Friday Night Recipes

I watched Julie & Julia a few days ago and thought how much I would like to be able to cook. I mean really cook. When I first moved out of my parents house, I could barely boil an egg. For the first few weeks, I just depended on The Boy to make supper. As the days went by, I became annoyed with my culinary deficiencies, so I began trying a few recipes. Simple things at first and I hoped that with practice I would become quite the cook.

What happened instead is that I became comfortable with a few basics and just mixed and matched. After watching Julie & Julia, my hopes for my cooking talents were reawakened. I've decided to try a new recipe at least once a week, I'm thinking of making it a Friday night thing, but I don't want to promise myself anything...I hate breaking promises, especially to myself.

Anyway, last night I tried my hand at stuffed chicken rolls. I remembered seeing a delicious-looking recipe in HELLO Magazine (which has some fabulous recipes). So I dutifully made my way to the grocery store, got some chicken breasts, pesto and roasted pepper. I pounded the chicken (which is a great way release any tension, pent-up anger or feelings of anxiety at the thought of making rolls with the chicken) mixed some cream cheese with the pesto and shopped rosted peppers; spread it on the chicken and rolled it up.

Rolling it was tough, getting it to stay that way was even more challenging. Roughly 30 toothpicks later, it was time to bread the thing...at this point I didn't think I could do it. As I was preparing myself for a supper of mac&cheese, I managed to bread and brown the rolls and carefully move them onto a baking sheet and stick them in the oven without incident. Brilliant! I had timed the potatoes all wrong and they were done by the time the chicken started to cook, but that was just a small hitch in an otherwise very successful meal.

It doesn't look very appetizing in this terrible picture, but trust me it was delicious - even the potatoes.

I'm quite proud of myself. I realize that some people can do this kind of thing with their eyes closed, but this was an achievement for me. I think I'm ready to bone a chicken... kidding!