Category Archives: DIY

07.18.13
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Brebis Chicken and Hot Pepper Jelly

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Herbed Brebis goes in the center of the chicken.

Herbed Brebis goes in the center of the chicken.

Hot pepper jelly

Hot pepper jelly

Ready to top with jelly!

Ready to top with jelly!

While I grew up in the kitchen and knew the basic cooking rules, I haven’t always enjoyed being in the kitchen and sort of battled the whole domestic idea. The first time I cooked for Nicholas, I made an Alfredo sauce from a packet, and I’m quite positive it was the worst meal he ever had–well, my over-cooked pork chop casserole was pretty bad, too. I learned and embraced canning and baking from my mom, but cooking came much harder for me. I can’t follow a recipe to save my life and I’m infamous for substituting more than half the recipe because I didn’t plan ahead and don’t want to take off my apron and go to the store. The point is, learning to cook well, and master more than my basic five recipes has been quite a journey–a ten year journey, that is, as I think my culinary side was really inspired when I met Nicholas, and his family. The best part about being in the kitchen is having someone to share in the tastes, fun, and catastrophes along the way, and while the end result is, of course, a great meal, cooking is a lot like life; it’s not always about the end result but the journey and the lessons along the way that make the end even possible. Nicholas and I cook together every chance we get, and it’s an integral part of our relationship and down time together. The only rule is that the kitchen has to be clean before we start, as Nicholas claims he needs a “clean slate” in order to begin a masterpiece. Beyond that, we throw caution to the wind and stir up lots of great dinners, often without following a recipe. We may get an idea from a recipe or picture in a magazine, but it’s much more fun to add what we think will taste best, and then sample and add a little of this and a little of that until we have a finished meal. Our chicken a few nights ago is a perfect example. We shopped at Grant Park farmer’s market and bought Brebis cheese, a really creamy sheep’s milk cheese https://www.facebook.com/manyfoldfarm. We heard someone mention using the cheese inside chicken, and we recalled a recipe we made a few years ago with chicken, goat cheese, and dates. We copied the idea and created a pan seared chicken filled with fresh herbed Brebis cheese, wrapped in pancetta and topped with homemade hot pepper jelly. Here’s the basic idea:

Ingredients:
2 Chicken breasts
3-4 pieces of pancetta
fresh herbs, minced (we used basil and rosemary)
Brebis cheese (or similar soft chevre-type cheese)
skewers
hot pepper jelly (recipe below)

Hot Pepper Jelly
You can make jam with almost any vegetable or fruit. Just puree the produce you want to use, and combine equal parts puree and sugar in a large pan on the stove. Bring to a soft boil, and boil for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.
In this case, I took about 10 sweet peppers (the small colorful ones from Costco) a couple of sweet peppers from the farmers market, and one jalapeno. I pureed all of them together (including the seeds, just cut off the stem). At this point, I had about two cups of puree, so I added two cups of sugar, stirred together and boiled for 20 minutes. I then let it sit on the stove while I made the chicken; by the time my chicken was done, it was thick enough to use for a topping.

Side note–use the left over pepper jelly to top cream cheese and spread on crackers for a snack or appetizer.

Chicken directions:

Pound (with a mallet) or filet two chicken breasts so that they are thin enough to fill and roll. Marinate in olive oil and Italian seasoning. Add fresh herbs to 3-4 oz. Brebis cheese, and spread thinly in the center of the chicken. Loosely roll the chicken and add a slice of pancetta to the outside. Crisscross skewers through the chicken and pan sear until browned on each side. Put your chicken in a glass pan and bake (covered) for 10-15 minutes. Top with pepper jelly and serve. 🙂

07.15.13
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East Atlanta, Pink Detergent, and Scott Antique Market

Pink pomegranate DIY detergent.

Pink pomegranate DIY detergent.

East Atlanta Foodie tour begins...

East Atlanta Foodie tour begins…

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East Atlanta Farmer's Market--just down the street!

East Atlanta Farmer’s Market–just down the street!

Dinner at Harper Station.

Dinner at Harper Station.

My favorite piece from Scott Antique Market--it will hold cook books and wine glasses!

My favorite piece from Scott Antique Market–it will hold cook books and wine glasses!

The thing about blogging is that even though I have no idea if anyone is reading, I feel this need to write often and feel as if life is slipping by too quickly when I fail to complete even a short post. Last week I had something I wanted to write about almost every day, and not doing so made me feel like I missed a week of vitamins and need to start tripling up on my calcium and fish oil. At any rate, here’s a week-in-review.

I made really fabulous laundry detergent the other day, trial washed a few loads and then decided I should make more. I got my recipe from http://www.diynatural.com/homemade-laundry-detergent-soap/ and love it because it is a perfect starter recipe. You only need three ingredients: a bar of your favorite soap, Arm and Hammer washing soda, and Borax. Everything is in the laundry aisle at your local grocery store, so it’s super easy to get what you need and get started. I grated a bar of Dove Pomegranate soap, and stirred in one cup of Borax and one cup of washing soda. That’s it! The only tedious part is grating the soap, but I’m going to try the food processor next time. The beautiful thing is that it smells great, cleans well, takes only one tablespoon per load and translates to about .03 cents a load. In the future, I might try to get fancier with a granule mixture that includes fabric softener beads, but for now? Success.

The majority of my week was spent in brain-melting academic sessions at the Atlanta International School, which was the site of my training in order to teach courses in the International Bachelorette program this fall. After full days of “let’s look at the interstices there that creates the enjambment” and trying to figure out acronyms that everyone else seems to know: the IO, the IOC, and the IOP, I literally felt like there was smoke coming out my ears. The remedy? A tour of East Atlanta’s downtown, about a mile from our townhouse. Nicholas and I spent an afternoon taking a foodie’s tour–we started at Tomatillos for a light queso snack and margarita on the patio before sampling Dollie’s ice cream and East Atlanta’s pizza. We walked the streets, admired the graffiti and read the local circular. We planned on one more stop–to Glenwood Neighborhood Pub, who supposedly serves Reuben egg rolls, but they were filming a movie and wouldn’t let us in. Leisurely kicking around the streets was a perfect way to regain perspective and appreciate our new space and community. We ended the day with a visit to the East Atlanta Farmer’s Market, which has similar venders as the one in Grant Park, but had cheaper produce and a more neighborly feel. I loved the sense of belonging in pointing and saying, “We just live down the street. We’ll be here every week.”

Friday night, we walked a portion of the Atlanta beltline for the first time; we were in route to dinner at Harper’s Station, a restaurant on my growing bucket list. Friends of ours just live down the street, and we met at their house, and followed the unpaved railroad tracks to the restaurant. The city is about to continue the paving of the beltline which is going to be really cool in the fall to walk and bike to restaurants and shopping. We sat outside and enjoyed a breezy evening of hilarious stories, great food and dear friends. I haven’t felt like I really fit in anywhere in a while, and it’s amazing and yet humbling to feel this sense of belonging–like coming home even when it’s someone else’s place.

In my quest to continue furnishing and decorating the house on a budget, I went to Scott Antique Market, which takes over an airplane hanger and the surrounding properties once a month in order to display a little junk, some shabby and lots of shabby chic. It really was an incredible experience, and because I couldn’t take in enough in yesterday’s three hours, I went back again this morning in order to bring home another round of gems. I spent the better part of this afternoon refinishing furniture instead of annotating Shakespeare’s Sonnets for a planning session tomorrow.

It was a great week, and I anticipate an even better one–in spite of a lengthy reading list to accomplish for school, the menu board is sporting some new ideas, I have a peach and strawberry “jam” session with a friend, plan to stir up my grandmother’s cinnamon bread, have a girl’s day out with two old friends and leave for Savannah for a belated birthday weekend. Somewhere in there, I’ll be sharing some of Poppi’s Italian recipes, starting with the famous marinara–I can’t wait to share a piece of our kitchen with you!