Plating is not my thing!
After seeing some of the stuff Kayaksoup posts on her blog, I'm somewhat embarassed to post my creations. Granted, I'm not attending culinary school or anything, but still! To be fair, I do just serve myself, and so don't bother with the trouble of making it all look pretty. Also realized that tonight's dinner (the roasted chicken) was missing some green to go along with it. Oops!
My favorites: The lemon spaghetti--I'm normally not a fan of savory dishes with lemon, but am slowly changing my ways. This had great reviews on the Cooking Light BB and on Sweetnicks Blog. It was good and came together very easily (Jackie, if you're reading this, you should try it. This is one you can manage just fine).
Also, the chicken salad (made with the leftover greek chicken) was my normal 'formula' plus some feta cheese. It was tasty and something I will repeat.
The roast chicken was just OK. Not bad, but not worth repeating. The carcass is on the stove, stewing away so I can have some homemade chicken broth! The leftover chicken will probably become enchiladas in the next few days.
btw, the green beans were a bit discolored. My timing was off and they were done a bit early. Easy recipe, but I've certainly made better.
Top, L-R: Lemony garlic green beans, greek chicken with grape tomatoes, and lemon spaghetti (recipe follows); Greek chicken salad, spiced sweet potato rounds, leftover lemon spaghetti; Chili-roasted chicken with roasted garlic gravy , roasted carrots, sweet potatoes, and white potatoes; The whole chicken and veggies.
Giada DeLaurentiis' Lemon Spaghetti
(I only made 1/2 of this recipe and it was plenty for me to make 4 side servings out of)
1 pound spaghetti
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the oil, Parmesan, and lemon juice in a large bowl to blend. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Toss the pasta with the lemon sauce, and the reserved cooking liquid, adding 1/4 cup at a time as needed to moisten. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with lemon zest and chopped basil.
6 comments:
Jennifer, your plates look good! And the food looks tasty as well. Especially that chili roasted chicken. I struggle with the plating concept in school and I have to work to pull off anything resembling nice.
Looks good to me. I think I am going to try the Chili Roasted Chicken. I have all the ingredients on hand. It looks yummy. The lemon spaghetti sounds interesting as well. I am getting bored with my mexican spaghetti.
Thanks Linda! I'm becoming more conscious of plating, but sometimes I'm so eager to eat that I just don't care about presentation!
Lula, the spaghetti is better than the chicken in my opinion. :) Of course, w/ a housefull of boys, it'd have to be a side dish. I will be making it again. I can see it becoming a staple dish when school starts and I'm back to being gone 12 hours a day!
Do you have your chicken salad recipe. The one with grapes? I bought a buttload of grapes today and wanted to make it. That was the absolute best chicken salad I have ever eaten. IMHO
My basic chicken salad is:
chicken (duh!)
cream cheese
mayo
parsley
onion
celery
salt/pepper
Then I add grapes, nuts, apples, raisins--whatever suits my fancy or what I have on hand. Last night it was feta cheese.
I chop the chicken in my fp.
Then the onion, celery, parsley, keeping it seperate from the chicken.
Then I mix about 3 parts cream cheese to 1 part mayo. I don't like mayo flavor that much, but like it for the creaminess. I get that to taste right, and then start mixing some of the veggies and cream cheese mixture with the chicken, a bit at a time until it's the right texture.
Make sense?
Did you ever have my Chicken Salad with a Southwestern Twist? I think the recipe is in the FHLB cookbook, if you still have it. It's tasty as well.
I've made that spaggetti and we really enjoyed it. I made it with the recipe that giada served it with. Shrimp fra diavalo. Yummy. When I lived in Cali, I was in a CL supper club. I wish I could find ppl here to join one.
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