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. 🙂