Sauteed Chicken with Olives, Capers and Roasted Lemons

A dinner to remember: Sauteed Chicken with Olives, Capers and Roasted Lemons- modified a little bit from Food and Wine.

My new favorite roasting venture: Lemons. Wonderful lemons.

Ever try roasting these golden gifts from nature?

With a drizzle of olive oil and a splash of kosher salt, they caramelize and transform into flavor-powerhouses that are unlike any raw lemon you've ever tasted.

While those luscious lemons are roasting, flour-dusted chicken is sauteed until lightly browned.

Olives, capers and chicken broth are added, and the whole bunch simmers until the broth is reduced.

Add the roasted lemons and a couple pats of butter and the magic begins to happen. The lemons impart their roasted flavor onto the chicken and into the sauce. Heaven.


The chicken is plated with the sauce drizzled over the top. It would certainly be good served over rice or alongside roasted potatoes. I chose to serve it up on its own with the sauce spooned over. Each bite of chicken was incredibly tender, and the sauce really made it over-the-top fantastic. Hubby kept saying things like, "How did you make this?" and "It's moist, not dry." (like I make dry chicken all the time or something!!) "It's so flavorful!" (He's so descriptive, isn't he?)

Long story made short: We loved it. A lot. And the roasted lemons really made the dish.

This recipe can be found HERE.

Peanut Butter- Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

If you're anything like me, you utilize your treasured ripe bananas for baked goods. Since we thrive on new recipes around here, I'm always trying to shake things up a little bit when it comes to banana bread. Add blueberries... make it whole grain... chocolate swirl... pumpkin. I'll try anything! This time: Peanut Butter- Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.

Too much, you say? Nah. The peanut butter, acts as the "fat" in the bread, taking a back seat to the banana flavor. It still comes through a bit, but it isn't the main event.

The chocolate is a bonus, of course. You could certainly sub any sort of chip in there... peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips... or no chips at all.


Helpful tip: Don't ever throw out those ripe bananas. Mash them up instead and freeze them in 1 cup increments in freezer zips. They freeze up just fine, and then you've got them for banana bread when the mood strikes.

Speaking of freezing, these loaves freeze well. Since the recipe makes two, freeze one and eat the other. You can also make these up as muffins instead of loaves.

This recipe can be found HERE.

Spring Lettuce Salad with Roasted Asparagus

Thin is in.... for asparagus, that is. Though I read somewhere recently that its thicker counterpart is more desirous of chefs and actually has more flavor to impart. The objection is that much of the good part is lost when people snap off the fuller stems and throw them out. Sure, you have to use a vegetable peeler to pare down the rough stems a little bit, but you'll find good stuff underneath, and an attractive product too.

Spring Lettuce Salad with Roasted Asparagus was lifted from Food and Wine. It's a terribly simple salad with big taste.

Roasted vegetables add so much flavor to every dish, and asparagus are no exception. Topped with olive oil, lemon zest and a sprinkle of kosher salt, these asparagus roast until just tender and the tips turn brown.

Spring lettuces are tossed with a lemony-dijon dressing and then asparagus and shaved Parmesan are added to finish the salad.


I might add that this is a good salad to eat if you're trying to jump on the thin-is-in bandwagon for the summer bathing suit season. Lighten the dressing with less olive oil and you've got a pretty healthy salad too.

Verdict in our family: YUM, YUM, and YUM. We will definitely be making this again.

This salad recipe can be found HERE.

Deep Chocolate Gateau: A Rich Chocolate Cake For Two

According to Salary.com, if paid... a stay-at-home Mom in San Diego, CA would earn between $102,000 and $154,000 a year for her work as a mother. Is my husband reading this? The website lists all of the jobs that a mother does- you input your zip code, and it calculates accordingly. If you're looking for a something fun for to do for Mother's Day, you can actually print out or email a "paycheck" to give your mother (or spouse) for Mother's Day. Here's a little something for all the Mom's- working outside of the home or not- for your special day this weekend...

And I've made a chocolate cake today in honor of my wonderful Mom and mothers everywhere. This chocolate cake feeds just TWO... for you and your mom. And it's especially good for those of you who are whining about needing to lose weight, because after the initial indulgence, you won't have any leftovers.

This recipe for Deep Chocolate Gateau comes from an oooooold Bon Appetit magazine. We're talking 80's people! So old that the recipe isn't even on their site anymore. It should be though... it's that good. This is a reason why you should be happy that you have those old magazines just sitting around taking up space. They're occasionally worthwhile.

If you have a loaf pan, you can make this recipe. See how much batter is in there? Yep, that's right.... just a tiny bit. In fact, the baked cake will only be about a half-inch high! Once baked, you're going to cut it in half and make it a little two-layer, square cake.

A honey-almond flavored ganache is used between layers, and it spills over the top and sides as well.

Slap some almonds on the sides and the top and you've got yourself a pretty, gourmet-looking, EASY dessert.

Add strawberries for color.... and because they taste really great with the chocolate.


You're supposed to chill it, but I tore into this cake when it was still gooey and dripping with ganache. After chilling, it firms up and becomes more fudge-like. Because there's no flour in the recipe, this cake is not very cakey. I loved it. And my 6 year old partner in dessert-crime reported that it was a *major* restaurant-quality treat. This is the highest honor given to a recipe in our household!

Happy Mother's Day MOM! And to all of the other Mom's out there... I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend too. My plan is to relax, take a break from blogging & my obsession with Google Reader and spend some much-needed time with my family.

This recipe can be found HERE.

Chocolate- Toffee S'More Cookies

Any campers in the audience?

Who doesn't love a good s'more?... It's a rhetorical question, really because what kind of person wouldn't enjoy this sticky, messy, gooey creation of the camping world? Slashfood published an article about the history of S'Mores- where they noted that although the first recipe for S'Mores was published in the Girl Scout Handbook of 1927, the official origin isn't really known. That being said, it has remained a favorite dessert for camping trips and beach bonfires for years now. And there are all kinds of take-offs on this simple graham cracker, melty marshmallow and chocolate bar dessert. I was excited to find a recipe for Chocolate - Toffee S'More Cookies.

This recipe was published in Gourmet magazine in the section where readers ask for the recipes from places they've been. Seattle-Tacoma airport has a little place called Dish D'Lish, and they sell these giant cookies to travelers who are looking for a treat.

Dough for these cookies is rolled into a thick log and refrigerated until very firm. It's cut into ten thick slices and baked up with a gooey marshmallowy topping. When I baked my test cookies, the marshmallow topping browned up waaaaaayyyy too much, so I modified D'Lish's recipe to include baking the cookie until it spreads a bit, and then adding the marshmallow topping. That worked much better.

I would have liked them to be a little prettier. They're kind of an ugly cookie, dontcha think? But don't let that uglyness fool you. These cookies are really great. Toffee bits are melted within the giant chocolate goodness, and then you get gooey marshmallow in every bite too. The recipe makes 10 giant cookies, exactly.

It was perfect for a little barbecue that I was going to at my college roommate's house. Her teenagers gobbled them all up in no time and praised me like I was some sort of goddess that was sent to their home. These were super-polite *dream* teenagers who did the dishes without being asked, and asked me- with genuine interest- about my life and my recipe site. I suppose that's another post topic, but it was delightful being around such nice kids. I cross my fingers and hope that my little one will grow up to be so sweet at that age.

So how about it? Are you in the mood for chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows? If so, this is an amazing cookie to try. And go for the giant ones... don't try to make this your regular, everyday normal-sized cookie. This cookie deserves more.

The S'Mores cookie recipe can be found HERE.

I did a little investigating, and here are s'more great S'More finds...
S'More's Cupcakes from Cupcake Bakeshop.
S'More Cookie Bars from Baking Bites.
S'Mores from The Domestic Goddess.
S'Mores Tart from Big City, Little Kitchen.
Indoor S'Mores from Taste and Tell.