Chicken, Gruyere, and Veggie Quesadillas

Wow, long time no post.  No, I haven't forgotten about you, my two very dear readers, I've just been making a lot of old standbys in the past few weeks... homemade chicken nuggets, tacos with homemade taco seasoning, and pierogie bake, among other things.




Tonight, I had litle in the fridge and no meal planned.  To avoid the grocery store on a weekend, I took out some frozen chicken breast this morning.  But no plan.  As the time to start cooking approached, I realized I had some gruyere in the fridge that was intended for something or other, so turned to Mr. Google and searched for recipes with chicken and gruyere.  This recipe from Mark Bittman, which appeared in Cooking Light's April 2011 issue was the most promising thing that turned up. 

The original recipe included mustard greens, which don't typically appear in my fridge when it's well stocked, let alone when it's at the dregs.  So I turned to my dreg filled fridge and dug out some veggies I thought would go well with the recipe, and threw in some tomatoes and red pepper.  Inspired and brilliant; it was excellent.

I liked this preparation of the quesadillas; we typically cook it in a skillet, but I thought it was much easier to get them crispy this way.

I took pictures of this lovely meal, but the camera cable has disappeared in my disheveled and disorganized home.  One day they'll get uploaded....

Chicken, Gruyere, and Veggie Quesadillas, adapted from Mark Bittman as appearing in Cooking Light's April 2011 issue

• YIELD: 2 servings (serving size: 2 quesadillas)
• TOTAL: 26 MINUTES
• COURSE: Main Dishes

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts(about 5 ounces), diced into small pieces
• 2 cloves pressed garlic
• Dash of kosher salt
• 4 (6-inch) whole-wheat tortillas
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated Gruyère cheese
• 1 plum tomato, seeded, juiced, and diced
• 1 red pepper, seeded and diced 

Preparation

• 1. Preheat oven to 400°.
• 2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to pan; swirl to coat. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon pepper and 1/8 teaspoon salt over chicken; toss to coat. Add chicken to pan; cook 2 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic; cook 3 minute.  Remove chicken from pan with a slotted spoon.
• 3. Pour oil remaining in the skillet into a jelly-roll pan and spread; arrange tortillas in a single layer on pan. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon cheese evenly over each tortilla; evenly divided chicken, then tomatoes and peppers, over each tortilla. Bake at 400° for 5 minutes or until cheese begins to melt. Remove pan from oven; carefully fold each tortilla in half, pressing gently to close. Bake quesadillas an additional 10 minutes or until browned and crisp, turning carefully after 5 minutes.
• Let cool

Mark Bittman, Cooking Light
APRIL 2011

Margherita Pie

See it here.

I first saw this recipe on Lauren's blog, and knew I'd be making it soon. C'mon, it includes my favorite flavors of tomato, mozzarella, and basil, so how could I not? It was very similar to a tomato pie I had made last summer, and this didn't fail to impress. When my somewhat hard to please husband says, "This is a keeper!", I know it's a great recipe. When my almost 3 year old devours an adult sized serving, I know it's a great recipe. Clearly, this is a great recipe.

I did cheat, using a store bought crust. I hope you can forgive me. ;)

Margherita Pie
Adapted from: Pies, Pies & More Pies by Viola Goren

Pastry dough:
2 c all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/4 sticks unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1 large egg or 2 large egg yolks
3 tbsp cold heavy whipping cream, milk or water

Filling:
8-10 slices mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
1/4 lb whole cherry tomatoes
1/2 c heavy whipping cream
3 tbsp sour cream
2 large eggs
1-1/2 tsp minced garlic
10-12 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Prepare pastry in an electric mixer or food processor. Mix flour, salt and butter just until texture resembles bread crumbs. Add egg and cream, and mix just until dough forms. Shape into a thick disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out chilled dough to about 1/4″ thick and cut into a 12″ round. Wrap dough loosely around rolling pin and transfer to 10″ pie plate. Trim edges and freeze for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line chilled pie shell with parchment paper or aluminum foil and fill with raw beans or pie weights. Bake until crust is dry and lightly golden, about 15 minutes. Remove paper and beans and bake until crust is golden and baked through, 10-15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Increase heat to 375 degrees F and assemble pie. Arrange mozzarella in baked pie shell and top with cherry tomatoes. In a medium bowl, mix together cream, sour cream, eggs, garlic, basil, salt and pepper. Pour cream mixture into shell and bake until filling sets, about 40 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Pasta with Tomatoes and Peas

See it here

I had a plan to make something else this night, but when we were getting home from something at 5:30, and I saw the other thing took almost an hour to make, I went to the fastest thing on my meal plan. Winner winner, chicken dinner!! Giada to the rescue.

I thought this was a really tasty meal, although my husband didn't give it exceedingly high marks. I think I could have used a little more pasta water in the final product, plus I used a whole can of tomato paste instead of 1. measuring, 2. wasting whatever was left in the can (as an aside, I really need to check out those tubes of tomato paste).

This made a great deal of leftovers, which were really good the next day. I didn't try to freeze the leftovers, but will definitely do that next time.