I made what I am going to call Garlic Mustard Chicken:

Two cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1/8 cup olive oil

1 palm full brown sugar

2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning

1 tsp fennel seed

2-3 lbs chicken

5 Tbsp chicken broth

Mix together garlic, mustard, olive oil, brown sugar, lemon pepper seasoning and fennel seed (I used a small food processor) and smear over one side of chicken, let sit for about 30 minutes.

Heat pan with a splash of olive oil over medium heat, once smoking add chicken, seasoned side down. Smear rest of mixture on top of the chicken. Cook for about 3 minutes, add chicken broth. Flip when ready.

To serve, put on serving platter and pour juices on top of meat (if the juice is too thin, turn the heat up to high and cook it down to your desired thickness. Watch Carefully!).

I served this with oven cooked asparagus and mashed sweet potatoes and salad with an apple cider Dijon dressing.  Oh! and crescent rolls.

We drove 10 total hours to see Coldplay, SO worth it.  The show was fantastic, by far the best concert I’ve been too.  Lots of surprises, like an acoustic session in the middle of the audience, giant balls that rotated with projection images, old songs with new twists and new songs all together!  I wish I could see Coldplay live every night!  What an AMAZING experience!

Before the show, we stopped into a restuarant called Azul.  It was wonderful.  Everything was fresh, right down to the Bloody Mary, for which the bartender pureéd fresh tomatoes!  Presentation on everything but the desert was great.    The highlight of the meal was the quesadilla appetizer which was filled with chirizo, sweet potato and goat cheese and was topped with roasted red peppers and flat leaf parsley.  I couldn’t believe it when I tasted it.  Daniel had a sirloin with fingerling potatoes and chantrells with truffle oil!! No way!  I had the Chilean Sea Bass with a pureé of cauliflower on one side and of pumpkin on the other with pumpkin and pomegranate seeds.  Everything we had was great on its own and even better together, just as cooking like this should be.

To top it all off, our server was great; causal dress, but he scrapped our crumbs off of the table for us, was polite and chatty.  The atmosphere was great too, the lighting was low but the mainly booth seating was back lit by a glowing blue wall making it easy to see.  I couldn’t believe we were the only people in the place the entire time!  If I’m ever back in Kansas City I will definitely eat at Azul again!

Other than that, we arrived back in Springfield at 6am and I had to be at work at 8:30…3 hours to go!

The recipe follows:

• 1/2 cup cauliflower
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 lg onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 6 ounces ground beef
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 2 cups crushed tomatoes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1tsp oregano
• 4 green or red bell peppers                                                                                             

Heat oil in a 2 quart sauce casserole dish in microwave uncovered for 2 minutes.

Stir in onions and crumbled beef and cook uncovered for 5 minutes, stirring once.  D

rain off most of fat, leaving 2-3 Tbsp in the dish.  Add 1 1/2 cups tomatoes, garlic, thyme and oregano and cauliflower, stir to combine.

Slice tops off of 4 green or red bell peppers and remove seeds.  Divide stuffing among the peppers and replace tops.  Place peppers in baking dish.  Combine 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes, 1/4 cup white wine and 1/4 cup water and pour into bottom of dish.

Cover tightly with heavy duty plastic wrap and cook for 20 minutes.  Poke through wrap with knife after about 10 minutes to allow steam to escape .

Let peppers stand for about 5 minutes before serving.

A co-worker and I went to Qdoba for lunch today.    The service was quick, but we went just after the lunch rush so it wasn’t overly crowded.  It was reasonably priced and the ingredients were fairly fresh but I was by no means amazed by the food.  I’d eat there again only to be amicable.

Last Thursday we went to Grand Avenue Deli for lunch and I had a great Reuben (and a pretty good, large chocolate chip cookie), unfortunately their soup was very watered down.  I don’t see why they chose to ruin it, as they were very busy and the parking lot is almost always full when I drive past, in fact people have a hard time finding a place to park sometimes.  Their prices are comparable to places like Panera and other popular soup and sandwich joints but the soup was awful.  This was a major detraction for me.  I’d much rather go to Panera where I can count on all around quality, not just part of my meal being good.

That aside, you can look forward to lots of recipes and talk about food, with intermittent weigh-ins on topics like the economy, politics, celebrities and anything else remotely sensational that the media decides is important to spend hours talking about.  <<insert real issues here>>