home-made asiago wheat 'pizza'

(with chicken!)

   prior to a few months ago, i was cellphone free for a little over a year. i found this very liberating, and after a while i honestly could say i didn't need a phone. i didn't even bother getting one of those pre-paid deals. it just wasn't necessary for my life style. but then, i caved in and got myself a trusty ol blackberry. which i eventually grew out of. within 30 days. i was hungry for more! 
 

 

i ended up with an android phone, and promptly became addicted to the different camera apps available. the different settings took some getting used to (ie: image on the left) and at often times frustrate me...but hey, beats lugging a 15lb camera around the kitchen, eh? and now that i'm addicted to camera apps, i no longer need to go into my closet to whip out different cameras! which i never really do anyway..

i have become a lazy photographer. 

the badly exposed photo above (ohmygo- is that a real polaroid??) contains the ingredients for this particular evenings dinner: chicken, chopped spinach and mushroom, and some bits of fragrant asiago cheese. a good friend stopped by (who also happens to be heavily interested in the culinary arts) and we got a little creative..

working with whatever we had available (literally), wheat flour seemed like a great start. we looked up a quick no-yeast recipe (a little olive oil, water and a pinch of salt) and improvised with some honey. it didn't quite take the right consistency at first, but an egg and a pinch of regular flour later...pizza dough! kneading it was most fun, and reminded me quite of a bit of taking ceramics class in highschool. i kept repeating to myself, "no bubbles! it'll explode in the kiln!" 

well, it worked. my kitchen is intact. despite not having a kiln.

for the sauce, we used a generic four cheese alfredo sauce with some parmesan cheese melted in. both the mushrooms and spinach were prewrapped from the supermarket, as was the shredded cheese. i got the asiago from work <3 the chicken was boiled the day prior, in parsley, celery, carrot, parsnip, and onion. my mother had been making a broth, so the chicken was fairly lean at this point. and since everything was ready-to-eat, it only needed to be in the oven long enough for the cheeses to melt. (i had it in around 350)

 

 

we were inventive, and it paid off. somewhat. honestly, the sauce should have been a sweet tomato sauce to bring out the honey in the crust more. which was amazing. but often overshadowed by the cheeses. i love asiago, but it wasn't for this meal. in fact, a lot of this sounds like a mismatched nightmare, but it was really good - i promise!!!

fancy schmancy chicken alfredo

it all started with the anniversary dish at the red brick tavern in rosendale, a tiny, curious town in upstate new york.

yeah i basically copied that dish...

chicken alfredo is probably one of the easiest thing to throw together. with all the ready-made steps we now have available at our local grocer, dinner is nearly fast-food. sure the outcome may not be authentic but it took you about 40 minutes and the kids shut up, right? aha..

 

the other night my mother requested i cook dinner, specifically the aforementioned dish. she didn't know how to cook it, which baffles me because my mother is a great cook herself. what does it consist of? hell, you could boil some pasta, fry some chicken, throw it all in a bowl with a jar of alfredo sauce and call it a day.

well, i could have done that, sure. but i wanted fancy alfredo. and i love spinach. and mushrooms. and tomatoes. so the boyfriend and i went on a little joyride to pick up some grape tomatoes, a bag of spinach, pasta and sliced button mushrooms. and garlic bread. because it is awesome.

the first thing i did was saute the mushrooms (in a covered pan) with some olive oil at a medium heat. when they became soft and fragrant, i added the spinach i chopped earlier. once the spinach softened, i poured in the grape tomato halves. it might have been too soon, seeing as the tomatoes weren't as fresh as i would have liked at the end of the meal. the aroma wafting up form the pan was mouthwatering, literally. the house smelled warm and mushroomy. yes, you can totally smell temperature. shush.

after a short while, i took the chicken breast out of the package, danced a little, rinsed them, patted them dry with a paper towel, and proceeded to over-season. they didn't need much, seeing as they would absorb flavor from the mushrooms, but i'm really good at over-seasoning. feeling a bit moses-like, i parted the liquids and slid the chicken breast into the pan, then buried it under a sea of green, red and brown. they can be flipped, but it's not quite necessary. keep the pan covered and on a low low heat so everything cooks nice and slowly.

hopefully at this point you haven't forgotten the pasta, as i normally seem to do. being in the kitchen with me is a whole lot of "oh crap" and "uh oh" with various unmentionable phrases thrown in for good measure. i stood there for a good moment, holding drained penne rigate, trying to figure out how i want to combine this all and prepare it. this sounds simple, really, but it's not. usually around this time my boyfriend pours himself another drink while shaking his head at me. damnit, this is an art! don't patronize me!

about 3 hours later i finally poured the pasta into a pyrex casserole dish, threw the breast on top, and poured in the (hopefully not burnt) spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and alfredo sauce (of which we added more because it wasn't saucy enough for my liking).

give it a stir, and stick 'er in the oven at about 400 until it bubbles. and viola! noms!

enjoy the pictures :) he only took about 72 of them...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 voila! noms!