Easy Entertaining with Proscuitto-Wrapped Chicken

Yeah, yeah, yeah- I know. I'm still being lazy about posting. But it's not general laziness, I've just been far busier in other places than the kitchen. But I am very much looking forward to getting back to lots of cooking when I'm finally set up in my new kitchen at the house. In the meantime, here's a recipe I made back in January that I can share with you. Josh was a very busy guy during that month, and there were a lot of nights where I only had myself to cook for. Sometimes I wouldn't bother to go to the effort of making a meal, but I did take the opportunity to try out this "Cooking for One" recipe from Everyday Food one night. This recipe was so simple and fast, not to mention delicious, that I quickly realized how great it would be for entertaining. Just multiply your ingredients by the number of guests and you're ready to go.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken Breast
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 1
















1 teaspoons olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast half
3 thin slices prosciutto
Lemon wedge, for serving

• Heat broiler of toaster oven (or oven). Season chicken with salt and pepper; wrap with prosciutto. Place chicken, seam side down, on baking sheet; rub with remaining teaspoon oil.
• Broil until chicken is opaque throughout, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with a lemon wedge.

My notes: The side dish was included in this recipe, green beans that you broil along side the chicken. Mine came out inedibly burned to a crisp. Hence the cropped photo and edited recipe. If you'd like to give the green beans a shot, Everyday Food tells you to toss about 4 oz. green beans, ends trimmed, with 1 teaspoon olive oil, salt and pepper. Just pop on one half of your baking sheet, opposite the chicken breast. And good luck, cause my chicken was perfect, but my green beans had a trash can burial.

Still Behind

Remember Christmas? You know, that big holiday that was over a month ago? Yeah, I still haven't posted what we did for Christmas breakfast. Better late than never. I guess. We were in such a hurry to get to the presents that we just tucked in to breakfast and I didn't even take a picture of the table set up. I did manage to shoot a quick pic before I put the goodies in the oven to warm though. I made my usual Sweet & Spicy Bacon- that's a requirement according to my brother and his wife. Additionally I made cheap, fast and easy sausage rolls- no real recipe there, refrigerated crescent rolls, shredded cheese and small smoked sausages. Voila! And then for the sweeter side of the menu I made Deb's Whole Wheat Apple Muffins. On half of them I added a topping, and the other half I left plain to avoid possible allergens for my niece.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen; Makes about 16













1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Grease and flour a muffin tin and set aside.
• Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.
• Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400 degrees, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

My notes: I used buttermilk, and don't worry about the curdling. I mixed it in the first time like I was folding clouds into the batter and it still curdled. Everything comes back together when you add the dry ingredients, so it doesn't really make a difference how gentle you are. I skipped the brown sugar on the plain muffins because I didn't really want to coat my niece's muffins in sugar. The topping for the other muffins is comprised of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pecans- basically a version of what I did for the Peach Muffins but with more oats and pecans. Since I wasn't doing the brown sugar topping I simple cooked the muffins at 400 degrees for 17-20 minutes. Much easier than me remembering to turn the temp down. Because I just wouldn't remember, ha.