Mock Coq Au Vin

This past Saturday some of my friends threw me an amazing baby shower!! All my friends that came were so generous and definitely spoiled new baby. Even though Will (the boy...I'm tired of using "the boy" all the time when talking about him) is still pretty young, it amazes me how small baby clothes are. This baby's going to be born at a different time of year than Will was, so we got some really cute winter/cold weather outfits for him to sport. Actually I'm doing a load of baby laundry right now. I heart baby laundry detergent. The pre-baby-arrival laundry loads are the ONLY form of laundry I enjoy. The clothes smell so sweet from the baby detergent and they're so tiny and cute! Once they're covered in spit up and poop, not so fun.

Anyway, my friend Jen B. was one of the friends that hosted the shower. She did an amazing job with the food spread--I wish she'd post the recipes for some of the stuff on her blog. Well, the finger sandwiches anyway. I'm digressing again. Her present was one of my favorites. She and her son went with Will and me to register at Babies R Us, and while we were standing around waiting to get the scanning gun, she was looking at the bookshelf they have up front with parenting books and stuff like that. Of course she honed in on the one cookbook they had displayed and brought it over for us to look at. We were both in love with it, so of course I registered for it. And, being the super duper friend that she is, that's what she got me for my gift. The book is called, "The One-Armed Cook" and is full of parenting tips (especially for new parents) and recipes that are easy to prepare when your kid/baby needs to be held the whole time you're supposed to be making dinner. Cool, huh? And the recipes in it are really yummy sounding.

So, I was flipping through it and came across this recipe and thought it would be perfect for tonight because 1) all I needed to buy for it were the mushrooms, 2) it's a crockpot recipe, and 3) the husband and I are going to a "tour" of the hospital where I'll be delivering so it's something that could be ready ahead of time for us to eat. So far it smells awesome!

Mock Coq Au Vin
1/3 cup red raspberry jam
1/4 cup red wine
3 Tbsp soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp prepared mustard
1 8-ounce package sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup frozen chopped onions
12 skinless chicken drumsticks
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp cold water
3 cups cooked rice

In the bottom of slow cooker, place the jam, wine, soy sauce, and mustard, stirring well to mix. Add mushrooms and onion to the mixture, stirring well to mix. Add the chicken; stir to coat with the sauce. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours.

Place cooked rice on a serving platter. Remove chicken from slow cooker and arrange on top of rice; cover to keep warm. Turn slow cooker to high. In a small mixing bowl, combine the cornstarch and water until smooth. Add the cornstarch mixture to sauce, stirring well to mix. Cook an additional 15 minutes until sauce thickens. Spoon sauce over chicken and rice and serve.

*****

I only made some slight modifications. For one thing, I used Dijon mustard, and I added in a few teaspoons worth of chopped garlic. I also skipped the real onions and just shook in some onion powder. It was almost naptime, and I didn't want to take the time to cut them up myself. And my package of chicken only had eight drumsticks, but I think that should be fine. I'm excited to try this. It smells and looks really good. I just hope Will eats it. We're going to have it with the rice (but no platter...we're a buffet style kind of family...plus a platter is one more dish to wash) and either carrots or peas, whichever I happen to pull out of the freezer first.