Rosie Makes A Yummy Chicken Dinner.

Here's what we had for dinner the other night: stuffed chicken breasts sweet and sour veggies Basmati brown and wild rice blend with cashews So, on to my recipes. First, the sweet and sour veggies.

My ingredients: celery carrots onion pepper garlic pineapple chunks and juice tamari sauce (You can use regular soy sauce.) cider vinegar cornstarch ginger and its juice

I chopped the onions, celery, carrots, and peppers, and sliced the garlic. And here's Rosie's Tip # 259 (What? You missed 1 - 258? Shame on you.): Keep your ginger in the freezer. That way you'll always have it on hand without it going bad. When you want ginger joos, just nuke the piece of ginger for about 20 seconds and the joos flows freely.

I poured the pineapple juice into my measuring cup and added enough water to equal 1 cup. Then I made a cornstarch slurry: 1 TB cornstarch mixed with 1 TB cold water.

I heated up my pan, threw in a tablespoon or so of butter, browned it a bit because I like the flavor of browned butter, then added in my carrots and sauteed for about 1 minute.

I sprinkled in about a tablespoon of brown sugar.

Celery went in.

Peppers joined the pan.

Onions.

The garlic.

The minced ginger and it's juice.

Cornstarch slurry.

The pineapple juice and water.

And the pineapple. Heat until thickened.

Lastly, I added about 3 TB of Tamari Sauce.

And 3 TB of cider vinegar. Cover and set aside. And there you have a basic sweet and sour sauce you can use for stir fries, for sweet and sour pork, or sweet and sour chicken, or, in this case, sweet and sour vegetables. Now for the stuffing for my chicken.

My ingredients: onion apple dried thyme brie cheese

I chopped the onions and apples ...

... and sauteed them in butter for a few minutes.

I added salt, pepper, and a pinch of my thyme. And decided it needed some lemon juice to tart it up a bit.

Then I added in lemon zest because lemon is just a very nice foil to the earthiness of the thyme.

Next my cubed brie went into the apple mixture.

I carefully teased the skin away from the breasts.

And stuffed the bosoms with the mixture.

I drizzled some walnut oil over top of the chicken because I had some. You could use whatever you have. Motor oil, in fact, would give this meal a "nice racetrack flavor." See, I listen to my muse, Aunt Sandy.

I salted and peppered, then sprinkled panko bread crumbs over top.

Then I had an inspired idea. I remembered I had veal stock leftover in my fridge. Don't you like that picture?

Look how wonderfully gelatinous it is.

I used 1/2 cup veal stock and 1/2 cup water.

And poured that into the pan,

being careful not to pour it over the chicken.

The chicken went into a preheated 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes. When the temperature reached 162, I took it out, tented it with foil, and let sit.

In the meantime, Mr. Hawthorne made the rice. He slowly simmered the Basmati brown and wild rice blend in chicken stock (All right. I lied. He used bouillion cubes. You know how he likes to Sandra-Lee it.) for about 45 minutes. Then he added a handful of cashews to it which gave it a nice crunch and flavor.

And here's dinner. My chicken was juicy and tender and rich with the addition of the diluted veal stock. I liked the flavors in the stuffing. The apple and onion with the thyme and lemon was a fresh mixture nicely complemented by the creaminess and delicacy of the brie.

Sweet and sour veggies

were ... hmmmm ... let me see ... sweet ... and yet sour ... at the same time. Gee. I think I've come up with new flavor combination. Like Aunt Sandy's avocado on cheeseburger. Who'd a thunk?

The rice was nutty and nuttier with the addition of the cashews.

Crisp, flavorful chicken skin. All in all, a hearty meal. Now if you wanted to cut back calorie-wise, you could skin the the chicken, pound it thin, stuff it, and roll it up. But every now and then I wants me some crispy chicken skin.

The chicken breasts were huge so I had 2 left over. I just mixed everything together for an easy leftover casserole for later.