Wednesday, June 23, 2010

A quick summer meal idea, to jog your culinary creativity.

I love cooking in the winter. Soups, stews, roasts, potatoes, hot bread: I love cooking these things. A pot of stew simmering on the stove and a fresh loaf of bread is so comforting.

We don't eat those things in the summer. They're too hot. But there are things I love about cooking in the summer, too. I like picking herbs on our deck and I love fresh food from the garden. It's easy to throw a meal together in the summer.

Here's a meal I like to make every now and then.

Chop some tomatoes. (This is good for tomatoes that are wrinkly, or a little old - still good, but maybe not great for eating fresh.) Mix with a little olive oil and salt, and maybe some minced garlic, and spread onto a baking sheet.

Throw the tomatoes into a HOT oven - 450-500 degrees - or, since the oven is currently outlawed, onto a hot grill.

Meanwhile, grab some herbs. I can't tell exactly what's all here, but I see basil and chives and maybe some rosemary. Whatever.

Chop the herbs finely and set aside. You can see I also grated some Romano cheese and added some parsley for garnish. I'll use these later.

After about ten minutes, the tomatoes have softened and gotten some nice color. Scrape them off the pan and be sure to get the brown stuff. That's got a lot of flavor.

Mix the tomatoes with your herbs, and set aside. If the mixture cools off while you cook, you can just microwave it before serving.

Now, cover two chicken breasts with a couple layers of plastic wrap -

And pound the crap out of them with a dijon mustard jar.

Dredge the chicken breasts in a mixture of Parmesan cheese (the stuff in a can), flour, and seasoned salt.


Heat some olive oil and a little butter in a pan for a couple minutes, and when it's nice and hot, throw in the chicken. Cook over medium heat for about four minutes per side. (Only flip once!)


Meanwhile, trim some green beans. You can saute them in the same pan, once the chicken is done.

After the chicken's rested for a couple of minutes, spoon some hot tomato sauce onto a plate, top with the chicken, add more tomatoes, and sprinkle with cheese.

Easy and frightfully delicious.


Brought to you by summer.

-Maeg

3 comments:

  1. This looks great! I think it might be a good meal for a Mom with a newborn too. It doesn't look too intensive. :-)

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  2. Lisa, if I lived there I would bring it to you! Yes, it is easy, and probably would be even easier if you baked the chicken breasts. If I had a whole buncha kids like you do now, anyway. :)

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  3. You're so sweet, Maegan. :-)

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