Confessions of a Foodie

This morning, as I was lying in bed, I thought of exactly what I wanted to write about today. Unfortunately, as I did not write it down...I don't exactly remember. Oh well, here goes nothing...

If I could I would wear a t-shirt and jeans every day (which I do pretty well at), I hate shoes and own significantly less pairs than my fiance, I don't have that great a sense of interior design. Although I order a snooty drink at Starbucks (Grande, non-fat, 130 degree Latte) I am one of the least snooty people I know. I hate shopping for clothing or shoes, but could spend hours walking around Williams-Sonoma or Crate & Barrel. When I get their catalogs in the mail, I bring them to the bedroom and read them like a good book. This is what my love of food has done to me. My kitchen is loaded (and will be more so after our wedding) with goodies - a phat KitchenAid mixer, Brevelle Juicer, Le Crueset tea pot and much more. You know what - I use them all. My kitchen is my domain.

But I digress, the reason for this rambling intro is that last night we had some friends over. I decided to make a recipe out of the Williams-Sonoma catalog. Chipotle Chicken Paninis. The recipe called for their new Spicy Chipotle Rub which we promptly went and purchased. Wow, am I glad we did, the stuff is amazing!!! Seriously, get some.

We decided to grill the sandwiches outside and used ciabatta, not sandwich bread, but other than that, followed the recipe pretty closely. These things were AMAZING. I went to bed thinking about them and woke up thinking about how I wish we had more...I also submitted this recipe to Magazine Mondays over at Cream Puffs in Venice, because although not technically a food magazine, I think it counts because it ended up in the "will make someday" category. The image above is what their version looks like and what made me drool enough to want to make them. Below is our creation:

Lily wanted one too...

To go along with the sandwiches, we had a simple caprese salad and I made a Blueberry Crumb Cake from a Dorie Greenspan recipe. The cake was equally awesome. Put it this way - four people housed an entire cake in one sitting...maybe I shouldn't admit that - eh, whatever. The only change I made for the cake was substitute 3 tablespoons of olive oil for 3 of butter. This resulted in a moist, slightly healthier cake. I think in the future I'd up the blueberry amount also.

Either way, an evening of excellent food and good company - we even got to play dominoes!

Chipotle Chicken Sandwich
inspired by Williams-Sonoma recipe

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, each about 8 oz., tenders
removed and breasts butterflied

8 tsp. spicy chipotle rub

1 loaf ciabatta, cut into quarters and sliced

Olive oil for brushing

8 tsp. mayonnaise

8 oz. Pepper jack cheese, cut into slices

1 avocado, peeled, pitted and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick

Rub each chicken breast on both sides with 2 tsp. chipotle rub. Grill for about 5 minutes on each side, until done. Transfer to a plate. Construct sandwich with mayo, cheese, avocado and chicken breast. Put sandwiches back on grill for a few minutes, until slightly toasted. Serves 4.