Rotini with pesto, feta, chicken and tomatoes - What to fix when you don't want to cook.

I was hungry but I really did not feel like cooking so I decided to play Kitchen Roulette.  That is where I create something satisfying yet tasty with what is on hand.  Tonight's lucky winner a simple pasta dish. 

Rotini with chicken, pesto, feta and tomatoes

rotini boiled al dente

chicken thighs boiled with garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns and salt

ready made pesto

feta cheese (crumbled)

fresh, chopped tomato

freshly grated parmesan (optional)

I had everything on hand at home.  We had boiled the chicken thighs (our favorite parts) the day before.  All I had to do was open a box of rotini.  Gourmet?  No.  Homemade?  Technically, yes; however, I had lots of help with the ready made pesto.

To plate I spread a generous amount of pesto in the bowl and then added a tablespoon or so of crumbled feta and a sprinkle of parmesan.  I added the steaming rotini and tossed it to coat it.  I added the diced tomato and sliced chicken and another spattering of feta and parmesan.  Dinner was served in less than fifteen minutes.

I enjoyed it.  What's not to love?  Simplicity.  Ingo's comment was he could have done with a little less pesto.  To him it was bit too garlicky....  The nerve!  Hasn't he noticed the name of our blog?

Veggie Pizza or When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore

Pizza is one of the basic food groups in our home.  Unfortunately, it is usually some delivered pie from a local place.  Expensive and not very good, yet we keep ordering thinking to ourselves that maybe, just maybe we will be wowed this time.  Never works.

While scanning other blogs I came across a dough recipe and decided to make pizza at home with tons of flavor and loaded with some of our favorite things.

I got the dough rolled out and started layering on the goodies. 

And layering...

For this colorful version I opted for what turned into way too many toppings.  Don't get me wrong, it was tasty; however, we already know how we are going to tweak it.  Because there will be a next time...

Start with the dough recipe. Once you have it rolled out you can top as your choose.   Instead of marina we opted to use black olive tapenade.  I then dotted ricotta and chopped roasted garlic over it.  Next came sliced roasted red pepper, feta, and carmelized sweet onion.  I continued with mozzarella and spinach.  I know, I know, that is a whole lot of items each with intense flavors on their own.  Combined it was a happy sensory overload.  We liked it but our favorite part was this...

I cooked these onions down for almost a full hour in a olive oil and butter with a sprinkle of sea salt and a generous dose of fresh ground pepper.  It turned out to be the best part and next time we are going to eliminate the olive tapenade and use olive oil in its place.  We will probably also go with a smattering of feta and a mozzarella.

The whole thing was popped into a 500 degree oven and fifteen minutes later dinner was ready.  I did; however, allow it to sit for five minutes so it would cut a bit better.  All in all, a good pizza that will not be completely repeated.  I'll keep you posted about how round two goes....

Lamb Kebobs or The untraditional 4th of July BBQ

Being the rebels that we are, hubby and I decided to make something decidedly different for the Independence Day holiday. It was my husband's decision to have ground lamb kebobs. Sounded yummy to me. Now all I needed was a recipe. I started looking at all the blogs that I adore when I stumbled upon this... Simit Kebab (σημίτ-κεμπάπ) from the blogroll of a Nashville foodie. Perfect!

We decided not to deviate from the recipe. One pound of ground lamb yielded eight good sized portions. The only thing we did do differently was to not skewer the meat. Our's more resembled a ground lamb sausage. The bonus was one less thing to wash...

Hubby made the tzatziki. He grated an English cucumber, added a fine dice of red onion, minced garlic, salt and Italian seasonings into Greek yogurt. Quite tasty!

We threw the pita on the grill to warm it, smeared the tzatziki on it, crumbled on some feta and called it dinner. We also added some fresh cucumber, sliced red onion and tomatoes from our own backyard.

Traditional? Nah, but then again, we never are.