Chicken Florentine

Why is it that anything with the name Florentine in it sounds delicious? I guess one would have to love spinach for that to be a true statement, but I do love spinach, and I do love florentine dishes. This recipe, Chicken Florentine, from In a Flash, had all kinds of promise, and in the end it wasn't too bad, but it was the stupidest recipe I've tried yet.

First of all, and this was my fault, it calls for 10 oz. of spinach. It doesn't specifically say fresh, but it's implied. Of course, I had frozen spinach, and didn't realize it until it was almost time to add the spinach. So I had to defrost it quickly, and then squeeze all the liquid out of it. Then, at the last minute, I realized I didn't have enough spinach, so I had to repeat the process. Well, you cook the chicken, and move it to a plate. Then you saute the onions with a little chicken broth. But there just isn't enough liquid so you have to add water Then you add the spinach. But it's dry now, after all that squeezing. So, what do you have to do? Add more water , and then more water, and then even more water. Did I mention the spinach is squeezed? Well, that results in clumps of spinach. So while you're busily trying to keep enough water in the pan to keep the spinach and onions from burning, you have to de-clump the spinach. Finally, it was time to add the chicken to the top of the spinach (you'll still need more water) and cheese on top of the chicken. The problem with the cheese was that it calls for lowfat shredded Jarlsberg or Swiss. I defy anyone to easily find lowfat Jarlseberg cheese. In fact, we couldn't even find lowfat shredded Swiss, so we used Swiss slices. You cover the pan until the cheese melts, and what do you know? You have Chicken Floretine...with lots of liquid because the cover makes the spinach lose some of its liquid (the same way mushrooms do).

As I said before, in the end it was a tasty dinner. But I sure griped and swore through the whole preparation. I served it with instant mashed potatoes. I'm tellin' you, if you haven't tried those, you should - they're a marvel of modern fast food!

By the way, the chicken florentine was only 5 points per serving - and I earned everyone of those points!

Jerky Turkey

Here I am again, and this time with a very small amount of good news. I lost one more lb! I'm down 12 lbs. now. Of course, I'll hover at 12 lbs. and a few lbs. above for another two or three weeks before I hit the 13 lb. mark, but at least eventually I head in the right direction again. I've learned that I can do it, and I would be much more successful if I consistently stuck to counting points and eating well, but it seems I've found a balance that allows me to monitor what I'm eating during the week but lets me enjoy what I like to eat (namely pizza and burritos) on the weekends.

I started cooking again this week. Monday night I made Jerk Turkey Cutlets from In a Flash, and it was pretty good, except my turkey cutlets were tough, and I have no idea why. I don't know if I over cooked them, or cooked them too fast, or maybe there wasn't enough liquid or what the problem was. But they tasted good, so I guess that was half the battle. I served it with yellow rice, which was just white rice with a little tamarack...no, I think it's tamarind...added to it. Tamarind doesn't add much flavor, but it makes the rice pretty.

Now, on a different and totally unrelated note, have any of you (of my two readers) watched Glee? It's a series on Thursday...or maybe it's Wednesday nights. That's the probably when you record everything and watch it when you have time - you lose track of when everything is on. Anyway, it's been off for a couple of weeks but starts again next week. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest you try it out. It's about a high school teacher who starts a Glee Club in his school. The club is made up of a bunch of nerds and some cool kids, one of which is pregnant. We have the Glee Club teacher with a wife that isn't pregnant but wants to be so she is pretending to be pregnant...without her husband knowing the truth. We have the school counselor who is germaphobic and a neatfreak who is marrying, for reasons I won't go into, the school coach, who is this big doofas who reminds me of a sloppy hound dog. There is the cheerleading coach who is, to put it very midly, a jock, and cuts her "Cheerios" no slack. The story line is fun, and the music, singing, and dancing is great. I'll go out on a limb and say that the girl who plays the lead is the most talented young person on TV. Glee has become my favorite show of the season...at least until the final episode of LOST starts.

You might have wondered what a TV review is doing in a cooking blog. The truth of the matter is that I'm getting tired of writing about cooking and am branching out into whatever takes my fancy. No one (except my two loyal readers) reads this anyway, so I think no one will mind.

Two readers, have a wonderful day!