Chicken Florentine

I was a cook in a past life. Chef, line cook; broiler, fry, saute, expediter. I rocked. :D

One of the last places I cooked I was the only female on a 21 cook line-plus all the prep cook and dishwashers were male, too. I had the lead saute in that place.

Dinners were my specialty. I cooked one professional breakfast in my years of cooking, and quit the place the next day. Well, I had closed the night kitchen down at 1:30 am and had to be back at 4:30am for breakfast, so that might have had something to do with it. ;)

Last night I went out to harvest my baby spinach which had decided this heat wave was too much and had started to bolt. I happened to have a big bag of whole chicken breasts that needed cooking, and I remembered a favorite recipe -Chicken Florentine. Yummy. I imagine my vegetarian readers could put the florentine over grilled tofu...

Here's how to make it:

serves two generously.

Two whole chicken breasts, boned and skinned and split in half, or four boneless skinless half breasts.
Flour, seasoned with salt and pepper for breading. I also used crushed plain cornflakes in with the flour, but just flour is how we did it in the restaurant, and then salted and peppered the top of the chicken after breading.
vegetable Oil for sauteeing.

topping:
One bag of spinach, or three or four quart pot full.
One small yellow onion (about 1/3 chopped)
3 TBSP flour
I teas salt
white pepper to taste
1 cup whole milk or half and half if you want it rich.

You can make the sauce ahead of time, as we did in the restaurant, or you can do both at the same time, as I did last night.

Process:
soak the chicken breasts in cold salt water for an hour or so. I use about a tablespoon of salt mixed with enough water to cover. you can omit this step, but my grandmother told me to soak all chicken this way to remove the blood and make it more tender. I do it also as commercially bought chicken is really filthy-you don't want to know-and the salt water will kill everything but staph, which should succumb to the heat.

Take the breasts out of the water and dredge them in the flour. Your fry oil , just enough to keep them from sticking, should be heating on med-high heat. Once the oil is starting to heat, put the floured breasts in. Hot grease can spatter-use caution. If a spot of water explodes in it, shift the pan off the heat while you are adding the breasts.

Now leave them alone to golden brown on the first side. you should flip it only once to brown the other side. You don't want to thoroughly cook it, as it will finish in the oven.

While they are cooking, melt the butter in another pan and add the onions. Cook til transluscent. I scorched mine a bit last night-came out fine, but will darken the sauce.
Add the spinach and throw a lid on it to steam the spinach. Last night all I did was soak the spinach to get the slugs off. If you are using more mature bagged spinach,wash and soak in cold water, then pull the big stems off and coarsely chop it before putting in the pot.

Once the spinach is steamed (if you are timing things right, the breasts will have been flipped and nearly done by now), add 1/4 of flour and stir it into the spinach and let it cook a minute or two to bind the flour and kill the raw taste. Then stir in the cup of milk and let that cook a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Watch that you don't scorch it-if you wanted a smoke, you should have grabbed it earlier (how do you think I scorched the onions?) Should be pretty thick-if you let it cool for later use, it will be like pudding consistency.

Put the cooked breasts on a pan (I used one 1 inch deep last night-so not too shallow or you will have a mess in your oven), cover with the Florentine sauce, and top with mozzarella or provolone. Finish in a moderately hot oven (375-400). The cheese should get lightly browned. Enjoy!

Waterfalls and butterflies

I decided to saunter over to the dam this morning to update my border photo.

Tree

Walking back across the road, I saw the swallowtails were out. For some reason, every year at the end of the driveway, the Tiger swallowtails gather to sip minerals out of the damp earth. It is so magical to walk by and have a cloud of swallowtails take to the sky , fluttering. I took about a dozen pics trying to capture the effect-butterflies are difficult subjects!

Tree

Then I heard the fairies call. I decided to take a walk streamside.

faeries, naiads, and a faun

I passed one of the fairy trees while I headed towards the marsh.

Tree

The water was so beautiful, the mozzies were sleeping, but not the damselflies. I spent some minutes trying to get a good shot of them laying eggs on the floating marsh grasses. I could resist no longer-time to leave the shoes behind and take the water path.

Tree

water walk, cont..

The water sprite, or Nai'ad, does not look too pleased I am standing on her (look for two large eyes in top center of photo).
Tree

I waded, watching for the freshwater clams, as they can be rather sharp to step on. There were many, many clams. I saw some small minnows and some 5-7 inch fish. The minnows didn't mind having their photo taken. The fish fled.

Tree

water walk, cont...

I had seen a few faint tracks of what appeared to be raccoon, and found this spot with the pile of clam shells tucked under the bank near a hollow tree.

Tree

I heard frogs and birds, but all were evasive until this fellow plopped down right in front of me and didn't mind having his photo taken at all. I couldn't kiss him-my heart hangs with a King. ;)

Tree

Now I had worked up an appetite, and had brought nothing to eat, drink, or smoke, so I decided to turn around at this point.

water walk, cont...

I had also seen deer tracks; some through a clay bank underwater that still had mud in the track-and I figured they were fairly fresh, and stopped to look about to find nothing.

I did find this deer crossing, with tracks in the foreground mud, and well worn track on the other bank.

Tree

On the return, I found the Heron had left something behind:

Tree

water walk conclusion

One has to make several decisions on this water trek-several times log jams and deep water left me picking my way through the grass. There was a nice marsh grass island that I had used on the way down. On the way back, I started to step up on the other end, and nearly stepped on this:

Well! That was a suprise!!! A white tailed deer fawn bedded down on the island waiting for Momma. I was just a foot or so away, and it never moved. I took several pictures and left quickly, thrilled for such a find!

Then I saw the dragonflies in love.

I love my backyard, too. :)

Fiber Frolic 2008

Boer Goats Tree

Hangover without the alcohol

I feel very blurry eyed and headachey this morning.

My co-worker from the farm, P called me last night. One of the Great Pyranees at the farm died yesterday-Boss couldn't find him so P went over and found him dead out back. Very sad.

P had missed me at the farm, and we talked for 3 and 1/2 hours!!!! I used to be quite infamous for my phone stamina, but I think I broke a personal record last night!

I had the chance to tell P that Boss was having me cover for her(P) Tues and Wed this week, and most of the talk was about the farm. P was drowning her sorrows in some type of liquid refreshent-I could hear the ice tinkiling as she refreshed every so often and her speech became louder and more slurred as time went by. Myself, I had forgotten to re-stock the ale supply on the way home from the fiber frolic, so I stayed sadly sober throughout.

P has a nice boyfriend, if that is the term, as they are basically married but not.
The time was interspersed with brief conversations between them, and on my end, rescuing a batch of brownies and tucking the saplings in for the night.

At the end of the conversation, P started seriously choking and had to put the phone down-I wondered if she was going to choke to death while I sat helpless on the other end of the line. Finally she recovered enough to pick the phone up, gasping...victim of an ice cube going down the wrong pipe. Ouch, I hate that!

I figured it was time to close the conversation, and we did.

On the way into the fiber frolic yesterday, there was a couple behind us, and the guy looked very familiar. The woman was dressed very artsy, with fishnet stockings and a colorful scarf among other accessories. As happens at events, I saw them several times, until at one point the guy and I passed each other directly and I said out loud, "J"?

He kept going but sort of reacted, so I said again louder, still walking away from each other, "J"?
Then he stopped and turned, and in fact, we did know each other. We had been out on a lunch date several years ago-set up by mutual friends. We had spoken on the phone a couple times and I had listened to his show on Maine NPR, and he had managed to get me to agree to meet for lunch.

He seemed a bit over-eager to be in a serious relationship, and although we had gotten along fairly well, I blew him off, not too harshly, I hope.

We were lingering around Boss's booth, and started chatting like long lost friends. He is living with his girlfriend, who knew Boss from way back-they even had each other's goats. J told me about getting attacked by the meanest farm goose on a visit. Small world.

His girlfriend was none too pleased, not very friendly, and said she had other committments and backed out of watching Boss' booth while Boss showed the bucks. OOps. No harm intended.

Between that encounter, and hearing P and her boyfriend's domestic conversations from the other end of the line last night, I woke up with relationships on my mind.

I have always been a loner, although I have been in my share of LTR's. I find it difficult to be with someone 24/7. The easy comraderie J and I shared yesterday left me wondering if perhaps I had been hasty in rejecting him-if going it alone is the most satisfying option.

I even asked P last night if she knew any single guys-she replied,"oh, you don't want a boyfriend!" (she and hers have had some rough patches lately).

Hmm-do I or don't I ? I don't have an answer to that important question.

Big Brown loses Triple Crown bid

Big Brown finished dead last to Da'Tara in the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel in the Triple Crown, losing his chance at the coveted Triple Crown title.