Quick Beef Bulgogi

I've bookmarked a lot of recipes from the April 2012 issue of Canadian Living, and this is one of them. This is my first foray into Korean food, which is not a good thing living where I do. I should be way more adventurous and go off to a Korean restaurant and really try the food. I've been hesitant, though, because I once asked a friend who'd eaten Korean what it was like and she said one word, "fiery." OK, that put me off because "fiery" to me is not a good thing. I like a bit of kick, but certainly nothing anywhere approaching "fiery."

This recipe appealed to me because the ingredients were simple and there was no fieriness in it to be found. One thing I substituted out was the mirin for saké. I don't have mirin on hand but I always have saké around because lots of Kylie Kwong's recipes call for it.

The original recipe is HERE.

I have to say, this was a bit on the flavourless side. I let it marinate for an hour, but it seemed like little of the marinade stuck to the beef to flavour it. In theory, this should have been tasty. Was it the saké substitute? Would the mirin have packed more punch? I don't know. But, next time I might try saving the marinade and thickening it with cornstarch to retain some flavour.

I accompanied the dish with Kylie's Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce.

101 Uses for a Roast Chicken #26: Epic Chicken Sandwich!

So, I had a hormonally-induced hankering for a big-assed BBQ chicken sandwich. I also watched the Divers, Drive-ins & Dives marathon on Food Network over the weekend, and it had me salivating. Funny how one thing influences the other. I had a chicken carcass from one of my roast chicken dinners to turn into stock, and a couple of backs a relative gave me after a chicken dinner she made. I got a lot of great meat off these bones when I made up the stock on the weekend, and I wanted to do something different from the usual pot of soup. So, it was actually three events (hormones, Triple D, and stock-making) that induced this particular craving.

It's very simple: get a big giant bun. Grill some veggies (in this case, onions, peppers, and mushrooms), slice some havarti, and dig out your favourite BBQ sauce. After the veggies have done, put them on the bun and top with some havarti. Add some left-over roast chicken to the pan and heat through; add BBQ sauce. When everything is nice & hot, throw it on the bun & top with more havarti.

Sensational!

I served them with some homemade oven fries and this meal totally hit the spot!

Magazine Monday #76: Egg & Shrimp Sandwiches

My AeroGarden containing the herb mixture is doing great, I am happy to report, especially the dill. In fact, I have so much dill I'm not sure what to do with it all. I might start drying it for a rainy day. Tonight I am planning a dilly pasta for dinner, and now I am obsessed with finding recipes with dill... Dill bread? Dill biscuits? Dill cookies??? There is so much dill I don't know what to do!

So, in an effort to use a teeny bit of what I have on hand, I decided to make this sandwich today for my lunch. This is the Open Faced Shrimp & Egg Sandwich, made on a toasted bagel, from the June 2010 issue of Canadian Living Magazine. The recipe is here.

Very easy, very tasty. And it hit the spot. You can't beat fresh dill - unless you have too much of it and it beats you!

Magazine Monday #69: Sesame Chicken with Snow Peas - and Hostessing Duties

Thanks to my mom, I now have a subscription to Food Network Magazine! I love it!

After a series of heavy meals around Thanksgiving, I craved something lighter. I found a deal on snow peas at LOGS, and after a cross border shopping trip a few weeks ago, I finally had some chicken breasts on hand. And I found a recipe for this meal, which is actually supposed to be a healthier version a take-out dish, nutritionized by Ellie Krieger. I actually adapted the recipe to suit me more, leaving out the chili paste and doing this as a stir fry instead of steaming the snow peas separately. It was a tad bland, however. I love the idea of this recipe but next time I'll have to up the flavour a bit to make it pop a bit more.

The recipe is here.

This week I am also hosting Magazine Monday in order to help my good buddy Creampuff out, so here is a run-down of the other magazine recipes that were submitted by busy foodies intent on getting through their piles of magazine clippings!

Lynn of I'll Have What She's Having made Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce from Gourmet Quick Kitchen.

Lorie of A Savory Nest made Roasted Winter Vegetables with Feta from the March 2010 edition of Food & Wine.

Sue of Couscous & Consciousness made Fig & Blue Cheese Wontons from Dish Magazine's spring 2004 issue.

The awesome Heather of Girlichef made two things: Currywurst Sauce from Saveur and Bacon & Four Cheese Mac from the Oct. 2010 issue of Family Circle.

Jamie of Life's a Feast made a beautiful French Apple Flognarde (AKA a clafoutis) from Saveurs' Sept./Oct. edition.

Ranjani of Four Seasons of Food made Peanut Butter & Banana Bread from Cooking Light's Oct. 2010 issue.

Jan over at Kitchen Heals Soul made Pumpkin & Spinach Lasagna from the Jan. 1998 issue of Food & Wine Magazine.

Thanks for entering, everyone!

Edit @ 9:15pm: We have a late addition! Melissa of It's the Way She... made Rustic Spinach & Cornmeal Soup from this month's Bon Appetit.

Hill's Garlic Festival and Triple Garlic & Roasted Tomato

I mentioned before that during my camping trip last month, I attended the Hill's Garlic Festival in New Denver with my brother & SIL. It was the first time at the festival and I was really looking forward to it, though the day was seriously crappy with a steady downpour. I'd only heard great things about the festival so I was really excited, despite the rain.

The admittance fee was $4 for the day - one buck, I was informed, more than it had been in previous years. As I came through the gate, I was greeted by a huge farmer's market-like set-up with tents all over the place containing the booths of all kinds of vendors, interspersed with big food vendor trucks of all different kinds. We were hungry and all wanted different things - Shan wanted Indian food, Jem wanted BBQ, and I was indecisive because there was so much on offer: Greek food, vegetarian food, Asian food, burgers, gourmet sausages, gigantic wraps, and so much more. So I poked around and eventually decided on the gigantic wrap place, where I ordered a chicken curry wrap that was absolutely delicious.

After grabbing some food, I went around the entire park and looked at everything. Though this is billed as a garlic festival, there was a lot more there than just fancy garlics - though there were plenty of those. There were a ton of local artisans - potters, jewelers, painters, and other crafty things - and tons of produce vendors. This was a foodie heaven! In the end, I had a budget and didn't spend much. I got two fancy varieties of garlic, some awesome corn on the cob, and some honey from a local apiary, one with garlic in it and one chocolate & honey mixture. I also got a decadent cinnamon bun from an artisan bakery truck that came from the Okanagan. There was a local baker there selling slices of her cakes, but I got there too late and she had already run out.

All in all, however, the prices at the festival were outrageous. Jem & Shan, Garlic Fest veterans, found the same thing. As Jem put it, it's gotten more "boutique" as it's gotten more popular. It use to be less expensive, but now that the bug has caught on, vendors seem to have jacked their prices up. Jem & Shan also didn't think it was as good as it had been in previous years, but as this was my first time, I had nothing to compare it to.

I treated myself, as I mentioned, to two gourmet garlics: some soft neck Siberian garlic and some hard neck Yugoslavian garlic. For two heads of the Siberian stuff, which were about the same size as that generic stuff we find in our grocery stores around here, I paid $3. For one head of Yugoslavian stuff, which was HUGE, I also paid $3.

I didn't really know what to do with all this garlic until I was inspired by one of Shan's relatives at a family dinner the night we came back from the Garlic Festival. She told me of a recipe she'd found somewhere in which you roast tomatoes with garlic in some olive oil and then put that on pasta. Perfect! It was simple, tomatoes are cheap right now, and I had some fancy black, squid ink pasta I'd been keeping for a special occasion, and I thought the colours would make a lovely dish. And I was right!

Triple Garlic & Roasted Tomato Pasta

• 4 huge tomatoes, roughly chopped
• tons of garlic, peeled but whole: I used all of the Siberian stuff, plus three out of the four cloves of giant Yugoslavian garlic, plus two heads of the generic garlic I had in my pantry - we're looking at over 20 cloves of garlic in all
• olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 lb pasta, cooked to package instructions

In a roasting dish, drizzle some olive oil. Place the tomatoes in there, followed by the garlic. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Drizzle with a little more olive oil. Roast in a 400F oven until all the garlic is nice & soft.

Add the tomato & garlic mixture to the pasta and serve, with a little Parmesan cheese.


OH MY GOD. This was so simple and just so divine. It was ridiculously amazing! I might never go back to canned tomato sauce again, because roasting the tomatoes was so easy and so tasty.

Magazine Monday #55: Glazed Balsamic Chicken

Yet again, I bring to you another Canadian Living recipe for Magazine Monday! It comes from the May 2004 issue of the magazine.

This is a really simple, delicious way to do chicken. I'm surprised I don't make it more often!

The recipe is here.

I served this with rice and the last spaghetti squash from my garden and it was total yum!

Butter Chicken

Save-on Foods had Patak's curry pastes on sale when I was there the other week, so I picked up a jar of butter chicken sauce. I love Patak's; I always have a jar of mild curry paste on hand because it's easy to use and very versatile.

I've only had butter chicken a few times in my life, and I've always liked it as long as the spice was kept down. This mild sauce was perfect.

I used the directions on the jar!

This was soooooooooo gooooooooood! Rich and wonderful and just perfect. And it took no time at all! I'll definitely be making this again, and am thinking it would actually be good with shrimp, and even salmon. Hmmmm...

101 Uses for a Roast Chicken #21: Chicken & Pesto Pizza

Before I get to the main part of this post, I have something to say. I am going to be making my posts short & light for the coming while because I'm planning on doing my own version of NaNoWriMo next month; you can read about my amendments & reasoning behind them here. Obviously, I still have to eat, so I'll still be posting regularly, but my posts will be shorter than usual and I might be spending less time going around to visit you all. I'm trying to schedule as many posts to publish for me automatically as I can. So, if you don't hear from me as much, it's not that I don't love y'all! I just want to focus on this other goal for a month and see how it goes. Wish me luck!

OK...Onto today's topic...

I had a hankering for pizza the other day. I also had some leftover chicken from my spatchocking experience in the freezer, and I needed to find a way to use a decent chunk of my boring pesto. I've used pesto instead of pizza sauce before and it works really well. I got some naan from the grocery store, and I was set!

Super easy, super quick, really delicious!

Chicken & Pesto Pizza with Olives

1 piece of flat bread - naan, or pita, or whatever
pesto sauce
leftover chicken, cubed
1 slice of Black Forest ham, chopped
mozzarella cheese, shredded
pitted Kalamata olives

Assemble & bake until browned & bubbly.

Enjoy!

Magazine Monday #53: Sangria Chicken

My roommate is in a line of work in which she receives a lot of gifts at holiday times, and last summer she was given a whole bunch of wines. One bottle she opened and didn't drink so she gave it to me. It was a cabernet sauvignon. I don't drink wine at all, but I do enjoy cooking with it! And there was a recipe from the March 2009 issue of Gourmet for Sangria Chicken that really tickled my fancy, and now I had the means to try it out!

The recipe is here.

This was a fabulous recipe! It was super quick and easy to make, and very, very tasty. A definite keeper!

Cooking with Kylie: "Mum's Stir-fried Chicken Fillets"

Oh, how I am loving this series I'm doing! I can't get enough of this cookbook, and think I'll take a look on Amazon to see what else Kylie has published, because she's awesome!

Here is another simple recipe from Simple Chinese Cooking that was delicious. I didn't use chicken fillets, but rather I used some chicken breasts because that's what I had on hand. I also didn't use any chilli as the recipe calls for because I don't like them; I used some orange bell pepper instead. The original recipe also calls for stock, but I didn't need any more liquid so I didn't use it. Kylie describes this as one of her mum's "no-nonsense dishes."

Stir-friend Chicken, à la Kylie's mum (adapted by me from "Mum's Stir-fried Chicken Fillets on page 81 of Simple Chinese Cooking)

For the marinade:

1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp finely grated ginger
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2cm slices

Combine chicken with marinade ingredients and set aside to marinate for about half an hour.

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 medium white onion, sliced
3 spring onions, trimmed & cut into 10cm lengths
1 tbsp sake
1/2 orange bell pepper, finely sliced

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok until surface appears to shimmer. Add chicken and marinade & stir-fry until cooked. Remove from wok & set aside.

Add 1 tbsp oil to wok & stir-fry onion, pepper, & spring onion for 1 minute. Add chicken and stir-fry for another minute.

I served mine with rice.

Again, yummy, simple, and quick. Again, a winner from Kylie!

"What To Do With A...": Salmon Melts

I haven't done a post in this series for a while, mainly because I haven't had so many bits & pieces hanging around my fridge, freezer, and pantry lately. But, some time ago, I did purchase a can of sockeye salmon on sale for $2.99 - and it was a larger can, not one of the tuna-sized cans. It was a deal I couldn't refuse, so I went for it. And the can sat there, and sat there...I also had half a brick of cream cheese in the freezer, left over from some long-forgotten baking project. And then I did a column for Bread 'n Molasses featuring my mom's salmon spread, an old family Christmas treat (upcoming in the November issue) ...And inspiration hit! If you can have tuna melts, why not salmon melts? Off I went to get some mozzarella and some English muffins.

Here is what I did:

1 can (large) sockeye salmon
1/2 brick cream cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp dried dill
3 sliced green onions.
a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce
a dash of lemon juice

Mix together. Toast an English muffin about half way. Put salmon filling on muffin. Top with cheese. Broil until cheese is all melting & bubbling.
This was fantastic! If you think cheese on salmon is weird, ask yourself: is cheese on tuna any less weird, when you think about it? This worked and was delicious. I would definitely make this again!

Cooking with Kylie: Prawn WonTons

I adore a good wonton, so it was only a matter of time before I made one of Kylie's recipes for these wonderful meat-filled noodles. What attracted me to this recipe for Prawn Wontons with Spring Onion, Ginger, and Vinegar dressing was the lightness of it: prawn wontons with a simple vinaigrette sounded like comfort food without the heaviness often associated with comfort foods.

Once again, I was not disappointed.

The recipe for this dish is HERE.

Here's how it went.

First of all, I made the dressing, which was easy-peasy. It had an ingredient in it I'd never used before called kecap manis. From what I gathered, this is a condiment similar to soy sauce, but in addition to having soy sauce in it, it also has molasses. It's a little thicker than soy sauce, but it has a richer, more complex flavour. It was really good. The dressing was delicious, and I could see a version of it being used in other dishes as well as with these wontons.

Wontons are easy to make but do take a bit of patience. Again with this recipe, I halved the ingredients, and so I used 150g of my medium shrimp that I usually have in the freezer. To fill the wrappers, I used my #100 cookie scoop, which is about 1 tsp. Using the scoop makes wonton so much easier.

I didn't shape mine in Kylie's way, but I don't think that matters too much. After boiling them, they were ready to be bathed in dressing!This was delicious, absolutely delicious! I was kicking myself for only making 1/2 a recipe because I wanted MORE! Once again, this was very simple to make & put together, just as the cookbook title suggests. Another awesome Kylie recipe!

Heaven on a Plate

Yeah, baby! This dish rocked my world - and I totally whipped it out of my ass after being inspired by this dish made my MonicaJane of Yes, We Cook, and sort of by Nigella's so-so pasta dish I made a while back. This was so easy to make it wasn't funny, and it made a ton of left-overs so I didn't have to cook for a few nights. And it was spectacular - SPECTACULAR, I tell you!

Penne with Chicken, Mushrooms, Thyme, Lemon, and Goat's Cheese

500g penne (1lb package)
140g package goat's cheese (not feta; soft, unripened goat's cheese)
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp dried thyme
zest of 1 lemon + juice of 1/2 lemon
3 cloves garlic, crushed or grated
salt & pepper

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. While the pasta cooks, saute the chicken until cooked through. Remove from pan, leaving any accumulated juices. Add mushrooms & thyme & saute until mushrooms have cooked down. Return chicken to pan, add garlic, and stir. Keep warm until pasta is cooked.

3. Drain pasta & return to pot. Add chicken & mushrooms, lemon zest & juice, and add the package of goats cheese. Stir together; the cheese will get all melty and create a "sauce". Season with salt & pepper to taste.I can't tell you how good this was! I am really enjoying cooking with chicken thighs, too; I didn't think I would, but I am rethinking my opinion of them. They certainly are WAY more affordable than breasts, I can tell you that. I would like to have used more exotic mushrooms (MonicaJane's recipe uses shiitake, which would have been great) but I only had a choice between regular white mushrooms, brown mushrooms, and portobellos, but the portobellos were way too expensive for my budget. So, I used white mushrooms (the browns weren't very fresh-looking).

A great meal! Thanks for the inspiration, MonicaJane!

Cooking With Kylie: Mongolian Beef

So, at the local overpriced grocery store the other day, this coyote came upon a screaming deal: 1.5kg local, organic, lean ground beef for $7.50. It was my lucky day! I picked up and brought it home, packaging it up and freezing it. I had a half pound portion, and decided to make this recipe by Kylie Kwong that I'd bookmarked when I got my copy of Simple Chinese Cooking.

I present to you Mongolian Beef!

I made a half recipe, and instead of using cabbage I bought a package of coleslaw mix, which is one of my stir-frying allies. I love it!

Now, the cookbook recipe calls for shao hsing wine and I notice that the recipe on the web site has changed it to rice wine. I had neither. When I got the cookbook, I looked everywhere I could in this one horse district for shao hsing wine but to no avail. The cookbook says you can substitute the wine for dry sherry, but I am too cheap to do that, so I bought a bottle of cooking sherry from the local inexpensive but butt-ugly big box grocery store. I have no idea how the flavours compare, but we do what we can, right?

The verdict: great recipe! Simple, as you might expect. I didn't do the step of combining the cabbage with the salt because I was lazy, and perhaps I'd have had a more complexly flavoured dish, but still, I wasn't disappointed. Thank you, Kylie!

Easy Dinners

I started a new medication regime that has had an interesting side effect: appetite suppression. I just don't feel like eating a lot of the time; I get hungry, but food isn't appealing. Some days, I only eat two meals, with a snack in between. Sometimes I really have to force myself to make something for dinner because I just don't feel like cooking. So, I haven't been busy in the kitchen lately, cooking or baking-wise. It's hell on the food blog, that's for sure.

I've been eating salad quite a bit because my iffy tummy seems to be able to handle more vegetable fiber now for some weird reason, and I've been eating a lot of ham & cheese sandwiches. Sometimes there are days when all I fancy is a bowl of cereal, so I eat a lot of cereal meals. I'm not complaining; I want to lose a whole bunch of weight, and if there were any side effects I'd love my meds to give me, this suppression of my appetite would be at the top of my list! So, I go with it.

I've been keeping dinners simple. The Rosemary & Lemon Roast Chicken is a good example: serve it with some potatoes and a veg, and it's easy and healthy.

I've been eating quite a bit of salmon. It's easy, quick, and healthy. I don't feel like doctoring it up a lot, so a sprinkle of some lemon pepper is enough, as with this meal...
I did find some Tequila Lime marinade at the local overpriced grocery store today - Barefoot Contessa brand, and it was on sale for $2.99 in the reduced bin! Woo-hoo! Normally it's like $8.99. I used some tonight and BBQed a piece of salmon...I used foil because I'm not sure the rack on the BBQ is spaced close together enough to facilitate easy fish BBQing - and the clean-up is easier. I always have a bag of frozen beans around. The marinade was pretty good, though it had jalapenos in it which I hate, but I picked them off and it wasn't too spicy. I cooked the rice with some beef boullion.

And then there is pizza casserole. Oh, how I love this stuff! And I got the KD for 50 cents/box in the reduced bin, too! This pan makes me about 5 meals and it's so good! Topped with my fave pizza toppings: ham, feta, and olives.I feel my posts over here have been really blah lately, and I apologize for that. Now you kinda know why. I'm going to try to keep coming up with stuff to post, but it's been hard lately...

Shrimp Burgers with Stuff

So, I have this book that's been taking up valuable space on my bookshelves for years and years and that I've rarely used. It has a recipe for shrimp burgers that I'd always wanted to make but never got around to it. In the original recipe, you lightly batter the shrimp whole and fry them, then make a cocktail sauce. For some reason, and I have no idea what that reason is, this recipe came to mind this week, and I gave it another look. I decided I didn't want to fry my shrimp whole, so I made a shrimp patty, loosely following the recipe and this is what I came up with.

I took about 15 or so raw shrimp, two green onions, two cloves of garlic, and a handful of cilantro and pulsed this all together in a food processor. I then added enough bread crumbs to bring the mixture together so it would form a firm patty. I grilled the patties on my cast iron grill pan and made a simple aoli with mayo, lemon juice, and garlic powder. I served the burger with asparagus roasted with homemade balsamic dressing and the remainder of my homemade dill pickles.

Super meal, actually! The burgers were a bit strong on the cilantro side, and, as you can see, they're very green, but that's OK with me. It was a simple dinner to put together and tasted great. I'll definitely make these again.

Chicken Fingers

You might recall that I made homemade onion rings not too long ago as part of my review of Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes. I had some leftover buttermilk from that recipe and was wondering what to do with it. I had initially wanted to make calamari but I can't get any decent squid at the local overpriced grocery store; all they had were the pre-cut rings and they were freezer burned. Blech. I then remembered this post by Denise at Keeper Worthy Recipes (Denise credits Coleen for the original recipe - both are bloggers I admire, so check them out) and an idea was born.

Am I feeling better? No. I'm feeling worse, and the oppressive heat isn't helping me. But I had a good appointment with my doctor today and I got a wicked hair-do yesterday, so I could be much worse. I felt like something junky to eat tonight, and this recipe filled that bill, too.

I adapted the recipe to suit my needs. Basically, all I did was make the chicken as I did the onion rings, and shallow-fried them in the same oil I used for the onion rings, too. I added some garlic powder to the flour mixture in addition to salt & pepper.

The result was great: crispy, lightly battered chicken strips. I served them with a side I'm making fairly regularly these days, fingerling fries.

Tortellini in Herb-Garlic Dressing

If you don't already read Donna-FFW's blog, I highly recommend you do so! You'll learn a lot about food and sex, two things that go great together, and one of which my life sadly lacks. TMI? Too bad!

Anyway, when I saw this recipe I was immediately on the hunt for some tri-colour tortellini. You'd think this would be an easy enough thing for me to find, but no; the local overpriced grocery store sells fancy stuffed pasta, but none if it I like and, like just about everthing at the local overpriced grocery store, the stuffed pastas are overpriced. Luckily, I found some one sale at Save-On in Nelson last week.

Donna-FFW's recipe can be found here.

I tweaked it a bit. I added a cup of diced zucchini, and instead of basil & parsley, I used a whole bunch of cilantro. I also added a tad more garlic. The end result was fabulous! This was a simple meal to put together, and it was light and tasty - just what I needed on a hot, stress-filled day.

Thanks again for another winning recipe, Donna-FFW! You rock!

Boring Dinner

Sometimes, you just need a quickie (right, Donna-FFW?).

Yesterday, I attended a boring workshop in which they fed us - and I am not kidding - hot dogs & chips. It's a long story, and quite frankly, the organization who was putting on the workshop did its best on a very small budget, and I'm not opposed to the odd hot dog dinner in my life. Some of the people there were just happy to be fed period. But, after the workshop, and after a stressful day yesterday which led me to be wiped out physically and emotionally today, I just needed a comforting, easy meal. This was it:
This is a chicken sausage I found on sale at the local overpriced grocery store, a Lipton Side Kick, and green beans. Such meals were typical when I was in university, though I generally ate turkey sausages before they became ludicrously expensive. This chicken sausage is not normally something I'd buy because of it's usually selling price, but since it was on sale, I thought I'd give it a go. It was OK - kinda dry and flavourless. I prefer turkey sausage, I think.

I can't be a fancypants all the time, can I?

Curtis's Crumbed Chicken Breasts

I made this dish for my review of Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone. As I said in the review, this was a simple and tasty way to prepare chicken, but as I was eating it, I suddenly realized that I could have added some ham to this and had a pretty great Chicken Cordon Bleu. As it was, I was pretty much having a Chicken Cordon Bleu with only half of the cordon bleu part. Hm. Curtis says in the write-up for this recipe, that when he worked in a Michelin-starred restaurant, he'd make this but would add prosciutto and shaved truffle to the filling - a very fancy version of Chicken Cordon Bleu, IMO.

Crumbed Chicken Breasts Filled with Swiss Cheese, p. 156 of Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone, adapted by me

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
two 3" sticks of Swiss cheese
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs


1. Slice a pocket into the chicken breasts and stuff in the cheese. In my case, I got carried away and pretty much sliced my breasts in half because I wasn't paying proper attention, so I had to truss my breasts. This was OK because I got these fancy silicone trussing thingies to try out for free from the Cooking Club of America a couple of years ago before I let my membership last, and I'd never used them before now. Turns out they work great!2. Season the breast with salt & pepper.

3. Put the flour in one shallow bowl. Beat the egg in a second shallow bowl. Put the bread crumbs into a third shallow bowl. Dredge the chicken first in the flour, then cover with egg, then cover in bread crumbs. Repeat with other breast.

4. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until done. (The original recipe has the reader pan-frying the breasts first and then finishing them in the oven, but I skipped that as I thought just baking them would be easier and lower in fat.)
5. Serve & Enjoy. I had mine with some roasted asparagus and left over Nigella pasta -which was like the bottomless pit of pasta, I had so much left!
It was a pretty nice meal, but next time I'm definitely using ham!