Summer Bread and Grilled Chicken Breast

Every summer, we abandon our oven and seek out a flatbread—usually something that can be made in a frying pan or on a grill. This year we've settled on an odd one. PJ Hamel, the always amusing baker at King Arthur, apparently fell in love with the Taco Bell Gordita, and decided to figure out how to emulate the bread. The result is an amazingly simple, soft, and durable little wrap that loves grilled veggies, chicken breast, sausage, and whatever else you have lying around. Her trick is to "cook" the flour with boiling water. We really can't say enough about it.

You can find the recipe here—and we also highly recommend her quick Caesar dressing.

She didn't offer a grilled chicken recipe, so we'll share ours. It's a little involved but quite tasty and helps keep you in Speedo shape. By the way, the pictured wrap is one with grilled veggies. We were entertaining and somehow forgot to photograph the chicken. A couple of gin and tonics may have played a role there—but it's also true that having a cute baby to photograph somehow saps your desire to set up a creative shot of a chicken Caesar wrap.

Grilled Chicken Breast

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tbsp each: smoked paprika, garlic powder
½ tbsp each: creole seasoning with salt, pepper, mixed Italian seasoning (or oregano)

1. Heat your grill to high.
2. Take each breast, place it flat on your board. With a sharp knife, slice it as you would a bagel, making two thinner pieces—not two gargantuan chicken tenders.
3. Take two pieces of plastic wrap and spray with cooking spray (water works too, if you have a spray bottle of that around).
4. Place a chicken breast between them.
5. Use a heavy saucepan to pound the breast until it's ¼ inch think. (This works much better than a silly meat mallet. Chicken breasts aren't tender like veal. You have to really whack 'em to get 'em flat).
6. Repeat for the rest.
7. Combine the spices and liberally dust each breast with them.
8. Allow to stand for a few minutes.
9. Brush or spray each breast with cooking oil.
10. Grill quickly—it should take 1-2 minutes on each side.
11. Slice and serve on flatbread with tomatoes, lettuce, and Caesar dressing.

Stuffed Clams

Our summer cottage lies on the coast near a rich store of shellfish, which can be extracted relatively easily. The problem is that the sea floor is mucky, and while the mussels are always good, the clams often end up dirty. To defeat this, we allow them to feast for a week on cornmeal and water in our refrigerator drawer. They expel the dirt and live quite happily until we're ready.

If you've never done stuffed clams before, they're really worth a shot. This recipe is the standard one in our area, although traditionally, they are cooked with a slice of bacon over the top. We put the bacon inside instead.

Cheapness note: Although we used all fresh clams, you can buy enough fresh ones for the shells and then fill out the recipe using canned clams.

Stuffed Clams

20-25 large clams, shucked, chopped with juice reserved
8-10 clam shells
4 thick slices bacon
2 small onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 lemon
Breadcrumbs
Butter

1. Preheat your oven to 425.
2. Cut the bacon into small pieces, and fry with a little olive oil until done. Set aside.
3. Sautee the onions, celery, and carrots in butter over low heat.
4. Just before the onion is translucent, add garlic and sautee for several minutes.
5. In a large bowl, add clams, garlic, vegetables, a small amount of lemon juice, and some of the reserved clam juice.
6. Don't be shy with the breadcrumbs. Add a lot and more clam juice and mix. The consistency should be thick and easily stick to your hands.
7. It's a good idea to fry a bit of the mixture to ensure that it will taste good.
8. Butter the inside of the clam shells.
9. Spray your hands with nonstick spray and go to work. First form meatball like pieces. Compress them a little, and then press them into the shells so they crest over the edge.
10. If you aren't planning on living forever, lay a slice of bacon over each one.
11. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.
12. Enjoy with lemon juice.

Meatballs and Quick Sauce (Leftovers from 4th of July cookout)

As new parents, we took the 4th of July easy. We had family over and fed them hamburgers, hotdogs, cole slaw, and beans. Of course, they (the family, not the hotdogs) were very relieved when we announced this unexciting menu over the phone. They claim to love all food, but there's a catch: They do not consider the vast majority of things that are edible to be "food." To qualify as food, an item must be served at a diner or a pizzeria. Everything else is a dangerous and unnecessary innovation.

In any case there's nothing wrong with hamburgers and hotdogs, particularly if there's plenty of Heinz ketchup to go around. The leftovers don't need to be repetitive. In one photo, you can see how baked beans and tomatoes can turn into a yummy English breakfast (beans and fried tomatoes, mmn) . Turning preformed hamburgers and leftover buns into a quick spaghetti and meatball dinner is only slightly more of a trick.

Meatballs and Quick Sauce (Leftovers from 4th of July cookout)

3-4 leftover hamburgers (uncooked)
1 hamburger roll
2/3 head garlic, chopped fine.
¼ cup parsley chopped fine
Milk
1 egg (optional)
1 large can tomatoes
Wine or sweet vermouth
Salt
Olive Oil
Pasta

1. Pull the hamburgers apart (this is a bit more of a pain than you might think).
2. Tear the roll in small pieces and place it in a bowl and drizzle milk over it.
3. Mix meat, ½ the garlic, parsley.
4. Squeeze out the roll.
5. Toss through the meat. Add breadcrumbs if the mixture is too wet; add an egg if you prefer tighter meatballs.
6. Add salt. Heat a frying pan and fry a small amount of mixture to test. Adjust seasoning.
7. Roll out a dozen or so small meatballs.
8. Heat a frying pan, add a small amount of oil, and fry meatballs until brown on all sides. Remove, pour off fat, deglaze with a little wine or sweet vermouth.
9. Heat a saucepan, add olive oil. Place the rest of the garlic in; allow to cook for 30 seconds or so.
10. Add tomatoes, salt, and the deglazed drippings from the meatball pan. Bring to a simmer.
11. Add the meatballs.
12. Allow to cook for about 30-40 minutes until tomatoes are soft and everything is tasty.
13. Serve with pasta. (No we're not going to tell you how to cook pasta.)

Zucchini Bruchetta with Poached Eggs

(apologies for the photo, it's a new lens that we apparently don't have the hang of)

Sorry for the absence. There's no point in going for grace under pressure with a constantly crying baby. Of course, it might have made an excellent story if we had offered "gourmet solutions" for parents of colicky children. Somebody might even have read our ideas—perhaps we'd have won another award (Top 25 Food Blogs for Exhausted Parents of Miserable Babies).

Instead, we survived largely on bologna sandwiches—which are quite good in their way. First we had them with mustard, then with mayonnaise, and finally, when our creativity reached its crying-baby apex, we had them with mustard and mayonnaise at the same time.

At last, our child began sleeping and we could again think of food. This was a riff on a piperade, a Basque dish we first encountered in Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking. We mention her because An Omelette and a Glass of Wine is really a fun book. (To ruin one of the best essays, she advises learning to cook with whiskey instead of brandy. The reason is that most people drink the cooking cognac and forget to replace it, while no one ever forgets to replenish their vital stock of whiskey.)

Zucchini Bruchetta with Poached Eggs

One bit of advice. When poaching eggs for this, it's a good idea to leave them slightly underdone. Then, when plating, do not attempt the silly, aesthetic effect shown in the wretched photograph above. Put the egg down first, and pour the hot sauce over, letting it finish the cooking.

3 zucchinis, sliced in thin rounds
1 large onion, sliced
1 ½ cup tomato sauce
4 eggs
1 loaf Italian bread
One clove garlic, skin on, cut in half
1 tbsp cider vinegar
Olive oil

1. Place the onions and zukes, with a generous amount of olive oil, in a large frying pan. Sprinkle with salt, and cook over very low heat, stirring occasionally for about an hour, until the mixture is browned and reduced.
2. Heat oven to 425. Fill large saucepan halfway with water, place over high heat.
3. Add tomato sauce to the zuke mixture, cook again over low heat for 20 minutes, adding water as necessary.
4. To make the bruchetta. Slice the bread, brush one side with olive oil. Place in oven. When browned, remove and scrape with the cut side of the garlic.
5. To poach the eggs: When water is boiling, add vinegar. Shut heat off or down, until the water temp drops below boiling. Crack eggs one at a time into a cup, slowly submerge in water. Cook each egg approximately 3 minutes: do not allow them to boil. Remove with a slotted spoon and dry using an extra slice of bread.
6. Place egg in bowl. Spoon over sauce. Enjoy with the bread.

Fast Food: Insalata Caprese and English Muffins

In spite of our desire—nay, preference—to whip up something to feed the hoards of relatives visiting our new daughter, our visitors continually insist:

"Don't go to any trouble for us. Just get some antipasto at the store."

Sure, spending 20 active minutes throwing together pasta is "going to trouble." But going out to a store and selecting a pile of cheese, salamis, breads, crackers, olives, vegetables, and marinated stuff, not to mention bringing it home, slicing it up, washing the veg, and finding forks, knives, spoons, napkins, miniplates, bread baskets, and little cups for olive pits—that's nothing.

Then we were left with piles of leftover antipasto, an overstimulated baby, and dishes strewn across our apartment. We were exhausted and rebellious. Not sure why, but we soothed ourselves some quick plays on that old college favorite, English muffin pizza. And it was really good.

Insalata Caprese

Sliced mozzarella
Quartered grape tomatoes
Shredded basil leaves
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt
Sea Salt
Pepper

1. Place tomatoes in a colander and lightly salt.
2. Allow to drain for at least ten minutes (this brightens the tomatoes and concentrates the flavor)
3. Toss with basil and mozzarella (we do splurge a bit and get a delicious local variety)
4. Add sea salt, pepper, a small amount of lemon juice and a good amount of the very best olive oil you have.
5. Serve with toasted English muffins drizzled with more olive oil.

Quick Sopressata Pizza

2 tbsp sopressata, slivered
More quartered and drained tomatoes
More mozzarella
Oregano or pasta sprinkle
2 English muffins

1. In a toaster oven, pretoast the English muffins until just slightly browned.
2. Top with other ingredients to taste
3. Return to toaster oven (or regular oven) and cook until cheese is melted.
4. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.