Recently been on a cookbook buying binge. Purchased Cooks Illustrated New Best Recipe and spent some time trying to look for recipes that weren't too difficult to make. I usually cook a big pot of something on Sundays to help with meals during the week, and also a pot of soup. This Sunday, I made the Corn Chowder, even though it was a little bit late in the season, and the Chicken Provencal.
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to find the salted pork back that the corn chowder called for, but I had bacon in the freezer, so I used that. The grating of the corn was a total pain the butt, but at the end, this soup was totally worth it. I'm hoping that half of it freezes well, because there is WAY too much of it - and it's a fairly rich soup. The prep on this soup took about an hour - but I'm kinda discombobulated when following recipes, but it was ready about 20 minutes after I actually started cooking.
The Chicken Provencal, by contrast, was a much easier recipe to make. It called for a quick fry, skin side down, of skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs, and then blasphemously instructed me to throw fried skin part away. My S.O., standing over my shoulder, made sure I put 99.9% of it in the garbage. This dish took about 30-40 minutes of prep, but needed to stay in the oven for 1h 15m, plus an extra 10 on the stove to reduce after it came out.
I'd do both of the recipes again, but probably not on the same day.
