What I've Been Eating/Buying ..

Early spring is like the puberty of the supermarket to me. It's gangly for a while and then there's a new found confidence in it's awkwardness. Maybe it's because I've spent so much of the winter looking at recipes, but the unusual veg showing up at Buy For Less is pretty distracting. I finally invested in a Deborah Madison cookbook, thus I'm pumped about greens and beans and all of those other vegetables/legumes/grains that I've ignored. I just bought a couple beautiful bunches of kale and broccoli rabe but other greens like chard and the weird asian varieties are looking attractive. I'm obviously getting really cheap when it comes to my food budget. Even still, my appreciation of veggies is the result of breaking out of my food routines in general. I probably make a meal involving meat once every two weeks because of the boredom of meat. New recipes and flavors are opening me back up to good-old animal protein.

Since a chicken breast is a sort of unusual inclusion for me, I put more effort into it and used this recipe (omitting the lime and knocking down the salt by half .. see below) with just one breast pounded and split into halves. I started the red peppers an hour early for the sauce and browned the ready-packaged polenta in oil (though not long enough) before cooking the chicken. The whole affair only took fifteen minutes more than the roasting of the peppers and I was surprised at how satisfying it was. Plus, my kitchen still smells awesome! Garlic and mint is really a great combo that I hadn't thought of before outside of Mediterranean recipes.



- red pepper sauce -
2 whole red peppers (broiled until blackened, then peeled and chopped)
2 glugs of balsamic vinegar
1 heavy pinch of salt

Throw all of the above, including the pepper juices, in a food processor and you get the easiest fancy-seeming coulis ever.

...

- garlic mint chicken -
1 Tbs. fresh black pepper
1 Tbs. salt
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 heavy pinch of dried oregano
2 Tbs. olive oil
3 Tbs. chopped fresh mint (about a small handful?)
1 Tbs. chopped fresh parsely (mine was too oily and needed filler)
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Combine everything and grind/mash/process into a pesto-like paste. I just used a heavy spoon to work things together. Smear the mixture on your chicken and pan fry in olive oil.