Friday, May 9, 2008

An ... Interesting ... Dinner.

Before we get to dinner, let's backtrack a bit.


Mr. Hawthorne and I took a trip across the bridge into Currituck County the other day to pick strawberries. We passed Mermaid's and I decided to stop and get an employment application.


Mr. Hawthorne made this pie all by himself, except for the crust which I had leftover from Thanksgiving. And yes, it's been frozen the whole time.


He even canned some strawberry preserves.

Step back, ladies.
He's all mine.



Mr. H. and I had a lovely lunch.
Filet mignons and sauteed onions, or Flay Mingnongs, as Sandy would say,
with a very nice sauce.


I deglazed the pan with a nice Merlot, then swirled in some Poupon Dijon and buttah.

Spooned the sauce over top of my steak and plopped some Creme Fraiche on my baked potato.
By all means, try making your own Creme Fraiche:
a cup of heavy cream and a tablespoon or so of buttermilk and a bit of lemon juice.
Cover and leave at room temperature over night.
Then refrigerate.


Now, finally, on to last night's dinner.
Two chicken breasts and some spices: I used coriander, ginger,
cumin, and cayenne.


I coated the chicken bosoms in the spice mixture, then gathered up the rest of my ingredients. I'm using Mandarin oranges, lemon juice, lime juice, apricot preserves, orange marmalade, orange concentrate, jalapenoes, and green onion.

I chopped up the onions, jalapenoes, and some cilantro from my garden.

I sauteed the chicken in a bit of olive oil with the jalapeno slices.

After the chicken was done, I deglazed the pan with the lemon and lime juices.


Then I added the orange slices, the orange marmalade, the apricot preserves, and a big plop of orange concentrate which looks like an egg yolk in the picture.


Cook a bit, then pour sauce over the chicken.

Top with cilantro and sliced green onions and serve with a side of rice.

My "Caribbean" inspired chicken was quite good.
Even Youngest Hawthorne liked it, I think.
When asked how it was, he responded with,
"It's ... different.
It's ... interesting.
I mean it's not horrible or anything."

Ah, such high praise.

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