Roasted Butternut Squash Calzones

I just lurve butternut squash - it is so sweet and versatile, and it plays so well with others. If butternut squash was a person, you'd want it to be in your band. You'd want him/her to be on your intramural floor hockey team. You'd be friends with him/her and you wouldn't really ever fight. In any case, I decided to invite some butternut squash to come play with some onions, garlic, goat cheese and puff pastry to create a calzone of sweet, savory, caramelized goodness. Here is how it went down:

Serves 2 - just double/triple/quadruple recipe as needed!

Ingredients:

1 sheet puff pastry, rolled out

half a Butternut squash, peeled/seeded/sliced into thin pieces

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil

half a White Onion, thinly sliced

1 clove fresh Garlic, finely minced

2 tablespoons Goat Cheese

1 Egg White

Splash of water

Salt and Pepper

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Combine your sliced squash with the onion, garlic and a pinch each of salt and pepper in a roasting pan of any kind. Toss the ingredients with the olive oil and place the dish in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the onions and squash are fork soft and caramelized with a light brown color. Pull the dish out of the oven, toss the veggies around, and turn the oven up to 450 degrees. Take the rolled out puff pastry and, using a salad plate or similar shaped object, cut out two circles. On a pizza pan, place the two pastry circles, add as much veggie mixture as will fit on one side of each circle. Crumble a tablespoon of goat cheese onto each pile of squash. Pull the other side over onto the pile of veggies, making a calzone shape. Fork the edges to ensure it is tightly closed. With a knife, poke a hole in the top of the calzones so that the steam can escape once the calzones are cooking. In a small bowl, mix the egg white and water to make an egg wash, and brush over the top of the pastries, so that there is a nice sheen over them when they are done cooking and they brown on top. Place the tray with your calzones into the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the pastry is nicely golden brown. Enjoy!!

Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Today I came home from work thinking I might make some Annie's mac n cheese and throw in some broccoli - not a very inspired evening. I went through the refrigerator and (as often happens at my place) I found a drawer in there that I totally forgot about, and thus found some ingredients I totally forgot I bought (like 5 days ago, don't worry I didnt like scrape off the mold and forge ahead - though I have before. cheese is supposed to get moldy!). In any case, I found a few pieces of prosciutto, some goat cheese and some baby bell peppers. Once I found all of this, I was like, umm, mac and cheese? honey please. So I got a little excited, pulled out two chicken breasts and planned to stuff them. I love stuffing meats (shame on you for making that dirty, if you did - if not, shame on me for pointing it out). I do though, I stuff chicken breasts a lot. I have done bacon and Havarti stuffed breast, cherry tomato and garlic stuffed breast, fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, shrimp scamp- sorry. So here is the recipe with some oh so non-professional pictures.

Ingredients:
2 medium-sized chicken breasts
1/2 Cup of Vegetable Stock
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Cup Fingerling or tiny Potatoes
Kitchen Twine

The Stuffing:
4 Tablespoons of Goat Cheese
2 Pieces of Prosciutto, roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon finely minced Sage
2 Tablespoons finely minced baby bell peppers (or regular bell peppers, I used red and yellow for color)
Pinch of Salt and Pepper

Instructions:
Boil about 3 cups of water in a sauce pan and cut the fingerling potatoes into halves. Boil the potatoes for 12 minutes or so, until they are softer but not completely cooked. Set aside in a strainer.
Set oven to 380 and pat down thawed chicken breasts, as it is important they are dry for when you pan fry them. Cut into each breast a pocket in the meatiest section so that there are no holes to the other side and it's big enough to fit about a 1/2 Cup of stuffing. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, inside and out.
Combine all of the ingredients for the stuffing in a bowl and mash together with your hands (its the best way, and getting messy is fun!). Once the ingredients are sufficiently mashed, roll it into a ball and split it in two - one for each piece of chicken.






Stuff each piece of chicken with the mixture, the goal being to get all of it inside and into the very back of the pocket you cut before. Once you've done this, take your twine and tie up those breasts! I used two pieces of short twine for each to make sure nothing came out either end while cooking.

Heat up a medium sized saute pan with the olive oil until its really steamy, and place each piece of chicken into the pan, browning on both sides - this will take about 3-4 minutes a side. Once the pieces are browned, add the vegetable stock to deglaze, and also add the potatoes (half boiled, because they'll be baked, too). Place the pan in the oven for 35 minutes and enjoy a stuffed slice of heaven!

Hello Blogosphere Ladles and Gents!

Today I made a stir fry with some vegetables I bought yesterday at the New Maxwell Street Market. Sidenote, that place is awesome - they have several stands of fresh fruits and vegetables that sell for a fraction of the prices even my beloved Trader Joes can offer. I bought five tomatoes, two Anaheim chiles and a large bunch of cilantro and when I asked how much, the lady said "Two dollars." I was like - how much?! But it was the truth. 2 dollars flat. So in closing, go there and buy some stuff and save some money! On the way, you can go to Rubi's taco stand and order a "Quesadilla Al Pastor," which is marinated pork taco in a homemade tortilla and melted cheese. It is the best taco I have ever tasted, and the quickest eating experience I have ever had - it was gone in like 43 seconds, and these babies are HUGE.

But I digress.

I had all of these fresh vegetables, and I had a small chicken breast thawing in the refrigerator (side note: super freaking tiny chicken breast, I get those packs of individually wrapped chicken breast at Trader Joes, and I'm so sure there's a gimpy breast in every pack) so this is what I cooked up:

I call it: "New Maxwell Mashup"

*This is a recipe for one

serving, just double it if there are two, triple if there are- you get it.

Ingredients:

1 Chicken Breast

1/8 cup chopped Red Onion

2 Tablespoons green onions, chopped

2 Tablespoons Anaheim Chiles, sliced

1/4 Cup Bell Pepper diced

10-12 sugar plum (mini) tomatoes, cut in 4ths

2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

Pinch of Salt, Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon of Ground Cumin

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Lemon Wedge

Instructions:

Slice the chicken into manageable pieces and season with salt and pepper and the ground Cumin, and toss to coat all of the pieces on all sides. Put to the side. Put a sauté pan on the stove at medium-high heat and drizzle the Olive Oil into the pan. Let it get good and hot before you drop in the chicken. As the chicken sizzles, prepare all of your vegetables, and put them all into one bowl, excluding the cilantro and lemon, which will be added at the end. The chicken should be browned on all sides and cooked through in about 4 minutes, and at that time you can take the chicken out and put it in a clean bowl. Leaving the heat on medium-high, throw the prepared vegetables (Chilis, Bell Pepper, Tomatoes, Onions, Green Onions) into the same pan to sauté with the juices of the seasoned chicken. The idea is to sauté the veggies just a bit so that the heat from the Anaheim Chilis pervades the milder veggies and the bell peppers are softer and have more flavor. This takes about 4 minutes, stirring from time to time. While the veggies are cooking, take each piece of chicken and chop it up into small pieces, and return it to the bowl. Here is what my chopped chicken looked like:

Pour the veggies over the chicken, add 1 tablespoon of Cilantro to the mix, and toss as you would a salad. Once it is well tossed, sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of Cilantro onto the mixture and place a lemon wedge on the side (this is to be squeezed over the dish before eating). The finished product is a slightly spicy, no carb take on a chicken fajita, and it is really delicious, especially if your veggies are super fresh.