Yummy Chicken Quesadillas

Sometimes I wish my mother was Italian and my father was Mexican. Or maybe even the other way around - that might produce a better looking child, but what do I know.

The reasoning behind this is that I love Mexican food. My frequent attempts at making it is always just average at best because apparently I'm way to pasty white to really make it well. I'm not confident handling the flavors or the ingredients and I just constantly feel like a fish outta water in the whole genre. I never know what's missing and what I need to add. This is where a Mexican mother would come in handy because I'm sure that if I had a generations old Mole sauce to make for Jeff, he might love me a little more. Also, I would've inherited, perhaps, a more natural rapport with cilantro instead of being completely repulsed by it.

But even though I don't have any Gomez, Rodriguez or Flores blood running in my veins, these quesadillas tasted pretty awesome. Okay, I understand that quesadillas are probably the whitest of all Mexican food you can make, but cut me some slack, alright? The wet rub on the chicken can really take all the credit for the awesomeness. The flavors are spot on. The addition of the tomatoes really gave the dish a nice fresh flavor, too. Hope you like them! Adios!

Chicken Quesadillas
Adapted from Annie's Eats

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded to an even ½ inch thickness
½ small yellow onion, finely diced
1 large tomato, seeded and diced
4 large tortillas
olive oil, for brushing/or spray olive oil
1 ½ cups shredded Mexican cheese

For the wet rub:
1 ½ tsp. chili powder
1 ½ tsp. fajita seasoning
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cumin
½ tsp. red pepper flakes
juice of 1 lime

1. Heat a grill pan or skillet over medium high heat. Whisk wet rub ingredients together in a pie plate. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Cook the chicken until browned on both sides and juices run clear. Remove from the heat and using 2 forks, shred chicken. Scrape out any black bits from skillet and add diced onion. Sauté, stirring constantly, onions are tender.

Brush one side of a tortilla with olive oil. Flip over and top one half of the tortilla with chicken mixture, diced tomatoes and shredded cheese to taste. Fold the tortilla over and carefully place the folded quesadilla onto the grill pan or skillet. Cook until heated through and cheese has melted. Repeat with remaining tortillas. To keep quesadillas warm while the others are still cooking, place in the oven on a baking sheet or other oven safe dish at 200°. Cut the finished quesadillas into triangles and serve with salsa, sour cream or other toppings of your choice.

It's Beautiful Out. Why Aren't You Grilling?

By now, you know how I feel about grilling. It's my favorite way to cook-anything. Meat, pizza, vegetables, you name it - I'd rather it on the grill. Not only does food cook better, but it tastes better and there's half the clean up afterwards. Here's a few of my favorite grilling recipes that are easy and delicious.

Grilled Chicken with Pesto



4 large skinless, boneless chicken breast halves*
2/3 cup homemade or store-bought basil pesto
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Salt and pepper both sides of chicken breasts. Combine pesto and lemon juice in a bowl. Pour over chicken breasts in a shallow dish. Let chicken marinade for about 20 minutes in the fridge. Dampen a cloth or paper towel with olive oil and oil the grill rack, or (with flame off) coat the rack with cooking spray. Preheat the grill. Shake off excess pesto and place chicken on the grill over high heat. Grill about 5 minutes per side or until chicken is cooked through, turning just once.

*It's a good idea to pound your chicken breasts down to an even thickness. This helps the meat cook more uniformly and quickly.

Adapted from: FineCooking.com

Grilled Asparagus a la Francesca

In Wicker Park, Francesca Forno is probably one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Chicago. A little over a year ago, I ordered a side of their grilled asparagus and thought I'd hit solid gold. I was set to reproduce it at home. Here is my version.



1 Lb. Asparagus, rinsed and tough ends trimmed
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Salt & Pepper
1/4 cup shredded Asiago cheese
1/2 of a lemon, or lemon wedges for each diner

Place asparagus in shallow dish and pour olive oil over asparagus. Salt and Pepper asparagus generously and toss to evenly coat each spear with olive oil and seasoning. Over a medium-high flame, line up asparagus on the grill perpendicular to the grates. Grill about 3 minutes and then turn each spear and grill 2-3 more minutes depending on how thick the asparagus is and how done you like your asparagus. I've found that nice sturdy thick spears hold up better to grilling than the delicate pencil thin spears. Obviously then, you will have less spears to individually turn. This can be tedious. Remove asparagus from the grill and place on serving dish. Top with Asiago and squeeze juice from half a lemon over the asparagus, or just serve with lemon wedges. Don't skip the lemon though. Trust me, you need it.

Bistro Chicken with Peppers

Jeff and I eat a lot of chicken. The butcher in town gets all natural chicken meat from an Amish farm and it is delicious. I probably buy five pounds of chicken breasts every week. I've decided this is the week Marlo gets to try a little chicken, too. While Jeff and I prefer to eat white chicken meat, all the literature out there suggests feeding your baby the fattiest cuts of meat, so tomorrow I'll be picking up some chicken thighs for my lil' thunder thighs. I'm hoping the homemade process goes well, because I really want to avoid buying jarred pureed chicken. It's really hard for me to eat prepared, shelf-stable foods with meat in them. Or even frozen foods with meat. I love Lean Cuisines, but I would always leave a little pile of "chicken" (in quotations because there's no proof that it's really chicken) behind in the plastic tub. Surprisingly, one thing that makes Jeff and I such a good match is he has the same hang up.

So, you won't find any bags of frozen Tyson chicken nuggets in my freezer, and hopefully you won't find any jars of baby chicken dinners in my cupboard. Interestingly enough, however, you will find cans of chicken meat in there. In my hometown, there's a local farm called Brinkman's and they also run a small market in town where they have a quality butcher and deli display. Well, they sell their cooked chicken, turkey and beef meats canned. Canned meat, weird right? If I saw a can of meat at Meijer (this probably exists and I just don't know about it - on the same note, Brinkman does actually sells their canned meat at the Meijer in Findlay) it would probably send chills up my spine. But for some unexplained reason, I trust Brinkman's. They could can anything for me and I would gobble it up.



Having this trusted resource for canned, cooked, quality meat has been a HUGE shortcut in my family for many recipes. If any recipe calls for something like chopped rotisserie meat, I just sub a can of Brinkman's chunked chicken. My friend (whom I will leave nameless, but you know who you are) once told me she loves Brinkman's meats so much that she eats it right out of the can. Well okay then, that puts her on a different level of loyalty of which I will never reach, but I will shed a tear or two if Brinkman's ever shuts down that cannery. It's been threatened many a times for many a years, but I think it's just a publicity stunt.

Here's a chicken recipe that you won't need a can of chicken for.

The obsession with roasted red peppers continues. I actually made this dinner quite a few weeks ago; so, no, the grill is still out of commission. Looking back, I can say that my past week's worth of ghetto fabulous meals was a tactic to encourage Jeff to go get a new tank of propane. Posting this is also a tactic, to remind him of how delicious dinner can be when I have a grill to cook over.

I got this recipe about 4 years ago out of Cooking Light. It is one of my favorite chicken dishes in my recipe box. They suggested serving it with mashed potatoes, but that seemed a little off to me (not to mention Jeff doesn't like mashed potatoes). So I usually serve it with wild rice and a green vegetable. Enjoy!

Bistro Chicken with Peppers

2 roasted red peppers sliced into 1 inch strips
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (or 1 whole chicken breast cut in half)
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. finely chopped shallots (you can sub an onion if you can't find a shallot)
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1 tsp. curry powder
1/8 tsp. dried thyme
1/8 tsp. fennel seeds

Combine salt and garlic on a cutting board; chop until mixture becomes a coarse paste. Rub garlic mixture over both sides of chicken breasts. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 5 minutes or until golden, flip. Add shallots to the pan with the chicken, cook 1 minute stirring constantly. Add broth, curry, thyme and fennel to the skillet. Stir. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add peppers and cook 2 minutes uncovered or until chicken is done. Serve chicken topped with peppers.

Our V-Day Dinner at Home

When you have a baby, especially one who turns in at 7:30 each night, going out to dinner is not an option. The baby doesn't care if it's your birthday or Valentine's Day. Babysitter, you say? Well, the last time Grammy and Gramps drove an hour up to Carmel to babysit so Jeff and I could go on a date, she screamed bloody murder the second we left. We gave up our steakhouse dinner for Chick Fil A and headed home to relieve our exhausted parents.

So rather than risk a repeat date cut short, I cooked up some chicken of my own at home. We dined, put the babe to bed, and sipped Scotch until the wee hour of 10 pm. This was the first night I tried this recipe. I found it on Fine Cooking's website and Jeff and I agree that aside from the chicken being a tiny-bit overcooked (this is normal for me, I have a crippling undercooked chicken phobia) it was a success! I served it with a version of a roasted broccoli recipe that we've been enjoying for a few weeks.

I hope you find that most of my recipes, while they may (hopefully) appear and taste deliciously gourmet, actually consist of pretty everyday ingredients. Over the years of living on my own I've stocked a pretty extensive pantry and spice cabinet, but I still refuse to go out and buy some obscure ingredient that will only be used in one meal. Not my thing. So here it is, enjoy!


Sear-roasted Chicken with Tomato & Red Wine Sauce

For the Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (I just used 2 halves or 1 whole breast)
kosher salt & ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. olive oil or canola oil (I used olive oil)

For the Sauce
1/2 cup of Red Wine (I'm sure it tastes better if you use table wine, but I always just use the cooking wine you find at the supermarket for any of the wine in my cooking)
14 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes with juices*
2 Tbsp. of chopped fresh oregano (I used 1 tsp. of dried oregano)
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/3 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
kosher salt & ground black pepper

*Whenever canned tomatoes take a starring role in a recipe, as they do in this one, I always "splurge" and buy the best canned tomatoes the store has to offer. Now this isn't much of a splurge, it's mostly just the difference between $1.99 and $2.99 for a can. No biggie. I prefer Muir Glen brand. I've found that cheaper tomatoes have too much of a tomatoey taste, not a fresh taste.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Make sure chicken is very dry by blotting with a paper towel. Salt and pepper both sides of the breasts generously. I also pounded down the thicker side of the breast a little so it was more uniform in thickness and would cook more evenly. Heat an oven-proof skillet over medium high heat for one minute. Add the oil and swirl around the pan. Then place the breasts in the pan presentation side down. Leave untouched for 2 minutes. Using tongs, check the chicken to see if it's browned, if not, leave for 1-2 more minutes before flipping to other side. Cook the second side for 1 minute and then transfer pan to the oven and continue to cook the chicken for 5-8 minutes. I had the chicken in the oven for about 9 minutes. Keep in mind I had 2 breasts, and they were just a little dry according to Jeff (I thought they were perfect). If you are cooking 4 breasts, I would suggest around 9-10 minutes, with just 2, perhaps stick to 6-8 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and place on a separate plate. Tent with foil to keep warm.

To make the sauce, discard any leftover fat in the pan and heat the pan over high heat. Add the red wine and scrape up any of the brown bits in the bottom of the pan. Let the wine reduce for 2-3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium high and add the can of tomatoes and the red pepper flakes. If you're using dried oregano, add that now as well, if using fresh, add last. Let the tomato juices reduce for about 3 minutes. Stir in cheese and season with salt and pepper. Spoon over seared chicken.