Another Road Trip Saturday

I woke up at 6:00 AM but got up at 7:00. I warmed up yesterday's coffee and posted on the Blog. Then I finalized the weekend dinners and did a quick check to see what I would be missing, ingredient-wise. It made a short list of items I need to pick up this morning. I debated about breakfast and decided another cup of coffee would work just fine. I drank it in the living room, reading my book and listening to WCSX's Saturday Morning, Over Easy show. I posted a favorite Bruce Springsteen song. I love that line, "You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright." (I might think that, but I'd never have the balls to say it, much less write it in a song!)

I finished the book, so I shaved and showered. Then, I was off on my few errands. I went to Meijer's for some things, then Westborn for herbs and parsnips (fresh, with the tops still on them). I had an odd conversation at the checkout with the older gentleman behind me who asked (I thought) about the parsnips. He said he never realized you could eat the roots. I thought, "How strange!" but said, "Oh, no! They are delicious!" The checkout girl (in her teens) said, "I've never eaten parsnips." I said to both of them, "Oh, you should try them! They have a sweet, almost nutty flavor." The guy said, "How do you cook them?" I said, "Just like carrots. Peel them, slice and boil them and add a little butter and salt and they are excellent!" And then he said, "And, you can still use the tops?" Puzzled, I said, "Ah, no... I don't think you can eat the tops." He said, "Don't be silly! Everybody eats parsley!" I said, "No, this isn't parsley, its parsnips." He said, "Oh, I thought that was parsley." I looked and, sure enough, parsnip tops resemble flat leaf parsley.

Then I went to the library, dropped off four of my five books and got five more. Then, I went back home. I put away the items that had to be refrigerated, stuck the herbs (basil and chives) in separate glasses of water and loaded the car for New Baltimore and my Mom's house. I left about 11:45 AM.

No problems on the freeway, just a LOT of glare from the sun on the snow. But, my new (well, month-old) Polaroid clip-ons took care of that. I got to Mom's just before 1:00 PM. I said "Hi" to her and Cora and then showed them my goodies: a nice big frozen container of my personal beef stew and about six fat dumplings, another one with two big stuffed green peppers in my special tomato sauce and a four cup container of my potato soup. Mom said, "Now, is that's Jake's potato soup recipe?"

I said, "Ah, um, no, Mom. It was a weekday night and I wanted potato soup, but didn't have a lot of time, so I just made my own recipe." She just said, "Oh..." Long time readers may remember that I brought her Jake's potato soup in the rehab center, but somebody ate it before she got to taste it. Now, I wish I hadn't bragged it up so much. The main difference is that I boil my potatoes in the broth (like most everybody else on the freakin' planet) but Jake oven-roasts his first. Note to Jake: Make more potato soup or your leek soup (beloved by both your Mom and Sadie, as well as myself) save me four cups for Mom and I'll run it out there. This is getting embarrassing!

They kept the stew out for dinner tonight and the rest went into the fridge to slowly thaw. Mom mentioned that, since she doesn't have mail service or even stamps anymore and she can't hear well on the phone, she wasn't sure how she would tell Luanne happy birthday on this Tuesday. So, I told her I would pass it along for her (and just did!) We sat and chatted until sometime after 2:00, when I decided it was time to leave for home.

I was zipping along down I-94 in downtown Detroit when, just before I-75, everybody started standing on the brakes. I knew they were working on I-75, but I had only about 30 seconds to decide: So, I pulled off onto I-75 South. I got more and more worried as the lanes were successively closed off by our famous Michigan orange barrels. But, the gods were smiling on me and the last lane ended (and I do mean "ended") at I-96 (exactly where I needed to be). I turned back on the cruise control, pegged it at 79 MPH and headed home.

I got home at 3:35 PM, changed clothes, took my last container of beef stew, and heated it up in the microwave. While that was warming, I filled in the Blog. At 4:00 PM I ate my breakfast/lunch. Then I set the alarm and lay down to take a nap. The alarm woke me exactly at 6:15 PM. I got up just in time to see a blazing red and yellow mixture of clouds and sun as the sun set directly behind the wall in my back yard.

I got to work on tonight's dinner: Spinach Stuffed Chicken. Now, I have seen many variations of this dish. The more classic ones involve prosciutto, ricotta cheese and spinach rolled up in flattened chicken breasts. Another one is to butterfly the breast and stuff them with ham or, again prociutto, ricotta or even feta cheese and then wrap the filled breast tight with bacon. Mine is a little more modern, using ham and Monterey Pepper-Jack cheese, as I thought the bite of the cheese would kick it up a notch. So, here's what I did:

I bought three boneless, skinless chicken breasts (note that the recipe calls for six breasts, but that's way too much for just me!). I put each between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Working from the center to the edges, I pounded them lightly with my rolling pin (I don't have a meat mallet) to 1/8-inch thickness. After removing the plastic wrap, I sprinkled the chicken lightly with black pepper.

I had thawed a box of frozen chopped spinach. I put it in a kitchen towel and firmly squeezed the spinach until well drained and almost dry. In a small bowl, I combined 1/2 of the spinach and one slightly scrambled egg, saving the remaining chopped spinach for the Saut�ed Spinach Cream Sauce. Again, please remember, this recipe is for six breasts, so half the spinach filling got tossed.

To make each roll, I spooned about 2 tablespoons of the spinach mixture onto each chicken piece, spreading evenly over chicken. I topped that with a piece of thin-sliced deli ham. I cut the squares of pepper-jack cheese in half and put the cheese down the middle. I folded in the sides and rolled it up, pressing the edges to seal. I secured each roll with wooden toothpicks. The rolls went, seam side down, into a 9x9x2-inch glass baking dish (I would have used a 13x9x2 dish for all six, BTW), and drizzled them with two tablespoons of melted butter. That went into a preheated 375 degrees F. oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink (170 degrees F internal temperature).

To make the Spinach Cream Sauce, I melted two tablespoons of butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. I added the remaining chopped spinach, cooking and stirring for 5 minutes. I added two tablespoons whipping cream, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. I cooked and stirred that for another 30 seconds or so (until heated through).

Meanwhile, I also made mashed potatoes, using Yukon Gold potatoes with the skins on. I had one bunch of scallions that were starting to go south on me, so I cleaned them up, sliced them thin and added them to the drained potatoes. I warmed the remaining whipping cream (from a little 8-ounce container) and some butter and added that to the potatoes, then mashed. Since I wasn't that hungry (at 8:00 PM - I shouldn't have eaten breakfast/lunch so late, I guess) everything went into the oven on "Warm," waiting on me.

I read my book until 9:00 PM when I switched to HBO, looking for some boxing. Damn! None on tonight! But, there was a George Carlin Comedy Special that was pretty funny. Finally, I'm hungry. So, I sliced each roll into threes, plated them and topped them with the Spinach Cream Sauce; added some potatoes and ate dinner.

I have to say I am not as impressed with the chicken as I'd hope to be. Probably my fault, as I did tend to overload it with the spinach during construction (not really wanting to "waste" too much). But the end result was the other flavors got lost. If and when I make this again, I'll double the ham and the cheese and cut the spinach in half. On the other hand, the potatoes, which were rather thrown together, were fantastic! Thick and creamy, with just enough green onion to flavor it, but not enough to overwhelm the dish. Excellent. So, one out of two ain't bad!

After the comedy special, I read my book until 11:30 PM when I finished this post, along with two pictures I'd taken earlier and now I'm going to sleep.