A Paul Verlaine Monday

I love the French poet Paul Verlaine.  Yes, I realize how potentially pretentious that could sound. That being said, I still love him.  And every time it rains, since learning his poetry in a French class I took in high school, the opening lines of Il pleure dans mon coeur have been my rainy day mantra.  (As an aside, the very heavy Long Island accent of my French teacher, which, having visited France and seen their looks of "huh?" at my diction, I believe has greatly influenced my pronunciation.  However, all is not lost.)  So on this rainiest of Mondays, all day the following lines repeated in my mind:

"Il pleure dans mon coeur
Comme il pleut sur la ville;
Quelle est cette langueur
Qui pénètre mon coeur?"

And, at the risk of sounding dramatic, these lines could not be more fitting at the moment.  Therefore, the culinary ritual was high on the after-work priority list.  Right now I am also in "eat down the fridge" mode, which means I need to work within the parameters of my fridge if I don't want to end up throwing away tons of food.  After some pondering, and more Verlaine mantra-ing...

Menu:

(Unstuffed) Spinach, Ricotta & Mushroom Stuffed Chicken (#24)

Red Wine Sauce (#25)

Garlic Sauteed Asparagus

Simple Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

As per usual, I used Rachel Ray's recipe more as inspiration for the dish.  I needed to supplement with ingredients I had in the fridge, and I didn't want to do the seemingly heavier white wine sauce she used (sorry, Rachel).  Plus, I only had red wine.

I used cremini mushrooms and fresh spinach for the stuffing.  I also added some fresh oregano.  For the stuffing part of stuffed chicken, and I truly had every intention to actually stuff the chicken (but we've already discussed how I feel about intentions), I made a minor change.  I decided on surround the chicken, as opposed to stuff.  Semantics, no?  On this already rainy and mediocre Monday, I just needed to set myself up for success.  Stuffing already-too-thin-to-be-stuffed chicken breasts did not fall under this category.

The state of the not-so-fresh-anymore asparagus made me nervous, but I figure, is there anything a dash of minced garlic can't fix?  Ok, maybe there is a very short list of exceptions to that garlic rule, but online shopping, happy hour and hot fudge can cure all of those, so whatever.

Having some wine left from recent guests, I decided to try Martha's red wine sauce, which she recommends serving with beef.  I really let the wine reduce here, so as to make sure none of the alcohol would be left to overpower the chicken and stuffing.  And, being me, I cooked the sauce right in the pot after taking out the chicken and stuffing.  That worked well, and all of the leftover bits cooked into the sauce.  Again, I must say, butter.  Wow.  Or, as Verlaine would say, beurre.  Ahhh, however you say it, butter is the shit.  Yeah, I said it.  And, Mom, relax, you know I'm right anyway.   The sauce was a really nice complement to the chicken, not to mention a beautiful color on the plate.

Since there is nothing I like in the middle of the day, either pre- or post-recess duty or the rare arduous parent conference, more than a home cooked meal, I doubled the batch and have tomorrow's lunch all ready to go for the morning run around.  After rain and Verlaine, dinner wasn't too shabby.  And, yes, that is the bottom of my new red-with-a-bit-of-ruffle apron from Anthro.  Those how know me would expect no less.  Or, at the very least, they shouldn't.

275 to go...