Pu-pu Platter

It's not really a Pu-pu platter, but that sounds so much more interesting than mediterranean platter. This awesome platter has chicken salad, cucumber salad, hummus, olives and pita bread. To drink, a delicious grapefruit G&T.

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Mediterranean Chili

Fusilli was inspired to make this when they didn't have the ingredients she was looking for at the local store. I'm calling it mediterranean chili because that's how it turned out. I think this could also work with fish instead of chicken.

• Heat olive oil in a pan. Once hot, brown the chicken breasts (bone in) on both sides. Remove and set aside.
• In the same pan, sauté onions and then add red pepper
• Add garlic, white wine and chicken. Turn temp. to low and cover until the chicken is cooked through
• Remove chicken, set aside to cool
• Add white beans and tomato, simmering until heated through
• Shred the chicken, adding it back with chopped Kalamata olives and cilantro
• Top with crumbled feta cheese and serve

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Chicken Tortalittas

I just can't get enough of the tortallitas. They're like bread, they go with everything. This time we stacked them with butternut squash, chicken, avocado and a dollop of plain yogurt.

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Open Faced Chicken Sandwich

Another Oma recipe – chicken burgers. We used the leftovers to make an open faced sandwich with avocado and mâche salad. The chicken is cooked slowly with onions and fennel seeds before being shredded.

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Sneezing Soup

The cooties got me bad. I knew I was done for on Sunday when the triple sneezing fits started and I quickly blew through two boxes of kleenex™. Fusilli took pity on me, and made the legendary chicken pot pie soup. Today I added broccoli for an extra cootie fighting boost.

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MysteryMeal™ #1 – Revealed

Congratulations Todd! You correctly identified the most recent MysteryMeal™ – Chicken! Your high five is in the mail.

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Enchiladas!

I just cannot get enough of my Mom's cooking when I am in Omaha.  Another one of her meals I cannot get enough of:  Chicken Enchiladas.  These were a little hotter (spicy) than normal due to the peppers sprinkled on top, but it cleared my sinuses before I hopped on the plane back to Chicago that night.  I did take a picture of an individual enchilada on my plate, but it wasn't styled and art directed by my Mom so it didn't make the cut!

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Hibernation Chicken

I'm officially hibernating... driven into my cave by weather no sane person would voluntarily endure. I ventured out on Saturday to get food and see if anyone else was out. Despite the snow there were lots of people trudging around the market – some of them even seemed happy. I stocked up with enough food to get through the winter and headed home.

Tonight I roasted a chicken based on a recipe from the Balthazar cookbook. First, make an herb butter with softened butter, rosemary, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. Push the herb butter under the skin, rubbing any extra around the outside. Trust me, there'll be extra... on your hands. You have to do it with your hands so be prepared for butter fingers. Brown the chicken on both sides and then finish it in the oven. The herb butter makes it moist and herby. The fennel and sweet potato were also browned in a pan and then roasted.

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Curried Chickpea Salad

I had a craving for Bombay Salad... a great dish from the long defunct Riverside Café at Queen and Broadview. This was one of my all-time favorite restaurants, right up there with the also defunct Yuki.  Riverside had an amazing variety of mussles on the menu, at-least twenty, and I was steadily working my way through the list when the chef left. Sadly, it was all down hill until they closed their doors.

This recipe was close, so I modified it slightly based on what I remember. The original was served in a crispy papadam bowl. I've never seen that at the market but someone must sell them. I omitted the tomato, added golden raisins, and replaced the grapes with green apple.

It looks kinda beige and bland in the picture, but the mix of sweet, sour, tart, crunchy and squishy make it a real mouth extravaganza. Oh, and it tastes good.

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Tortilla Soup

Fusilli made an old favorite this weekend - Tortilla Soup. I always think of it as the liquid equivalent of fajitas. First you make chicken soup... chicken + water + heat. Then you roast tomatoes, garlic, jalapeños, green & white onion. The roasted vegetables are puréed once they cool, and then added to the soup. When the chicken is done, you pull it out, let it cool and then pull it into bit size pieces.

This is the best part – prepare toppings for the soup. Cut tortilla shells into strips and toast them until crispy. Grate cheese. Chop cilantro. Slice avocado. Quarter a lime. Ready the plain yogurt, or sour cream. When you're ready to serve, ladle the soup into a bowl. Add chicken, and the rest of the toppings as desired. So good!

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Salad: Viva Las Vegas

It was salad night in Chicago too.  I've been making this salad for dinner over the past few weeks since Broccoli and Fusilli first introduced it to me in Las Vegas. My Whole Foods was out of Mache that I usually buy, so I tried a new salad mix, Earthbound Farm Organic's Fresh Herb Salad.  The dill in the salad mix and aroma of it added something great to this salad.  So, make a bed of greens, add sunflower seeds, queso fresco, Newman's Own Italian Family Recipe Dressing or Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette and Purdue's Perfect Portions Chicken.  

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Chicken and Tomato Favalad

Okay, last post with fava beans for the year. It's just that I can't resist when I walk into the market and they have a big basket of these beauties.

This dish was created on the fly as I rushed to get ingredients before the market closed. Considering the ad hoc collection ingredients I brought home, this turned out really well. It's probably best I left the beets and bananas for another dish.

Final ingredients: Fava beans, garlic, tomato, mint and pecorino. Saute the garlic, add white wine, then add the blanched fava beans when the liquid has reduced. Heat through and then set aside. Once it's cooled a bit, add tomatoes, mint and pecorino. A splash of lemon and vinegar is all it needs before heading to the plate. Fan the sliced chicken if you're feeling fancy.

BTW - The recipe for feeling fancy is a gin & tonic, with a splash of campari.

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Pasta Wednesday

What can you say about Wednesday? You've made it to the middle of the work-week, but from the glass is half-empty perspective, you still have half the week left. Let's just say Wednesday sucks.

Comfort food always helps. So this Wednesday called for a warm plate of whole wheat pasta with chicken, bacon, spinach and parmesan. A nice glass of wine almost made it feel like Friday.

I'm still ironing out my pasta technique, and this one wasn't a saucy as I would have liked. I'm giving this a 3.

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Presentation Salad

I really tried to make this look more appealing than the last salad. This involved the pyramid approach to food presentation, where I assume: food + height = appealing. Hmmm, not sure.

About this salad. Roasted yellow beets, fennel, chicken, walnuts, mint and shaved parmesan. Lightly dressed with olive oil, lemon and vinegar.

I've decided to start rating each dish. It may look good, but how did it taste? In this case, it was a solid dish and it deserved a 3½.

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Messy Mexican Salad

In the wake of Fajita Friday I had some choice leftovers to play with. I opted for a salad to make use of the mixed greens, chicken, black beans, tomatoes, mozzarella and avocado.

I made a quick dressing with olive oil, lime juice and red wine vinegar. Then I tossed everything together – violà, messy Mexican salad. I could have made a layered salad for a more attractive presentation, but without guests to encourage that kind of behavior, messy was perfect.

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It's Fall

You know it's Fall when you start to get a craving for something warm and comforting like a bowl of soup. Makes me feel sad about Summer being over, especially since it barely even arrived. But my colleague, Olive (her Broccoli&Prosecco name), tipped me off to her favourite chicken soup recipe with lemon and dill (and rice and spinach) and it was a savoury consolation for having to now wear sweaters and closed-toe shoes to work.

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Grilled Pizza

Day 3 – Dinner: In case you haven't tried it, grilled pizza is awesome. It's also perfect when you have great left-overs, like queso fresco, flank steak, grilled chicken and veggies.

Fusilli made some fresh dough, and I warmed up the bbq. I'm totally digging the charcoal routine. 1. Start the bbq. 2. Float in the pool 3. Spread the coals around. 4. Cook dinner.

Grilled pizza also has a few simple steps:
1. Grill one side of the rolled out dough
2. Place the ingredients on the cooked side
3. Place back on the grill to finish

Note: Ingredients should be cooked. You just want to grill the dough and heat the toppings.

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Mache with Grilled Chicken

Day 2 – Dinner: After setting up for the show, we came back to the shack for more floating, margaritas and dinner.

After some challenges last night with the old-school bbq, I think I've got the hang of this charcoal thing. Tonight's dinner – grilled chicken, mache, queso fresco and toasted sesame seeds. 

For atmosphere, I fired up the crazy outdoor fireplace. The gas comes up through the gravel creating an amazing effect. Can you hear Frank singing My Way in the background?

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Chicken à la things

More goodies from Herrle's. Fresh beans, peas and potatoes. The chicken hitched it from Toronto's St. Lawrence Market, but it was well loved before it hit the plate. I'd say this meal was 100% local and organic. S'nice.

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Signature Dish

Everyone has to have a signature dish so I stole this one...
Emeril missed a few essential ingredients however, namely bacon, or in this case pancetta and bbq'd lemon chicken. Considering the crap they use in most restaurant dressings I think I'm still ahead here.

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