February Doldrums

So this has been a long, long, long, long, long month so far. I will spare you all the gory details and minutia of my day to day annoyances and sum it up by saying i just can't win.

Anyway, since everything has been a total piece of shit, with the exception of my trip to st. louis, (yes I did say st. louis) and the hang out at jenn and tim's the other night, this month has been a complete and utter garbage dump...so to that end, I decided that I would make delicious, utterly rich comfort food perfect for a cold February night.

This is my first meat dish. I have lots of squeamish issues about cooking any meat so understand this is a bit of an undertaking for me.

Chicken of the Taverns (adapted from I like you-amy sedaris) and Avocado Carrot Salad
***Vegetarian and vegan note-make this with naked chic cutlets or their equivalent but watch your cooking time and follow the directions given

LISTENING TO:

20 JAZZ FUNK GREATS- Throbbing Gristle

Chicken of the Taverns

Part One:

CHICKEN
Preheat Oven to 400 degrees

Half Cup Oil
One Stick Butter
Juice of one large lemon, strain

1. Melt butter and oil together over medium low heat in a sauce pan or frying pan
2. Pour half into a LARGE DEEP glass baking dish (you need it to be LARGE to handle all the things you will add later), once you add half to the dish, turn your heat way down low but don't turn it off.
3. Add chicken to the dish- I used three free range chicken breast from whole foods cut in half and covered in salt and pepper
4. Turn heat off butter and add strained lemon juice, stir
5. Cover chicken with remaining mix and cook uncovered for 1/2 an hour

SAUCE
2lbs canned whole tomatoes - one large and one medium can will also work
one white onion sliced thin

1/2 teaspoon each of the following:
Oregano
Marjoram
Savory

One Bay Leaf
1/2 cup red wine
*Make sure that you actually like the way the wine you are using tastes cause the sauce really picks up the wine flavor. I used two buck chuck cab sov and it was fine...
Shredded kefalatori or Parmesan cheese

Add all the above (except cheese) in one big sauce pan and cook on medium heat for 25 mins, covered. Turn down if it starts to boil.

PART 2:

ASSEMBLY
Once chicken and sauce are done, turn down oven to 350 degrees, add all sauce to the chicken in the baking dish and cook all together for 25 minutes in the oven

While this is cooking bring a large pot of water to a boil with salt and olive oil. I used spaghetti this time but knock your self out and use what ever kind of pasta floats your boat. Typically, I try to use brown rice or whole wheat pasta but tonight it was straight semolina which was so fucking tasty. Follow your package instructions for cooking times.

Drain your pasta when done and return to the large pasta cooking pot, add all the chicken and sauce into your cauldron.

Plate up, cover with cheese and dive in.

When you are in your last round of chicken/sauce in oven and pasta cooking on stove top, make your salad

THEN LISTENING TO: TEENAGED HEAD- Flaming Groovies

SALAD

Make this whole thing in a tupperware or covered glass dish for easy tossing!!!

Dressing
THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE DRESSINGS IN THE WORLD (adapted from Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners)
1/2 c olive oil
Juice of half a large lemon
2 tbls honey
1 tsp tarragon
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/8 tsp dry mustard
1 clove crushed garlic

The recipe says this should be mixed in a bender but this time, i just put it in a covered dish and gave it a good shake.

Then I added
2 cubed avocados
2 hand fulls of shredded carrots (from a bag of pre-diced carrots)
add to dressing, cover and shake.