Friday, March 09, 2007

Friday Florida Food Fest

Whoa dude ... I think I'm having a flash back ...

What could that be? The answer appears below, so if you're in a guessin' mood, you best not scroll down too far yet.

It's been a week of "creativity from neccesity" here at Pure Florida when it comes to supper. Everybody's schedule is all crisscrossy tesselatey nebulous and no one wants to go to the grocery store 15 miles away, so as the pantry became more roomy, the dinner options became correspondingly gloomy.

I tend to get home first and even though I've taken over the huge groaning board in the kitchen as my National Boards writing HQ, they still have to eat, so I've been ... experimenting.

A few nights ago, I thought I'd make what we call "white chicken". Just boneless, skinless chicken thighs browned in olive oil then simmered in whine ...oops, well sometimes, basil, oregano, garlic, and some reduced fat sour cream added to form a sauce. Served over noodles, it's cheap and tastes great.

Only this week we did not have any sour cream. We DID have a can of sweetened condensed milk. Hmmmm...

They liked it, but everyone agreed the sweet background flavor caused them to eat less of it than they would have normally.

I didn't like it. At least I was honest.

Last night, I arranged 6 thick skinless chicken breasts in a big cast iron dutch oven (smidge of olive oil first of course) sprinkled them with salt, pepper, and basil, covered them and set them in the oven on 360 F.

After they had cooked a while, I galloshed in some wine, recovered, and let it cook some more. Then out of desperation (I am the anti-instant potato), I made a big batch of "real" instant mashed potatoes and dumped them in atop the bubbling chicken.

Recovered ... again (Britney pay attention!) and let it all meld for a little while.

When I opened it up with Jr. peering (drooling) over my shoulder, all the chickeny winey juices had bubbled up through the potatoes and it looked like a chicken cobbler. It was really good and one of those meals you can leave to itself while it's cooking so you have time to blog.

Speaking of cobbler ...


The mystery pic at the beginning was this blackberry cobbler before baking.
Yes, it was good!
No, turtle food was not an ingredient.
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10 comments:

Lightnin said...

FC-
I at least try to guess before scrolling down to discover I was wrong....I thought it was a pomegranate. Look at the photo again and see if you can tell where I was getting this?
Lightnin

Alan said...

Now any Southerner would recognize it right off as blackberries but I don't usually get so close to it as to risk sticking my nose in! {laughing}

I have no idea what I'm going to cook for supper tonight. I haven't had any inspiration all week. I'm sure I'll come up with something by then, but don't ask me what.

.....Alan.

Paintsmh said...

I think it's a pomegranate too.

roger said...

i thought you had become creative with....cranberries. maybe a can of cranberry relish left over from thanksgiving. your pantry seems to be well stocked. let us know when you get down to faux apple pie. (some kinda ritz cracker concoction, as i recall).

threecollie said...

We cook that way often, as no one ever wants to shop...or at least not for food. It is very much a good thing though, for much as with your chicken cobbler we sometimes come up with amazingly tasty dishes...and, (what with the truth in disclosure thing and all), some pretty awful ones too.

Anonymous said...

I guessed raspbaerries, but not the cobbler part.

Yummy meal.

OldHorsetailSnake said...

Well, heck, even I knew it wasn't gooseberry......

Thunder said...

Man, I was completely taken. I thought for sure it was some type of berry cobbler!

Hey man, I did finally have some luck getting some more pics on before I got back state side.

ImagineMel said...

hi there...went to WM...was bombarded with good wishes...made me feel SO much better. Patiently waiting the outcome. I put up some pics in my blog about my time in OSS. ;) Wandering wondering.

R.Powers said...

Lightnin and Paintsmh,
I see the pomegranate resemblence! Good guess.

Alan,
Hope supper turned out well.

roger,
"mock apple pie" from ritz crackers.didn't you always wonder where the apple flavor part came from? i used to ponder that recipe on the box, but never made it.

ThreeCollie,
... mother of invention and all that :)

Thingfish,
I wish it had been raspberries. Strawberries are in now and we're gobbling those up.

Hoss,
We don't have gooseberries here and I've never seen one.

ThunderD,
I'm way behind in visiting blogs, hope to remedy that this weekend.

Mel,
Good! I'll stop by wandering and check it out.