the salad

***

what makes a salad?  the toppings?  nope.  not for me.

it's the dressing. 

since growing our own lettuce, which by the way, is one of the easiest things to grow, i have become quite good at whipping up dressings.

this salad was topped with mushrooms, steak, fresh herbs of dill and thyme, and a wonderful rendition of blue cheese dressing.

to create this i crumbled some gorganzola into a bowl.  added a few spoonfulls of sour cream, a spoon of mayo, a spoon of fresh horseraddish, chopped chives, salt & pepper, juice of a lemon, and a splash or two of milk.

yum.  i want more!

happy days

***

jamie oliver makes my toes curl.  seriously.  knobs of butter?  glugs of olive oil?  herbage?

YES PLEASE!

i want to cook with him.  learn from him.  make messes with him.

actually i just want to marry him.

sorry hubby, i mean no harm.

if you don't know who he is, your world is not complete.

check him out.

jamieoliver.com

sunday picnics

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sunday as i was having my morning coffee and staring outside at the sun shining through the windows, my mind started to drift to the mountains and picnics and strolls through meadows.  and i quickly woke my hubby up and said "get dressed.  we're going on a picnic."

i threw together some finger foods and showered and the next thing i knew we were on our way to the blue ridge mountains.  we stopped for some boiled peanuts along the way, sang along with the radio, let our hair blow in the wind.  it was a perfect day.

on the way home we stopped by the farmers market where they were having an herb festival.  i picked up a few beauties to finish off my garden.

a perfect way to spend a lovely day.

boursin stuffed chicken

***

listen to me when i tell you how good and easy this chicken is.

i first discovered this chicken at a small cafe in town and it had me at first bite.

i didn't follow a recipe.

all you need is boursin cheese, chicken, spinach and garlic...oh and olive oil.

take your boneless, skinless chicken breasts and butterfly them.

take a good knob of the cheese and spread it messily inside each breast and fold back over.  sprinkle with s&p.  heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a saute pan.  pan fry chicken on each side about 5-8 minutes.

after you have flipped it once, heat another small saute pan with a few tablespoons of olive oil.  add 4 cloves of garlic, minced and let that saute for a minute or two.  add the spinach and s&p and let that wilt, should only take a couple minutes.  set aside until your chicken is cooked.  plate each breast and top with the wilted spinach.  i even squeezed a bit of lemon juice on each one.

so yummy!  serve with roasted asparagus and fresh tomato slices.