Cordon Bleu: How To Host On Your Living Room Floor

Jeremy and I love Scott Christofferson. Really. He's one of our favorite people. We invited him over for dinner Wednesday night because we just wanted an excuse to see him. So hey, why not offer food?

(Let's be honest. He wanted to come over anyway. We threw in food when we already knew he was coming.)

But then Jeremy had an accident snowboarding when he tried to flip off the roof  did something to cause a muscle spasm in his back, and Tuesday night/Wednesday morning learned that he couldn't walk. Or get out of bed. Or even sit up. 

I called Scotty. Jeremy had made it to our bedroom floor and had spent the morning trying to rotate between his back and stomach, depending on which hurt less, so I told Scotty that unless he wanted to picnic on our floor, maybe we'd better not do dinner. He was a little bit distraught and asked if we could reschedule. Immediately. I said, "Of course! Scotty, we really don't mind picnicking on our floor. If you're okay with it, come over." It was more than a little tongue-in-cheek. Not that we really would've been opposed, but... When I invite someone over to dinner, I guess my expectation was to serve them good food at a table with pleasant conversation, just an overall good time. 

My expectation changed. Scotty said, "That sounds great. See you at 5:30."

I laughed after I hung up the phone. Why was I even surprised? I texted Jeremy (knowing his phone was within arm's reach) "Scotty wants to have a picnic on our floor :)" to which he responded, "Sweet."

So I went to my classes, and maybe during one of them, I found what looked like a relatively simple recipe for cordon bleu, which is one of Jeremy's favorite dishes. This has previously been a little intimidating because I'd always thought cordon bleu was complicated to make. Turns out, it really isn't too bad, I just needed a couple of things. Swiss cheese slices, for example.  I ran to the grocery story when we got out of class early, running around just a little bit because I remembered Jeremy dragging himself across the floor to get to the bathroom earlier that morning and was more than a little worried about leaving him alone for the duration of my classes that afternoon. 

When I got home, Jeremy had managed to stay comfortably propped up on some pillows against the foot of the bed and had been pretty content to get some work done on his laptop. As I started pulling things out to start dinner, he said that he wanted to at least come sit in by where I was. Thanks to my grandparents, we have a lazy boy that meant Jeremy could sit and talk to me while I made dinner. 

Which I imagine was a little entertaining. But I promise, this recipe is easy.

Ingredients:

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, thawed
• 6 slices Swiss cheese
• 6 slices ham
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 6 tablespoons of butter
• 1/4 apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules (or a small chicken bouillon cube)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Pound the chicken breasts if they are too thick. Place a cheese and ham slice on each breast within 1/2 inch of the edges. fold the edges of the chicken over the filling, and secure with toothpicks.

I used an actual hammer, and this is what started my disbelief that this was going to turn out anything like cordon bleu I've had in the past. My chicken was still a little bit frozen, so sometimes when I hit the first piece of chicken, I made holes in it. Which I said out loud. Jeremy's disbelief started then too. "Um, yeah. Don't do that."

So I figured out how to not make holes in the chicken, and managed to wrap all of my chicken pieces with ham and cheese inside. I still was not convinced it was right and was sure I was just making a mess. I said to Jeremy, "Let's just not call this cordon bleu, okay? We'll just give it a new name." 

"A rose by any other name..." 

"Smells just as sweet? I'm not really worried it's not going to taste good, it just doesn't look like your conventional cordon bleu."

"Right, so it's fine if you rename it."

I rolled the last one and gave a pathetic laugh that turned into a whine as I set it on the plate to be cooked. Jeremy said, "That bad, huh?" I shouldn't have told him it was cordon bleu either.

2. Mix the flour and the paprika, and coat the chicken pieces.

Simple enough. I just thought it made my already ugly wraps look even uglier.

But then, the redeeming step.

3. Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and cook the chicken until browned on all sides.

Cooking it is what did it. Yes, there are definitely prettier ways to wrap chicken, cheese, and ham, but if you are concerned you aren't doing a good enough job, don't worry. Cooking the chicken changes your outlook on everything. It looks like cordon bleu, and you realize you haven't ruined a good name.

Well, I was relieved anyway.

4. Add the apple cider vinegar, water, and bouillon. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

This starts to smell fantastic. Jeremy's disbelief disappeared when he smelled it. I was boiling potatoes at the same time (this is great with mashed potatoes) and something was burning on the burner, and that's all I could smell. "Oh no," I said, "what's burning..." sure that I, again, had actually ruined everything. "I don't know what you're smelling, but that chicken smells fantastic." I pulled off the lid and it overpowered the little piece of whatever stuck on the burner. 

5. Remove the toothpicks and transfer the chicken to a warm platter. Blend the cornstarch and cream in a small bowl, and whisk slowly into the same skillet with the remaining vinegar and spices. Cook, stirring until thickened, and pour over the chicken. Serve warm.

My only advice here is to be careful with the toothpicks. They've just been partially cooked into the chicken, so they're a little stubborn and incredibly hot. 

We laid out a blanket in our front room, used stemware and cloth napkins, and served pomegranate 7up. And Jeremy spent the meal alternating between sitting up and laying on his side. All in all, a success. As far as muscle spasmed backs and picnics on the floor go :)

Just an update: Jeremy is doing much better. He can walk, get up and down, lift things, and perform most normal life tasks without any assistance. But it made for an adventurous and creative couple of days!

Saturday Afternoon Pancakes

We drove to Texas for Christmas, and we made the mistake of making the drive down in one day again. It's 15 hours, not the worst thing in the world, but we fell asleep at 8PM Friday night, woke up at midnight to actually start our packing, and only slept again when it was not our turn to drive the next afternoon. Just in time for 9AM church on Sunday morning.

Yay.

Christmas was great, even though the break included a fair amount of sleeping, and by the time we'd managed to normal out a little bit, it was time to head home. We left on Thursday, we stopped by Roswell, NM and then stayed at a hotel around Santa Fe so we could run around downtown Santa Fe on Friday, finish the drive Friday afternoon/evening and be home at a decent hour. Except we stayed too long in Santa Fe to get home at a normal hour. So we got home just before 3AM Saturday morning. I'd come down with a cold and sore throat on the way home and hadn't been able to sleep well in Santa Fe the night before, so I took some Nyquil as I was getting ready to go to sleep.

I re-learned why I don't take medicine. I have no idea what time Jeremy woke up. I woke up Saturday afternoon at 2PM.

Jeremy, sweetheart that he is, didn't want to do anything that made noise so that I would stay asleep. (Little did he know, with that alcohol in my system, he could've run a chainsaw in our room if he wanted and I wouldn't have even flinched.) He didn't make/eat breakfast, afraid it would be too noisy, so when I finally woke up we were both starving. We wanted food that required minimal effort, and we wanted something very filling. Cold cereal was out.

I pulled out the box of pancake mix and in looking for the ratio of mix to water, I found some "suggested serving" ideas on one of the panels. It said, "Apple-filled Pancakes: Follow pancake directions. Cover portion with chopped pie apples. Fold like turnovers, sprinkle with cinnamon and serve with syrup or honey."

I thought that sounded pretty good, and while we didn't have apples, we did have a jar of apple pie filling from my aunt who bottles her own. Yes, I could've saved the pie filling for an actual pie, but why save it when you can have apple pie turnovers for breakfast?

They really were as quick as making pancakes, just adding an extra step or two. Mix the pancake mix (runnier is better for this recipe- you want the pancakes cooked through almost completely before you fold it in half. Just like omelets, the inside never really sees the hot part of the pan, so thin pancakes is more effective.), when the pancake looks ready to flip, put pie filling on half the pancake, then fold the pancake in half over the top of the apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

I used butter on the pan between each pancake just to make sure they didn't stick. It turned out to make each turnover easy to get out of the pan and onto the plate.

They were delicious :)

A Not-As-Quick-But-Well-Worth-Your-Effort Indian Curry Recipe

So Jeremy's in Africa. Which means I have absolutely no desire to cook. Why go to all that effort for just one person?

Okay, let's be honest, the point of this blog is "minimal to no effort in even less time."

So really what I'm saying is that I'd be okay with food just hopping in my mouth as I walk out the door to work or to study somewhere besides our house.

But on Sunday, my friend Ashley told me she loves to make curry and was missing some random ingredients that I happened to have. So we scheduled dinner for Monday night. But then, Monday night I spent on campus and didn't come home til 1:30. Long before then, I texted her to tell her I was swamped and could we maybe reschedule to Tuesday?

Tuesday was great with them, we were going to eat at 6:30. I got enough done Monday for finals week that Tuesday was a little more relaxed. Tuesday morning we sent several texts back and forth about what things I had, what she had, etc. Then at about 4:30, I get this from her-

Ashley: Ugh. So we may have to move curry to another night AGAIN... Our stove is broken and we're going back and forth with the management company and electricians... I'll keep you posted :/

An hour an a half later-

Ashley: So far it's not looking good. They said the electrician would be here to fix it any time now, but he's still not here. Perhaps closer to 7...

Me: Which works fine for me :) Just keep me updated.

About an hour later, Ashley learned that not only was her oven not working, neither was her dryer, and their electrician seemed like he was just confused about how the lights even came on. I just felt bad, maybe it would've been better if I'd just gone the night before and gotten everything else done on Tuesday, not only was dinner canceled (and she and her husband were SUPER excited about it) but they also had several appliances in their house that weren't working. I thought about offering to cook it at my house and bringing it back (they have dogs that can't be left alone yet) but that seemed crazy. But then...

Me: I'd offer my house, but your dogs can't be by themselves... Let's see what happens with the electrician tomorrow?

Ashley: Can we cook out there and bring it here? I know that's weird but Ismael could stay while we cooked...

Ashley: Meh really whatever is fine. Just rereading that sounds inconvenient for you and that's the last thing I want :)

Me: I was actually going to suggest that but wondered if it sounded crazy :) I'm game if you guys are


They were. So Ashley came over a little while after that and we made curry. Oh my gosh, it was good. And my house still smells like curry, and I love it. Except that I've been eating leftovers (and by leftovers I mean the pizza I bought Monday night when we didn't have curry and only finished YESTERDAY) since then because I'm SO lazy...

Whatever.

Indian Curry

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• (1) 3 Tbsp curry powder
• (2) 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• (3) 1 tsp paprika
• (4) 1 bay leaf
• (5) 1/2 tsp grated ginger root
• (6) 1/2 tsp white sugar
• salt to taste
• 2 chicken breasts, cubed
• (7) 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• (8) 1 cup plain yogurt
• (9) 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 lemon, juiced (or a few teaspoons of lemon juice, whichever you prefer)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Saute onions/garlic. When brown, add ingredients 1-6 (it's easier if you mix them in a bowl before hand and then add everything at the same time). Stir for 2 minutes. Add chicken. Add ingredients 7-9, bring to a boil. Reduce heat immediately and simmer for 25 minutes. Add lemon and cayenne pepper, then simmer an additional five minutes. Serve with rice.

If you like curry, this is a fantastic recipe. If you don't like curry, it's still a great recipe. Just maybe not for you :)

When Jeremy Cooks- A Text Conversation

Just a disclaimer right now: I realized I needed to take pictures after we'd eaten everything :( Sorry Jared!

So last night I was sitting in class and I realized I was absolutely starving. I texted Jeremy, who was driving home from work, that I was ready to eat my hands.

Jeremy: That's weird.

Me: I'm starving!

Jeremy: It'd still be weird. What are we doing for dinner? Can-should I start it?

Me: Starvation makes you do weird things, I s'pose. Yes, you can and that sounds like a great idea.

Jeremy: So... what should I be making?

Me: Sweet and sour pork. I'll text you directions in just a second.

Jeremy: Remember it needs to be done before I come get you...

Me: Dinner? Mmm. Let me pick something else. This takes too long.

So I just started putting together some ingredients in my head, things we had, what would be quick, easy, and ready to go by the time Jeremy needed to leave to get me.

I came up with something that I thought was time friendly. If put the chicken in the sink with hot water running over it, started the rice, chopped while the chicken thawed a little bit, all of it would be done about 20 minutes later. So I texted Jeremy.

Me: Can you cook the chicken in the freezer and put rice in the rice cooker?
Me: Use olive oil and chop the green onions and bell peppers in the right bottom drawer.
Me: (for the chicken)
Me: And then use some lemon pepper on all of it. Fry all of it together.
Me: And when it's almost done frying, add a can of corn with peppers from the top shelf of the cupboard.
Me: Don't drain the can.
Me: Probably throw in half a regular onion, big sideways slices, in with the frying mix
Me: Questions? :)

Jeremy: This won't be done in time.

Me: You don't need to leave for 20 minutes. While the chicken sets in hot water, chop the vegetables.
Me: Hot water in the sink. So it thaws.

Jeremy: Okay.

Me: :D

Jeremy: Fine.

Me: Thanks love.

Me: Salt and pepper to the frying mix too.

This conversation ended at 6:20. About ten minutes later:

Jeremy: How does the rice cooker work? One to one?

Me: One cup of rice, two cups of water.

...

We decided to meet in my office on campus because we were having family home evening on campus. With the rice question timing, I just wasn't sure what to expect. Jeremy walked into my office about 15 minutes after that.

Holding a container of milk and a container of cereal.


When we got home from campus, the rice was done in the rice cooker and had been warming for however long, the chicken was defrosted and waiting in the fridge, and the vegetables were all chopped and in a ziploc bag. So I threw it all in a frying pan with some olive oil, left out the can of corn and onions and lemon pepper, and fried everything for maybe 5-7 minutes, adding a garlic salt seasoning blend to taste. It was so good. So good that we ate all of it, which rarely happens because I make more than we can eat.

Evidently, that cereal helped us to work up an appetite.

The Moncurs For Dinner

What a strange title. We didn't eat the Moncurs, don't worry.

This is Rob and Lisa Moncur. Jeremy and I met Rob when Jeremy and I met- we all lived at King Henry. Then, through more King Henry ward connections, Rob met Lisa, they started dating, they got married just before Jeremy and I got engaged, and Lisa and I recently learned that we were rooting for the other couple to get married and never even put the other's maiden name into our phone. Lisa has been Lisa Moncur in my phone since I met her, and I've been Alyssa Lindström in hers.

All of that was to say, we really like them :)

We're learning about the whole married friend thing, and we love it, but we aren't very good (yet) at coordinating get-togethers. So the week before Thanksgiving, I said, "Jeremy, let's have them over for dinner next week!"

"...next week is Thanksgiving..."

"Oh. I meant the next week."

Look at us accidentally planning dinner two weeks in advance.

While we want to get great at doing dinners with our friends, this particular dinner was blog-worthy because it was... well, an adventure. For lack of a better word.

One con of planning so far in advance is that other things happen, and you forget about what’s happening in two weeks. Or sometimes even the next day. After reading a text, Jeremy told me on Saturday, less than a week before our planned dinner, “Oh, I forgot I told Patrice I’d help with a show on Wednesday.” “Okay, cool.” No reaction about Wednesday’s dinner. I forgot, and so did he. Until the next day.

In sacrament meeting. As it turns out, the best place for good ideas.

We just decided we’d need to cancel because the commitment to the show was made before the invitation to dinner was extended. But I forgot to call and cancel. Until Tuesday afternoon when Jeremy learned he wasn’t needed for the show. Lucky for us.

We also forgot that we needed to make time for tithing settlement. 7PM Wednesday night. Dinner with Rob and Lisa, 7:30PM. Not a big deal, right? Oh wait, I have class til 6:30. Oops.

But it was okay. I had Rachel Ray’s “30-minute Meals For Get Togethers” to save me. Used book store on our honeymoon. What a great find. Jeremy picked me up a little bit early from class (we got out early, just not as early as I needed) and we grabbed the few things we needed at the grocery store and I put him to work chopping onions while I threw the meat in the oven.

PORK TENDERLOINS

• Package of tenderloins large enough for your party
• Balsamic vinegar for drizzling (about 3 tablespoons)
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• Half the number of your tenderloins. Use that many garlic cloves, and crack them.
• Steak seasoning blend (whatever your preference is)
• Rosemary
• Thyme

Preheat oven to 500•F. Trim fat off of tenderloins and place on a cookie sheet with a rim. Coat in a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, rubbing the vinegar into the meat. Drizzle the tenderloins with olive oil, just enough to coat. Cut small slits into the meat and disperse chunks of crack garlic cloves into the tenderloins. Combine the seasoning blend with the rosemary and thyme, and rub the meat with the mixture. Roast in the hot oven 20-25 minutes. Let meat cool, slice and serve.

My mistake: We didn’t have enough time for the tenderloins to finish cooking. They’d only been coking about ten minutes when we had to leave, and I decided that turning the oven off right then would mean they would have enough time in a still hot oven to finish cooking and then the oven would be cool.

Nope. We didn’t serve any pork with our meal.

When we got home from tithing settlement, I was just so sad that I’d really not thought that one through and ruined what had potential to be fantastic meat. It smelled so good while it was roasting! Jeremy, in an attempt to comfort me, said, “At least it’s not like you’re feeding my parents and they hate you and this is your only chance to impress them.”

“Just let me be disappointed for a minute, okay?”

“That is letting you be disappointed! I’m just telling you it really is okay and not the end of the world. We’re also not running to McDonald’s to feed Rob and Lisa. You’ve got plenty of food.”

“Would you just go set the table?!”

It’s hard, even pretending to be annoyed with him.

We did have plenty of food. The meal that Rachel Ray planned was pretty simple, so I’d done three parts (there were four, but we just didn’t need the cheese wheel too.) Tortellini with a delicious garlic sauce and ratatouille. Yes, we ate ratatouille. I was pretty dang excited about actually making and eating that dish. Disney made it pretty big, it’s gotta be good, right? And turns out, it’s not all that complicated.

RATATOUILLE (this recipe makes a lot. Feel free to cut it in half, and it still is in pretty generous proportions)

• 1 large red bell pepper, cut lengthwise into 1-inch strips
• 1 medium sliced onion, sliced
• 1 medium eggplant, sliced into ½-inch pieces, piled and quartered
• 4 plum sliced tomatoes, quartered lengthwise
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• Olive oil, to coat
• Rosemary (3 tablespoons)
• Pepper and salt to taste

Preheat oven to 500•F. Combine the vegetables and garlic on a cookie sheet (this is what the recipe suggests, I used a 9X13 baking dish. Roasting time is cut down when they’re more spread out, but not by too much). Drizzle liberally with olive oil and season with rosemary, pepper, and salt. Toss to coat vegetables evenly. Roast until just tender, about 15 minutes.

TORTELLINI

• 1 package of cheese-filled or mushroom-filled tortellini (you can definitely buy it not filled and do it yourself, but a fairly large package was $2 at Smiths, so I did it this way. Cheap, and takes a lot less time)
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2/3 cup grated Parmigiano cheese
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ cup olive oil

Put a pot of water on to boil. Cook the tortellini as directed. Heat 1 cup of chicken broth to boil and remove from heat. Mix broth, garlic, cheese, nutmeg, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Toss hot, cooked tortellini in with the sauce. Yum.

Besides the tenderloin tragedy, dinner went really well, and it was so fun to see Rob and Lisa, and, of course, tell them our anecdotal dinner adventures. Lisa made a delicious zucchini cake and was missing an egg in the process of baking aforementioned cake, so they understood that, you know, sometimes things happen.

And they usually happen when you really don’t have time for them to happen :) of course.

 

chicken fried rice... with pork?

When I walked in last night, Jeremy said, "Don't get too comfortable. We have to go to Home Depot."

"Can I start dinner?"

"If you're quick!"

I, admittedly, don't really know what the word "quick" means. But I thought this was pretty fast.

So in our clearance shopping, we've found a lot of Hamburger Helpers. Enough to know that there are quite a variety of flavors. All of which we now own.

I have been a little bit excited to see if this is good. I was not let down. But last night I didn't want to use chicken. Or better, I really wanted to put some of our pork to use.

My aunt is great at food storage. She's always had TONS of ways to store food and tons of food to put those ways to use. But then she moved across the country and couldn't take it all with her. They were very generous to let us benefit by this dilemma, but it meant we ended up with a giant pork butt shoulder roast which I had no idea how to even start cooking. But thanks to a wedding, we have a giant crock pot that roasted that butt shoulder. (Don't worry, the conversation about how you get THAT from a pig was everything you'd guess it was.) So Sunday dinner was pork. As will be dinner for the next month.

So pork instead of chicken. Still a great meat.

I prepared the rice as the box instructed, and while it steamed I warmed up and shredded some of the pork we had. When the rice was done, I added it to the rice, along with a can of mandarin oranges.

It seemed Asian.
I added fried onions, kind of by accident because when I saw them on the shelf, my brain translated whatever words I actually read to mean "Chinese noodles." I really do know the difference, and they really aren't that difficult to differentiate. But for some reason...

  

which are these:

 NOT these:

Just so you know, they should not be used interchangeably. In this case, however, it worked out.
I added some creamy style corn as an afterthought. It needed just a little bit more and we needed to use a can we opened by mistake and just stuffed in a Tupperware.

So by "quick" we mean 20 minutes for the rice and about 5 minutes to get it from pot to bowls to table. And by the time we actually ate, we'd already gone to Home Depot and Walgreens and been on the phone with some friends for an hour, but... "quick" is relative.

Gently stale tostadas...

Monday night. Jeremy and I were in a huge hurry to meet with our wedding planner, Scotty- Jeremy had left work later than usual, we'd rescheduled with Scott a hundred times, our wedding is in less than two weeks, and it was already passed the time we needed to leave. I'd asked Jeremy to stop by the grocery store on the way home to pick up shredded cheese, and maybe some ham, if he wanted, to finish topping the pizzas we were going to eat on the way to meet Scotty. That's all I asked him to get. And when he walked in, he had 4-6 bags on his arms and had to go back out to the car to get more.

"...I got some other stuff..."

It's really hard to get mad at him. He's cute.

Part of what makes this game fun for us is that we look for deals at the grocery store. The grocery store closest to us has an aisle cap that has lots of items marked "Manager's Special," anything the store has that has been dropped or otherwise damaged so it's not as pretty and they can't sell it at normal price. We've learned the truth about these products: they (almost) always taste exactly the same as the food inside a box that hasn't been squished. I will throw in the cautionary disclaimer however: sometimes things are not in peak condition.

Exhibit A:

When Jeremy walked in with bags and bags and bags of stuff, I was excited about all of it. Especially when he pulled out a package of tostadas. I love tostadas. And you can do so many things with them! So that's what we had for dinner last night.

The tostadas, sadly, were stale.

Fortunately, the toppings I put together were really liquidy, so the crunchy tostadas just added texture and not flavor. Or lack thereof.

So the quick recipe to use later, with tostadas (that hopefully aren't stale!) is this:

The rice takes about half an hour. Start the rice first, then start collecting everything else you need. I used beans, shredded cheese, salsa, a variety of vegetables like corn and tomatoes. Throw it all in with the rice to get it all the same temperature, and then serve it warm on the tostadas. Delicious. And really not all that bad even when the tostadas are stale :)