I also browned the chicken longer than in the magazine recipe.  Perhaps this is due to variations in my stove, but it brings up one of the most fundamental bricks of cooking.  Whenever you’re cooking, you have to look, feel, smell, and most importantly pay attention in order to adjust cooking times or temps.  If that doesn’t sound fun to you, you better stick to the crock pot and order meal delivery service.  I’m not talking major adjustments, just little ones, like inching your heat up a bit, or deciding something is browning quicker than expected or more slowly.  And for heaven’s sake, if your going to cook meat, get a good, digital, instant read meat thermometer.  I truly don’t know how people function without them.

If you come across any other recipes using pine nuts outside of this one, salads, or pesto, send me a note.  I went a little crazy in the bulk section and may be working through $30 of pine nuts until Christmas ; ) If you’re purchasing fresh mozzarella for this recipe, it only takes about an ounce and a half for four servings.  Since it’s hard to purchase only an ounce and a half, hear are another few ideas to utilise your remaining cheese:  Caprese Salad Crostini, Roasted Chicken, Mozzarella, Tomato, Onion, and Pesto Panini, Mediterranean Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes, Kalamatas, Capers, and Fresh Mozzarella, or my favorite, eaten straight as a snack.

Dinnerandconversation.com Meal Delivery Service now has expanded facilities!  Weekly Menus will no longer be one option per day, but 4 options per week, available any day of the week.  Email orders to lane@dinnerandconversation.com

Aug 30 Menu

Tortilla Soup – Made from scratch broth based soup with shredded chicken, yummy vegetables, the perfect level of spice, and everyone’s favorite, freshly fried tortilla strips

Pulled Pork Sandwiches – Slow cooked pulled pork, piled onto bread and topped with thinly sliced red onions, L.E. and Quentin love this meal!

Lane’s Chicken Salad – no nuts and lots of hand shredded chicken with a touch of fresh herbs and a sprinkling of oregano, I’ve been told the flavor only improves in the fridge over a couple of days

Fish Tacos – Spicy Tilapia or shredded chicken for non-seafood eaters topped with a light and colorful vinaigrette coleslaw

Sides and Desserts available off meal delivery service menu.

Happy Eating!

Chicken Stuffed with Spinach, Fresh Mozzarella, and Pine Nuts

adapted from Cooking Light Sept 2010, serves 4

2 tbsp pine nuts

5 oz fresh baby spinach

2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 and 1/2 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into a 1/4 inch dice

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

3/4 c. chicken broth

In a braising pan with a tight fitting lid, toast pine nuts in dry pan over medium high heat uncovered.  Shake every 20 seconds to rotate nuts, then remove to a bowl after about a minute and a half.  In same pan, gently cook spinach until it just begins to wilt, also uncovered.  Continuously rotate leaves with tongs, then remove to a strainer.  Use a paper towel to gently press spinach to strainer removing as much water as you can.  Add spinach to bowl with pine nuts.  Use a fork to combine with lemon juice, garlic, and mozzarella cubes.

Preheat oven to 350.  Rinse chicken, trim, and pat dry.  Starting from the top of the chicken breast at the thickest part, use a knife to slit lengthwise just as you would to butterfly the breast.  Make a pouch three quarters of the way through the breast.  Stuff each breast with a little of the spinach filling , then seal with wooden picks.  Season both sides of chicken with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Wipe pan down with a paper towel and return it to medium high heat.  After 1 minute, add the olive oil, after 1 more minute, swirl oil to coat pan, then add chicken breasts.  Cook on first side for 5 minutes or until browned, then turn and repeat.  When nicely browned on both sides, add chicken broth to pan, cover and bake in oven for 15 minutes.

The children certainly had a fabulous time as did the adults.  I just love a family backyard party.  Part of my entry response to the contest was detailing how much I love home entertaining and preparing food for guests to enjoy and celebrate together.  I love watching children have a fantastic time, while the grownups get to imbibe an adult beverage and spend time mingling and simply enjoying the moment.

Menu

Appetizers

Crostini with Goat Cheese and ‘wichcraft Tomato Relish

Caprese Salad Crostini with Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette

Frozen Green Grapes

Mains

Seared Pork Tenderloin with Lime-Cumin-Corriander Marindade

Citrus Marinated Grilled Chicken with Fresh Herb Sauce

Ripe Watermelon Balls

Strawberries and Raspberries with Fresh Mint Garnish

Sugar Snap Peas with Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Sauce

Sliced and Seasoned Kirby Cucumbers

Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Goat Cheese, and Almond Slivers

Dessert

Chocolate Cake with Espresso Buttercream and Dark Chocolate Ganache

Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

The items with links have already been featured on dinnerandconversation.com and helped make this party great.  Those with out, barring the raw foods, will be featured over the next week or so.  Part of home entertaining, especially in the summer in Texas, requires cold raw foods, so that’s part of why those were included.  The other reason is in my personal food philosophy.  Blessedly, I have children who will eat darn near anything.  I don’t prepare separate children’s meals, partly of course because we don’t have toddler food wars, so I wanted to include a variety of fruits that I thought even picky preschoolers could enjoy before indulging in a dessert sugar high.

All in all, I’d call it a grand success.  As I individually break down the recipes, I’ll give some tips on how I go about planning quantities and portion sizes for large gatherings.  Salud to the home party!

You know those one dish meals people are always talking about?  This was my attempt at one of those.  At the end of the day, I think I prefer this recipe strictly spinach,  keeping the meat on the side.  Preferably with beef.  Of course you know me, I’d eat beef every day of the week if I could.  I guess that’s the other thing I was going for with this, a last ditch effort to hide the chicken from myself so I wouldn’t know I was eating it.

So if you want to make it simply a spinach au gratin, leave out the chicken and double the spinach.  In that scenario, I’d omit the breadcrumbs as well.  You could also use the chicken but skip a few steps by using shredded chicken from a grocery store rotisserie chicken.

One really really awesome thing about making this, is that I got to use the new microplanes I got for Christmas.  If you haven’t broken down and purchased these yet,  Go ahead.  Do it.  It feels exactly like when you buy new socks after putting it off for way too long.  Only better.  I’ve been coveting these for ages, and I’m seriously impressed I was able to hold out until Christmas.  Just thing of all the grating 2010 has in store for you!

Chicken Spinach Au Gratin (serves 5)

3 chicken split breasts

4 tbsp butter

2 c. diced onions

4 tbsp flour

3 c. 2% milk

20 oz. frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and all water squeezed out

1/2 c. grated Parmesan Reggiano

3/4 c. shredded Gruyere

2 tsp kosher salt

8 turns fresh ground pepper

breadcrumbs

In a large pan, combine split breasts with 1 tsp of kosher salt and 12 turns of fresh ground pepper, cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then cook boil chicken for 35 minutes.  Turn off heat, and let chicken rest in water for 10 minutes.  Remove skin and bones and shred chicken using two forks.

Preheat oven to 350.  In a deep saute pan, melt butter on medium heat, add onions and saute 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and reducing heat as necessary to prevent browning.  Add flour and stir until paste-like and combined, then cook for 2 more minutes.  Add milk and stir to incorporate, raise heat to medium high and cook for 10 minutes to thicken.  Turn off heat.

Add spinach, shredded chicken, Parmesan, Gruyere, salt and pepper.  Stir until combined, then smooth surface with your spatula, and sprinkle just the surface with a teeny bit more Parmesan, Gruyere and breadcrumbs.  Bake in oven for 25 minutes – or until bubbly and just lightly browned.

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!

This soup has always been a big hit at my annual soup swap, as well as a great course for a Christmas or Christmas Eve dinner – the color just works well.  My parents are probably laughing at me that I could even consider something called Spinach Soup an old stand by.  I was a pretty picky eater as a kiddo, not as phenomenally so as my older sister, but still, fairly anti-vegetable, etc.  The culmination of said pickiness came at age six, resulting in me vomiting out of sheer protest after being forced one bite of a spinach souffle, then immediately declaring a spinach “allergy”.  Did I ever mention I don’t like to be told what to do?  I also tried to convince my best friend’s mother I had an egg allergy around that time, but I’m pretty sure Margee saw right through that.  In any case, Margee pretty much let us do whatever we wanted to anyway.  But, hey, we all grow up some day right?

There are two keys to this dish.  Immutable food laws, in my opinion, regarding spinach.  One – Only cook the spinach for an extremely short period of time to protect the color, flavor, and prevent the bittering flavors from attacking you.  Two – don’t season until you’ve reheated your soup after pureeing and adding the cream and Madeira, salt has a way of changing the flavor during the heating process.  A third rule, not necessarily immutable, but in the quest for food excellence, I’d encourage is, use real cream.  Real heavy cream.  Generally, I’m apt to sub half and half cause we have it on hand, or if a recipe calls for whole milk, I run with skim or 1 %.  In fact, usually if it calls for half and half, I half the amount and make up the difference with 1% milk.  But that one’s largely due to my sheer panic that my coffee might not be perfect the next morning if I use all my half and half.  I’ve made this with half and half and it’s just not the same.  Opt for real cream.  This recipe was adapted over time from the Williams Sonoma Entertaining cookbook.  I know I added more potato, much more stock, knowing me – probably more liquor and generally changed things around a bit – but that’s originally where it came from.  I tried to find the original recipe, but I can’t find my cookbook at the moment, and it’s long out of print.

I find children to enjoy this more if you call it Green Soup instead of spinach.  My kids are aliens, but they both gobbled up a bowl and were thrilled.  I’ve served it to a couple other children with good results.  And just in case you’re a grown up who feels ill at the idea of cooked spinach, give it a shot.  It’s seriously one of my most requested recipes. This recipe makes a bucket load – probably at least 10 bowl size servings – so feel free to half it or to split it with a friend.  As always, food is love and your friend with thank you, unless they throw up on your table out of protest anyway.

Spinach Soup with Madeira

1/4 c. butter
2 1/2 c. diced yellow (or white) onion – just not sweet onions!
2 baking (Russet) potatoes peeled and thinly sliced
5 c chicken stock
2 pkg prewashed baby spinach (the kind in the ready to make salad section)
1 c heavy cream
1/2 c. Madeira wine
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
salt and pepper (lots of both to taste) probably at least 3 tsps of salt

In a 6qt saucepan over med heat, melt butter.  Add the onion and saute, stirring, until tender and translucent 10-12 minutes.  Add the potato and the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer until the potato is soft, 8-10 min.

Raise heat to high and start adding spinach by the handful, pushing them down in the hot stock with a spoon.  When all of the spinach has been immersed in the stock, cook until barely wilted no more than 1 min.

Working in batches using a slotted spoon, transfer soup solids to a blender or food processor fitted with the metal blade.  If you put it all in at once, it’s liable to make a big mess and won’t get evenly chopped.  The resulting mixture will be very thick.  At this point you can STOP, if you’re preparing in advance.

Pour the puree back into the stock.  Stir.  Add the cream and Madeira and reheat gently, thinning with additional stock to your liking.  Do not allow to boil.  Season with the nutmeg and generously with salt and pepper to taste.