"Something light that goes with white wine."

This was the request from Schaeffer for a simple Monday night dinner.  He greeted me at the door with a bunch of incredible orange rununculus flowers that were beautiful.  It is weird when someone starts to know you kind of well, you know?  You see, I'm not the dozen roses type of girl by any stretch of the imagination.  I am more of the flowers from the grocery store put in old tomato sauce jar type of girl.  It is likely due to the fact that I think you should have fresh flowers all of the time.  Not just special occasions, not just because you're saying you're sorry, not just because you screwed up.  Rather, because life is just better when you have fresh flowers around the house. 

Menu:

Lemon and olive chicken (#72)

Pan-fried roasted potaoes (#73)
Salad with greek vinaigrette (#74)
Peach cobbler (#75) *this failed.

There is a famous Moroccean restaurant in DC, Marrakesh, that serves delicious food you eat with your hands while lounging in a dark room of pillows, while a belly dancer comes out for entertainment.  I went here a couple of times when I was in college in DC and remember the most incredible chicken dish.  Lemony and olivey and everything that should be chicken that falls apart and melts in your mouth.  It is so perfectly good.

I found this simply recipe to try and replicate the feeling that chicken memory gives me.  Not too shabby.  The chicken came out really moist and had just enough lemon.  I've talked before of my hesitancy of lemon because of the oh-so-fine-line between too much lemon and too little.  This one had just enough.  I especially liked adding the zest to the flour for dredging the chicken in prior to pan searing it.  Oh and cumin.  I mean, is there anything better than cumin?  Ok, maybe butter.  But that is it.

I put the baby yukon potatoes in a cast iron skillet on the stove with melted butter, salt, pepper and three garlic heads that were ready to be thrown out.  Then I put the whole thing in the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  I was showing the apartment to a couple of prospective new roommates, as sadly, Beth the roomie is moving out at the end of our lease.  This meant, the timing was all off.  In an effort to get the potatoes done quicker, I put them on the stove top to sort of brown them up quickly.  They turned out alright with a dash of extra salt, but really when a feat of being both overcooked and undercooked at the same time.  Oh well.

Overall it worked nicely.  I made a simple Greek vinaigrette by experimenting with the following: olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and oregano.  The oregano really makes Greek dressing so unique and tasty, and I subbed the normally called for feta with parmesan. 

Sadly, the peach cobbler didn't go well.  The butter for the crust was soft, so the whole thing became a soupy peachy buttery mess.  Can't win them all.

225 to go...