After a summer spent eating my way through Estonia, I admit that while I was well-fed, I missed MY kitchen! I missed the selection of fresh produce available to me in Colorado, versus the limited, unripened options at the 59th latitude (by comparison, my hometown of Alaska is at the 64th latitude, and trust me, we didn’t grow much there either!) I missed my pots and pans, my spice cabinet, and mostly my REE!
When I returned home, I was greeted by my sister (hereby referred to as “L”) and her kiddos for a three-week visit. You know what a whole bunch of kids in the house means? Cooking at home, no restaurants! It also meant that for once I didn’t have to reduce the yield of the recipes, since we were feeding an army.
One recipe I avoided until the end was another pepper-heavy meal, #129: Cajun Chicken Pasta. This was the last of the “Pasta Pronto” chapter, and the second-to-last chicken recipe. Hallelujah! Luckily for me, L and her girls LOVE peppers. (Did I mention we are half-sisters? That must explain it…)
Also luckily for me, L loves to cook too and we knocked out a giant pot of this tasty supposed-to-be-fettucine-but-we-only-had-spaghetti meal, served in super high-class, paper bowls! Houses full of kids also means using disposable dishes. Easiest recipe ever: just sautéing onions, peppers, and garlic along with cubed chicken (I think we used thighs instead of breasts, because I refused to go shopping!) then seasoning it all with Cajun spices. What are Cajun spices, you ask? Apparently they include paprika, thyme, onion powder, cayenne, cumin, ground mustard, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper. You could make your own, but… why? I used a Wildtree Organic mixture rather than hand-curating my own spice blend. Maybe down the road I’ll get into all that, but today is not that day! 
The only thing left to turn this into dinner was making a sauce by adding cream and white wine to the juices and chicken broth, then thickening it with a bit of corn starch. The dish was finished with diced tomatoes and chopped parsley for a little color and freshness. If you ever think to yourself, “hmm, should I add some fresh herbs to this meal?” the answer is YES! It makes a big difference, and you’re just not going to get the same flavors with dried herbs. Go ahead, invest that $0.62 in a bunch of cilantro, parsley or chives and see what I mean!
Post-family visit, I rolled straight into Book Club night, where I was tasked with bringing salad. Conveniently I had one dish left to complete in the “Salad for Dinner” chapter, and at long, long last, the FINAL chicken recipe!! Seriously people, I did 26 chicken variations, some of them several times. Don’t get me wrong, I love chicken, but I think I was starting to cluck. I saved this for last for a couple reasons: 1) I was tired of chicken, 2) sesame seed and sesame flavor is at best a “meh” for me, and 3) the sound of the Asian dressing did not ring my bell. I am here to confess I was WRONG on every count. Maybe I was a little over the chicken element, but once I blended up the dressing made from olive and sesame oils, soy sauce, rice vinegar, fresh garlic and ginger, brown sugar and red pepper flakes, I couldn’t wait to toss sautéed chicken in it. This. Smelled. Amazing. My mouth was watering as soon as I opened the blender! 
A word of warning though… making it a day ahead of time presented me with a unique problem! I poured some of the dressing over the cooked chicken to “marinate” for a day, but the rest of it I stuck in the fridge overnight. Ree told me I could do this! What she didn’t mention was that this emulsified (oil and vinegar combined into a creamy texture) dressing would separate out into its parts again, and it would take on the appearance of butter! I tried the obvious, just blending it again, but it did not come back together. In fact it seemed to thicken when whipped, and looked like a broken cream sauce. Picture reheating your Olive Garden fettucine alfredo in the microwave… It’s never the same again! I didn’t have time to wait for it to warm up, to see if it would blend if the fat was closer to room temperature, so I decided to hit it with just a bit more vinegar, soy sauce and brown sugar, and voila! It kept the balance of flavors AND it turned back into usable dressing!
What else makes this salad special? It’s just so pretty! I am fairly sure Ree used both colors of sesame seeds in this dish just for looks, as they taste very nearly same. Black sesame seeds just have the hulls still intact while the white ones have hulls removed. Some people say there is a nuttier, slightly more bitter flavor to the black seeds, but I think they are imagining things. The bright colors of purple onion, fresh cherry tomatoes and mandarin orange wedges made the salad aesthetically pleasing on the plate, so this was a hit to take to a potluck event. Minimal effort, and I didn’t have to have to dump my salad out of a bag at the party! Winner, winner, last-of-the-chicken dinners!
Have Book, Will Cook 