Still in a Sandwich Kinda Mood

We are nearing the end of 'mater season.   So take advantage of the yummy, juicy goodness and play around with another classic sandwich:  the BLT.

I add chicken and avocado to the mix along with a spicy chipotle mayonnaise to liven up the situation.  Swap out the toasted bread with a warm ciabatta roll, and you have a delicious sandwich with attitude:  a CABLT!

Try it!  You'll like it!


As you are an intelligent soul, dear reader, I'm going to assume that you can fry up some bacon and slice up some tomatoes and avocado.  Try making The Perfect Chicken Breast and add that to the party.  Then spice it up with some chipotle mayonnaise.



Chipotle Mayonnaise

Please forgive the light.  It's an overcast day and I work with the sun.

Using a lot of help from already prepared mayo, this spicy little sauce is great on a variety of sandwiches! If you want to spice it up even more, add some additional adobo sauce (you know...that spicy love in which those smoky peppers reside).

1 cup mayonnaise
2 medium chipotle peppers
2 Tbl cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime

Throw all of that goodness into a blender or food processor and let it whir until smooth.  Done.  And delicious.

Makin' It Smell Like Home

I am a nester.

I never thought I would fess up to it, but I am.  Gone are the days of longing to be out and about in the thick of things.  I love being at home and futzing away in the kitchen.  J and I have been spending a great deal of time in San Francisco this summer, and, although it's been fantastic running around the city gorging ourselves on the fantastic food, something has seemed out of place.

Our place just didn't smell like home.

Well, I fixed that by fixin' a good ole roasted chicken.  Nothing makes a house feel like a home than the comforting smells of simple cookin' wafting through the joint.

Try it.  You'll like it.

That's what I'm talkin' about.

Roasted Chicken with Fennel and Lemon

The lemon and the fennel come together beautifully to make a bright, fresh taste that you won't mind turning on your oven even on the hottest of summer nights!

 1 5 lb chicken
3 lemons, plus the zest and juice of another lemon (so I guess that would be a total of 4)
2 yellow onions
1 head of garlic
2 fennel bulbs
Healthy squirt of anchovy paste
1 Tbl parsley, minced
1 tsp rosemary, minced (plus 2-3 sprigs for a bouquet)
1 tsp tarragon, minced (plus 2-3 sprigs for a bouquet)
1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
3 Tbl olive oil
1 cup prosecco
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
3 Tbl flour
pinch of crushed red pepper
Salt n' pepper


Preheat oven to 450.

Slice onions, fennel, and three lemons into halves, then thirds. Place a majority of the veggies in the bottom of a roasting pan.  The rest will be used to stuff the cavity of the bird. Drizzle with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss to coat.  Slice garlic bulb in half horizontally.  No need to peel it.  Rinse off bird, inside and out, and pat dry. Season the cavity with salt and pepper and place in the roasting pan on top of the vegetables.  Stuff bird with remaining onions, fennel, lemons, garlic, and rosemary/tarragon bouquet.  Tie legs together with kitchen twine.

In a small bowl, combine mustard, anchovy paste, lemon juice, zest, herbs, and red pepper. Drizzle in oil while whisking.  Slather that mixture all over the bird.  Cover with foil and place in oven.  After 45 minutes, remove foil and cook for another 30 minutes or until bird is done (165 degrees).  Remove chicken from pan, allowing it to rest for 15 minutes under a foil tent.

Place roasting pan over two burners on a medium high heat.  De glaze the pan with the prosecco, using a wooden spoon to get up those yummy brown bits.  Reduce wine by at least half.  Add flour and cook for 3 minutes stirring constantly.  Add stock and simmer, whisking to remove any lumps.

Carve up the bird, and spoon the lemony, oniony, fennely goodness all over that sucker!

Day 3: Lunch with GLOBO

I hear horror stories of working with absolutely insufferable people.  Fortunately, I work in an extremely collegial environment with folks who genuinely make me laugh and want to be a better teacher and person.

Such is the case with A, L, B, and A or, as I like to refer to them, GLOBO:  the Glamorous Ladies of the Business Office.

These ladies are good ol' Southern gals who occupy a tiny corner of the campus far, far away from my room.  In this magical place of business daring do, they deal with mysterious things like numbers and math all day and generally ensure the school keeps on keepin' on.  They are a delightful group of people who tend to travel in a pack and collectively have sunny and cheery dispositions.  Case in point:  they let me call them GLOBO without punching me in the throat.  Now that's sunny.

I enjoy having lunch with them because, for all of us, it's taking a trip somewhere strange.  For me it's interacting with business minded people.  For them, I assume, it's dealing with...well...the strange.  After all, if you whittle it down to its bare essence, I teach teens how to play make believe in front of people.

And I 'm a total spaz.

So we strike up conversations about bowling and Italy, the crazy antics of students and, of course, food laughing and spending our lunch (half) hour with lively chatter and good friends.  A couple of them even follow this blog (Hi, B and A!).  One of GLOBO, who has proclaimed that she "refuses to work with strange produce," has said that because of my blog she would even try jicama.

So, ladies, thanks for the sparkling conversation and company, and enjoy your jicama!

Spicy Slaw Wrap


Spicy Slaw with Jicama (see Feeling Famous)
1 perfectly cooked chicken breast
1 Sun Dried Tomato Flatout Flatbread

Slap on the slaw.  Lay down some sliced chicken.  Roll it up, and chow down!

A Teacher Prepares by Scottislavski

Stanislavski says "An Actor Prepares."

The Boy Scouts say "Be prepared."

And, Lettuce Entertain You, the restaurant conglomerate in Chicago tells its servers, "Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance."

Well, the same holds true for teachers...and their daily lunches.

When one thinks of cafeteria food, visions of rotund, ashen-faced, hairnet-clad ladies donning grey uniforms and white aprons scooping out globs of mystery substances onto sectioned trays dance in one's head.  Fortunately, this is not the case at my school.  These unsung heroes of culinary and nutritional fortitude are a vital part of our school community and genuinely enjoy working with our students.  Daily, they offer up a wide variety of choices of entrees with a wink and a smile.

That being said, like many institutions facing the challenge of feeding 600 plus people daily, they rely on a food service which provide many items semi-prepared or in ginormous bulk quantities.  They also have to stay within a budget.  It's fun to watch the progression of food throughout the week.  Inevitably Monday's grilled cheese sandwiches become Wednesday's croutons on the salad bar.  In college, I had to suffer through the strange journey from Sausage and Pepper Hoagies to Sausage Pizza Soup.

No offense to the Lunch Ladies, but in order to stay true to my creed, "Food is not Feed,"  I bring my lunch to school each day. This is wear the Scouts, Stanislavski, and Rich Melman come into play.

Each Sunday I set aside a couple of hours to do some prep work for the week, so that, when I finally return home from work 8:00, I am able to put together a tasty lunch that doesn't come out of a box or off a truck.  The menu changes weekly.  I usually make a dressing or two, or perhaps I'll make a pesto.  I may grill and marinate some veggies or make homemade beet chips as a slightly healthier option for my love of potato chips. But I always prepare chicken breasts to use throughout the week.

This week I will show you how to transform your regular ol' chicken breasts into tasty, mostly healthy lunches.

The Perfect Chicken Breast


8 chicken cutlets
Chili oil (recipe follows)
A boatload of paprika
Salt
Pepper

Heat oven to 400.  Drizzle chicken cutlets with oil and season with salt, pepper, and paprika.  Turn those suckers red!  Heat two oven safe skillets (I use a cast iron skillet and a grill pan) over medium high heat.  Once hot, place chicken seasoned side down. While chicken sears, generously season the other side.  After five minutes, flip chicken and transfer to the oven.  Roast in oven for 13 minutes.

Allow to cool and place in a container and refrigerate.

You now have chicken for the week.

The Waxman Challenge

Last night was the premiere of a new show called Master Chef.

The conceit is simple:  home cooks strut their stuff for a shot at $250,000 and a book deal while dealing with the snarky critiques of Gordon Ramsey and a couple of highly respectable, yet terribly egocentric, guest judges.  I am totally hooked, and I am wondering why I am not on it.

During last night's episode, I actually was quite tearful.  Here were a group of stay at home moms, software programmers, and everyday Joe's risking national ridicule all because each share a common passion: food.  They shared their "signature dishes," prepared with varying degrees of success and finesse all with the hopes of taking one step closer to winning the coveted prize.

Of course, I was inspired.

Flashback to Barbuto.  J and I were having our perfect New York al fresco dining moment:  I was desperately trying to figure out how to snap a photo with Obi Wan KaWaxman, and J was attempting to fashion a tranquilizer dart out of a bottle of Pelegrino and some chili peppers to keep me from bum rushing the man to get a hug.  And then the chicken came.

This was no ordinary chicken.  Succulent, juicy, and filled with a verdant freshness that made you understand that this man had been touched by God...or had spent some serious quality time figuring out how to cook barnyard foul.

So...inspired by the Zen-like Grill Master and the hopeful everyday cooks on a reality show, here is my interpretation of Waxman's Herb Chicken

Herb Chicken a la Duff a la Waxman

1 4lb chicken
1 yellow onion, quartered
1 lemon, quartered

For the Slatherin' Goodness

3 garlic cloves
4 anchovy filets
1 Tbl capers
1 tsp fresh thyme
2 Tbl fresh parsley
2 Tbl fresh basil
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
salt 'n pepper

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine all of the Slatherin' Goodness ingredients in your trusty mini food processor.  Whir away until it becomes a green, fragrant pool of love.

Place chicken breast side up in a cast iron skillet.  Stuff cavity with onion and lemon.  Now slather that chicky with the Slatherin' Goodness, making sure you get underneath the skin as well as covering the entire bird.  Cover with foil and roast for 50 minutes.  Remove foil and cook for an additional ten minutes to crisp up that bird.

Allow to rest for a bit before carving.  Picture yourself sitting outside in the Meat Packing District with your Valentine and enjoy.

The carnage.

Kabob: Revisited

Some plastic wrap company keeps telling me that I throw away over $500 worth of food a year.

NO MORE!

What's is the fridge:  left over kabobs, grilled eggplant, homemade pesto, arugula, grilled chicken breast.

A simple yet, delicious solution:  Grilled Chicken and Veggies on Ciabatta with Pesto Mayonnaise.  Feelin' Fancy is great, but sometimes a good sandwich does the trick.

Kabob Diversion

I am fully aware of the daunting task ahead of me.  I'm just refusing to do anything about it...yet.

In my other life, I am a theatre teacher.  For the past three years, I have been charged with creating a theatre program at a pretty groovy little school outside of Memphis, and, over those three years, my students have worked their booties off to create something wonderful.  We have tackled classic American plays, Shakespeare, narrative theatre, musicals, and have even generated a couple of original scripts developed through ethnographic studies and interviews.  Not too shabby for a program with roughly twelve extremely active participants and no formal performance space.

Perhaps our crowning achievement was when we received an invitation to take a show to the American High School Theatre Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Yea, us!

Now, I have to pick a show suitable for young actors with little or no set that can travel across the pond to the world's largest theatre festival and raise an obscene amount of money to do so.  This summer should be dedicated to pouring over scripts, devising fund-raising possibilities, and working with designers to have everything ready to go.

Instead, I went to the grocery store.

If you have any ideas about which play I should take, I would love to hear them!

Yogurt Marinated Chicken Kabobs

This marinade made me soooo happy!  The chicken is beyond juicy and flavorful.  This made eight skewers, plus two that were just with the veggies.

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup plain yogurt
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup fresh mint
2 Tbl fresh rosemary
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Veggies, sliced into sturdy wedges

zucchini
yellow and orange peppers
fennel
red onion

Combine yogurt, garlic, herbs, lemon, oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and set aside.  Cut chicken breasts into 1 1/2" cubes and place in marinade.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Soak skewers in water to prevent burning.  While skewers get waterlogged, slice veggies into wedges and create an assembly line.  Once you start skewerin' the chicken it gets a little messy.  Assemble skewers alternating chicken and veggies (about three pieces of each per skewer).

Preheat grill pan over medium heat and turn on the fan.  It's gonna get smoky in here!  Place skewers on grill and char those suckers.  About 5 minutes on each side.  Transfer to a baking sheet and finish cooking in a 350 oven for about ten minutes.  Serve over Minted Eggplant Couscous.

If you have extra veggies, make a couple of skewers with them.  Just drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Delish!


Minted Eggplant Couscous

This is a great dish to bring as a side for summer get-togethers, and it gets better the longer it sits.  More than likely you will use less vinegar.  I don't really measure out each ingredient, so start with a couple of shakes and add until it tastes good to your pie hole.


2 cups chicken stock
2 cups couscous
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 small eggplant, grilled and marinated with mint
1/2 cup dried apricots, diced
1/2 cup currants
1/4 cup pistachios
1 red pepper, chopped
3 carrots, diced
7 green onions, diced
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
a ton of fresh parsley, chopped
2 Tbl fresh mint, chopped
Salt/pepper to taste

Grill and marinate the eggplant as we talked about in an earlier post, except this time use mint as your herb and forget about the capers.  Let sit for a couple of hours so flavors can combine.

In a medium sauce pan, bring stock and garlic to a boil.  Stir in couscous, cover, and remove from heat.  This will be done in five minutes!

While the couscous is couscousing, chop your veggies and apricots into bite sized pieces and drain the garbanzos. 

Using a fork, fluff the couscous and transfer to a large bowl. Add in veggies, pistachios, apricots, currants, and herbs.  Dress with lemon, vinegar and olive oil. Toss to combine.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Dinner: Improvised - Help the Cootie Laden

Ever have a friend who is havin' a bad week, and you're not quite sure what to do to cheer them up?

A good friend of mine has Cooties.  It's actually kind of serious, terribly annoying, and, sorry Tugar, not very pretty to look at.  Couple this affliction with the swamp-like summer heat of Memphis, and you have one unhappy camper on your hands.

Mission:  provide comfort (or at least distraction) through food using what I have in my kitchen and bring a smile to a friend's face.

What's in the fridge:  a whole chicken, spinach, red cabbage, some tired turnips, carrots.

Cootie Boo's fave is Thanksgiving food, and I just saw the movie Salt.  Why not brine the chicken?!

Spice Brined Chicken

I usually brine a turkey for Thanksgiving, but I have used this method with chicken or pork throughout the year.  It's time consuming, but so worth the effort.  It gives the meat an incredible spicy flavor, and keeps it moist and juicy.  I tend to raid my spices and throw in what sounds good at the moment;  just stick to your earthier spices.

1 4 lb. chicken

For the brine

1 medium yellow onion, unpeeled and quartered
1 head of garlic, slice in half
2 turnips, cut into thirds
2 carrots, cut into thirds
1 2" piece of ginger, sliced
1 1/2 cups kosher salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 Tbl whole black peppercorns
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper
3 cups water

In a large stock pot, combine ingredients and bring to a boil.  (I like to give the mixture a good stir to dissolve the salt and sugar a bit before turning on the heat, otherwise you will have some crustiness on the bottom of your pot that is a bee-otch to get off.)  Let the brine cool completely.

Once the brine is at room temperature, place your chicken breast side down in the brine and add enough water to cover.  Cover and put it in the fridge for six hours.

Preheat oven to 400.  Remove bird from brine and rinse thoroughly under cold water.  Pat dry and place in a cast iron skillet.  Here is where you can play around.  I make a butter mixture to rub over the little chicky with a half a stick of butter, cumin, cayenne, orange zest, and pepper.  Again, play with whatever you think sounds tasty.  Slather the bird with the butter, under and over the skin.  Shove an onion in the cavity with maybe some citrus and fresh herbs.  Cover with foil and roast for 45 minutes.  Remove foil and roast for an additional 20-25 minutes uncovered to brown that sucker. 

Let that baby rest for 10 minutes and carve.

Sauteed Red Cabbage and Spinach

The balsamic make this side tangy and slightly sweet, and it looks kind of like Christmas with the bright red and green.

1/4 head of red cabbage, shredded
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 oz baby spinach
2 Tbl balsamic vinegar
2 Tbl olive oil
salt/pepper to taste

In a saute pan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add sliced onions and cook for 5 minutes.  Add cabbage and saute until it begins to wilt, about 7 minutes.  Add garlic and vinegar, and cook until vinegar reduces by half.  At the last minute, add in spinach and stir it around until just wilted.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve immediately.


I am not a dessert man, but what sort of Thanksgiving-ish dinner is complete without a sweet bite?!  I made a Rhubarb Tart with Orange Glaze (thank you, defunct Gourmet magazine...we miss you!) and I added some fresh figs I had picked up at the Memphis Farmer's Market.  A fantastic dessert that was super easy to make!