Monday is Shopping Day. Grocery shopping is the only type of shopping I like. Well… except maybe new computer shopping, but I don’t get to do that on a weekly basis…
My shopping patterns have changed a bit since Wegmans opened up the road from us. I used to head to The Acme in Paoli for Victor’s mom about 9:30am – I wanted to start sooner but they never had the apple strudel bites she wants out of the oven before then – and after dropping off her groceries, would hit the local PathMark for our shopping. I don’t really care for the Acme and don’t shop there for us. I wouldn’t shop there for Nonna, either, but she’s in a rut about a few of their products. She’s 86. I let her slide on it.
If I were lucky, I’d be home by noon. Nowadays, I make my list out Sunday night and by 8am Monday, I’m off to do our shopping – I like the nearly-empty-store shopping experience – and even after getting home and putting everything away, I still get over to The Acme before 10 and home by 11.
Life is good.
Monday dinner can be entirely new, clean out the refrigerator, or a combination of the two. Today was a clean-out day.
I had pulled chicken breasts out of the freezer with no real idea of what to do with them. I had some heirloom tomatoes I wanted to use up and first thought of making some salsa and doing a chipotle rub for the chicken. Then the mind switched to Italy. Funny how that keeps happening!
The salsa became an
Italian salsa
- chopped tomatoes
- chopped onion
- minced garlic
- minced fresh basil
- olive oil
- red wine vinegar
- salt & pepper
Mix all ingredients adding salt & pepper, to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.
It was very simple but really flavorful. Use ripe tomatoes – homegrown if possible – and enjoy. Quantities will depend on how many tomatoes you have. Regardless, just a drizzle of olive oil and vinegar are needed.
The chicken I marinated in white wine, olive oil, and garlic. Then grilled with indirect heat about 30 minutes – they’re big bone-in breasts. We actually only eat half of them for dinner – the rest becomes lunch for the following day.
The pasta was a fun last-minute idea. We had a bit of spinach pasta in the cupboard, some frozen spinach in the freezer, and more of the Locatelli with peppercorns in the fridge. I cooked the pasta, put it into a skillet with the spinach and a drizzle of olive oil, and when it was hot, I stirred in some shredded cheese.
Voilà! A side dish was born!
The flavors all worked together well. I had some sourdough bread and made little bite-sized chicken and salsa sandwiches
It was yum.