Balsamic Glaze Take 2 - Eggplant Topping

I can see this eggplant topping off grilled bread, whole wheat pasta, sticky rice...so many possibilities! Since I had some of the glaze leftover from dessert last night, I took a look in the fridge for a veggie combination that could stand up to the intensity of the vinegar reduction. Only needed 4 fresh ingredients to make this one work and here's what I did:

1 whole eggplant diced

1/2 yellow onion sliced into thin rings

2 garlic cloves minced

1/4 mexibell pepper diced (a medium hot bell pepper to counter the sweetness in the sauce)

salt and pepper

1/2 cup to 1 cup balsamic reduction from last night's recipe

olive oil

In a cast iron skillet, add a few turns of olive oil over medium heat. Start by sauteing the onions until translucent. Next add the diced pepper, garlic cloves and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add in the eggplant and the balsamic reduction, stirring frequently until the eggplant is broken down and the liquid is absorbed.

I topped it off with sweet basil and had a few bites already - sweet and delicious! I can see spooning this over grilled bread with a little prosciutto and gorgonzola later today. My mouth is watering!

Sesame Pretzel Chicken with a Sweet Heat Sauce

I am always looking for new things to use as 'breading' for poultry or pork and, in my pantry, I had just the fix. When we went on vacation, I went a little crazy on the snack aisle, stocking up for the long plane ride and days on the beach. I happened to pick up sesame pretzels at Trader Joe's thinking they were peanut butter pretzels on sale. Wrong! No matter, they turned out to be tasty. With so many leftover though, I was looking for an innovative use and scored with a 'breaded' chicken dinner. These pretzels were multi-grain and packed quite a crunch so I pulsed them in the food processor until they were mostly crumbs, leaving a few larger pieces that aided in texture that resembled southern fried chicken. To pair with the sesame flavor, I opted for an Asian inspired sauce made from mustard, honey, crushed red peppers flakes and rice wine vinegar. Atop snow peas and mushrooms finished in sesame oil, this was a meal not soon forgotten. Here's the fix:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups sesame pretzel nuggets

3 tbsp sesame seeds

1 cup all purpose flour

1 egg

salt and pepper

Sauce:

1 tbsp whole grain mustard

2 tbsp dijon mustard

1/2 cup raw honey

3-4 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp red pepper flakes (less for less heat)

fresh cracked black pepper

Side:

canola oil

garlic clove

2 cups snow peas

5 baby bella mushrooms, quartered

sesame oil

toasted sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 375° and start by using a basic breading technique for the chicken. First set up your breading stations with one plate for the ground pretzels mixed with the sesame seeds, one plate for flour seasoned with s & p and one bowl for the egg (beaten). When you are ready to go, pat the chicken breasts dry, season with salt and pepper and then start by dredging in the flour. Shake excess flour off and pull the chicken breast through the beaten egg. The last step is to lay the chicken breast in the pretzel mixture, pressing the crumbs over the entire surface on both sides. I wanted to retain the crunch of the larger pretzels pieces and simplify this dinner so I transferred the chicken breasts to an lightly oiled baking dish and baked them off for about 25-30 minutes.

The rest of the meal came together easily. All the sauce ingredients listed above go into a sauce pan on low heat and simmer away while the chicken cooks, stirring to help incorporate the honey with the mustard. About 5 minutes before the chicken is done, grab a sauté pan, add a little canola oil and a broken garlic clove. Over low to medium heat, add in the mushrooms and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add the snow peas to gently warm. To finish, add a touch of sesame oil (a little goes a long way), a pinch of red pepper flakes and top with toasted sesame seeds. Plate the snow peas and mushrooms first, add the chicken on top and then smother in the sauce. Yum!

Grilled Caesar! You've been wondering...

Now I know why everywhere I turn I see claims for 'a traditional Caesar turned up,' it's taste is over the top! This meal came together in about 20 minutes but the flavors were all intensified by the char from the grill.

While the grill was heating up, I prepared bread to make croutons and on hand, we had a most delicious selection to stand up to a grilled salad. Of course we headed over to the SOTJ Farmer's Market Saturday morning and saw THE bread man of Norwood Cottage Bakery. We slept in this weekend so we missed his Black Bean bread premier, however, we scored with a half loaf of Garlic Clove. Perfect for croutons for a Caesar Salad! I took 1/4 of the loaf and chopped it up into large square pieces, tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper and put them into a 350° oven for about 10 minutes and then shifted the oven to the 'warm' setting to allow them to continue to crisp while I put dinner on the grill.

For the remainder, I seasoned a boneless, skinless chicken breast with canola oil, salt & pepper. Since it takes the longest to cook, I put that on the grill first for about 5 minutes on each side. My grill was topping the 400° mark so it went pretty fast. While that was grilling away, I sliced a large head of romaine lettuce in half vertically so that the root was still in place to hold the leaves together. It was also seasoned with oil, salt and pepper but this time I used garlic salt, it is a Caesar Salad after all. I also cut two lemons in half to place on the grill with the lettuce (on lowered heat) when the chicken was almost done.

It all came off the grill with beautiful grill marks. We each got a half of the lettuce head topped with sliced chicken, the Garlic Clove croutons, parmesan cheese and a drizzle of classic Caesar dressing (if I am only having it every so often, I like Kraft's traditional dressing & dip), and two of the lemon pieces. Now, the biggest kick to this salad is the squeeze of the grilled lemon right before serving. The char from the grill adds a depth of flavor that is hard to explain but it is smoky & tart and because of the heat, you end up getting every drop of juice.

And just a heads up...when I went to get another napkin from the kitchen, my husband took about 1/2 of my croutons off of my plate and added them to what was left of his salad. Needless to say, the bread is that good! For those of you that don't live in Richmond, you may want to visit just for the bread.