Remember how Peter and I celebrated the end of my final exams last week with a Cuban Feast? This morning, Peter finished his LAST law school final exam ever! :D He peeled through his last final exam faster than these hanging overripe bananas peeled away from their skins.
(Picture preceded by a “thunk, THUNK” in the sink below.)
We celebrated with a Jessie-cooked meal of chicken and artichokes, specifically:
Balsamic Chicken with Sauteed Pears and Blue Cheese
Ingredients:
1 lb. chicken tenders or chicken breast
2 tsp canola oil
2 ripe Bosc pears, cores removed and pears sliced into wedges
1/2 chicken or veggie broth
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese (optional)
Cook the chicken tenders by your favorite method. I simmered the tenders in water to keep them moist, but you can also bake them or cook them in a pan. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan over medium heat and saute the pears until soft, about 3 minutes.
Combine broth, balsamic vinegar, and cornstarch and mix thoroughly. Add to pears and cook until sauce is thickened.
Arrange chicken and pears on plate and pour sauce over all. Add blue cheese if desired (I didn’t have any, but adding cheese would taste gooood).
Fruit and balsamic vinegar make such a delicious combination! Adding blue cheese would taste even better … if you like blue cheese, of course. If not, well, I don’t know you. :P
I also made Christina‘s Stuffed Artichokes, a recipe I bookmarked a while back and that I’ve been itching to try. Usually, I just boil artichokes and serve them with a mayo-mustard sauce for Peter (boooooooring), but this recipe had me salivating and saying mmm-MMM!
I’ve never cut the tips off the artichoke leaves before – I always thought it was a time consuming frivolity that fancy restaurants did to impress their patrons, but it was actually really easy! And look how gorgeous they be:
Who knew artichokes were so beautiful??
Look how much stuff I pulled out of the artichoke centers:
Artichokes are definitely not a thrifty vegetable.
Full of stuffing:
After baking:
Great recipe, Christina! Peter is usually devoted to his mayo-mustard dip, but he loved this recipe :)
I’ve been working on a backlog of posts to go up periodically while I’m in China. I also have a number of guest posts in the queue by some wonderful bloggers that I’m very excited about! I’ll also have a guest post by my sister (haha, you can’t get out of it now, C!!). In any case, there should be some THIH action going on over the next month and a half.
Stay tuned for a fun post on Sunday! On Saturday, I’ll be getting another “credential” after my name. What “credential”, you ask? Hehehehe ;)
Q: Do you like artichokes? How do you like to prepare/eat them?
Doesn’t that sounds like the name of a rock band? You’d better snag it now, because apparently all the good names are taken.
Why unintentionally eggy? I experimented with a new pancake this morning, and I would DEFINITELY make an alteration next time. I’ll share it with you anyway, so you can decide if you like eggy pancakes or not.
The Unintentional Pancake
Ingredients:
1 egg (please, try it with just an egg white first, or else you’ll come back to haunt me)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cornstarch (makes pancake crispy!)
1 Tbsp brown rice flour
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch salt
Mix all ingredients together and pour into a skillet over medium heat.
After bottom cooks, flip and let cook through. Turn onto plate and top with your favorite toppings. I topped mine with strawberries (of course) and a “frosting” of Greek yogurt mixed with Chillin’ Chocolate. Plus a little more Chillin’ Chocolate (I’m going to be so sad when it’s gone :( ).
Verdict? Deliciously filling, but waaaaay too eggy! Please, do yourself a favor and make this pancake with egg whites. I used a whole egg because egg yolks have some wonderful healthy fats and other nutrients in them. But, they don’t taste good in these pancakes. With egg whites – voila! Perfection!
Lunch included a lovely strawberry and greens salad with crumbled blue cheese and the best balsamic vinegar we had – thick and syrupy and sweet.
… What’s that? You say you want to see the long-awaited salmon recipe? Well, if you insist …
Leeky Salmon with Sweet Grapefruit Sauce
Ingredients:
1 pound salmon
1 leek, thoroughly cleaned and sliced thin
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp grapefruit zest
1 Tbsp grapefruit juice
Just keep the rest of the grapefruit, too
2 tsp honey
Salt and pepper
Cook the salmon by your favorite method. Peter cooked our salmon in his homemade sous-vide setup.
For the non-Peter cook, I recommend broiling the salmon with a little olive oil and thyme on top, or using this little salmon trick.
While the salmon is cooking, prepare the leeks by placing them into a saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes, then draining them and plunging them into an ice bath (or cold water like I did, if you don’t have ice).
Whisk together the olive oil, zest, juice, honey, and salt and pepper. Arrange a few leeks on the salmon and pour the sauce over all. Place a grapefruit slice or two next to the fish (in place of the typical lemon wedge) and serve with a snooty upturned nose and a French accent.
Who knew that grapefruit and leeks went so well together?? I originally came up with this recipe to enter into last week’s Cook’s Mission competition, but with my hemming and hawing last week, I never got around to making it until today. I’m sorry, Mae! And, I chose the secret ingredients, too! For those of you who want to enter this week, the secret ingredient is rutabaga. So, get cooking!
I just wanted to thank you all again for your sleeping suggestions! For the last two nights, I’ve been sleeping like a baby – sleeping until 7 am with no major interruptions other than a bouncing Maddies. No caffeine and unplugging for at least half and hour before bed really seems to help. I’ll see how it goes during the week, but for now, I feel WELL. RESTED. :D For those of you who want to see a summary of everyone’s sleeping tips, look under the “Reader Tips” tab at the top of the page.
On a final note: LeQuan of luvtoeat was so sweet as to give me this Happy 101 award! There are few people who bring a smile to my face as much as LeQuan. Everyone should check out her blog to see her mouth-watering dishes and adorable kiddies! :)
Here are the rules:
1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink).
3. List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know about the award.
Of course, don’t feel obligated to participate if you don’t want to. I know we’re all busy!
Ten things that make me happy (in no particular order):
* My husb and his crazy hobbies that always remind me what a unique man he is
* My dad and sisters and my family in Canada and in Missouri and scattered all around
* Colored pencils
* A quiet morning, a light breeze, and a pair of sneakers
* Talking to my lovely friends :)
* Creating a new recipe and having it WORK
* Our doggles, Maddies and Bon
* Things that grow, be it person or plant
* Finishing something and finishing it well
* A good night’s sleep
I’m going to pass the award onto these lovely ladies:
Samantha @ Bikini Birthday
Darryn @ brio.gusto (whenever you get back from India!!)
Andrea @ Can You Stay For Dinner?
Christina @ Dinner at Christina’s
Katie @ Health for the Whole Self
Em @ HomecookedEm
Christie @ Honoring Health
Emma @ Midget Keeper Daily
Kristen @ Simply Savor
Lucy @ Sweet Spirit Shine
Feel free to participate if you’d like!
I’m off to do a little more work before unplugging for the night! Have a wonderful evening! :)
Q: Have you ever made a dish or recipe that did not turn out as you expected?
