Peasent Chicken With a Side of Gravy

A few weeks ago my dogs decided they wanted to try my english muffins. The bad part was they didn't wait until they were cooked and instead ate five uncooked muffins that were on the counter rising. A long night followed with me sitting in the waiting room of the animal hospital, hoping that they would be ok.

The one perk of this experience was that while waiting I got to watch hours of the Food Network. I caught up on some Diner, Drive-Ins and Dives, a great show that features unique local favorites from around the country. One of the places featured that night was a diner run by an ex-marine, who's specialty item was an SOS (Stew on a Shingle or Same old Stuff). Basically, it's a creamed gravy filled with ground beef served over toast.

Although this isn't a post about making an SOS, it is about the simplicity of comfort food. Gravy is such an wildly under used accessory to food. I know for me I eat it on Thanksgiving or at Grandma's house on a Sunday afternoon. But other than to use on mashed potatoes, I really partake in it. I got so excited at the thought of gravy that when I got home I looked in the fridge to see what I had to put my gravy on.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breast
1 head of cabbage, quartered
5-6 carrots chopped
1 onion, chopped
handful of radishes, sliced
4-5 cups of chicken stock
fresh thyme and 1 bay leave
salt, pepper, greek spices
1/4 cup of flour

1. Mix the chicken breast with the salt, pepper and greek spices and then place at the bottom of the slow cooker.


2. Add the carrots, radishes,onion, thyme and bay leave to the slow cooker and cover with the broth.


3. Cook on low for 8 hours. The chicken should be falling apart at this point.



4.Drain the liquid and place in a pot on the stove. Cook on medium heat and slowly stir in the flour until thickened.

5. Place the gravy over, the chicken and eat. I made some biscuits to go with it, but it's fine without or can be served over rice.

To all those concerned the pups are doing fine! Lesson learned yeast and dogs makes a bad combination.

A Very Berry Dinner Indeed

Three quarts of strawberries and we have dinner. Well, sort of, there certainly were other foods involved. But you can't have a end of spring beginning of summer feast without a love of strawberries. Luckily, our guest agreed!

On the menu for last night we had:

A Chicken in a strawberry fig port sauce with sliced strawberries on top.

Roasted Japanese sweet potatoes, asparagus, beets, snow peas mixed with an arugula pesto.

And for dessert we had a no bake strawberry pie with fresh whipped cream.


The chicken dish I felt totally confident about. You can't go wrong with a wine sauce, especially when it has the fruit of Jesus in it FIGS!!!! OK OK so figs aren't local to Massachusetts, but I just couldn't resist. Figs are one of the oldest fruits that we know man has eaten, that makes it OK in my book. As guessed the chicken came out incredible tender and full of flavor. The recipe I based it on said to glaze the chicken in the sauce, hmmmm not in this house. I decided it was best to marinade and cook the chicken in it. I'm glad I love to improvise.


The roasted veggies on the other hand were stressing me out all day. Beets are something new to me. My only real experience with them is pickled in a can, yuck. Luckily, my lady loves beets and had some insight into how to cook them. At the dinner table I watched as all of us unfamiliar with this root vegetable slowly took our first bites. SUCCESS!!!! This dish is a keeper and will be great with a variety of different veggies or different kinds of pesto.

The Recipe

four to five cups of whatever veggies are in season. I used Japanese sweet potatoes, asparagus, snow peas and those yummy beets.

mix the potatoes or any root vegetable with olive oil and place on a roasting pan and cook at 425 degrees for 45 minutes.

mix the rest of the vegetables with olive oil and spices I used pepper and herbamare. more on why I love herbamare another time. Place the rest of the veggies in with the potatoes and cook for another 15-20 minutes.

While waiting take a few cloves of garlic and pulse it in a food processor or blender. Slowly add five cups of arugula, 1/2 cup of pine nuts and olive oil into the food processor. Pulse it until well mixed. I personally love garlic so I add more garlic, but that is just me.

After the veggies are cooked place them in a bowl and mix them generously with the pesto. It's as simple as that and you have a filling veggie packed side dish. It would be great to bring to pot lucks or dinner parties.

We ended the evening with the strawberry pie and everyone was happy. Except Mr. Pittman who's word were " Next time add some damn rhubarb." OK Adam, next time. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until next spring for more local rhubarb.