Stewed Chicken with Olives

Another recipe for my brother. This was a dish that my mom's best friend, who died some years ago, used to make for us when we would visit her in Paris. It's very easy to make and fills your kitchen with a homey Mediterranean smell, a great thing on a chilly fall evening.

Stewed Chicken with Olives, Onions, and Tomatoes

Two chicken leg quarters (drumstick and thigh)
1 onion, chopped
3-4 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup of black, green, or mixed olives (preferably with pits)
White wine
Cooked rice or pasta

Sautee onions in a bit of olive oil in a pot large enough to hold the chicken legs. Take out the onions and set aside. Sear the chicken on both sides in the same pot until brown. Return the onions and add the tomatoes and olives. Add a few splashes of white cooking wine, a bit of salt and pepper, and lower heat to a simmer. As the tomatoes cook down, they will release cooking liquid, hopefully enough to cover most of the chicken. If not, add more wine or a small amount of water. Simmer for about 25 minutes, or until meat is cooked through but not too soft. Serve over rice or pasta.

Potato and Leek Soup

My kid brother is in his second-year of college, and the dorm food is not agreeing with him. So he has started to cook all his meals himself, and asked me for recipes. I'll post them here too occasionally, for whoever is interested:

Potato and Leek Soup

4 potatoes

2-3 leeks

2 carrots

1 small onion

1 can chicken broth (optional, can use just water)

Butter

1) Wash and roughly chop leeks. Peel and chop potatoes, onions, and carrots into small cubes.

2) Coat the bottom of a big soup pot with olive oil and add a pat of butter for flavor.

3) On medium-high heat, sautee onions until soft. Add leeks to the pot and continue sauteeing.

4) Add 1 can of chicken broth and/or water until the leeks are submerged.

5) Add potatoes and carrots to the pot, then enough water to barely cover the veggies. Remember that veggies will give off some water as they cook.

6) Simmer for about half an hour, until all the potatoes and carrots are nice and soft. Add salt and pepper. (The right amount of salt is important - keep tasting it.)

** Bonus tip - Near the end, I like to smash the potatoes and carrots against the side of the pot to make them look irregular and the soup thicker.

Favorite cheeses at Trader Joe's

1. Bavarian Beer Cheese
2. Italian Truffle Cheese
3. Jarlsberg
4. Saint-Andre

Just wanted to share these four cheeses because they bring me no end of enjoyment, either as part of a light supper (crusty bread, cheese, salami, olive oil, a salad, and a glass of wine) or with breakfast. The first three are hard cheeses. The fourth is a soft rind cheese that is pretty strong, but more flavorful than stinky. It's perfect. This morning, I put some of the beer cheese in my scrambled eggs.... mmm.

Incivility and vegetable cream cheese

On knocking on doors for Obama in a swing state, and getting verbally knocked down*

People are mean, especially conservatives who live in gated communities in the desert. "I already got a visit from you people before. I was rude to the last guy and I'm going to be rude to you. This just pushed me over the edge: I'm voting for McCain," said the old man in the house at the end of the street, before slamming the door.

A morning's tally: 40 doors knocked on, 13 confirmed Obama votes, 6 definite pro-McCain and/or anti-Obama votes, 1 threat to call the police, and 1 young woman who said through a metal door that she hates Obama because "he's the reason [she] went through hell in the foster care system." That's not to say that the state in question is leaning so heavily toward Obama - we were actually working off a list of "good" leads.

* We were asked not to blog about this because it could derail the Obama campaign's attempts to influence the story of the day. But as a former journalist, I don't believe campaigns should dictate what stories are covered. And I doubt any reporter would be thrilled to quote another, even former, reporter anyway.

On a delicious twist to a breakfast staple

Last month, I had a wonderful vegetable cream cheese at Absolute Bagels in Harlem. I made my own version this morning:

Vegetable Cream Cheese
- 1 green onion
- 2 radishes
- 1 small carrot
- 1 cup of plain cream cheese

Chop the vegetables very finely into confetti-like bits. Combine well with cream cheese. Use on your bagel.
(I just used the veggies I had on hand, but Absolute Bagels' version had chopped bits of broccoli, carrots, and red onion. Very pretty, and completely delicious.)