Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

     This week I took my first cooking class, Knife Skills 101.  I became a member of the Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural Center in Ocean Springs, MS, (http://www.themaryc.org/) and signed up for some cooking classes.  I figured I should take knife skills, both to learn the correct knives to use for specific things, and how to hold them so I don't cut myself, (I am a huge clutz), and how to do that super fast chop that you see on The Food Network.  I surprised myself at how well I did!  No band-aids, and I totally beat the other lady in boning my chicken... take that great grandma!  (she became a great grandma that day, actually)...
     While we were learning how to slice & dice, one of the cooks was preparing us a meal out of our practice food.  We ended up with a bacon-wrapped chicken breast stuffed with boursin cheese, in a roasted tomato & garlic sauce.  We had a side of parmesan fries from learning how to batonnet, and then a citrus vinaigrette salad made from sectioning an orange, and slicing up purple onion and fennel.  I scarfed mine down.  Everyone else kind of ate most of it... I wanted to steal from their plates, I was so hungry and it was so good!

     I decided to make it for dinner last night, but with a twist... I still have an inordinate amount of jalapenos in our fridge, so I decided to stuff the chicken with cream cheese & jalapenos instead of the boursin (also because our commissary didn't have boursin).  I also added portabello mushrooms to the sauce, and served it over homemade organic parmesan risotto, topped with roasted garlic parmesan asparagus.  I made a fresh spinach chiffonade to top it off, but forgot to add it in my hunger/excitement!

Pad Thai

     I had some pork that I wanted to make, so I goog'd pork recipes.  I found one for Paula Deen's Pad Thai, checked out the ingredients, and realized I already have most of them... sweet!  (We have kind of alot of Asian non-perishables from my Master Chef excursion).  Before making it, however, I read the reviews, and some people were saying to steer clear of this one, so I found another one on a Thai website called ThaiTable.com.  So, I did another combo move.  I used PD's recipe in regards to the pork, and the legit Thai recipe when it came to the rest, except that I found the noodles weren't ready after a 10 minute soak, so PD may have that one right...  In order to expedite, I heated them for just about 3 minutes carefully, over the stove and they turned out perfect!  The other modification involved the tamarind.  Yo no tengo.  Thai Table said to use a white vinegar substitute.  I used rice vinegar.  More Asian that way, I think.

     After burning the first batch of peanuts, it all worked out well. 

Unfortunately, it was ready and done far ahead of Matt getting home, but I kept it in the wok large pan that I have, and just heated it back up.  Once again, he used the words "restaurant good" in it's description.  I forgot to throw the raw bean sprouts and sesame seeds on top for the photo (sesame seeds were my own little addition). 

I also steamed up some edamame and threw some sea salt on top.  I ate about 93% of the edamame... I think Matt had like 5 of them.  Another repeat meal!

Chim-chiminy Chim-chiminy Chimichurri Charoo!

     A few weeks ago, I went to the AAPA conference got a lot of free delicious meals in Atlanta.  I went with some PA school friends, Ashley & Ashlee (aka Milli), which worked out to my benefit because I got to finish their meals after I ate mine.  (Big Clean Plate(s) Club week for me).  On our last night there, we ate at a refurbished midtown warehouse-turned-swanky restaurant called Two Urban Licks www.twourbanlicks.com, which was reccommended to us by our fellow PA conferencegoers drunk hotel pool friends who never made it to a single conference lecture.  (If you take a cab there and wonder if you are about to be kidnapped by the cabby or disposed of in some abandoned warehouse, you're in the right place.  Let's hope.)  I ordered the monkfish and a side of gouda grits and hot peppers.  Let me tell you, the gouda grits were very gooda grits.  The Ash's both ordered the beef tenderloin in a chimichurri sauce (minus the chimichurri sauce for Milli, who likes to know exactly what she's in for).  After I finished my mediocre fish and exceptional sides, it was onto my nightly ritual of finishing everyone else's dish too.  (By the end of the trip, my food baby was in it's third trimester).  Anyway, it was my first chimichurri experience, and a delicious one at that!  I immediately picked up on the garlic and cilantro in the sauce, both of which I can't get enough of!  (My one complaint was that I wish the tenderloin had been sliced a bit smaller, because it was kind of difficult to chew).

     Well, in a passionate burst of food talk this 4th of July weekend, (my favorite type of passionate bursts/talks), I asked Matt if he'd ever had chimichurri, and decided that I wanted some.  STAT.  (It doesn't help that I watch the food network every day and CRAVE red meat when I do...)  Well last night I made just that.  An Argentenian-style beef tenderloin topped with a homemade three-herb chimichurri over organic? brown? basmati rice.  (I got it at whole foods... not much description.) 

     I found several recipes for both the chimichurri and the beef itself.  So I took a little from here, a little from there, and did my own rendition of the dish.  The three fresh herbs in the chimichurri were parsley, cilantro, and mint. 

I had just gone to a farmer's market yesterday morning and bought some fresh peppers, so I added one white pepper too.  (One of the recipes I saw included red pepper, and white is similar, but a bit sweeter.) 

     I cubed the tenderloin and skewered it on the grill, after coating it in a spice rub for several hours (only because it took Matty that long to get home from work!). 

And I luckily did not burn the house down making the rice, even though I forgot about it and left to take Marley to the lake (which we sprinted back from when I realized what I'd done...)  The nice thing about the dish was that I could make the sauce ahead of time, and not right when it needed to be served.  (And I have leftovers in the freezer that will probably last a long time!)  When Matt came home, I grilled the beef to about a medium-rare, plated it up with some chimichurri sauce, and served it over the rice.  He actually said, "this is good... like, restaurant good... was it easy to make?"  (As in, would I mind making it more often...)  I definitely don't!  I can't wait to finish it for lunch!