Puffed pastry filled with spinach and chicken

(In the top left you can see the blur of Matt's hand and fork...I could not get him to stop eating it long enough for me to take the picture!)

There are so many advantages to making your own food; it costs less, you can control the quality of the ingredients used, you can season it just how you like it and you get to keep the left overs, to name a few. One of the reasons to cook at home that gets overlooked, though, is effect that smell of cooking has on those waiting to eat it.

Our apartment is pretty small (the price we pay to live in downtown Petaluma) and it does not take long for the smell of whatever I am making to reach the other rooms. Whenever I saute onions in butter my husband will yell out from the other room "smells great, babe!" and then hover near the kitchen until the meal is ready to eat.

This recipe is one of those that fills your kitchen (or whole apartment) with wonderful aromas....I think it is perfect for a cozy Sunday late afternoon. I steamed some asparagus and then sauteed it with garlic and Parmesan as a side.

INGREDIENTS:
1 x bunch of spinach ( you can use frozen, thawed and drained spinach if you don't mind the metallic taste it can have)
4 x cloves of garlic, chopped or pressed
6 oz. of goat cheese or Boursin
1 x package of puffed pastry, thawed
2 x boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half (you could substitute just about anything here - portobello mushrooms, steak, crab, tofu.....)
2 x tablespoons bread crumbs
1 x egg
1 x Tbsp Olive oil

1.) Preheat your oven to 425. Wash and dry spinach. Heat olive oil in pan on medium heat. Add spinach, moving it around until wilted. Remove from heat and let cool. Add chicken breast halves to skillet and cook for 3-4 minuets on each side.

2.) Combine cooled spinach, garlic and cheese in a bowl and set aside.

3.) On a lightly floured surface, roll out puffed pastry sheets into one large rectangle. Cut / score in half width wise to make to squares. Cut squares diagonally from one corner to another to make four triangles.

4.) Spread spinach / cheese mixture over pastry leaving a 1/2" border clean on all sides. Place chicken breast halves in the center and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

5.) Combine egg and 1 tbsp water in a small bowl. With a pastry brush, moisten the clean border of the pastry. Wrap edges around chicken and press to seal.

5.) Bake about 30 mins, until pastry is golden brown. :)

Makes 4 servings / cost aprx. $4.25 per serving

Food is good

Food - it keeps us alive, it gives us pleasure, it brings us closer. It can connect us to our ancestors, it can transport us to another part of the world, it can surprise us and make us learn something new about ourselves.

My whole life I have been nurtured and nourished by food prepared by those who love me, and now that I am grown I too can send and share love this way. I have just started to learn to cook (rather than heat) food and I want to spend the rest of my life developing that skill.

When you prepare food for someone, you send so many positive messages; "I care about you", "I want you to be healthy", "you are worth my time and energy", "remember when....." or "remember this day", "I pay attention to what you like" , "thinking of you" and "let's pay attention to the fleeting pleasure of life".

The pleasures of food are not simply sentimental ones, however. Food is incredibly sensual - involving all five of our senses; sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. We start to experience our food the moment we see it, then we smell it, taste it, hear it crunching or sloshing, we feel its texture in our mouths.

Obviously I have spent a lot of time ruminating on the benefits and delights of home made food, but it is only recently that I realize that our food choices can have an even broader benefit. Each day we must eat, and each choice we make in what we eat gives us an opportunity to do good. With each meal we can, at the very least, make ourselves feel good, thus benefiting the world in that we are one less hungry grump walking around. We often have the opportunity to share food with those we care about, furthering our feelings of connection and tradition. We can choose foods that are high in nutrition, another benefit to ourselves, but also eventually reducing the burden of our poor health on our families. We can choose foods grown locally and sustainably, reducing our carbon footprint as well as supporting our local economies. We can also choose to consume fair trade foods that have an impact on our global community and economy....in short, the extent to which we can do good through food is endless, and easy.

This blog will be a small place where I share simple ways that I have found to make the world a slightly better place, while simultaneously making myself and my dear ones feel good. Dinner plate activism, if you will, with a generous side order of hedonism.


(My reaction to seeing the wedding cake made by hand for me by my dear friend of over 20 years, Anitra.)