Playing with my food...

I have vivid memories of being somewhere around 5 years old and having irresistible urges to do strange things to my PB&J sandwiches. I would take off the crust and pinch down all the edges to make a little pouch. Or I would squeeze the middle and make different shapes. Once I clamped my fist around the whole thing so the sandwhich actually squeezed out through my fingers! To all of my this, my poor exasperated mother would protest, "Stop playing with your food!!!" I never understood this. I had every intention of eating the mutilated sandwich when I was done and just couldn't understand why I was not allowed to play a little bit first...

Fast forward 25 years. I no longer feel the need to mutilate my sandwiches, but I still REALLY like to play with my food. Except now it just takes on a different form.

Today I got home from work at 6pm, starving and not feeling super enthusiastic about any of my dinner options. I knew I had a raw chicken breast in the fridge that needed to be eaten and I also had a basket of lettuce, beans and herbs from the garden. After a little thought, I decided to try taking some of the flavors from that Brie Cheese appetizer I made last weekend. Here's the result:

I cut the chicken breast in 1/2, lengthwise so that I had two thin cutlets. I dredged them in a tiny bit of flour and then cooked them on a high heat in some olive oil until they were brown and crisp on the outside and just slightly under-done on the inside (sprinkled on a little salt and fresh, ground garlic pepper too). I transferred them to a plate and made a little foil tent so they could hang out and finish cooking the rest of the way.

Back in the hot pan, I added about a teaspoon of butter, a few splashes of white cooking wine, roughly a 1/2 teaspoon of fresh, chopped rosemary and about 1/4 cup chopped walnuts. At the last minute, I added tiny bit of minced garlic too (because isn't anything better with garlic?). The pan was still pretty hot so I just swirled this all around for about a minute and then turned off the heat. I drizzled a tiny bit of honey over the top and let it sit there for a few minutes while I microwave-steamed my garden green beans. Then the glazed nuts went on top of my chicken breast and voila!! It was really yummy! I had no idea if the wine and the honey would work together or if the wine and walnuts would work or if the honey and garlic would be weird. But the whole thing worked beautifully!

I think I should ignore my recipe book and just "play" with my food more often!