Pesto Chicken Breasts with Summer Squash

Page 49.

I cooked this one last week, 06/04. Going back to the apple fritter post, again, I am the "chef" of the family, so leave it to me to pick the cooking for beginners recipe. *insert head shake here.*

I picked this one because Jamie likes pesto. I figured, "well, chicken and pesto, that's a winner, can't really go wrong here! And there's cheese on it as well! Psh, good times!!"

I won't do this for every post, but I really think I should list all the ingredients to this one. All of them... keep that in mind. Chicken breasts, pesto (they suggest store bought), chopped zucchini and/or summer squash, and asiago or Parmesan cheese. Yeah, that's all. Notice anything missing? I did, but thought "they obviously know what they're doing!

So, instead of using store bought pesto, I decided to make it myself. I mean, it's not hard. I have a basil plant on the balcony, we have all the ingredients in the house, and Jamie just busted out the Magic Bullet! Pesto was a success.

So, I followed their directions... Have you ever sauteed chicken and it only taken four minutes per side? I don't know that I ever timed it before, but yeah, if I had done that this time, I'm pretty sure I would be posting this from the hospital dealing with the salmonella poisoning, telling you to never EVER try this... for THAT reason. It recommends four minutes, then turn the chicken, placing your chopped veggies, zucchini julienned on my mandolin (I LOVE that thing!) in this case, and cook for another four minutes. Yeah, needless to say the cooking time was increased sllliiiiggghhhtttllyyy.

Anyway, after that, you take out the chicken and slather on some of your pesto, then top it with your cheese. And that's it! Serve that bad boy up, and everyone enjoy! Right? I mean, if you can get past the subtle green theme to your meal that is....





Did you notice a lack of salt? Pepper? Any other type or seasonings? Yeah. I actually re-read the recipe about four times, just looking to see where they threw that in and I missed it. Nope. Not there. Granted, pesto has some flavor to it... but not enough for a chicken breast let me tell you. Jamie and I both said the same thing... that is some GOOD zucchini! And the rest of the chicken breasts sat in the fridge until this past weekend. I "made" some focaccia, aka I took a Pillsbury french loaf and manhandled it into a not loaf shape, put on some olive oil and herbs, and baked it. Took that, sliced it into a giant sandwich, made some more pesto, and put on some cheese and made a paninni with the leftover chicken. THAT my friends, was a success.

So, the next time you are looking at a recipe saying to yourself, "surely the meant to have some salt and pepper, or SOMETHING..." trust your instincts... really.

Herb-Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

pg. 121


I'm not really sure what possessed me to start out with a dish that required multiple techniques that I wasn't familiar with. But here we are, for better or worse.

The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of "shredded" romaine and 1/2 cup of fresh herbs. They listed a bunch of herbs to pick from, and didn't offer any suggestions or warnings as to which ones would add what flavor. Apparently I'm just supposed to know these things. I ended up using basil (from the balcony), dill, sage and parsley (also from the balcony). I learned quickly that sage smells like Thanksgiving, and dill smells like a Christmas tree.


I finally opened my Magic Bullet and used that to shred (ok, pulverize) the lettuce and the herbs. I used a lot of parsley for the sole purpose of cutting the super-strong herb flavors, since I don't really get a whole lot of flavor from parsley. The bullet wasn't as easy as a food processor probably would have been, but I enjoyed the process!

The first of my new experiences in cooking was the removing of excess fat from the tenderloin. Eww! I still don't like touching raw meat, and now I can add "slicing through fatty goo" and "getting it stuck under my nails" to the reasons I don't like it! But I got through it, butterflied the tenderloin, and pounded the crap out of it until I ended up with what was supposed to be a 13" x 8" rectangle.

Jamie's cooking motto? "Close enough!"

After smearing the tenderloin with dijon mustard and then the greens mixture, I had my first meltdown while attempting to roll the damn thing.

My first attempt at rolling ended with about half of the green stuff squishing out the far end. And of course, when I unrolled it, some ended up on the wrong side of the meat! I stomped my feet and whined about not cooking because it always ends up looking like dog food, and got generally pissy. This lasted basically through the rolling and the tying. Scott stood by and handed me lengths of plain unwaxed dental floss (because we couldn't find cooking twine at Publix). In the end, I put something that looked like it could possibly be edible on the rack and into the oven:





We decided to serve the pork with sweet potato chips (baked sweet potato coins). So when the tenderloin was finished, Scott put a sheet of sweet potatoes in the oven and baked them until they were soft in the middle and crisp on the edges.

The recipe also included a "dijon sauce" consisting of plain yogurt, mayo, dijon mustard and honey. It tasted like salad dressing when it was cold. After warming through, it tasted like warm salad dressing. We don't understand it, but it really went well with the pork. Here's the final dish:

The meat was delicious, and cooked beautifully. Sadly, the herb stuffing all ended up in the middle, instead of in a lovely meat-herb swirl like the picture. The herbs worked well with the meat, but were overpowering. If I were to make the recipe again, I'd probably only use 1/4 cup of herbs and 1 cup of lettuce.

Also, if I were to make the recipe again, I would remember that the probe thermometer has also been in a 375-degree oven and that I shouldn't grab it with my bare fingers. (thanks to Scott's quick thinking, some cold water and some fresh aloe, I think that the two fingers in question will be red and sore for a while but might not blister)

I'm contemplating having my half of the leftovers on a roll instead of heated up on a plate. The whole meat-roll-with-sauce instantly struck me as the middle of a darn good sandwich.

Learned:
* how to pound meat (giggle)
* how to use the Magic Bullet
* how to roll meat (need more practice)
* how to tie the roll
* not to touch hot things

Would I make it again? Yes, with some minor modifications.

Mojito Jell-o

I'm contemplating a new dessert to try out for Scott: Mojito Jell-o. How hard can it be, right? The primary ingredients of a mojito are rum, lime, mint, sugar and fizzy water, and we have most of those things in the house at any given moment. Here's the planned ingredients:

1 box of lime jell-o
1 big ol' handful of mint leaves, plus some for garnish
2/3 cup of fizzy water (refrigerated)
1/3 cup of rum (refrigerated)
slightly more than 1 cup of water

Note: mojitos are consumed through a straw for good reason: no one wants tiny bits of muddled mint leaf stuck in their teeth. Most people also don't want to chew on a salad mid-drink. With this in mind, muddling the mint leaves with sugar seems not the best idea. Instead, I'm going to add the mint leaves to the water before boiling it. My hope is that I'll end up with a nicely infused mint water strong enough to stand up to the lime jell-o.

Here goes the tentative instructions:

* Add mint leaves to water, bring to boil
* Leave mint leaves in hot water at least 5 minutes
* Strain mint leaves out, return water to boil
* Add 1 cup of water to Jell-o powder, stir until powder is dissolved
* Stir in rum and fizzy water
* Pour into ice cube tray
* Refrigerate until set

We have everything in the house right now except the lime Jell-o. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of Mojito Jell-o!