In between reading books from the thankfully reopened library, watching entertaining and educational zoom programs, quick, zip-in, zip-out grocery shopping and foraging for food, I’m still cooking. This activity is much to the pleasure and delight of Constant Companion and Daughter, and … me, too!

My standby chicken recipes, learned from my mom, have been for the longest time easy broiled chicken and equally roast chicken with lemon. Garlic and oregano are musts for both of these preparations. For a while, I’ve been expanding my chicken repertoire by adding braising and sautéing, sometimes with a finishing touch in the oven, and with different spices and aromas. Remember that I steer clear of piquant flavors and cumin in deference to the tastes and tolerances of Daughter. There’s still loads to choose from. Here’s two new chicken dishes we’ve all enjoyed.

Palestinian Roast Chicken with Sumac and Red Onions (Mussakhan) is adapted from Yasmin Khan’s cookbook Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen, and was found in Saveur Magazine. It’s a tasty, savory chicken rich with onions with a touch of sweet. Maybe it’s easier to post the link than to list the directions: https://www.saveur.com/palestinian-roast-chicken-with-sumac-and-red-onions-recipe/. You can see that in place of pitas, I served this with tortillas (use what is on-hand).

The second chicken dish we’ve enjoyed several times of late is Turmeric Chicken with Crispy Chickpeas, from the Food52 website – https://food52.com/recipes/83166-turmeric-chicken-recipe-with-crispy-chickpeas. I made the usual adjustments. In other words, regular sweet paprika in place of the smoky paprika. No Aleppo pepper or yogurt. It’s still delicious.

I’ve also been using what’s in the pantry or seasonal to make desserts. An easy dessert is a fruit galette, a pie with only the bottom crust (see Aug. 14, 2019 post). No recipe is needed, but for this pear galette, I was inspired by one for apple pie that called for slicing the fruit in cross section with a mandolin. That way, the star pattern formed by the seeds in the center stand out.

I sliced the pears. Spread a ready-made pie crust from the store on my Silpat and cookie tin. Pile the fruits in the center of the crust. Carefully fold the edges in; you can sprinkle the edges with sugar. Bake in a 385 F oven for about 30 minutes. Cool and eat. Although I usually use no sugar, cinnamon, etc., this time I topped the fruit with cinnamon sugar. You can adjust to your tastes, but you’ll find the fruit is sweet enough.

The final adventure in cooking was just last Sunday, the eve of my birthday! It was a recipe I gleaned from Food & Wine Magazine for a gelée made with riesling (purchased with this dessert in mind in this case) – https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/riesling-gelee-strawberry-conserve. I’ve already been playing with making gummies – with prosecco and mead (see April 27 & May 23 posts). The previous experiment with gummies were yummy. This one stands out as an (easy) elegant (and yummy) dessert using season berries. I’m sure you can use almost any berry for the same delicious result.

Perhaps this will inspire you to widen your horizons in the kitchen as we remain in place for a while longer.