Rosie Makes Chicken Roll Ups, Baked Stuffed Squash, And Asparagus With Puff Pastry.

Sorry, but the titles of my posts are going to become increasingly longer, depending on what I'm cooking, since Blogger will no longer accept my labels, having limited me to an arbitrary 2000 label-limit. Even when I delete older labels, I am still unable to add new labels. Blogger can add, but Blogger cannot subtract. So essentially what I'm doing is putting my labels in my titles, so if someone is searching for something particular, they may just find it by the titles. At least that's my plan. And I always try to have a plan.

Let's start out with acorn squash, or as I like to call it, Cucurbita pepo.

I sliced the squash in half and sliced a small piece off the ends so that the halves would sit level.

Set the seeded halves in a baking dish, fill halfway up with water, and get out your stuffings. I'm using an apple, an orange, brown sugar, dried cranberries, honey, pecans, and butter.

I chopped the apple, placed the pieces in the squash, and squeezed the orange juice in.

About a tablespoon of brown sugar in each squash.

About a tablespoon of dried cranberries. Raisins would work if you didn't have cranberries.

About a tablespoon of pecans.

About a tablespoon of honey.

Smear some butter over top and it's ready for a preheated 450 degree oven for about 40 minutes. On to the chicken roll ups. Another score at Food Lion. Three split chicken breasts for $2.43. I skinned and boned the breasts, separating the fillet. I pounded each breast in a plastic bag.

Got out the pesto Mr. Hawthorne had made and some prosciutto. And don't worry. This wasn't the above pesto left over from September 29. It was pesto from the other day.

I laid out a sheet of prosciutto. Placed a thinly pounded breast on top. Salted and peppered. And spread with pesto. Spiral-wrapped up the breast and secured with toothpicks. Chicken roll ups are ready for breading.

My breading mixture: rice flour semolina flour panko salt and pepper

Equal parts panko, rice flour, and semolina flour. Roll each chicken breast in the flour mixture, shaking off the excess.

Heat up a mixture of olive oil and butter.

Brown on all sides and finish off in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes. On to the asparagus in puff pastry.

The other day, I cleaned my freezer out, organizing everything and inventorying it all. I found a box of Pepperidge Farm puff pastry and decided to use that with the asparagus from my garden.

I rolled the pastry out and cut it into 6 pieces, slightly crosshatched them, and ...

... brushed with an egg glaze (1 egg mixed with a teaspoon of water). The tray of puff pastry immediately went into the 450 degree for 12-15 minutes, until the pastries were brown and puffy.

Meanwhile I prepared the asparagus. Slice into pieces.

Bring salted water to a boil and add in the larger asparagus pieces first.

I added in the tips last and boiled until just tender.

Drain the asparagus.

I'm not too impressed with the puff pastry, (It didn't puff all that much.) but it'll do in a pinch, if you don't have all day to make your own.

Paltry puffing.

I sliced the pastries as best I could, and placed the asparagus inside, with a little butter and lemon juice.

And why not a little more butter?

With careful planning, everything was ready at the same time.

This squash is like a dessert. It's that good.

Chicken roll ups, stuffed acorn squash, and asparagus in puff pastry.

Cantcha jes see all the flavors? If not, have a 'tini or two or five and come back. (That probably explains how Aunt Sandy sees flavors.)

I liked the crunch of the pastry. That's the best I can say about it. I'm pretending there are layers and layers of butter in there, but sadly the only butter is the little pat I put on it. I've made puff pastry before so I know what it's like and this is faux pastry. Here's the ingredient list: margarine [palm oil, water, salt, distilled monoglycerides, soy lecithin, natural flavor, beta carotene (color), vitamin A palmitate], unbleached enriched wheat flour [flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid], water, contains 2% or less of: high fructose corn syrup, salt, wheat gluten, distilled monoglycerides (from hydrogenated soybean oil) and soy lecithin. I'm salivating now, as I'm sure you are. Kathy, it has unbleached enriched wheat flour! That's good, right?

Here are my little chicken roll ups. I liked the saltiness of the prosciutto and the pesto was a nice green surprise on the inside.

Bon appetit!