Brunch and Two Dinners

Brunch (late breakfast)

Yesterday, while I was creating next week’s menus for my client cookdates, I had the Cooking Channel on for background noise.  I really do better with music, but it had been awhile since I spent any time at all watching TV chefs create anything.  It was very distracting, but in my defense I did grab a few recipes to be used for my clients and THEN Brunch @ Bobby’s with Bobby Flay came on!  Not usually a fan of 50 ways to make an omelet, I almost turned the channel!  I didn’t and after this morning’s late breakfast, I’m really glad I resisted!

These pancakes are wonderful, but the fig and pistachio compote is truly to die for!!  Do like I did, quickly run to the store and get fresh figs and fresh ricotta!  This recipe is totally a repeater!  Amazingly I resisted any urge to futz with the recipe as written!  It made 14 pancakes and says it’s 2 servings.  We each ate 4 and were satisfied, not that we couldn’t have eaten 7, they are light and fluffy.  Delish!  Hope you enjoy them.  You can get the recipe here.  The theme of the episode was TUSCAN BRUNCH and I grabbed all the recipes for future use.  I’d be very satisfied with the whole meal!

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After working on the menus I decided I needed a break and since the thunderstorms and tornadoes had taken a break, revealing very bright sunshine, I gathered a list of ingredients needed for the pancakes and a few other recipes I wanted to play with and dashed over to Fairway for some shopping therapy.  Dinner plan was a tian from the tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, purple peppers I bought at the farm on Friday.  When I returned home I started to “play” in the kitchen.  First up was a caramelized onion and Kalamata olive Foccacia.  Since I didn’t have bread flour I decided to use King Arthur’s Pizza Flour!  I have to say, it was just fine.  Next up was Pesto from the bunch of basil I had standing in a large glass vase of water.  I decided to try the suggested variation of using pistachios in place of pine nuts. (A huge money savings, btw!)  Even though I always make pesto sans recipe, just eyeballing the quantities, I thought I should check on the proportion of nuts to the rest of the ingredients this time.  I will say it was very good, interestingly different but worth repeating.

Finally I prepped and cooked the tian, timing it so it could sit in a warm oven while I walked down to meet Nana coming home from work, thankfully between rain squalls!  I had topped the tian with shaved Asiago which formed a crustlike topping.  When I plated the tian I place a dollop of pesto and two dollops of fresh ricotta!  It was a lovely, light meal with a delightful crisp Rose to be enjoyed @9 p.m.!  Here’s the pic:

TIan & Foccacia

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Last Wednesday, while running errands, Nana asked what’s for dinner?  I suggested I had Chicken Tenders defrosted and was thinking stir-fry or using up the last of the roasted tomatoes and putting it all on pasta.  Then I asked her what she would like, her response was a baked potato.  The result was a quick stop @Trader Joe’s, where I gathered Baking Potatoes, Broccoli Florets and their shredded cheese blend of Cheddar, Mozzarella and Jack.  Here’s the final dish, I’m calling it Not Yo’ Mama’s Chicken Divan!

Yummy and Filling!

Simply: I coated the chunked pieces of chicken tenders with seasoned flour (salt, pepper, paprika) sauteed them add more flour to the drippings; deglazed with white wine and added chicken broth and cheese, cooked until thickened added blanched broccoli, opened the baked potato and added generous helping and topped with more cheese!  I did say simply!

Eat Well….Be Well!