Boneless, Skinless Oven Tandoori Chicken, etc

I had a birthday recently. In celebration of that, I received a dutch oven - actually, two of them.  I was excited to use one.  For some reason, I thought I had read a recipe for tandoori chicken using a dutch oven rather than a tandoor. A hard Googling tells me no, that a dutch oven creates a humid environment and is not a substitute. But of course, by the time I had figured this out, I already had chicken marinating and Sous Chef Brian had already told our mystery Sunday night dinner guest that there would be tandoori chicken.

Of course, grilling is an option, particularly in this weather, but it's fairly well-known that we suck at that.  Cook's Illustrated does it in the oven, on a rack. Sous Chef Brian remembered seeing it on America's Test Kitchen. I decided to follow their lead. Their recipe is here, by subscription.   My recipe is very much inspired by theirs, but modified a bit.

Dinner was tandoori chicken, basmati rice, chopped greens and naan.   I'll post the naan tomorrow.

Cashew and Broccoli Mac and Cheese

I've been thinking about mac and cheese since it came up in a conversation about meatloaf, which I'm not really into.  Also, my favorite person who I'm not married to recently pointed out this recipe for mac and cheese, which includes pureed veg. 

I've also been thinking about ways to use cashew cream ever since we had such spectacular success with cashew cream-based vodka sauce.  But I'm not one to use fake cheese, and there are tons of recipes out there for vegan mac and cheeze, which seems sacrilegious, so what's the point of using cashew cream if I'm still going to use real cheese?

A couple of things, really.  If I'm saving on using real cream (and skim milk is just too runny) AND I can avoid making a roux to start the sauce, then I'm saving both cream and butter from the dish, and if you're as interested in cheese as we are, it makes sense to cut cholesterol where you can, especially where you don't feel it.   We should all probably eat less dairy anyhow.  I went through a bit of a nutritional analysis of cashew cream versus cow cream here, so I won't repeat the details, but 1. we like cashew cream and 2.  it's better for us.  Did I mention we're using a lot of cheese here?

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting

In 87 posts, not once have I made dessert.  And it's not like I'm whipping up cakes in my free time and not posting about it.  I'm not dessert oriented.  A cookie here or there, and a piece of good chocolate now and again and I'm all set.  I don't care for pastry, and there's something that upsets me about glazed and cream-filled things.  Doughnuts make me queasy.

I'm not opposed to cake, but I don't seek it out.  I tend to make a cake a year, for Sous Chef Brian's birthday.*  It's not good or anything, but it's cake.  I did this six months ago, I'm all set for the year.

But I had reason to make a cake this weekend, and I went with some Internet recipe. I can't find the source, but I do have it written down.  Mine now.  But I'm not here to post how to make a cake.  I can BARELY make a cake.  

Cilantro-Jalepeno Bean Salad

I've been meaning to make a bean salad for a while, but I can never remember to soak my beans, and while I'll use canned beans when I'm cooking in a pinch, I don't want to eat cold canned beans.  So I finally got it together to soak some cannellinis and kidney beans and get to it.

Bean salad is easy, and like pizza, you can make it into anything.  I made it "Mexicanish" this time.  The bean ratio doesn't really matter, but I think all one bean would be boring.  You could add black beans here.  Whatever you have (maybe not lentils, they're different).

Veggies Parmesan

It's getting to be the end of oven season, but of course, I've said that before.  It's actually chilly and rainy now, but for two weeks, every other day Sous Chef Brian has been planning on setting up the air conditioner in the bedroom, and then by nighttime it's no longer a priority.  The weather is iffy.  But soon oven season will be over.   So let's bake up some dinner.