Up just long enough for dinner

Yesterday was one of the first nights I had a chance to cook a relaxed dinner in a month.  I only worked a normal shift, didn't have to go to a second job, and the hubby would be home after 9pm, so I had plenty of time to chop and mix and slice before dinner needed to be ready.

On the menu: chicken breasts stuffed with a chopped artichoke hearts and parmesan mixture, wilted greens, and bruschetta.

I don't think I've ever tried to cut a pocket in a chicken breast before... and it showed as I sliced right through (like how I used to poke my Capri Sun straws straight through the other side of the juice pack and lose half my juice - I guess I just don't know my own strength).  So I stuffed as best I could and then used the remaining stuffing as a topping when I cooked the chicken.  It turned out quite yummy.  The hubby hadn't ever had artichokes before and he enjoyed them, so that's a good thing.

For the greens, I bought some Swiss chard bright lights.  Have you seen this stuff?  It's dark green like spinach but has these crazy pink and orange stems and veins.

Earlier I had roasted some garlic in a frying pan (for the bruschetta mixture) so I used that pan again, heated up some olive oil in it, chopped up the chard, and tossed it in.  It wilted quickly and with about 15 seconds to go, I added some salt, pepper, and too much lemon juice, and gave it a final few tosses.  Ta-da: super healthy veggie (and yummy, too, if it had a little less lemon juice).

For the bruschetta, I wanted to try and copy the stupendous one we had at Maggiano's over the weekend, so I worked off of this recipe, leaving out the anchovy and making less overall than the recipe calls for.  Some of the measurements were a bit off: waaaay too much balsamic vinaigrette and red pepper flakes.  I just ate some of the leftover bruschetta right now and my mouth is super tingly with the bite of the red pepper flakes, owie.  I will definitely make this again sometime, but I'm going to tone down the pepper flakes by half.

All in all, dinner was a success... if late.  At 8:50 the hubby said he'd be home soon, so I started the finishing touches.  He actually came home at 9:45... oops (got stuck at work).  So everything wasn't fresh off the stove, but it was warm and still good.

Terrible food photography, I know... but I was BEAT and wasn't about to walk two rooms to get my camera.  It was cell phone pic or nothing, so there you have it.  I promise you, it all tasted good.

For dessert, I made Lazy Pot de Creme, substituting 1% milk for whole milk.  I even went to the liquor store and bought rum just for the dessert (um, I'm sure I'll find other uses for it, too).  This was really quite yummy, but verrrrrry rich.  I had about five teaspoons of it and was done.  If I were to make this for a dinner party, I would definitely serve it in demitasse cups.  I only wish I had the super cute cup that Worth the Whisk served hers in.  SO cute!

There's no picture of the dessert because I could barely hold my head up at that point.  I was about to be out for the count.  I lolled around with the hubby for a bit and then dragged off to bed.

This morning I slept in (didn't have to be at work until 11am), spent some quality time with the hubs, and set up the slow cooker with tonight's dinner (garlicky pork chops).  Looking forward to another good night at home.

Comments

[Tara]

Wow that looks really good!!