Chicken Boobs and red bell peppers

As I've gotten older I have realized a true passion that I have and it probably goes without saying, but that passion is cooking food.  I have a true appreciation for fine and interesting cuisines using weird and exotic (well as exotic as I can find in Minot) ingredients.  This past year I started reading several food blogs that have really inspired me to get away from the traditional meat and potatoes type of cooking and really experiment with unique cooking methods in the kitchen.   I made the following recipe for a going away party for our friends The Schauer's with a few other co-workers in attendance.  I wanted to pick something that was tasty and yet healthy due to the fact that several of us were on diets at the time.  The risotto was the only rich and unhealthy part of the menu, but worth the splurge and the portion I took was small (wink wink).

To start off with I wanted to make something for everyone to snack on.  I had some fresh basil that I wanted to use up before it went bad and also some sun dried tomatoes.  I decided I would put together a little sun dried kalamata olive tapenade over low fat cream cheese.  I started by chopping garlic, kalamata olives sun dried tomato, basil (parsley can also be used) and then adding sherry vinegar and a splash of olive oil (this can be omitted for a healthier version).

This is me mixing all the ingredients by hand and then I spooned it over softened low fat cream cheese.  I also had some pitas that I needed to use up so I cut them into wedges, slapped them on a pizza stone and cooked them at 425 degrees for around 10 min. 
                                                                                           

And another picture showing the consistency and our lovely sink.  After everything is ready I try to garnish with some extra basil leaves.  I don't have a picture of the finished product because it was gobbled up so fast.

For our main course I used a recipe from  the food in my beard blog that I read it is called Chicken Tuscany and can be found right here Chicken Tuscany .  I didn't have my meat tenderizer here so I had to use a hammer from Trev's tool box.  Below is me hammering the chicken boobs so that they are very thin and will roll easily.  I also put the chicken in between two pieces of saran wrap to prevent chicken juice from going everywhere.   

This is our ghetto 80's kitchen in the duplex.  It might be ugly, but it has a ton of counter space which is A-Okay in my book.

Some of the ingredients.  Now to start marinating the tomatoes in the red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Moving on to hollowing the red bell peppers out getting ready to roast them under the broiler.

                                                                                Drool

Please pay no attention to the dirty stove.  I have made pizza previously and apparently used too much cheese that resulted in a cheesy landslide.

After roasting the peppers I stuffed them with the thinly pounded chicken that was wrapped with fresh spinach and mozzarella cheese.

Now lets giddy up with the risotto.  While instant risotto is good and tasty there is nothing comparable to homemade.  It does take awhile and you do have to constantly stir, but trust me your time and patience is definitely worth it.

Seriously this picture doesn't do the yumminess any justice.  It truly is one of my favorite dishes.  I love how the cheese is dripping off the side of the pan.  Please note the tinfoil over the pan due to my lack of dishwasher and hate of scrubbing dishes.  I am classy I know this.

The end result a/k/a buffet of goodness.  Please note the awesome mixer in the background that Trev bought for me including awesome dough hooks, I am in heaven.

Recipe ( if anyone wants it) for the tapenade


2-3 cloves of garlic chopped
1/4 cup ( 1 handful) sun dried tomatoes chopped I prefer the ones kept in oil and then rinse them off in a colander
1/4 cup Kalamata olives chopped (1 handful)
6-8 basil leaves chopped
2 tbsp of sherry vinegar
1/2 tbsp Olive oil (optional
salt & pepper to taste
1 pkg of low fat cream cheese
pita chips (from store or cooked as suggested above)

Enjoy

Boredom

Soooooooo to prevent myself from dying of boredom I decided to start blogging about our exciting lives in the "Magic City" of Minot North Dakota.  For anyone that doesn't know Trevor, Charlie and I moved out to North Dakota almost a year ago for the Enbridge Energy Bakken expansion pipeline project.  It has been shall we say interesting. 

We started out in the fabulous and exciting town of Tioga, which consisted of a post office, three restaurants, three bars and a church.  Our new digs consisted of a single wide trailer in Sand Creek Estates, which had neither sand nor a creek.  It did have 50 mph winds one of which took hold of our screen door that I had a hold of and resulted in me being launched off the stairs face first into the sparce grass that was our yard.  Tioga did have a wonderful perk, and that was my mother-in-law Cathy, sister-in-law Julie and later on brother-in-law Nate who lived right up the street from us.  It was truly a blessing to have them so close and I was able to get to know them so much better.  We had days and nights of sitting out in our bag chairs enjoying some tastey beverages, marathons of HBO's series True Blood, yummy food and wonderful conversations.  There were several journeys made over to the prestegious Jungle, a "burger bar joint" that was walking distance from the trailer park, drives into Williston ( a town 45 miles away) to go to Walmart where the shelves were always half empty and many many walks with our dog Charlie boy.  It was definitely an experience that we will not forget.  I truly feel that it brought us closer as a couple laughing, joking and talking (about anything and everything) was abundant and I feel so lucky to have such a wonderfully amazing husband!!

The sign that welcomes you into the paradise that we called Tioga.  It's pretty awesome, I KNOW!!

We had some pretty wicked storms while living in the Wild Wild West a/k/a Tioga.  Many of which shook the trailer and  caused Charlie to hide under a blanket.  This was one I was driving into.  As you can see there are a lot of curves and scenery on this road.

            This cloud was more impressive in person.  This is safe driving at it's best!!

The fabulous trailer.  Please take note of the Direct TV dish, outdoor couch, grill and igloo cooler.  I would love to take credit for this gloreous protrayal of trailer park living at it's best, but alas this was taken after we had moved to Minot.  I hadn't taken a picture of our home in Tioga when we lived there so I had to take one on a visit back out there.  Please also pay attention to the building behind the lovely trailer.  This is called a skid house, a term I had never heard in all my 29 years (well 28 when we moved there).  These are brought in on big flat bead truck with skies on both ends.  The flat bed tilts and they "skid" right off.  The roughnecks on the oil rigs and drills out here live in these buildings usually four to six per skid house.  They were relatively quiet due to their long hours and consequtive days on the job, but when they had a couple of days off and approximately 5-10 cases of beer the appearence and atmosphere were comparable to the movie  "Escape from LA" and/or "Zombieland". 

Overall the Tioga experience was one that brought us closer together and helped us realize that you can really make an situation good with a little bit of love,laughter, the game of life and cribbage.  I will cherish many of the memories I have from the spring and summer and will most definitely never forget the trailer life.