Friday Night Dinner

Shelby's coming by to play some guitar hero, have dinner, and hang out. I still have some of those little lobster tails that were so cheap at Safeway a while back. I think I'm gonna pick up a couple chicken breasts tomorrow, and do a bit of a brave take on a dish I haven't had for AGES, and never made - let alone adapted.

Oh yes, it's gonna be my stylie "Chicken/Lobster Kiev with Mushroom Sauteed Gnocchi".

I've got tons of REALLY fantastic herb butter (well, margarine actually as I don't like butter) in my freezer courtesy of the AeroGarden. The thing is still prolific as hell after I've really cut it back many many times. I'm quite impressed.

I've got a packet of gnocchi already. Tomorrow I'm just going to get a couple chicken breasts (which I loathe to use as they're utterly tasteless) and I'm going to also pick up some portabello caps.

I'll par off the lobster in chicken stock just to cook them lightly, then chop them up and let them cool. I'll stick the chunks with a couple knobs of herb butter, season the mix and roll that in chicken breast portions which I'll bash until thin between some parchment. I'll roll those "rolls" in seasoned flour, then the egg wash, and in panko (which I also have).

Then I think searing them in a pan and roasting them in the oven quickly will be enough cooking. In another pan, I'll quickly saute mushrooms and fold in the boiled gnocchi and maybe add some truffle oil and fresh herbs.

The Kievs should be somewhat cylindrical when done, so I hope I can slice them into rounds like a boudin, and serve that on the gnocchi.

Should be amazing. I've never tried it before but I can see it in my mind, and I think it'll work. Plus I have 80% of the ingredients on hand so I'm not lashing out on something weird. I just need some mushrooms and a couple chicken breasts.

I'll report back!

Quick but Tasty

I haven't posted FOREVER, by the way. Sorry for that.

Tonight I came back from the gym, and I was originally going to make a greek-ish type salad and have a shrimp cocktail with it. No, I'm serious. I had a bag of prawns lurking in the freezer and wanted to eat them before they got any trace of freezer burn on them.

Then the idea of a Vietnamese-y type rice bowl appealed to me, but I didn't want to go through the hassle of actually making the entire thing.

So instead, I looked in my tickle trunk and found some "Black Pepper Sauce for Chicken" single serve foil pack stir fry sauces. Yes bitches, the Lee Kum Kee ones. They're good, so sue me.

I sauteed a whole onion, some garlic, and added the prawns (which I loosely chopped into chunks), the sauce, and a fresh cut tomato at the end cause I felt guilty for not eating a tomato today as I was going to make salad. It was a great addition actually. I'm going to finish more "stir fry" kinds of meals with chunks of hot but raw tomato. Delish!

I spooned that over fluffy white rice (can't "get" brown yet) and topped with a tiny handful of crispy onions. I swear to god, I'm going to be putting them on oatmeal in the morning soon. I have a fairly serious obsession with them. I'm totally considering making that famous American green bean casserole topped with these things because really - how can it be anything but delicious?

Great quick little meal.

If It's Saturday......

.... then it's tenderloin beef dips my stylie with Shelby.

Seriously, he requests that every time we get together now. It's his favorite thing ever. Which is fine with me because godammit it they're awesome and it's always nice scoring extra points.

So tomorrow, it's off to the Italian Centre to buy the right bread for them. I have the steaks in my freezer from a week ago. That reminds me, gotta put 'em in the fridge.

With that, we'll likely have some Zinfandel I've got sitting about. And he'll bring gin - as always. Good Saturday planned!

Gnocchi!

Erica and Stefan are coming over... I haven't seen them in a while so I'm going to make something super simple, but delish.

I bought the gnocchi because let's face it, I'm not THAT dedicated to authenticity. But I DID buy them at the Italian Centre, so suck it.

I'm going to pitch together a super easy sauce of olive oil, carmelised onions, roasted tomatoes, bacon, herbs, chili flakes, and finish the dish with loadsa fresh herbs and some parmesano-reggiano.

With that I'm gonna pitch together some garlic herb bread - i already have the very herby butter, just need to add garlic and smear some on the birdseed baguette I picked up. WOW... gnocchi AND bread in one meal.... YAY!

Should be awesome. Not sure what we're drinking, as they're bringing wine, but I'm sure it'll be great. They choose good wine!

Just Because

Chicken Vegetable Soup

I had a random bunch of stuff to use in my fridge, so naturally I'm making soup. I had bought these pre-seasoned cooked strips of chicken breast, and they weren't quite as versatile as I'd hoped. They tasted alright but their texture was a bit to dry to throw in a wrap or a salad.

I basically made it thusly...

Sauteed some thin sliced carrot, chopped celery hearts and leaves, and a fine chopped onion. Seasoned and let the carrots get a bit soft. I added a finely chopped red pepper, hand squished 4 tomatoes, and then dumped in a knob of really herby mixed herb butter I made with the AeroGarden herbs... Then I pitched in a big handful of fine diced sweet potato, a handful of regular diced potato, and then tipped in the chopped chicken strips.

I added 3 tetra paks of chicken stock and then pitched in some fresh basil, fresh flatleaf parsley, a bit of cumin, and then a couple finely crushed dried thai bird's eye chiles.

It's cooking up still but it tastes awesome. Can't wait!

Update: Wow those chiles were fucking hot. WOW.