken Thighs with Squashed new Potatoes and Tomatoes (Jamie at Home)

Serves 4

1 3/4 lb new poatotes, scrubbed

12 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on. Cut off the bone into about 3 strips per thigh

1 1/4 pounds cherry tomatoes, in the summer you can use the pretty multicolored ones.

A bunch of fresh oregano, leaves picked

Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper

Red wine vinegar

1. Put the potatoes into a large saucepan of salted boiling water and boil until cooked.

2. While the potatoes are cooking away, preheat your oven to 400F. Place the chicken thigh strips in a large bowl. Rub the meat all over with olive oil and sprinkle with slat and pepper and toss. Heat a large frying pan, big enough to hold all the chicken pieces snugly skin side down, you can also do this in batches. Toss and fry over a high heat for 10 minutes until almost cooked then remove with a slotted spoon to an ovenproof pan or dish.

3. Prick to tomatoes with a sharp knife. Place them in a bowl, cover with boiling water and leave for a minute or so. Drain and when cool enough to handle, pinch off their skins. Drain the potatoes and lightly crush them by pushing down on the with your thumb

4. Bash up most of the oregano leaves with a pinch of salt in a pestle and mortar, or a Flavor Shaker. Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil, a good splash of red wine vinegar and some pepper and give everything another bash. Add to the chicken with the potatoes, the tomatoes and the rest of the oregano leaves. Toss everything together carefully. Spread out in a single layer in an appropriately sized roasting pan ( I used my 13×9 Pyrex). Bake for 40 minutes in the oven until golden.

Like so many people in America now, I have a love and deep interest in Africa. I had the privilege of going to Uganda last year and had my first taste of African cooking. The hotel we stayed at in Kampala didn’t offer true African cuisine, but when we traveled up North to Kitgum I was introduced to how a lot of rural Africa eats, well at least in Central Africa. After I returned I went to a South African restaurant in Brooklyn and found it not similar at all and eventually went looking for some cookbooks and inspiration to start my own African cooking. What surprised me in this search was a complete lack of resources and well-written African cookbooks. One I found that I really like is The Africa Cookbook by Jessica B. Harris. The only other African cookbook I found in large bookstores was Marcus Samuelsson’s Discovery of a Continent, which was sold at Starbucks for a while. I found it very hard to follow, and more of a travel log and personal journal than a serious cookbook. I also enlisted the help of my friend who also loves to cook and is South African. She had a few recipes and a book about Nelson Mandela with some recipes, but most of her serious cooking was in Afrikaans. As I continue to search for African cuisine outside of Africa, I became curious why there was such a lack of resources and interest in African food. Bookstores are lined with shelves of Italian, French, American, Organic, Spanish, cooking - I could go on and on. When I went looking for African cookbooks I usually found Moroccan and Marcus Samuelsson’s book, which I already owned.  I do recognize that African cooking is not extravagant for the most part nor particularly complex on the palate. It is however earthy, natural, simple, and usually full of protein and nutrients. When I was in Uganda I had no meat – it was not an option outside of the walls of the hotel, and usually wasn’t safe. I deeply enjoyed and savored the vegetarian dishes that were made for me at every meal by Josephine who was studying catering and hospitality. So far, I’ve made a Senegalese Peanut Butter Stew (Mafé), and South African Chicken Sosaties, which I added a great curry couscous for a side. What this quest has left me asking whether there will be a revolution and/or interest in African cooking like there is in French. Who will be the Julia Child to bring African cuisine to the Western palate?

Here’s the link to the South African Chicken Sosaties I made earlier.

This recipe has a lot of steps - but don’t be intimidated. You only use a couple pans, it’s just a lot of switching ingredients around. There’s lot of good stuff in this - apples, potatoes, peas, and parsnips. There’s not even cheese in this! Just a little cream and butter for the potatoes and sauce. The apple cider with the savory broth is great, as well as using the brandy - which I used apple brandy which made it slightly spicy like a pie spice, but really good. We only used 6 boneless skinless thighs, and have tons of leftovers. This is a great way to eat lots of veggies and feel very cozy at the same time. Bon Appétit!

I’ve never made wings before - but I’ve been thinking about them since our last visit to my parents house in Atlanta. This meal is pretty cheap - wings are the cheapest cut of meat you can buy, butternut squash is in season right now (read, cheap) and you don’t need a ton of goat cheese - just 4oz, about $2.39. I know it’s often written that wings are a great party food - yeah, only price-wise. Hot wings are just about the most ungraceful embarrassing food you could serve. This meal is something only to be eaten among close close friends and family where you can freely lick your fingers and suck meat off of bones. The butternut squash coleslaw was a great fall alternative to traditional coleslaw with cabbage. The dressing is zingy and creamy. I didn’t have walnuts, so I just used pecans. Dried cranberries can get expensive, but golden raisins or regular raisins would work well too. You can also eat those dried cranberries with cheeses on a cheese board, and they keep for a while. The squash recipe is from Tyler Florence. The wings are easy:

Serves 2-4

2 - 2.5 lb Chicken Wings

4 Tablespoons butter

Hot Sauce to taste ( My parents use Texas Pete which I think is hotter - we used Frank’s Red Hot)

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Place wings on a baking sheet and cook for about 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

2. Melt butter and add hot sauce to taste. Drizzle over wings. Serve warm and with blue cheese dressing if desired.

I’ve searched the West Coast (San Francisco’s many large, indie bookstores) and the East Coast (Barnes & Noble’s largest store in the country) and I found 2 African cookbooks. One, Discovery of a Continent by Marcus Samuelsson, which was sold in Starbucks for a while, which I already owned. And I must add, I don’t feel it’s very well written for a Western cooking audience, if that’s who he is trying to expose to Sub Saharan food. The other cookbook, I found in Barnes and Noble in Union Square, which I could not link in my Amazon Store, because they don’t carry it. This is where this chicken kebab recipe came from, The Africa Cookbook, by Jessica B. Harris. I would highly recommend this book if you’re interested in taking a foray into African cooking - it’s much easier to read, and the sequence of the chapters makes a lot more sense to a Western person used to looking at Western cookbooks. Samuelsson’s book is more a combo of travel diary, photo book, and anetcdotes with some varying recipes of interest and detail. Harris’ book is for a more serious cook, that doesn’t need glossy pictures and long winded stories, just recipes that work and are relatively simple.

A woman in Padbe IDP camp, making homemade beer to sell

Last year, I traveled to Uganda and spent time in Kampala, as well as in the North, near the Sudan border. I think I got a real taste of what most people eat in that area, and it never included meat. There was no refrigeration first of all, and second, no one could afford it - you typically bought the whole animal and butchered it yourself - a long task if you get a large goat. So, the 2 meals I’m making this week, which include meat, are either for special occasions, or the better off. My friend who is South African is also advising me, and South Africa does tend to be the exception on the continent, when it comes to economy and food trends. So, chicken from South Africa seemed like a good jumping off point for an African cooking virgin.

This recipe was so simple, and I added couscous, which is a typical side dish in a lot of African countries. For the couscous, I followed the package directions, added a bit of curry, parsley, salt, pepper, and slivered almonds for a bit of crunch. Here is the marinade/recipe for the chicken:

If you can, marinate for 24 hours before cooking ( I did about 8 hours)

1.5 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast

2 tablespoons vegatable oil

4 onions, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon hot Madras curry powder ( I used another spicy version I had on hand)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 tablespoon light brown sugar (the key to this recipe’s flavor)

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Cut the chicken into 3/4 inch cubes and place them in a deep bowl. Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onions until they are lightly browned. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for 2 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly to make sure the sugar has dissolved. Allow the marinade to cool and pour it over the chicken. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 24 hours.

2. If using wooden skewers, soak them in a cold water bath for at least 30 minutes before grilling, so they do not burn when grilling. When ready to grill, remove chicken pieces from the marinade, place them on skewers, and grill over a hot grill, stovetop grill (what we use), or under a broiler for about 10 minutes, turning once or until the chicken is cooked through. This can also be served with a sweet chutney or any other side.

The Belgian Leek recipe I was going to use called for a specialty pan, and pie weights? I’m not even sure what those are, and should have read ahead and realized this was a bit beyond my realm. Someday. I was really excited about using leeks this week, as I’d never cooked with them before. So, I went to my go-to guy - Jamie Oliver. And he didn’t fail me. I made a Chicken and sweet leek pie with a flaky pastry. I had puff pastry in the freezer, carrots, leeks, milk, and chicken, also in the freezer. So I went over budget and bought the $5.00 of mild Italian sausages to complete the dish. It was great and homey, and it was finally cool enough yesterday to justify a warm casserole/stew. Make sure you simmer the stew long enough and let it get thick - ours was a bit runny. The crust isn’t crunchy reheated, but it still made a great lunch. Cheers!

Serves 4

Olive oil

2 Tablespoons butter

2lb boned and skinned chicken legs, cut into pieces

2 medium leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced into 1/2 inch pieces

2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

3 sticks celery, finely sliced

small handful of thyme, leaves picked

2 tablespoons flour

1 wineglass of white wine

1.25 cups milk

9oz pork sausges

1lb package of all-butter puff pastry

1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Take a large casserole pot and add a lug of olive oil and your butter. Add the chicken, leeks, carrots, celery and thyme and cook slowly on the stove for 15 minutes. Turn the heat right up, add the flour, and keep stirring for a couple minutes before adding the wine, a wineglass of water and the milk. Season with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper, then cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer very slowly on the stove for 30-40 minutes until the chicken is tender. Stir it every so often so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. The sauce should be loose but quite thick. If it’s a little too liquid, just continue to simmer it with the lid off until it thickens slightly.

2. Pour the chicken mixture into an appropriately sized pie dish. Squeeze the meat out of the sausage skins, roll it into little balls, brown them in a little oil and sprinkle them over the stew. Roll out your pastry to about 1/4 inch thick. Egg-wash the rim of the dish and drape over the pastry, using a knife to trim the edge of the dish. Egg-wash the top of the pastry to make it go golden while cooking, then pinch it to crimp it round the edges. Use the back of a knife to lightly criss-cross the tip= this allows the pastry to go crisp and flaky. Cook the pie in the center of the oven for about 30-40 minutes, until golden on top.

Last night, I made a recipe from the September 2006 restaurant issue of Bon Appétit. It was from the restaurant Watershed in Decatur, GA. It called for whole game hens - but alas a budget and really a lack of game hens in my shopping, led me to just use skin on chicken pieces. It doesn’t look as fancy but it really tasted great. I’ve done the rub the herb butter under the skin trick for a large turkey for Thanksgiving, and this didn’t disappoint either. The chicken stays really moist, and the outside crunchy from the butter. It also calls for grits. Even though I used to live in Atlanta, I never got into them, or really got what the big southern fuss was. I will admit though, I really enjoyed the grits with this recipe. The gravy from the shitake mushrooms gets all over them, and they’re buttery and salty. I accidentaly bought pre-cooked grits from TJ’s so I didn’t do the slow milk reduction with them, but they were still great. I also used the herbed butter from Rory’s Ribs so I didn’t make that part twice either. This recipe is not online, so here it is as it appeared in the magazine:

Serves 4

16 cups cold water

1 cup coarse kosher salt

4 1.5 lb game hens

12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

2 tablespoons plus 4 teaspoons chopped fresh chives

2 tablespoons minced fresh Italian parsley

4 teaspoons minced shallot

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

4 lemon wedges

20 shitake mushrooms, stemmed

1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth

1. Stir 16 cups water and salt in large pot to dissolve salt. Add hens. cover; chill overnight.

2. Mix butter, 2 tablespoons chopped chives, and next 6 ingredients in small bowl to blend.

3. Remove hens from brine; pat dry. Place hens in large roasting pan. Using fingers, separate skin from breast and thigh meat. Rub 1.5 tablespoons herb butter under skin and 1 tablespoon over skin of each hen. Place 1 lemon wedge into cavity of each. Tie legs together.

4. Preheat oven to 425F. Roast hens until golden and thermometer inserted into thigh registers 175F, about 45 minutes (the chicken pieces took about 30). Transfer to plates; reserve juices in pan.

5. Melt remaining herb butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms; saute until brown, about 6 minutes. Add broth; boil 1 minute. Add 4 teaspoons chives and pan juices. Season with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over hens; serve with grits.

Creamy Stone-Ground Grits

2 cups whole milk

2 cups (or more) water

1/2 cup white stone-groud grits

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Bring milk and 2 cups water to boil in small suacepan. Gradually stir in grits. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until grits are tender, stirring often and adding more water by tablespoonfuls if mixture is thick, about 20 minutes. Add butter. Season with salt and pepper.

This recipe was super easy, filling, and was a bit more complex on the taste side than I expected. If you use this recipe - remember to soak your skewers at least 30-45 minutes before grilling. That’s something Real Simple didn’t specify - you only have to make that mistake once to remember! There was plenty of sauce leftover, so I’ll try to use it on lunch sandwiches rather than mayo. If you can get some Jersey corn at your market - do it! The corn smelled buttery right out of the husk! It’s so delicious when it’s in season, and better tasting than the frozen bags which you will probably use for icing an injury before you cook it (I always forget about the frozen veggies in the freezer until there’s an injury). This recipe is also great for parties - relatively cheap and each person can pick up a skewer and get a good tasting. Janice commented under the shopping review post that the Green Markets have cheaper chicken - so I’ll report back on that next week and see if we can make this meal even more economical.

One of the first things I knew needed to change in our diet was our fruit and veggie intake - which I think applies to a lot of us. We were eating a lot of meat and pasta and cheese (yummy, not heart healthy). So my first weeks menu includes just 2 dinners with meat. I used to be a vegetarian, which my husband is thankful I’m not anymore, but I felt so much more healthy while doing it. I also want to try to buy organic and antibiotic free meats, so less meat is less $$$.

I’ve planned out our whole week’s dinners, with plans on leftovers for lunches. This is another goal of ours - smaller portions so there are leftovers.

I also want this to be realistic. I’m not an expert cook - I just watch a lot of Food Network and pour over cook books. I’m going to share my failures (not easy for me to do) as well as things that have worked well for me. I also know lots of people work 9-5, or work on different schedules. I’d love to hear how you cook and shop! I have many friends who are actors and artists, and keep really different schedules from most people. Together we’re our own experts.

So, here’s the menu for the week - things may shift depending on how much time I have

Monday - Eggplant Parmigiana - Jamie Oliver

Tuesday - Honey Chicken Skewers and Corn Salad - Real Simple

Wednesday - Tomato Basil Soup w/ crusty bread - The Farm to Table Cookbook

Thursday - Summer Quiche - The Farm to Table Cookbook

Friday - Moroccan Lamb w/Carrot Salad - Real Simple