Chicken stuffed with mushrooms and ricotta cheese

This is a variation on a dish from the Next Food Network Star. Yes, everything I've cooked lately has been inspired by that show. Except for the microwaveable TGI Friday's veggie Quesadillas the other night. I thought of those on my own.

For this dish, you'll need:
-Two boneless, skinless chicken breast
-1 cup of mushrooms
-4 tablespoons of ricotta cheese
-Olive oil
-Salt
-Fresh cracked black pepper

First up, take your mushrooms, wash them, pat them dry, and then dice them up as small as you can. If you have a food processor you can throw them in there. I just ran a knife through mine. Once chopped, throw them into a pan with a dash of olive oil, brown them and set them aside.

Next, take your chicken breast and spread them out between two sheets of plastic wrap. Then take a mallet, a hammer, a can of black beans - whatever you can find around the kitchen basically - AND BEAT THE EVER-LOVING CRAP OUT OF THEM! Okay, actually you're just trying to flatten them out a bit so you can roll them later.

Once you're chicken breast are thoroughly whooped, spread some ricotta cheese on top of both pieces then spoon your mushrooms on top of the cheese. Next, roll those bad boys up like you're Bob Marley and then tie them together with some string or put two or three toothpicks through them - anything to hold them together.

Heat a little olive oil over medium heat and drop the chicken in. Let them cook all the way through (six or seven minutes on each side probably, just depends on how thick your chicken is). Once finished let them set for a couple of minutes before serving.

We ate the chicken with Sautéed potatoes. Just sliced the potatoes thin and browned them in a skillet with olive oil, butter, and minced garlic and onions. They turned out really nice.

Wasabi and panko crusted talapia

Sara and I were watching the Next Food Network Star the other night and one of the contestants used panko in a recipe. Panko, apparently, is a Japanese bread crumb. Sara claims a friend of our fixed chicken once breaded in panko. I don't remember it, though. At any rate, we decided to try using it in a dish. Here are the ingredients:

Two talapia filets
1 tablespoon wasabi paste
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Sesame seeds

First up, mix the wasabi paste, the water, the vinegar, and the soy sauce in a small bowl. Coat the talapia in the mixture. Next coat the fish in the breadcrumbs. Press the filets down a couple of times on each side to really make the breading stick. Once both pieces are coated, put them in the fridge and let them set for about twenty minutes.

Next, heat your oil over medium heat and add your talapia. Cook them on each side for three to five minutes depending on the thickness of your fish. Once they're nicely browned, take them out and let them set for a few minutes before serving.

Sara and I served our fish with sushi rice. We thought it would go nicely with the lightwasabi flavor of the fish (which is very light in case you're worried about setting your nostrils on fire). I had trouble getting the rice to the right consistency, though. I'm gonna blame it on the fact that it was sushi rice instead of user error, but come on, we all know...

The perfect scrambled egg

A little something different this time. A recipe from Gordon Ramsey (of Hell's Kitchen fame) found on Youtube. Tried this last night and really liked it. The eggs aren't as fluffy as most people think of scrambled eggs as being - they're more silky in texture thanks the butter and cream. But man, were they good. Enjoy:

Garden spaghetti

Finally a recipe I didn't crib from anywhere!

This recipe is an original. Well, as original as a spaghetti recipe can be. I mean it's not like I did anything out of the ordinary with it, but still, I didn't steal it from anyone.

You'll need:
-Couple of handfuls of wheat spaghetti noodles, broken in half
-Spaghetti sauce of your choice - I went with roasted garlic.
-1lb of ground beef
-1 red bell pepper
-1 yellow bell pepper
-1 half a cup of chopped green onions
-1 cup of mushrooms
-1 half cup of chopped pepperonis
-Salt
-Cracked black pepper
-Red pepper flakes
-Garlic salt.

Okay, it's spaghetti, so it's pretty easy. Boil your noodles in salted water until they get to your desired softness.

Brown your hamburger meat over medium heat and drain it. Once it's browned and drained, put it back on the stove and turn the head down a bit. Add your spaghetti sauce, your chopped vegetables, your mushrooms, your pepperonis, and your spices. Let it simmer for about ten to fifteen minutes, stirring regularly.

Easy peasy.

Guacamole

Sara and I have made guacamole a few times now. We follow different recipes every time, but in the end, it's guacamole and there's really not a lot of variation.

You'll need:
-4 ripe avocados
-1 large handful of chopped cilantro
-The juice of 2 limes
-1/2 of a medium red onion chopped
-2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/4 teaspoon of cumin

I don't know why, but I love pitting avocados. The way I do it is to cut a line around the circumference of the avocado, using the pit to guide me. Then I twist both halves in opposite directions and pull them apart. From there I use a spoon to dig out the pit. Sara, on the other hand, cuts them and pulls them apart the same way, but then slams a knife blade into the pit and then prys it out. It's frightening to watch.

Once you've pitted your avocados you spoon out the pulp and mash it in a bowl with a fork. Then you add your other ingredients and stir it all up. Voila! Guacamole!

Minestrone soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

I finally started recording a cooking show with my DVR. I knew it would happen eventually. I've started recording Tyler's Ultimate on the Food Network. It comes on Saturday mornings (and probably some other time too, who knows...) and features chef Tyler Florence preparing the "ultimate" versions of classic dishes.

Last Saturday he made grilled cheese sandwiches and Minestrone soup. I'm not a huge fan of either, but was so taken by his recipes that I decided Sara and I should give them a try.

I started the process, running around the kitchen, chopping stuff, and heating pans without telling Sara what I was doing - which is too often the case. Five minutes in she decides to look up the recipe and come up behind me fixing all the stuff I was screwing up. Tyler's original recipes can be found here and here. As always, we kinda cherry-picked this stuff and created something a little different (but not much).

We'll start with the soup :

Kosher salt
2 quarts chicken stock
2 garlic bulbs
1/2 pound small rigatoni
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
3/4 pound loose sweet Italian pork sausage
1 (28-ounce) can plum tomatoes, diced
2 (28-ounce) Northern White beans, drained
1/2 bunch fresh parsley leaves, finely minced
Coarsely ground black pepper

First up, chop up your carrots, celery, onions, and a few cloves of your garlic. You don't have to chop it very much, because you're going to put it into a food processor - so just chop it small enough to fit. Use the processor to pulp the vegetables then set them aside.

Next, pour your chicken stock into a large pot, cut one of your garlic bulbs in half, throw it in the stock and simmer it for about 15 minutes. You're trying to infuse the stock with a little garlic flavor.

While that's happening, pour 1/4 a cup of your olive oil into a large soup pot and add your rosemary and thyme. Let them cook over medium heat for about 3 or 4 minutes. Once again, you're infusing here - trying to get the taste of the herbs into the oil.

While all that's going on, start a pot of salted water to boiling and add your rigatoni. Cook it for about six minutes. You want it to be a little over done.

Once your oil is done cooking, pull out the rosemary and thyme sprigs and add your sausage to the oil. Add your vegetable pulp to the oil and cook them until their soft, but not browned. Dump the vegetables out of the pan and set aside.

Drizzle a little more vegetable oil into your soup pot and then add your sausage to it, Brown the sausage.

Once your sausage is browned, add your vegetables back to the pot as well as your cans of tomatoes (drained). Let them cook for five minutes then add your vegetable stock (after you've removed the big floating garlic halves) and your beans. Now would also be a good time to hit it with some salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a simmer, cook for about fifteen minutes and then add your rigatoni noodles.

Ta da! Minestrone! In hindsight, we recommend finding the smallest rigatoni noodles you can. Ours were way to big and kind of dominated the bowl. Also, Sara isn't a big sausage fan, so next time she wants to try it without the meat.

Now for the weirdest grilled cheese sandwich ever. You'll need:

8 slices country-style white bread, sliced 1/2-inch thick
12 ounces Cheddar, sliced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 slices bacon, cooked to desired doneness
1 green apple, thinly sliced
Dijon mustard

First up, cook your bacon. On the show, Tyler did it in the oven at 400 degrees. I'd never heard of anyone cooking bacon in an oven before, so I tried it. It was awesome. I can never get bacon to turn out right in a skillet, so this was like a revelation from on high. We cooked our bacon for 20 minutes because Sara likes her bacon really crispy. If you like it a little less done, try 15 minutes.

Once your bacon is done, chop up some apple slices and some cheese. Spread a little Dijon mustard on your bread and then stack your ingredients (one piece of cheese, a couple of apples slices, and three strips of bacon a piece) between your slices.

Preheat your griddle to medium heat (or your skillet, you know, if you don't have a griddle). Coat the griddle evenly with butter and slap yoursanwiches down cheese side first. Let it cook for three or four minutes, then flip it. cook for another two or three minutes.

Now you're done. It's not like any grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had, but it was still pretty damn good. Try it.

Black Bean Salsa

Years ago, someone gave me an aphrodisiac cook book. I was a little surprised to find a whole section of recipes using black beans. Apparently black beans are an aphrodisiac. Who knew? Personally, I've always found pinto beans to be the most sensual and seductive of the beans. Or baked beans. Who wouldn't want to spend a night with their favorite lover, feeding each other big spoon fulls of baked beans? Heaping globules, spilling seductively over onto your bodies...

Sorry.

So, anyway, black bean salsa. This is my variation on the recipe found in the book. You'll need:

1 can of black beans (drained)
1 avocado
1 mango
1 small red onion
1 red bell pepper
1/2 a cup of pineapple juice
2 tablespoons of cilantro
1/2 tablespoon of cumin
1 drizzle of olive oil

Your directions are simple. Chop the vegetables and mix everything together. Sometimes I'll add half a jalapeno if I want to spice it up a little bit - but some people don't like spicy with their sweet.

It's best if served chilled. Make sure you put it in a container with a tight lid, though, because if you don't it'll make everything in your fridge taste like black bean salsa.