Chicken and Eggplant

Last night I decided to go all out and make dinner. I found some recipes that I thought looked interesting, and of course the Boy shot them down. So I took out the multitude of cookbooks I have to see if we could agree on something. He winds up finding the main course, and I found the side dish in a different cookbook. Then we headed of to Fresh Market to pick up groceries. (Since we have no Trader Joe's here, this has quickly become my favorite grocery store.) I was steered away from the giant cupcakes. (They were huge! Some topped with jelly beans, others topped with small silver balls. Unfortunately, they were not quite allowed in the cart. But I'll move on, eventually.) Even without the cupcakes we still spent far too much. And now, without further adieu...

Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken with Sage Pesto
Taken from Nancy Silverton's A Twist of the wrist, a cookbook my parents bought and had signed for me. 1. Rub canola oil on both sides of the chicken breasts and pound till approximately 1/2 thick, and has doubled in size.
2. Press 3 sage leaves onto the skinned side of each chicken beast and wrap one prosciutto slice around. Season with salt and pepper on both sides.
3. Heat canola oil in large skillet. When the oil's almost smoking press two chicken breasts into the skillet sage side down and sear for two minutes

I failed a little as this part. Because every time I would try to set the chicken breast down nicely I would feel the oil splattering my hand. So I would freak out and drop the rest of the chicken breast, which only made the oil splash EVERYWHERE. Onto the stove, the ground, even the burned itself which made quite a pretty/scary flame. But getting back to the recipe.

4. Flip the chicken breasts and cook for 2 more minutes. Remove chicken breasts and set on plate. Repeat with remaining breasts.

The is the part where we altered with recipe a little. At this point to mix sage pesto and vegetable broth on the stove and let it reduce into a sauce. Then top the whole thing with lemon infused olive oil. The Boy saw vegetable and freaked out. So instead we just heated up the store bought pesto and mixed it up the lemon infused olive oil. Which was only olive oil that we'd mixed with lemon zest.

The recipe says to serve over a bed of mixed greens. But again The Boy nixed that. Instead we made some penne pasta and served the chicken over that. Since we were taking the vegetables out of the main dish I figured with need at least some time of veggie on the side.

Mediterranean Eggplant
From The Little Black Apron, yet another cookbook my parents bought and got signed for me. Before I start with the recipe, the eggplant itself is from The Boy's parents' garden. I'm not sure what kind of eggplant this actually is. Japanese eggplant, maybe? Either way, I felt the need to actually use it before it went bad.

1. Heat the oven to 400*F.
2. Cut eggplant into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices and place on baking sheet.
3. In a bowl combine 1 tbls olive oil, juice of half a lemon (the same lemon we used for the lemon zest above), and 1/4 teas cumin.
4. Brush both sides of eggplant with the juice mixture and season both sides with salt and pepper.
6. Roast until tender. Sprinkle feta over each slice and cook for two minutes longer until the feta starts to melt.
7. Remove from oven and scatter with chopped mint.

Overall, I was impressed with how I got everything to finish at around the same time. The Boy helped a little, mainly with pounding and wrapping the chicken. But I did most of it. Things did get a little hectic when the smoke alarm started going off at the same time the water for the pasta started boiling over. And there was all the oil spillage I mentioned earlier, but other than that no major problems. On of this first chicken breasts I cooked was a little raw on the inside. I made sure the heat the rest a lot longer. It wasn't a big deal though, because the Boy decided we needed leftovers and bought 8 chicken breasts for the 2 of us. So yes, there are leftovers.

The chicken itself was really good, but I'm not too sure about the pesto sauce we brought. I think I might have enjoyed it more over lettuces, but the pasta turned out well. My favorite thing about the eggplant was probably the feta (surprise surprise). But I didn't really like the cumin flavor. Not sure if I added too much or if it just didn't mesh well. Next time though I would probably add less cumin or maybe take it out altogether.

I think though I am impressed with the way it all turned. And of course, one picture of my plate to see how it all turned out. Anyone else have any exciting meals over the weekend?