Getting back in the kitchen...

This poor blog has sadly been abandoned these past months and I feel awful about it. Between moving, job hunting and adopting a puppy, blogging has been the last thing on my mind. But I'm back!

About a day after we found out we were moving the previous tenants backed out and decided to stay. Since we had already given our notice to our landlord we quickly had to make a decision -- sign another year long lease with our current place or move to Chicago on a whim. We moved to Chicago. We moved in August 1st to our new Chicago flat. The two bedroom apartment is pretty cool with lots of original wood work including two pillars with sconces and a built in cabinet that works out perfectly as our bar. The kitchen, however, leaves much to be desired -- small apartment sized fridge and stove/oven, almost no counter space and no dishwasher.

We have adjusted, of course. Ikea, honestly, has been a big help -- we are using a table as counter space, added shelving and bought a portable dishwasher off of a friend. The biggest adjustment, however, has been the 24 hour available delivery of whatever food you could hope for. We spent the first couple months living here ordering everything we could ever want... luckily it has gotten old (and expensive) so we are back to cooking at home more often than not.

I've been trying to get back in the habit of cooking at least five days a week. Not all of my meals are interesting or blog-worthy, but here are a few I've taken note of the past couple weeks:

This isn't a meal, of course, but I bought these awesome looking raspberries and blackberries and decided to make a cake!

Blackberry & Rasperry Upside Down Cake turned out delicious! Just top with some home-made whipped cream (I always mix with a bit of vanilla and powdered sugar and it turns out perfectly.)

I didn't have an 8" pan so I just used my 9" and it turned out just as well -- I think.

I did cook it at a lower temperature the entire time -- I just kept it at 350f the whole time it was baking and left it in just a few minutes longer. The cake was certainly cooked completely through and was deliciously moist and soft.

Ideally this would be amazing right out of the oven topped with some vanilla ice cream or cold whipped cream -- I had to wait for the husband to get home before I was able to try it, which nearly killed me with the delicious scent! If I had thought of it at the time I might have warmed it in the microwave before serving -- but we didn't even get a picture of it before we scarfed it down!

I didn't get photos of our dinner that night, but it was tasty as well. I cooked up Roasted Chicken Pcs with Balsamic Vinaigrette , without the sauce. I didn't really feel that the sauce was needed because the chicken produced enough liquid with the marinade. All I did was pour a little of the leftover cooking juices over the chicken and it was delicious. I did cook the chicken at a lower temperature than the recipe called for, though, at 350f and added an extra 15 minutes on to the total cooking time. The skin still came out crispy and the inside juicy and tender.

I should have poked some holes in the larger chicken pieces because the marinade didn't penetrate enough for my liking.

With the chicken I roasted some baked potatoes (rub with olive oil and kosher salt and bake at 350 for an hour, haven't found a better recipe for a baked potato yet) and steamed some peas (covered in butter of course). All was delicious.