I think we should change the name of our blog to “Will sit and watch TV/read/knit” for food. It seems like every time I babysit, Harlee sleeps the whole time, leaving me to do other things. Today was no exception. After a diaper change and some light bouncing, Harlee passed out and slept in his swing until Jami came home.
Our dinner was just as easy as babysitting. And tasty, too. We omitted the olives, but I wonder what the dish would have tasted like with them. Perhaps we will revisit this one in the future. This dish is very light and would be perfect for a hot summer evening. It’s quite the opposite of a hot summer evening, but the dish was still good. We served ours in pita pockets with kale and had a salad to go with it. Currently, we have baklava baking in the oven. Yum!
For some comic relief… I was a big mess in the kitchen today. There was more kale in the bag than I thought, and I ended up spilling most of it on the counter as I was dumping it in the colander to wash. Oops. Add that to the mess I had made chopping pecans, and it looked like Harlee was cooking (no offense, Harlee).
Here are the recipes:
Mediterranean Chicken
taken from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mediterranean-chicken/detail.aspx2 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine (turns out Jami didn't have any white wine... but she did have some Verdi! we used that instead and it turned out fine)
6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cubed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced onion
3 cups tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup white wine
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup kalamata olives (we omitted these since we're not big fans of olives. And IGA sells them for $7 for a small jar... so it didn't even seem worth attempting it!)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil and 2 tablespoons white wine in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and saute until cooked through. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.
Saute garlic in pan drippings for 30 seconds, then add onion and saute for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and bring to a boil. Lower heat, add 1/2 cup white wine and simmer for 10 minutes. Add thyme and basil and simmer for 5 more minutes.
Return chicken to skillet and cover. Cook over low heat until the heated through. Add olives and parsley to the skillet and cook for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve. We stuffed ours with kale into pita shells.
Salad
this dressing recipe is from Jami and Justin's childbirth instructor, Samanda. Check her out at http://www.naturallyprepared4birth.com/
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
5 basil leaves
2 tsp sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
We just put this in a small covered bowl and shook it to mix it. We then poured it over kale and romaine with chopped walnuts and feta cheese. Yummy!
Baklava
We were on a roll with the Greek thing, so we figured we'd keep it going! This is from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baklava/detail.aspx
1 pound chopped nuts
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C). Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 inch pan.
Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep.
Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows then make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.
Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers. This freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.
This was definitely a two-person job... not exactly appropriate for a blog of simple recipes for the working mother, but like I said, we were on a roll with the Greek thing. And once we tasted this, we did not regret attempting it! Soooo good!
Oh yeah, and here's Mr. Handsome himself helping us out :-)
...and teething too. Jenna's lucky he slept the whole time!
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