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Monday, May 3, 2010

My Inner Battle

This weekend was a battle between my supposedly healthy exterior and the piglet inside waiting to take over.

I started the weekend off right with a delicious homemade meal. Friday evening Pat and I went to WholeFoods to grab an array of fresh produce and chicken as well as an ample amount of wine. We spent the night cooking up a delicious storm of panzanella, chicken cutlets in a white wine, lemon, butter sauce, and... fiddleheads. (Pat's addition, obviously.)

The dinner turned out to be amazing. The panzanella, (recipe here) was a tantalizing delicacy with layers of texture and flavor, even though I wasn't able to grill the bread and left out the fennel bulbs. Unfortunately I couldn't find heirloom tomatoes either so I substituted with Campari tomatoes, which were still delicioso.

The chicken was excellent. It was my first time making chicken cutlets so I was a little nervous. OK, a lot nervous. If you knew me, you would know that chicken is not my strong suit. I once accidentally served raw chicken to a friend during my time at Culinary School and I have been scarred ever since. "But Sir, I thought you ordered the Salmonella?" Talk about mortification.

This time I had much better results thanks to the simple recipe and flavorful lemony sauce. I have decided that cutlets are going to be my go-to cut of chicken. They are super easy and only take 15 minutes or so to cook. More importantly, they are safe. It's easy to check if a cutlet is done, not so much a whole bird.

Together we made a great team. I handled the panzanella and chicken, and Pat kept me happy by feeding me wine and cheese. He also cooked the fiddleheads as I had no idea what to do with them. Apparently these unfurled fronds of a young furn were Pat's favorite vegetable growing up. If you knew him, this would not come as a surprise. They were pretty tasty but I think their firm and crunchy texture is the most interesting part. Here's an inside peak to our fabulous dinner:

Garlic head for roasting

Roasting a bell pepper on the stove

Pat daintily washing fiddleheads

Prepping the panzanella salad

The finished product

Cooking away the cutlets

Concentrating intensely. Chicken makes me do that.

The cutlets simmering in white wine, lemon, butter, and stock. When the cutlets were cooked I took them out and added more wine, stock and lemon juice then reduced it to make a nice creamy sauce.

The finished product garnished with basil

Fiddleheads with olive oil, garlic and lemon. Aren't they strange?


The chicken and panzanella complimented each other nicely. It was a perfectly sized meal and I definitely plan on making it again.



The piglet emerged late Saturday night when after a party in Silver Lake, I stopped at the local 7- Eleven to purchase 6 small boxes of cereal and a bag of Cheetos. I ate the cheetos on my drive home and devoured a box of Coco Krispies and Pops just before bed. Ooops.


The next morning I started the day with my favorite Sunday activity - a trip to the Beverly Hills Farmers Market. I found a lot of great things but some of my favorites were the clover sprouts, heirloom tomatoes and baby artichokes. Being surrounded by such fresh and healthy produce made me feel good and could tell my inner piglet was subsiding. Or so I thought...




Then I saw it. The new panini stand that had recently opened. And oh how I love a good panini. I couldn't help myself and I'm glad that I didn't because it was amazing. We sat outside and listened to the musicians as we ate these delicious sandwiches hot off the grill.

Breakfast Panini filled with eggs, arugula, sun dried tomatoes, cheese, avocado and pesto spread.

Sunday evening ended with a dilemma. I wanted to stay in and cook a healthy meal but Pat wanted to go out. So we struck a deal. In order to meet half way it was decided that I would make a fresh salad, and Pat would pick up a pizza to share. I cut up all the fresh veggies we had bought earlier such as broccoli, tomatoes, sprouts, avocado, bell peppers, and lettuce while Pat went and picked up the pizza. I also cooked up the baby artichokes which were freaken amazing.
Baby artichokes. How cute are these?

I followed this recipe exactly but added lemon juice and Italian seasoning at the end instead of garlic or pepper. Next time I think a lemon and garlic aioli dip would be a wonderful addition.


These taste just like artichokes but you can pop the whole thing in your mouth without worrying about the leaves or the prickly parts.

It would have been a good combination of health and indulgence except we didn't share a pizza. We both ate our own personal pizzas (non personal size.)
Pat's pizza with parma ham, artichokes, sauteed onions and black olives.

Happy piglet #1

My pizza with Burratta cheese, grilled zuchinni, olives and onions.

Happy piglet #2

All in all I'm pretty sure the piglet inside triumphed. Oh well, back to the gym ;)

9 comments:

  1. Where in LA did you get such pretty pizza!?

    -Lauren (also in LA, and wanting good pizza!)
    Lauren's Little Kitchen, http://laurensybil.wordpress.com

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  2. I have a constant inner battle with health v indulgence too! It's horrible. I'm trying to detox this week from a weekend of indulgence... but so far I'm not doing so well. Hah!

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  3. Hey Lauren. That pizza was from Madeo's on Beverly but it actually wasn't that great, especially for the price. If you are looking for good gourmet thin crust pizza I would recommend Cecconis on Melrose http://www.cecconiswesthollywood.com/or Bottega Louie downtown http://www.bottegalouie.com/ Hope that helps!

    P.S. I am always on the hunt for the best pizza so if you find anything delicious please let me know ;)

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  4. Hey Roxan, I'm so glad somebody else is on the exact same page as me :) haha

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  5. I love the breakfast panini!! and your dinner looks incredible.....and don't worry every now and then we have to eat something thats not good for us.

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  6. You and Pat should make your own pizza's, we have been on a kick!! We just buy fresh dough from the pizza parlor across the street and roll out individual pies for each of us! Then we put on our own toppings (much more than restaurants do) and stick them in the oven 20 min. They come out delicious!!

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  7. Hi, Leela. It was nice to meet you via FoodBuzz. Thanks for adding me, fellow-islander (or former islander!).

    Yours,

    Dan

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  8. Lots of delicious eats in this post! I love that pizza, yum!

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  9. The artichokes look great! I used to have an inner piglet as well...now I have a inner hog :/

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