A salad like this is a perfect ending to a cheery day. It hits all the right notes — crisp, crunchy, sweet, savory and belly-filling. And despite the length of the ingredients list, it’s ready in 10 minutes or less. An invaluable recipe to have in your repertoire, right?

This healthful salad was actually the ultimate finish to my Friday, the last weekday of spring break for my kids. We’d had a playful day filled with laughter, thrills and our collective favorite place — the beach. Yes, again.

What really made it significant though was that the whole week had been filled with memory-making good times. That’s no small feat, considering it was a work week for me. It was as though I had a fundamental shift in thinking that allowed me to just let go and enjoy — while still keeping up with all my work responsibilities. Good times, people.

But I will be the first to admit that the merriment of Spring Break 2012 is a complete 180 from previous years. In the past, the words ‘spring break’ have made me shudder. I struggled to balance work with having the kids home, and never seemed to do it well. Instead of enjoying spring break, the inevitable disruption in our schedule was an overwhelming challenge. And then there were all my good intentions of being one of those families that actually traveled during spring break. It never happened, a reality that inevitably produced dreaded feelings of inadequacy. Spring break in past years was just a bundle of blech.

This year was different. Anticipating the start of spring break, I was excited for the welcome respite. We’ve been in a whirlwind of activity for the past few months, including the week we were away. The beautiful weather and not wanting to travel (yes, really) made a difference too.

You know what else made a difference? Being a little spontaneous. Little excursions — to the playground, to the beach (um, twice) and even to track practice with friends — made the week really count. The little things can really mean so much.

So spring break this year? It was awesome. Summer vacation can’t come fast enough now.

While I can’t fast-forward through the last two months of school (and really, I wouldn’t want to … there is something to be said for anticipation), I can clutch a tiny bit of summer by trading the heavy foods of winter for the lighter bites of summertime — like this Edamame Chicken Dinner Salad.

A little more about the salad … This is crazy simple to make. Start with a bed of lettuce. Top with cucumber, tomatoes and roasted red peppers. Fry up a slice of bacon (yes, just one) and then brown edamame in the grease (ok … that I could have made a little healthier, but everything in moderation, right?). Top the salad with the bacon (crumbled, of course), edamame, a sliced grilled chicken breast (perhaps leftover from last night?) and a little oil and great quality balsamic vinegar. Oh, and a touch of salt and pepper.

Done. Grab your fork and dig in. It’s calling to you. Seriously.

So tell me … how do you feel about spring break? Is it something to look forward to, or a total dread fest?

Edamame Chicken Dinner Salad
serves 1

2 cups sweet baby lettuce
1/2 cup peeled, sliced and quartered cucumbers
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup thinly sliced roasted red peppers
1 slice bacon
1/4 cup shelled edamame (frozen is ok)
4 oz grilled chicken breast, sliced
extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar (best quality)
salt and pepper, to taste

Arrange the lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and roasted red peppers in a large bowl.

Heat a small skillet on the stove over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook till crisp. Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate and let cool. Add the edamame to the skillet and cook, shaking the pan occasionally for 3-4 minutes, until lightly browned.

Crumble the bacon onto the salad. Top with edamame and chicken breast (hot or cold, it’s your choice). Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

On Sundays, I cook. Maybe it’s cliche, I don’t know. But Sunday is the day when I make a big batch of something for lunch that we can nibble from during the week. Hopefully that something is also good for Will’s lunch on Monday too. It’s also the day that I usually bake to fill the cookie jar, which is a fun indulgence. Oh and I test out new recipes too.

Sunday is also the day that we go to the library and enjoy fresh donuts from the local bakery. If I have time, I sit on the couch and read too, getting lost in books. It’s a good day.

This past Sunday started out busy. Too busy. I was rushed, so my breakfast was merely the coffee I drank before dashing out the door with the kids. Don’t worry – they ate, polishing off special toasted bread, berries and more. By the time we arrived home for lunch, I was beyond starving, which added some pressure. Lunch couldn’t be complicated. No, it needed to be fast, simple and still be worth making and eating.

Fortunately, I have a few tricks that I turn to for a quickie meal for the kids and I. First, I keep chicken sausage in my fridge (and freezer). Precooked chicken sausage is so easy to heat up and serve. I’ve served fat apple maple links with omelets for lunch. Sweet Italian chicken sausage with sauce for dinner. Caprese sausage with mashed potatoes. This weekend, we were down to two varieties: spicy mango or chicken chorizo. I opted for the latter.

Second, beyond having a treasure trove of uses for the sausage, I have my standby dish, which is basically a formula for a foolproof throw together pasta: 8 oz dried pasta (cooked) + 4 cooked and sliced sausage links + cheese of choice + tomatoes, peppers or vegetables, all tossed with a touch of oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. It couldn’t be easier.

For this week’s dish, I combined the slightly spicy chorizo with salty feta and sweet diced tomatoes. It was a symphony of flavors and textures that was different enough to not seem repetitive, but familiar enough to make us enjoy it. With the mere addition of salt, pepper and walnut oil, the dish was transformed from a bunch of random ingredients into something that the kids couldn’t wait to eat again (a good thing, since we had it for dinner tonight too).

There’s already been requests for me to make this again. Sounds like a winner.

Do you have a go-to dish? What is it?

Toss Together Chorizo, Feta and Tomato Pasta
serves 4

8 oz medium shells pasta
4 chicken Chorizo sausage (precooked)
1 large tomato, diced
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tbsp walnut oil (or extra virgin olive oil, if you prefer)

Prepare the pasta according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the Chorizo up (I do it in the oven at 375 for about 8 minutes). Let it cool slightly and then slice into 1/4-inch thick rounds.

Once the pasta is done, drain it well and then add to a large bowl. Add the sausage, tomato and feta. Toss well. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Toss again.

Serve immediately. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

When Will saw me starting to steam broccoli for this dish, he couldn’t help but let out a little cheer. It’s his very favorite vegetable — and has been since he was a toddler. Even though he’s loved it for much of his six years, I am always caught off guard by his excitement. When I was a child broccoli wasn’t high on my list. Unless it was drowned in cheese sauce, of course, but that kind of defeats the purpose. No?

But even though his enthusiasm for broccoli surprises me, I try really hard never to let my preferences color Will’s or Paige’s. I never ever want them to not try something — or worse, to dislike something — because I’m not as excited by it. I’d much rather they make their own decisions about foods — and they do.

These days though, I do like broccoli too. But I especially like it when it’s tossed with a delicious sauce like in this Baked Ginger Sesame Chicken and Broccoli. It’s a sweet-salty-savory dish with Asian inspiration. The marinated chicken soaks in all the flavors of the marinade, and then the steamed broccoli is enhanced by a quick toss with some reserved marinade, which really ties it all together.

This dish starts with an easy homemade ginger sesame sauce/marinate. You whisk the four simple ingredients together and reserve a little. Then the rest is used to marinate the chicken. You can grate your own ginger for this, or use some of this frozen crushed ginger. Either works great.

Marinate the chicken in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Longer is better though. Then you bake it — it takes about 14 minutes in the oven, total.

Then you serve it over rice with the broccoli. It’s easy — and fairly fast to make. We like it as a simple school night dinner, but it works any night.

Time to switch gears … I just don’t have a good transition for this one. Let’s just pretend I do. Please?

On to Eat. Live. Be. … Earlier this week, I sent Cate a quick message asking her what this week’s theme was for Eat. Live. Be. Reboot. I was so relieved when she said online. I knew just what I would be talking about.

See, when Eat. Live. Be. was in full swing earlier this year, I gave myself a big boost by joining Weight Watchers Online. It was just what I needed right when I needed it — the accountability, the structure, the reality-view of what I was eating. But then summer came and tracking became a nuisance. Toward the end of summer, I canceled my subscription. Throughout that whole time, I kept my weight off — despite not tracking.

It’s amazing how quickly you can get off track though. For me, it started with my asthma acting up. I wasn’t exercising. I ate more. And then, I had to take a very necessary medication to fix my asthma problem — that causes two serious side effects in me: a huge, unstoppable appetite and sleeplessness. Then the holidays came and before I knew it, I had drifted far from my healthy habits.

When I made the commitment to reboot my efforts though, I knew I needed that kick in the pants to really get moving and back on track fast. Guess where I turned? Weight Watchers Online again. I like that the program is flexible enough to accommodate my unusual lifestyle — which includes testing at least a half-dozen recipes each week — but structured enough to create a boundary for me when it comes to eating. I really need boundaries. I have high hopes.

Be sure to check in on the Eat. Live. Be. For a Better 2011 Facebook page to see what all the ELB’ers are up to this week, and where they are finding inspiration and motivation online.

Baked Ginger Sesame Chicken and Broccoli
serves 4, plus leftovers

1 1/2 lb raw chicken breast tender pieces
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp grated ginger
4 cups broccoli florets
sesame seeds (optional)
white rice, cooked

Rinse the chicken under cool water and then place in a large bowl to marinate.

Whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil and ginger. Reserve 2 tablespoons of marinade and then pour the remainder over the chicken. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes to marinate.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place the chicken on a foil-lined baking sheet, discarding any used marinade. Bake for 7 minutes then flip and cook for another 7 minutes, or until cooked through.

Meanwhile, steam the broccoli until tender (about 10 minutes). Once it’s cooked, remove to a medium mixing bowl and toss to coat with the reserved sauce/marinade.

Serve the chicken and broccoli over rice.

The other night, when I was at Cate‘s house for our Blogger Thanksgiving fest, we were reheating a batch of these Homemade Seasoned Baked Chicken Nuggets that I made for the kids. Cate asked me if they were done right after I’d checked on them, and I said “No, they aren’t humming yet.”

It never occurred to me that would be a weird thing to say. It never occurred to me that the idea of food humming is something that not everyone thinks. Or hears. Or says. Yea. But Patsy, Joanne and Cate set me straight. It’s definitely a Sarah-ism. (In my defense, that’s really what I look for whenever I reheat food — the hum of sizzling warmed food.)

So, about the chicken nuggets … honestly, I had never thought of making my own until a recent Skinny Chicken Nuggets post on Tablespoon set off a wild obsession with baked chicken nuggets for me. My kids love chicken nuggets (I think it’s written somewhere in the kid handbook that they have to), and I like feeding them good, wholesome, homemade food that doesn’t take long to make.

Ding. Ding. Ding! We have a winner.

These start with fresh breadcrumbs made from leftover bread (I use the ends of loaves). Just whirl it in a food processor into fine crumbs. Why fresh? Two reasons: one, the taste is just better and two, you can control the type of bread you use — like that favorite 12-grain that is omnipresent in your kitchen. So, once you have those fresh crumbs, you toast one cup of the crumbs with a clove of chopped garlic in a hot skillet until golden brown. If you have extra breadcrumbs, toast them in a resealable bag and freeze until ready to use.

Once the crumbs are toasted, whirl them again in the food processor with the garlic, salt, pepper and paprika. This will ensure that the seasonings are well-distributed throughout.

Now, for the chicken, you need to cut chicken tenderloins into nugget size pieces. Don’t worry. It only takes a minute or two. Aim for 1″x1″ pieces.

Dredge the chicken in the seasoned breadcrumbs.

Seasoned Baked Chicken Nuggets
serves 4

Cooking oil spray
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (run a slice or two through the food processor)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
1 lb chicken tenderloins, cut into 1″ pieces

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with nonstick aluminum foil (or regular foil sprayed with cooking oil).

Heat a medium skillet over medium heat on the stove. Spray lightly with cooking oil spray. Add the breadcrumbs and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer to a food processor and add the salt, pepper and paprika. Whirl until well combined. Pour into a bowl.

Spray the chicken pieces with cooking oil spray. Then, dredge each one into the breadcrumb mixture, coating all over. Transfer to the baking sheet. Nuggets can be super close together, but shouldn’t touch. Once all the nuggets have been breaded, spray lightly with cooking oil.

Slide the baking sheet into the oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the downside is golden. Flip all the nuggets. Then bake for another 5 minutes.

Serve immediately.

To reheat: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the cooked chicken nuggets on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, until they are humming sizzling.

For awhile there, my freelance writing business was booming. In fact, it was so big that I ended up letting go of a few lower paying clients. But this summer, one of my clients cut my workload (and my pay) in half. At first, it was kind of an abstract this sucks kind of thing.

But this month is when it really hit me. My income was substantially reduced, and suddenly I need to budget really well again. That means no more trips for after-school lattes for me and cake pops for the kids. That means using coupons again and paying attention to the sales flyers. That means seeking out work and making due in the meantime. (Anyone looking for a recipe developer/journalist/writer/blogger?)

As a result, I’ve been looking to less-expensive meals that are both easy and meet our expectation for really delicious dinners. Chicken drumsticks are a great budget-stretching meat to have in the rotation. Not to be confused with the mini ones that are a popular game day food, chicken drumsticks are larger and meatier. Two pounds of drumsticks with a couple of sides is perfect for my family, though you might want to go to three pounds if you are big eaters. The glaze recipe could be stretched to glaze another pound of drumsticks — or it’s easy to make a little extra.

These Baked Sticky Orange Chicken Drumsticks are delicious. They go perfectly with Kale and Bacon Fried Rice and a salad. And it can all be ready in under 30 minutes — totally easy too.

Also see Crunchy Oven-Fried Chicken Drumsticks.

I came up with this recipe after spying a similar one in an old food magazine. The original recipe from Every Day Food called for basting with marmalade only. However, I find marmalade to be too tart for our tastes. But combining the marmalade with soy sauce and rice vinegar, the sharp tartness is toned down and a richness is added without losing the orange flavor. The reaction was huge — everyone loved the sticky coating.

Do you have to watch your food budget too? How do you do it?

Baked Sticky Orange Drumsticks
serves 4
adapted heavily from Every Day Food, April 2009

2 lbs chicken drumsticks (5-6)
kosher salt and ground black pepper
1/3 cup orange marmalade
1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Line a baking sheet with nonstick aluminum foil.

Rinse and pat dry the chicken. Then, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper all over. Arrange on the baking sheet (don’t let the pieces touch).

Bake for 10 minutes.

While the chicken is baking, whisk together the marmalade, soy sauce and rice vinegar. Pull the chicken out and baste with 1/2 of the marmalade mixture. Return to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.

Take the chicken out again and baste with the remaining marmalade mixture. Return to the oven and bake for 5 minutes more.

Let cool for 10 minutes before enjoying.

As a result, I try hard to not have leftovers from dinner. I make just enough. But sometimes leftovers can’t be avoided. For instance, earlier this week I was working on a recipe for Tablespoon that called for using leftover roasted chicken. I ended up buying a whole roasted chicken at the grocery store but only used a portion of it to finish off the recipe. A little of the chicken became Paige’s lunch one day, but there was still a good amount left. I hated seeing it there, knowing that it would go to waste if I didn’t do something.

Of course, I didn’t want to just eat it. With chicken especially, I am much happier when it becomes part of a whole new meal. Putting it on a salad was an option. But I had nachos on the brain and I’ve been on a long quest to make chicken work on nachos. Often, I feel like when you pair chicken with traditional nacho toppings it ends up seeming out of place — like your Thanksgiving dinner got into an argument with fiesta night. The flavors is just so different.

But I had an epiphany recently. If the chicken’s flavor was more Tex-Mex then it would blend in better. It’s a matter of narrowing the gap between the flavors. So I tried it (what good is a theory if you don’t?). It worked. All it takes is shredding the chicken and mixing it with a little salsa to make it a perfect nacho topping. Sweet.

Making these nachos, which make a perfect easy dinner, is simple as can be. Tortilla chips are topped with the chicken mixture, a load of black beans and red peppers. Then it’s all baked with a blanket of cheddar. Serve it with salsa, sour cream, guacamole or whatever you love with your nachos.

Did I mention that it’s ready in a mere 15 minutes, start to finish? Go ahead. Try them tonight. You totally have time.

What do you do with your leftovers?

Shredded Chicken and Black Bean Nachos
serves 4

2 cups shredded cooked chicken (such as from a roasted chicken)
1/2 cup salsa (I use mild for the kids but prefer hot myself)
tortilla chips (roughly 4 cups)
1 15.5-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chopped fresh red bell pepper
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
salsa, sour cream, guacamole, etc as desired

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, stir together the chicken and salsa.

Arrange the tortilla chips in a 9×13 baking dish. Top with the chicken mixture and the black beans. Sprinkle with red peppers. Spread the cheddar all around.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until cheese is all melted.

Let cool for 2-3 minutes before serving.

—————-

More Recipes for Leftover Chicken:

- Chicken, Avocado and Red Pepper Rice Bowl

- Greek Chicken Salad Sandwiches

- Lighter Chicken Enchiladas

Ahoy, me hearties. Today be buccanneer tide at me office. Me work shipmates an’ I dressed up like sea dogs. Thar be sea dog foods, games an’ treasure. It be a great, grand day.

I’m a big, huge, gigantic pirate fan. After hearing legends as a child of Captain Kidd allegedly burying treasure off the New England coast, I just fell in love with the lore and romantic pirate histories. Of course, the reality was far less romantic. My interest is more Captain Jack Sparrow than real-life pirates. (And for the record, I know that real life pirates are nasty … nothing like Jack.)

When my editor suggested we have a pirate party to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day this week, I was all for it. I might have yelped in glee, but who’s counting? Today was our party (though the actual day was Sept. 19).

This was our treasure chest — filled with a few fun prizes for the pirate trivia game (I won!) and the hook game (we had to use a homemade hook hand to pick up five pretzels. That takes skills. Did I mention that my coworkers are awesome?

Oh, and of course we dressed up. Why would anyone skip the opportunity to dress like a pirate? Arggggg!

For my contribution to lunch, I brought a plate of Chicken Daggers, a fun take on skewers that’s fashioned after daggers (as in the knife). My coworkers brought fun pirate foods like anti-scurvy fruit salad and walk the plank cookies.

Making them is simple – you marinate strips of chicken (I cut mine from chicken breasts) until they are filled with flavor. Then you thread the chicken onto skewers with a thick slice of pepper and a pineapple chunk (the dagger handle). Once that’s all done, all you need to do is cook them.

Fun, right?

And hey, these aren’t just for Talk Like a Pirate Day. They’re allow a perfect food for a Halloween party. Think how awesome the daggers would look on a spooky buffet.

Chicken Daggers
serves 4

1 lb boneless skinless chicken, cut into strips
jerk or teriyaki marinade
thick-sliced peppers
pineapple chunks

Special: wooden skewers, soaked for 30 minutes right before using

Place the chicken into a resealable bag and add marinade to coat. Seal the bag and chill for 2 hours.

Prepare the daggers: Thread one strip of chicken onto each skewer, followed by a pepper slice and a pineapple chunk. Repeat until all the chicken as been used.

Heat your grill to its medium setting. Once it’s hot (about 5 minutes), cook the skewers for 3-5 minutes/side until cooked through. Remove from the grill.

Serve hot or cold.

Does this plate look familiar? It should. It’s the same plate from the Herbed Grilled Red Potatoes, just shown at a different angle. Generally, I don’t end up photographing two new dishes at the same time, but when this super simple chicken dish worked out so well that I wanted to share it.

But I have to warn you. This recipe is so simple, it almost doesn’t need to be presented in recipe format. But I think that sometimes even simple things are easiest to glance and cook with so the recipe is below. Look, it’s worth it.

Grilled Caesar Chicken Strips are a new take on the classic Italian dressing-marinated grilled chicken. Basically, you make a really flavorful, easy and fast chicken tender dish (strips of chicken breasts can be used instead, if you can’t find chicken tenders) and marinate it in Caesar dressing. Then it’s grilled to perfection.

They are just perfect served with a salad. Though, it doesn’t have to be a Caesar salad (but that could be amazing).

Grilled Caesar Chicken Strips
serves 4

1 lb chicken tenders (raw chicken)
1 cup Caesar dressing

Combine the chicken and Caesar dressing in a resealable container or bag. Marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Heat the grill up to its medium setting (or prepare the charcoal for grilling). Once the chicken is marinate, Lay it across the grates. Cook for about 3-5 minutes per side, flipping once, until cooked through.

Serve immediately with a salad.

My grandmother was an amazing, vivacious, full-of-life woman who loved days at the beach, fresh corn bought from farms in the summer (long before it was en vogue again to do so) and green grapes. She did not, however, love to cook. Though she could make a mean spaghetti sauce and great lasagna and she cooked almost every day, it just didn’t fall into the category of things she loved to do. She did it because she had to — to feed her family.

A while back, I was gifted my grandmother’s 1950 edition of Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook. It was one of only a few cookbooks that she owned, and is well-worn, with a peeling binding to prove it (any tips on fixing that?). Inside the book is a glimpse into cooking more than 60 years ago, something I love reading about. I have a whole collection of mid-century cookbooks and find them fascinating. But this cookbook is more than that … it’s a glimpse into how my grandmother cooked when she was about my age. Along with the occasional notes in the margin are recipe clippings from magazines and handwritten recipes that she stuck in there over the years.

It was in the pages of that cookbook that I found a slip of paper with a recipe for Chicken Cordon Blue written on it in my grandmother’s handwriting. Immediately I recognized the small paper, torn from the camel-colored notebook that she carried with her everywhere. It was in that notebook that she wrote grocery lists, things to remember and recipes given from neighbor to neighbor in the course of conversation.

I can practically feel the pebbled vinyl (I think) exterior as I write about that notebook, which was omnipresent in her purse. But while I knew the handwriting instantly, I couldn’t remember her ever making this dish — at least not from scratch. Nonetheless, I decided to try making this recipe first.

As these things go — attempting something I haven’t made before with sparse directions — I started making this a little later than I should have, misjudging how long prepping it would take. And when I got stumped on a step (how much oil should I be using anyway?!?), a few rushed phone calls yielded me the answer … and confirmation that this wasn’t my grandmother’s Chicken Cordon Blue, but rather likely a recipe she got from Mrs. S, the neighbor across the street.

I had to laugh when I realized that it wasn’t my grandmother’s own recipe, especially since that thought had been in my head the whole time. I mean, there is no way she would have used this many dishes and taken this many steps to make dinner (unless it was lasagna … but that’s different). No matter. It’s a great recipe for a delicious dish — and one that I plan to make again and again.

Don’t worry. It’s not that complicated. Chicken Cordon Blue starts with thin slices of raw chicken, seasoned lightly with salt and pepper and rolled with ham and Swiss cheese. You can buy them already thin-sliced or pound it thin, like I did. If you pound them, they may need to be cut into smaller pieces. Ultimately you should have 4-5 pieces of thin chicken breast for this dish.

Anyway, once they’re all rolled, I secure the chicken with toothpicks to ensure that the rolls stay put.

Then the rolls are breaded. Breading is a simple thing — just dredging in flour, egg and unseasoned breadcrumbs. Finally, it’s cooked — first by pan-frying to brown it and then baking it to finish it off.

All in all, you need between 45 minutes and an hour to make this. It’s not the fastest or simplest dish you’ll make, but I can attest that it’s delicious and really not that complicated. And frankly, it’s one of the best Chicken Cordon Blues I have ever had.

Chicken Cordon Blue
(Traditionally known as Chicken Cordon Bleu)
serves 4

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken, either thin breasts or pounded thin (4-5 pieces)
salt and pepper
4-5 slices deli Virginia ham (you need one for each chicken breast)
4-5 slices deli Swiss cheese
all-purpose flour
1-2 large eggs, beaten (I start with one and add a second if necessary)
unseasoned breadcrumbs
2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Lay out the chicken slices. Season lightly with salt and pepper on both sides. Top each one with a slice of Virginia ham and a slice of Swiss cheese. Roll up and secure with toothpicks.

Lay out three bowls for dredging and put flour in one, egg in the second and breadcrumbs in the third. Dredge each chicken roll first in flour, then in egg and finally in the breadcrumbs. Set aside.

In a deep, oven-safe skillet, add the olive oil and heat over medium heat. Once it’s hot, place the chicken in the pan and cook for4-5 minutes per side until browned. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until cooked through

EDITED TO ADD: Traditionally, this dish is called Chicken Cordon Bleu. Cordon Bleu translates as “blue ribbon.” But I went with the alternative spelling because that’s how my grandmother wrote it. But yes, I do know the correct name of dish. Swear!

Let’s talk meatballs today. Frankly, I think meatballs can be challenging to make since there is so much that can go wrong. Too dry, too crisp, too flavorless … these are all common problems, and you have to do your best to avoid them.

Then there is the cooking method controversy. Should they be baked? Fried? Both? I’ve always been in the just-bake-em club. And that works. They get crisp on the outside,  tender on the inside. And then you toss them into sauce for a few minutes before serving them and it’s just perfect.

Except, it’s not perfect. The baking method works great for beef-based meatballs and reasonably well for turkey meatballs. But chicken meatballs are really hit and miss from the oven.

When I visited Minneapolis in November, I discovered how amazing a well-cooked chicken meatball can be. While I was there, I had the most amazing meatballs I’ve ever had. They were made from chicken and foie gras, and were buttery, soft and almost airy. Seriously, the only word to adequately describe them is ethereal.

At the time, I thought that restaurant had some secret – something that made their amazing meatballs out of reach for the common cook. Honestly, I know I will never duplicate the meatballs entirely since foie gras isn’t something I have extensive access to.

But the texture? That sublime light texture? I can do it. And although it’s not the same amazing flavor, these meatballs have a lot of flavor of their own. It’s not the same, but it’s still fabulous — the best chicken meatballs I’ve ever made. And the secret to getting there? 1) Cooking them on the stovetop — part frying, part braising (or is this boiling? I think it’s braising, but that term always trips me up). And 2) ketchup in the meatball. No, really. It doesn’t make the meatballs taste like ketchup, but does add this hint of flavor that you aren’t expecting. Yum.

Thank you, Cate, for introducing me to these fabulous chicken meatballs.

Almost Ethereal Chicken Meatballs
serves 4
Adapted very slightly from a recipe by Giada DeLaurentis via Sweetnicks

1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon lowfat milk
1 tablespoon ketchup
3/4 cup freshly grated Romano, plus additional for garnish
salt and pepper, to taste
1 pound ground chicken
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cup no salt chicken broth

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

While the oil is heating, combine the breadcrumbs, parsley, eggs, milk, ketchup, Romano cheese, salt and pepper in a medium mixing bowl. Stir well to combine. The mixture will be loose.

Using a cookie scoop (or melon baller), scoop the chicken mixture out and drop into the heated oil. Cook, without disturbing, for about 2 minutes and then flip and cook for an additional two minutes. You want to just brown the tops and bottoms of the meatballs. Transfer them to a paper towel-lined plate and continue cooking the meatballs in batches until they are all cooked.

Return the meatballs to the skillet and pour in the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, until the meatballs are fully cooked.

SERVING SUGGESTION: Serve the meatballs over gnocchi with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of Romano cheese and sea salt.