I’m back in the kitchen! For your enjoyment and consumption, I bring you this spicy, sweet, savory sauce with cherries, orange, and cayenne pepper. While I served the sauce over chicken, this would also be great over pork chops or a pork tenderloin. I used a blood orange for this recipe, but a regular navel orange would work just fine. Blood oranges can be hard to find, though usually available until Spring, and they have a slightly raspberry taste to them.

I also used a fancy Cranberry-Blood Orange Tea Jam from Republic of Tea in place of the preserves, but you could substitute a number of jams or jellies: orange marmalade, cherry preserves, even another berry-flavored jelly. Using frozen cherries cuts down on prep time and allows this recipe to be made in any season, but pitted fresh cherries would be great too.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bag (12 oz) frozen unsweetened dark sweet cherries, thawed 
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1 orange, zest and juice
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne (red) pepper
1/8 tsp cumin
1 tbsp cherry preserves

Preheat oven to 350F or broiler. Lightly coat a baking sheet or broiler pan with cooking spray.

Season chicken with salt and black pepper as desired. Bake or broil 20-25 minutes until cooked through and no longer pink.

Meanwhile, combine onion and garlic in a medium saucepan coated lightly in cooking spray. Saute over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.

Add cherries with any liquid from the bag and red wine. Using the back of a spoon, lightly rush the cherries (leave some cherries whole). Zest and juice orange into saucepan. Add remaining ingredients and stir well. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To serve, spoon hot sauce over chicken breasts. Shown with steamed asparagus and Spicy Sweet Potatoes (the Spicy Cherry Sauce goes great with those potatoes!).

These potatoes are similar to my Mexican Potatoes, but instead of just spicy I’ve added a sweet element. Peeling and chopping raw sweet potatoes can be hard work, so I cheated and bought the peeled, pre-cut variety that you can steam in the microwave, and it’s also much quicker than baking the potatoes in the oven. You will need two packages if you decide to go this route and you will want to reduce the oil to 2 tbsp since you are steaming and not baking.

3 large sweet potatoes
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne (red) pepper

Preheat oven to 400F

Peel and chop sweet potatoes into 1-inch chunks. In a large zip-locked bag, combine potatoes with the rest of the ingredients. Toss potatoes in the bag to coat. Spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until potatoes are tender, rearranging occasionally to prevent the sugars in the potatoes to burn.

If using the pre-cut variety, steam bags in the microwave per package directions. Combine steamed potatoes in a zip-locked bag with the other ingredients and toss to coat.

For serving, drizzle lightly with honey if desired. This dish would be great with baked apple or pear wedges. If you would like a more savory application, bake the sweet potatoes with 1 cup chopped onion and 1 tbsp minced garlic.

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with something sweet, but not too sweet. Moscato D’Andrea is a sweet white wine with the taste of pears. Unlike Moscato D’Asti or Moscato Allegro, this wine is not bubbly or sparkly.

Moscato D’Asti is closer to champagne, sweet with a fair amount of sparkle. The best I’ve tried is Michele Chiarlo’s Nivole Moscato D’Asti, which is rather inexpensive compared to most bottles of Moscato D’Asti, which can go for $25-30. Moscato Allegro, which is a specialty of Martin & Weyrich, is bright, sweet, but not quite as bubbly. Of the three, this one is my favorite.

At the end of the spectrum is Moscato D’Andrea, which is a great choice if you find the others too sweet or too fizzy. D’Andrea is a little drier, but still has the fruity taste you would expect from a Moscato. 

All of these are available at the World Market for less than $15 a bottle. Any would be perfect for a romantic dinner, such as Valentine’s Day or an anniversary. Though slightly different, they are all dessert wines and should be served chilled in narrow glass. Enjoy a bottle with someone special, or save it all for yourself.

Please welcome the latest member of the Cool Food Blogroll: Wise Bread

Wise Bread is a “community of bloggers here to help you live large on a small budget.” The site is divided into five main categories: Personal Finance, Frugal Living, Career and Income, Life Hacks, and Deals and Coupons. My favorite category is Frugal Living, which has sub-categories of food & drink, health & beauty, and green living, just to name a few.

As someone who enjoys farmer’s markets and local produce, as well as searching for the best tasting produce available, I found this article on baby carrots particularly informative and interesting: Baby Carrots – The Frugal Idea That Isn’t.

Another great article: Seven Things to Do with Boxed Wine.

Even though you won’t find many recipes, this website has great resources for the house and home, as well as healthy living on a budget. Says the editors: “Despite what you may have heard, you don’t have to sacrifice your financial independence to enjoy life.”

you will forget to set the timer  

every recipe will have at least one ingredient that you do not have

after you buy that one item, you will never use it again

dishwasher safe and microwave safe are not absolute statements  

you won’t know what over-mixing is until you’ve done it

the time a recipe says it will take to complete is a best-case-scenario

food coloring will color more than food

cutting onions make your eyes water A LOT

your food will never look as good as the picture…

but it will probably taste much better

you need to REALLY read the entire recipe first (not just skim it to get the jist)

you really don’t want to know how many calories it has in it

baking times are open to interpretation

remember to turn off the oven (because you will forget!)

fresh herbs are not easy to chop

you will never see so many dirty dishes in your life

do not wear khaki pants or white shirts in the kitchen

“quick” and “easy” are relative terms

no matter what you do, the cheesecake will crack…but it will taste perfectly fine

nobody can make a meal in 30 minutes at home

a really good bottle of wine can save almost any meal

things will go wrong, and it’s not your fault, some recipes are just bad recipes

and 9 out of 10 times, it’s all totally worth it…don’t let the 10th time discourage you