Two Girls Cook

I know I have been a bit remiss (okay, who are we kidding, a LOT remiss) in my blog postings as of late, so I am trying to get back on track and share with you some of the things I have been doing while I have been away.

I went over to my friend's house a couple of weekends ago, and we decided to make this Balsamic Glazed Chicken Breast Recipe from FoodNetwork.com. We modified it a bit since we just used about half the chicken (4 breasts prepackaged from the store), so we consequently halved the rest of the ingredients. I am giving the original version here.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 stick butter
• 12 (6 oz.) boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 Spanish onion, thinly sliced
• 4 gloves garlic, chopped
• 2 pints cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 cups red wine
• 2 teaspoons salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons parsley, chopped for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Put the vegetable oil and butter into a large skillet and place over high heat. Once the butter and oil are bubbling, add the chicken breasts to the skillet 4 at a time. Sear on each side until the chicken is golden, about 1 minute per side. Remove to a large baking dish. Repeat with the remaining breasts and set aside.
3. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, toss to combine and then follow with the balsamic vinegar and red wine and season with salt and pepper. Bring up to a bubble then reduce the heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. [Simmering the wine in this mixture does not reduce the alcohol content substantially. Little Miss This and That in: Yay!]
4. Pour the balsamic mixture over the chicken and place the pan in the top half of the oven for 10 minutes, or until the chicken has just cooked through. Remove from the oven, garnish with freshly chopped parsley and set into a prepared chafer.

And now the pictures from our dinner...

This recipe was extremely simple to make. I mean, it only has 9 ingredients: chicken breasts, vegetable oil, butter, onion, tomatoes, garlic, parsley, balsamic vinegar and red wine. And the wine wasn't just for drinking! Though having a glass while cooking with a very dear friend is one of life's greatest pleasures.

First, we pan-fried the chicken breasts in the oil and butter (butter...mmmm), then removed them after they turned a nice golden color.

I forgot to take a picture of the onions and garlic sauteing (I blame the wine for my forgetfulness), but here you can see that we (and by we, I am referring to myself) forgot to quarter the tomatoes when creating the sauce, but I'm telling you, they came out soft and delicious regardless.

We placed everything in a baking dish and popped it in the oven for oh, about 15-20 minutes, for our 4 breasts of chicken. Then we pulled that sucker out and topped it with the chopped parsley. We skipped putting it all out on a chafer (I actually don't even know what that is) and just dug right into the baking dish. Oh, and it was perfect with the wine, in case you had any doubts.

This recipe was so easy to make, which is nice when you are cooking with someone else because it allows you to concentrate on conversation as well. That being said, I think there are a few things that could be done to spruce this recipe up, like adding a few more spices such as oregano, thyme, basil or even a summer savory.

Simple, Delicious Eats

These dishes are what they call easy, breezy, beautiful...wait, that's a Cover Girl commercial. My bad.

But here is an oh-so-simple appetizer that also has the added benefit of being oh-so-French.

Start with some fresh, crisp radishes and add some soft butter and a small dish of sea salt.

Scrub the radishes, and then cut off the roots (yeah, I forgot to do a few of them; I'm what they call "far from perfect") and the green leafy part down to about an inch.

The stem will serve as a handle for dipping in the butter and salt. Sounds a bit odd, I know, but it's good, I promise.

You can also top a piece of toast with some butter and sliced radishes. Add salt, if needed (they really don't though, and you'll be hard-pressed to find me saying this). But this is one of my favorite breakfasts. Pretty much anything with toast wins me over. (Hello, toast with jam and cheddar cheese! Best. Meal. Ever. Maybe. The jury's still out on that one, or so I'm told.)

Another quick and simple side for dinner: blanched green beans with toasted sesame seeds. Boil the green beans for a few minutes until they turn bright green, then plunge them into a bowl of ice water for a minute or so. Take out the beans and drain, then place them in a bowl.

You don't have to toast the sesame seeds, but it's really so much better if you do. Just toss some seeds in a pan (sauté pan, frying pan; makes no difference), and then watch and stir until they start to brown.

Once the seeds brown, add them to the green beans.

If you want, add a few splashes of soy or seasoning sauce. Or even just some lemon juice. Yes, it really is this simple.

Stir about and enjoy. Easy, breezy...wait, that's that Cover Girl commercial again. I apologize. But it's all so delicious (and did I mention simple? Sorry, I'm getting old; I can't remember it all) and a great way to add a side or appetizer to your dinner party.

I'm heading out of town soon, and I hope to post from the road, but please check back in again.

Saturday Night's Supper

I went to visit a very dear friend this weekend, and we cooked a lovely meal almost entirely on the grill. First up: grilled pork chops that have been rubbed with salt and pepper, followed by grilled zucchini and peaches. As a side, we also had some chopped tomato with basil and mozzarella.

Add a splash of balsamic along with some salt and pepper, and you've got yourself dinner.

It was all so perfectly easy, and so much fun to prepare with a friend!

And a quick reminder: Email me by tomorrow with your name and address if you'd like to receive a postcard from my upcoming trip.

Basil Mashed Potatoes

Time for some basil mashed potatoes! Nothing says summer like, um, summer. Maybe not basil mashed potatoes as much.

But work with me here. Please? I know it's hot, but trust me, these potatoes are worth slaving over a hot stove for, and if by slaving, I mean just boiling, then yes, you would be correct.

To serve up this bowl of deliciousness, you will need about 3 medium potatoes and 8-10 basil leaves, as well as about a cup and a half of plain lowfat yogurt, strained, as I've explained here. And for those of you who can't fathom mashed potatoes without butter, feel free to add a few tablespoons of butter to taste.

I just dug these red 'taters out of the garden, and they did get a bit big for this type, but they will be just fine with this recipe since they are getting boiled.

And they are decidedly less mutant looking than these ones, which look like some sort of experiment-gone-wrong from the island of Dr. Moreau. I have no idea what happened here.

I used red potatoes, but you could use Yukon Gold or even Russet potatoes if you prefer. Also, I don't peel them, as there are a lot of nutrients in the skin, but if you don't like 'em dirty, feel free to peel away.

So start these in cold, salted water, as you would all root vegetables.

Boil them for a while, probably 10-15 minutes or so. At least until you can easily stick a fork in them. I've always wanted to use that phrase "Stick a fork in it."

Go ahead and chop up your basil while you are waiting for the potatoes to boil. Maybe call a friend too. Or paint your nails. When the potatoes are done, drain and prepare to mash.

I like to use a square pan rather than a bowl for mashing, as the rectangular masher fits so much better in an object of similar size. You could use a hand mixer, and then you'd probably want a bowl, but I like to get a little workout in to counter-balance all the potatoes I end up eating in the tasting process.

And after I'm done, of course.

Once you've mashed the potatoes a bit, go ahead and add the yogurt, the basil and salt and pepper to taste. And butter, if you like. Everything is better with butter.

Keep mashing until the desired texture is reached. I like mine lumpy. Then scoop into a bowl and serve warm, maybe alongside some vegetables off the grill. And a nice pork chop.

And vegans, take heart! I know you can't use the recipe as I've outlined it here, but don't be afraid to try some red potatoes (boiled or grilled or baked or however you want them) with some chopped basil.

About "About" Cooking

I call all of my cooking "about" cooking. Note the quotation marks; they are key to anything I do here in the kitchen, as I don't want to be confused with being an authority on the subject. (Ha! As if that was really an issue.)

Part of my reluctance to be exact and measure out all the ingredients can be attributed to my lack of patience and my desire to be expedient. But most likely it is due to my penchant (some might call it an obsession, but that's still up for debate) for cleanliness. After all, my sister doesn't call me "Monica" for nothing. I simply don't want to have tons of dirty dishes lying around, nor do I really want to wash them all later, and so I make a concerted effort to minimize the amount of dishes I use. Which means, dear readers, that I don't waste energy on using things like measuring cups and spoons. After all, that's what my eyes are for, right?

But one of the reasons that I love cooking is learning how to push the boundaries of what you are doing. There are so many ways to stumble upon something good if you're willing to experiment. I really only started cooking regularly about a year ago. And by regularly, I mean, actually following recipes, as before then, dinner involved things like half a can of corn and half a can of black beans, mixed together and heated up the microwave (I still do love this combination though, just a little more sophisticated than that.)

About the only "herbs" I used (if you can call them that) were salt and pepper. And I think I listened to Salt-n-Pepa more than I even used them. Remember "Push It"? (Note: this a link to the Youtube video, and I promise to end all the gratuitous parentheses now.)

Oh, wait, what were we talking about? Oh, yeah, cooking. Sorry, I get distracted sometimes by my childhood memories of 80s music. Let's get back to experimentation with cooking.

Take, for example, mint. This is one of the most underappreciated herbs, in my opinion, for cooking. Oh sure, mint is the star in a number of cocktails: mint juleps and mojitos come to mind. But those cocktails are very labor-intensive and might earn a disdainful glance from a bartender in a busy bar, no matter how much he or she protests otherwise.

But in cooking, all it takes is a few chopped leaves to add instant flavor to any number of foods. See, easy, right? I have been having it on zucchini a lot lately, adding it to the charred slices after they come off the grill, along with some salt and pepper, and maybe a little bit of cheese. It's good with watermelon too, as you can see here.

And speaking of experiments, I have had a bunch of unripe green tomatoes thrust upon me as of late, due to the presence of a gopher in the garden who has been killing the plants. Not one to cried over spilled milk, I harvested the green tomatoes so that at least they wouldn't go to waste. And my loss is your gain, as now I can experiment with them beyond fried green tomatoes. So feel free to leave a comment with any suggestions you might have, and I'll try them out.

I found a simple way to dress up sauteed shrimp is to chop up the green tomatoes with some shallots, then adding some white wine vinegar and salt-n-pepa, not to be confused with the group, letting all that stuff marinate for a while and then topping the shrimp with it. Please note that unripe tomatoes tend to be a little bitter, so keep the pieces small. Adding a tad bit of sugar might help sweeten them up too, but I haven't tried them that way.

It also works pretty well as a side dish with a mild white bean, like cannellinis or Great Northerns, for those of you looking for a vegan alternative. Or heck, just throw it on top of the grilled zucchini if you are feeling adventurous.

But I really don't want to end up with a tomato garden that produces just unripe green tomatoes. I do have hope. Right now it happens to be a Great Yellow Hope.

Which reminds me: Do you have any methods for, ahem, disposing of gophers? Because if you do, I will buy it. Ever heard those sayings, he could sell "sand to an Arab" or "ice to an Eskimo"? (And yes, I realize those saying are probably all kinds of politically incorrect, but work with me here, and yes, I realized that I might have been misleading you earlier with a promise to end the parentheses, but this is it, I promise.) Um, you don't even need those special salesman techniques with me. Pretty much, if you say "gets rid of gophers," I'm buying it.

Remember to leave a comment with a suggestion for green tomato recipes if you want me to try anything out. Because I'll try just about anything; check this out if you don't believe me.

Green Things

Sugar snap peas, green beans, snow peas and zucchini have soldiered on in the garden in spite of the heavy presence of various varmints (including gophers, squirrels and rabbits) that have leveled some pretty significant devastation to the crops. And of course, the UFIs (Unidentified Flying Insects) did some damage of their own.

I take quite a bit of satisfaction in having fresh, handpicked and homegrown vegetables. Especially when I have been able to wrest them from the grip of a squirrel. Nothing like getting your hands dirty!

These male squash flowers had just fallen from their stems, so I brought them into the house.

Waste not, want not. That's my motto. Which is why you should never leave peanut M&Ms unattended, as I always have to make sure they don't go to waste, which is how they end up in my stomach shortly thereafter. So I obviously couldn't very well let these beautiful squash blossoms go to waste.

So what's a girl to do when she doesn't know what to do with an ingredient? She makes a quesadilla! Okay, that might not always be true, but it is in this case. A simple quesadilla is just what the doctor ordered. You'll need:

• Tortillas (the small, flour kind is preferred in this household, though any kind should do).
• Mild cheese (Monterey Jack works quite well).
• The twins, aka salt & pepper.
• A couple of squash blossoms (if you don't have any plants to harvest these from, don't despair, you can probably find them at your local Farmers' Market).

Now, grate up a bunch of that cheese. Mmmmmmm, cheese.


Spread some of that cheese out onto your tortilla. Please pay no attention to the hand in the picture. I swear, the camera adds 10 pounds. Just to my hand alone.

Okay, now chop up your zucchini blossoms. I just use the top part of the petals and add the bottom half to the compost pile.


Add the chopped zucchini flowers to your quesadilla. I should have used the rest of the flower here, maybe even more, but hindsight is always 20/20. (Wow, my cliché dictionary is really coming in handy today.)

Then add some more cheese. Is it possible to have too much cheese? Oh, and grind some salt and pepper on there.

I actually like using a sea salt that I have in a grinder, but it's not as pretty as the one above, so I didn't use it for these pictures. But I much prefer fresh ground salt, and most certainly pepper, as that powdery stuff that is sold pre-ground is what I call "why bother"?

I put the quesadilla in the toaster oven for about 5 minutes, as I just wanted a quick snack that I could fix prior to dinner. But if you really want to do it right, you'll make the quesadilla in a cast iron skillet (which I don't have). You will get a nice browning on the tortilla that way.

Fold your tortilla in half. You could also make open-faced quesadillas, if you so desired.

And then go ahead and serve! See the pretty flowers inside the quesadilla? They add a nice sweetness that balances nicely with the saltiness of the cheese. The flavor is pretty subtle though, so be sure to use a mild cheese.

Even if you couldn't taste the flower, you'd still have a quesadilla to enjoy. And trust me, you can't go wrong when there is cheese involved.