One-pan Chicken with Zucchini

I was REEAAAAALLLY hungry last night but didn't want to do a lot of damage in the kitchen because, well, it's already a disaster area. I'm surprised the governor hasn't declared it a state of emergency yet. Hopefully I will have it cleaned up before we go on vacation!

SO, I had some thin-sliced chicken breasts and zucchini (yellow and green) from the orchard, and wanted to make a simple, quick dinner. I thought of how flavorful the chicken was from the chicken marsala recipe, so I decided to make it the same way, and just throw the zucchini in there at the end.

Ingredients:
1lb thin-sliced chicken breasts (cutlets?)
1 c AP flour
assorted herbs/spices (I used salt, pepper, and herbs de provence)
1 small zucchini, yellow or green, sliced (I used half of each)
1 TB butter
2 TB EVOO
1 TB lemon juice

Directions:

I mixed the flour and seasonings on a shallow plate, and coated the chicken.
In a saute pan, I melted a pat of the butter (1/2 TB I'm guessing), then added 1 TB olive oil and the lemon juice. (If I had gotten a lemon at the store I would have added the zest to the flour mixture, but alas, went to the store afterwards.)
After the chicken was cooked on both sides I set it aside and added the rest of the butter to the pan. I added the zucchini and a little more salt and pepper and cooked for a couple minutes, until the thinnest slices were somewhat transparent.

I don't have a picture, because as I said, this was a fast dinner and we both had to get places! But it turned out well, and with some Ready Rice (guilty) it was a hubs-pleaser. Another quick chicken to add to my repertoire for crunch times.

My First Risotto

At the Orchard/Farmer's Market near work, I saw that they had asparagus for sale - homegrown. Since I'd never had asparagus before, I figured why not. The Hubs likes it, maybe I would too.

I found a couple different recipes for spring risotto and asparagus risotto from the WC, which all included blending some of the asparagus into the risotto. I didn't really want that, just wanted a plain risotto recipe with a little spring veg involved. I came across this recipe, and it looked like a keeper. The rest of the site looks cute too!

When it came time to prep, I couldn't find shallots at the orchard, so I had to go with regular onion, to the detriment of the dish I think. Also, my garlic was shot (STUPID GIANT! what is up with all of your garlic turning green and sprouting?!?!) so I had to use *gasp* garlic powder. I know, horrendous.

I thought it would be much more complicated than it was, but I will offer up the things I learned:
- do your prep first. follow the recipe. one minute before you have to add the asparagus is not the time to be cutting the asparagus.
- the liquid absorbed much faster than I thought it would, so keep an eye on that.
- wine makes everything better.

Here is the risotto in my lovely dutch oven:


Here is a closeup of the creamy goodness:


Verdict: two thumbs up for the idea...next time will be better. nothing wrong with the recipe though!

Sausage with peppers, roasted broccoli, maybe something else?

Hey there Kitty, in case you forget what you wanted for dinner:


Roasted Broccoli via TFN:
Cut one large bunch of broccoli into 3-inch spears, toss with 3 smashed cloves garlic, a pinch of red pepper flakes and 3 tablespoons sesame oil. Spread the spears on a baking sheet and roast at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Top the spears with a handful of sliced scallions and 2 teaspoons soy sauce.

Ok, so dinner done! I made sausage (just sauteed it with bell peppers) and roasted broccoli from the food network recipe above.




Hubs called the broccoli "Chinese broccoli" so I will probably only make it for me from now on!

Pork-tastic! (and a dog story)

I feel a bit guilty because I didn't really 'make' the pork tenderloin we had last night, as in season it or such things, but it was still a damn good dinner.

I got one of those hatfield (I think) pork tenderloins in the meat section of my local grocery store, flavored with "peppercorn." So basically I could've done it myself, but oh well. It was great!! Roasted with foil on for 20 min, stuck some shaved carrots (whole) in for 10 min (seasoned with olive oil and S&P), took the foil off, roasted for another 10 min, took the pork out to 'sit' and did the carrots for another 5 min or so. Who knew it took so long for carrots to roast???

The carrots came out with a great flavor because of the pork remnants/liquids/essence. The carrots of course were organic, they come with their manes still attached, not sure what I should do with all that greenery so i just throw it out. If anyone has anything interesting to do with carrot stem please let me know!! I buy the organic carrots because I am a snob. Or because I bought them once and they tasted so freaking good I just can't eat any other carrots now.

The potatoes I made were from my favorite place for food-ness, Weaver's Orchard (see previous posts for website). They were great! Just plain ol' gold potatoes, took about 5/6 of them (the biggest ones, left the smaller ones to make roasted taters another day), boiled them, mashed them, stuck them in a - NO. nevermind that.
Left the skin on, because that's hubs' favorite part apparently. Why? potato innards = so yummy!
Some 1% milk, from local cows in Lancaster (I like having milk come from cows I can actually drive by and moo at), a little bit of butter (I'm estimating about 2-3 tbs, give or take a stick), and some sea salt and I was in heaven. No, they will never compare to my grandmother's potatoes, but nothing really will. Sigh.

All in all, great dinner! easy too because I had to do laundry in between prep & cook. OH. AND. I had to take my overpeeing dog out.

That cute dog, in the posts from a couple weeks ago? Yeah, he's the devil incarnate. He was perfect last week, and Monday started up again with the "I'm gonna pee on everything sucka" routine. So I threw his little gold self in the car and off to the vet we went. $800 later (I exaggerate, it's what I do), I left with antibiotics and a bill for urine and blood tests. I half hope it's nothing, I half hope it's something - treatable. I'm so sick of the smelliness! and feel so bad that he pees and doesn't really know it, hence sits in it all day. bathtime = dinnertime for Leroy lately.

We'll see how it goes next week. On the bright side, I didn't threaten to turn him into a rug this week. Yet. It's only Thursday.

*disclaimer: no dogs were nor will be harmed by writer of this blog. though I may wax poetic about threats, I carry no big stick.*


...aaaaand here's dinner as leftovers the next day, WHEEEE!!!