The appetizers were great, the presentation was compelling, and the manager has promised me a full back kitchen tour.  It was a phenomenal event, and their kitchen layout has left me simply salivating.  Carrabba’s totally surprised me, and I loved every bit of the event.

Tessa kindly invited me to an olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting at Flavors from Afar on Saturday evening.  Since I absolutely love olive oil and go through it practically by the gallon, this event was right up my alley.  Again a fabulous presentation!  Nancy gave such an informative class and the pictures of her Italian Olive Tours have completely left me longing for olive groves.  I may try to pull off the olive oil harvest at the Texas Olive Ranch in September.  Thank you again Tessa for the wonderful event.  I’ll be featuring my new purchases in upcoming recipes!

Here’s the meal delivery service menu for the week.

Monday:  First day of Kindergarten and L.E.’s Favorite Meal Braised Pork Chops with Lentils and Broccoli (Light 493 calories or 11 pts)

Tuesday:  Chicken Stuffed with Spinach, Feta, and Pine Nuts served with Black Beans and Seasoned Cucumber (Light only 402 calories or 8 pts)  Choose to stuff with fresh mozzarella if feta isn’t your favorite.

Wednesday:  Turkey Chili with Black Beans

Thursday:  Grilled Chicken and Romaine Lettuce Salad with Shaved Parmesan and Lemony Vinaigrette (also Light, I just haven’t done the calorie breakdown yet, send me a note if you’d like it before ordering lane@dinnerandconversation.com

Happy Eating!

Due to budget cuts and my continual tendency to overindulge at the grocery store, I’m trying to create only recipes wading through what’s currently available in my fridge and pantry.  It’s a great process for spring cleaning as well as creating new space for future bounty.  This recipe is quite similar to a Mediterranean pasta I blogged about last fall, only it requires a few less ingredients.

Pitted Niçoise olives are my very.most.favorite type of olives, but you probably only have access to them if your grocery has an olive bar.  They’re similar in color to Kalamatas, but smaller and with a more earthy, less astringent taste, IMO.  Kalamatas would certainly be an acceptable substitute if they are crowding up your refrigerator, though!  I also prefer Niçoise olives for snacking with a glass of bold red wine.

Montasio Cheese hails from the northeastern corner of Italy.  It has been awarded a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) from the EU ensuring only cheese made from this specific region can bear this name.  It is an excellent grating cheese.  I purchased some for an herbed frittata I made recently, not realizing I already had an unused block at home (hence the necessity for paring back the fridge).  I absolutely loved the flavor of this cheese over hot pasta.  It struck me as slightly less nutty than a parmigianino reggiano with a more smooth and synthesizing flavor.  You could certainly grate another hard cheese in a similar fashion without tracking down the Montasio, but if you have the means, I highly recommend it.

This recipe also used skinnless boneless chicken breasts, since they were on hand.  You could certainly use split breasts if it suits you or even shred the meat from a grocery rotisserie chicken for ease!

Penne with Chicken, Niçoise Olives, Capers and Montasio Recipe

4 oz dried penne

2 skinless boneless chicken breasts

Emeril’s Chicken Rub

grapeseed oil

3 c. chicken broth

3 tbsp pitted nicoise olives, chopped

2 tbsp capers

2 tbsp grated Mantasio

fresh chives, snipped with scissors

Heat a skillet over medium high heat.  Rinse chicken and pat dry.  Season both sides liberally with Emeril’s Chicken Rub then sprinkle on a pinch of kosher salt.  Add about a tablespoon of grapeseed oil to skillet, let warm one minute, then add the chicken breasts.  Brown on each side for about 3 minutes to a nice golden color.  In a sauce pan, bring chicken broth to a boil, then add browned chicken breasts.  Cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for 35 minutes, then remove chicken and shred with using two forks.

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil.  Add penne and cook 10 minutes or to package directions.  Drain.  Mix in shredded chicken, capers, olives and Montasio.  Stir to combine.  If no longer warm, heat in microwave about a minute to serve warm.  Top with snipped fresh chives.

There were marinated artichokes, too.  I left those out of the title.  This recipe packs so much flavor between the sundried tomatoes, the kalamatas, the capers, and the aforementioned marinated artichokes, it doesn’t even require spices.  They’re already in the additions.  My husband would have chosen grated Parmesan Reggiano over the fresh Mozzarella, but I have a true and steady love for mozzarella, and often think of Parmesan as the bossy kid from fifth grade who’s always trying to steal the scene.  It has it’s place, but doesn’t always play well with others.  Also, we have the Dallas Mozzarella Company here and it’s simply in my blood to support the local purveyors.  Should you run across a local Parmesan manufacturer, please send me an email or post a comment!

Mediterranean Penne with Sundried Tomatoes, Kalamatas, Capers and Fresh Mozzarella

(feeds 4 with leftovers, who am I kidding at least 6!)

3 c. dried Penne pasta

2 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

8 sundried tomatoes in oil, drained then chopped

shredded chicken from two split breasts, about 4 c. shredded chicken

1/2 c. sliced, pitted kalamata olives

3-4 tablespoons capers

3 oz. marinated artichoke hearts (half of the small jar)

1 c. diced fresh mozzarella

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425.  Very lightly drizzle split breasts with olive oil, then sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper.  Roast in oven about 50 minutes or until internal temp reaches 165.  Let rest to the side five minutes, then remove skin and bones and shred meat using two forks.  Reserve.

Meanwhile in a large saucepan, bring  water to a boil.  Add 1 teaspoon kosher salt and penne.  Follow package instructions, to cook until al dente.  Drain, and reserve pasta.

In the same saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil on medium heat.  Add garlic and tomatoes, saute for 4 minutes.  Add pasta, chicken, olives, capers, and artichoke hearts.  Stir to combine and let continue cooking for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, add mozzarella and continue stirring until mozzarella until it just melts.  Let your family/friends use finely ground sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste, the flavors should already be leaping out of the bowl!

That said.  We have nights in our home just like every other home in the world.  Darn it we’re behind schedule, I didn’t make it to the grocery.  Wait, I got distracted, on the Internet ; )  Is that chicken okay?  I meant to make it Monday, crap what day is it?  Shoot, what’s in the freezer…. Quentin, TAKE THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!

Then still, dinner needs to happen.  So this recipe may be totally stolen from my mom.  I’m remembering something about chicken and olives and almonds? maybe?   The only reason I own stewed tomatoes is to make my mom’s hamburger soup.  But they’re available…hmmm…  If I hadn’t said it before, Mommy, you made *me* well, me.  You taught me everything, showed up for everything, loved during everything, grounded me for everything – wait, I’m off track.  What I want you to know forever and always, is that YOU made me happy.  And special and loved and everything I could have wanted for myself.  It’s hard being a mama, and especially a mama who devotes her whole life to her children.  I get that, and I appreciate all of it, and what I really want is… to be a fraction of what you are.  Only better – just kidding – that’s for Amelia, cause that’s what she would say, and she’d think I was not nearly snarky enough in this post. Then we’d all laugh.

So need a quick dinner?  It’s not gourmet, but it tastes good and it’s easy and inexpensive.

Express Italian Chicken

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 tbsp olive oil

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

paprika

14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes

4 tbsp sliced green olives

3 tbsp blanched slivered almonds

Season rinsed and trimmed chicken breasts with kosher salt and pepper, then sprinkle beyond generously with paprika.  Heat olive oil in a saute pan just over medium heat.  Brown on each side about 4 minutes.  Drain juice from tomatoes, then dump can on chicken.  Cover with olives, then fill the tomato can with water and add that to the mixture.  Cover, cook on low – but 1/4 of the way to medium, 7 minutes. Toast almonds in a dry skillet for 2 minutes on medium.

Serve over minute rice prepared with chicken broth and frozen- but steamed in the microwave – haricot verts, or very tiny green beans.  Top chicken with toasted almonds.

Try not to die as you’ve served frozen green beans and minute rice in the same sitting.  Sometimes food is a quick necessity, and this is healthy and flavorful dish.  Vow to do better tomorrow – that last one was a mental note for me : )

The end of the party preparation had me totally feeling like the Iron Chef.  There was a point when I was actually running from the kitchen to the grill and back again.  The clock was winding down, the chicken was on the grill, the crostini were in the oven, I was whipping cream for my sauces and had pasta on the stove.  I was flying.  It was really fun.  Intense, but I loved it.  Kind of like that two hour power yoga class I took yesterday in an 85 degree room, standing next to the world’s toughest lady, over 40 weeks pregnant Darcie!  Intense, but I loved it.

This Bruschetta recipe came from one of those grocery store checkout aisle recipe pamphlet things.  The ones that are sort of like a magazine, but with no articles and the pamphlet covers some bizarre theme, like Church Potluck meals or the entirely crock-pot pamphlet or such.  Well this one’s theme was all recipes involving 7 ingredients or less, but every recipe involved Dijon mustard.  I’ve long since lost the pamphlet, but I found the exact recipe on the Kraft website, (Kraft owns Grey Poupon).  I’ve taken this to several parties and people always ask me for the recipe.  It’s extremely solid and very easy.  I brush my cut up baguette slices with olive oil, then toast them in a 425 degree oven.  I made double this recipe for the party and used two whole baguettes and everything was gone.  Click through to the Kraft recipe here, it’s delicious fresh tomatoes, green onions, olives and classic vinaigrette.

The herbed pasta salad is adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, I swapped the ratios on the herbs and changed a few things.  Below is the recipe as I made it.  The garlic infused olive oil was very nice and this would be a great process for making chili oil as well.  This salad can be made the day before.

Herbed Pasta Salad

1000 g. (2.2 lbs) Casarecci pasta

2/3 c. olive oil

9 large cloves garlic, sliced

1/2 c. chopped basil

1 bunch parley, finely chopped

Murray River Salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp of salt, and pasta.  Cook 9 minutes or until al dente.  Drain.

In a small saucepan, cook olive oil and garlic over medium heat to sizzling then cook a minute to two more.  Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes.

Pour oil through a strainer onto pasta to remove garlic pieces.  Add chopped herbs, stir then season to taste.

3 chicken split breasts

olive oil

kosher salt

paprika

fresh ground pepper

3/4 c. pitted kalamata olives, sliced

3/4 c. sliced baby carrots

3/4 c. Italian Parsley, chopped

1.5 c. penne pasta

1 shallot, chopped

2 tbsps olive oil

4 tbsps champagne vinegar

1/8 tsp ground mustard

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

3/4 tsp murray river salt