A recipe may not be inspiration enough to get you all cooking. So here is a step by step picture process of a quick and easy meal. All of my ingredients are courtesy of the Fairway in Redhook. (Who would have guessed that a bunch of white people would be food shopping in Redhook. Crazy talk!) I recommend that you all get your butts to Fairway, ASAP.

Grilled Chicken with Carmelized Onions, Roasted Red Peppers, and Hummus.

(Carmelized onions can sex up any meal. You can make a bunch and enjoy them on pretty much everything. I bet they are good on ice cream.)

Start with marinating thin sliced chicken breast in your favorite italian dressing. Newman's Light is my favorite.

You don't have to marinate for long. And you may want to add some black pepper and/or garlic powder. You can even heat up the mix with some cayenne.

Next slice you onions. One of my favorite recent purchases was this mandolin slicer. I highly recommend this one over the more expensive stainless steel kind. I got it from Amazon.com: Slicer


Throw the onions into a small pot with a tablespoon of both butter and brown sugar. And cover.

Cook over a medium low heat stirring every once in a while.

Grill the chicken in a grill or fry pan, you may want to add some oil to the pan.

Medium high heat works, and it won't take too long, final cook time depends on the thickness of the chicken.

While the onions and chicken are cooking prepare your jarred red peppers and your package hummus. Now I now we can make our own roasted red peppers and hummus, but life is too short. And we want dinner now.

Slice the peppers into strips, and spread the hummus over whatever "bread vehicle" you like. This particular brand of hummas, Sabra, is super good. Its really outstanding. (Its even better with those evil "Stacy's Pita Chips," those are damn good.)

Once the chicken is done, cut it into strips and layer onto your bread vehicle. Derek had a sandwich tonight:


I had a wrap:


I made everything in less than 20 minutes. And the whole meal was probably less than $8.00. So get to Fairway, and get cooking.

Cooking with Alaina, vol. 1

Welcome to cooking with Alaina. You all don't cook enough. Of course this is a generalization, but since it is a generalization, generally speaking you all do not cook enough. Ladies you can cook for your man to be, or your man of the hour. Remember, like Chris Rock says, "A man needs three things, food, sex, and silence." If you cook two out of three isn't bad. (Since I know none of you are silent.) And you gentlemen can use some help in the kitchen too. Nothing would make your lady happier than a home cooked meal. (And don't forget to clean, the biggest turn on is a man that cleans up after himself.)

So here is yet another easy (and could be perceived as fancy) recipe that I got from the Food Network. I "Alaina-cize" it, so its easier and still damn good.

Monkfish with Spicy Pepper Sauce

(Monkfish is the poorman's lobster. Its texture and taste is very similar to shell fish like lobster and shrimp. But its a hell of alot cheaper. Becareful not to overcook, it gets tough fast. In general when cooking fish, if you think "maybe it needs another 2 minutes" it doesn't.)

Ingredients
1 lb Monkfish, skin removed and cut into 1 inch cubes
8 ripe plum tomatoes, diced
4 jalapeno peppers, seeds removed and diced
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
Olive oil for pan
1lb of spagetti

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta. Cook pasta until its al dente. Add olive oil to a large 14" skillet, saute garlic and peppers until soft, 4-5 minutes. Add monkfish, tomatoes, and wine to pan. Simmer until fish is cooked about 5 minutes. Pour hot and drained pasta to skillet, remove from heat and toss gently.

Here's the final product:


I recommend finishing the bottle of wine with the meal. Delicious!