I hate when this happens! I haven’t posted on my blog for almost 3 weeks. We are approaching the home stretch of our upcoming move, and life cooking as I know it is no more.
In the last few weeks my husband and I have made a trip to San Luis Obispo to check on the status of our future home.
We were there for the required framing walk-through, which turned out to be a 3 hour procedure since it is very detail oriented, not to mention the time it takes to cover the endless lists my husband produces at such meetings.
Seriously, I kid him about it, but when we had moved into our current home almost 25 years ago had he not been so on top of things our four bedroom house might have been a three bedroom house.
The boys and I were still in Chicago and my husband had driven out a month earlier to begin his new job. He was living in an apartment (where we would be joining him for 3 months until the house was ready).
He would come by the construction site regularly to check on the status. One day he discovered that instead of the fourth bedroom they had framed a sitting room off the master bedroom.
Fortunately for us, the mistake was caught in time, and corrected!
On this trip to SLO we found ourselves busy every day, but were able to see both of our sons and their girlfriends, which was the real bonus.
Although it was exciting to finally have something to see, walking through rooms framed in wood without walls, ceilings, or a roof overhead is, for me, tough to envision as the place I’ll be calling home in just a few months.
(this is especially difficult since there are no models, and we have only had plans and computer generated videos to go by) BOLD, aren’t we???
I may have mentioned this before but this move will represent a huge lifestyle change for us.
Our home is being built in SLO’s charming downtown (no more suburbs!) and (lots more walking) and we are truly downsizing to about half the size of our present beloved home without the magnificent gardens we created (novices, though we were…fortunately we had plenty of years to learn).
I will have a large deck, a small patio, and a tiny balcony that I intend to put all my energy into as soon as we are unpacked.
It is a totally different type of architecture than we are used to here on the east coast called contemporary craftsman with lots of windows and a 10 foot ceiling.
We even think we will have some beautiful mountain views from a few windows. That’s one of the things we discovered at the walk through!
We will not be visiting again until we move so that is when we will see our completed home for the first time.
The day after I got home two of my cousins arrived from St. Louis for a weekend at my sister’s home in PA (all planned previous to my knowing the exact timing of our trip to SLO…oops!)
We crammed a lot into a few days. I had dinner for them upon their arrival…appetizers on the patio until it got too chilly, and a meal of grilled Chicken Teryaki (I do the marinating, my husband does the grilling)
and Vermont Potato Salad.
For dessert…Chocolate Cake
The next morning we drove to my sister’s, went out to a great restaurant for dinner, and the next day we took a trip to the Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA, a half hour outside of Philadelphia.
I hope to post photos I took there on a future post. It was the most beautiful day, and the 48 acres were lush with all the spring flowering plants and trees. Thanks to our cousin from the midwest for suggesting it.
Back at home I have been busy with packing, etc and have had little time to cook or shop. In fact I have been trying to use up my overloaded pantry. It seems I can’t resist a sale and whenever my favorite pasta was featured I would stock up.
With several boxes of orzo on the shelf I decided to make a quick dinner of Pan Fried Chicken Breasts with Orzo.
I usually reserve the boneless breasts in the freezer for chicken parmigiana or chicken stir fries, but with very few veggies for a stir fry and very little time for a parmigiana I decided to quickly marinate the chicken breasts Greek style with salt, pepper, lemon juice , minced fresh garlic and some oregano.
While that was marinating I made the orzo, risotto style like I love to do.
After sauteeing some chopped onion and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes I add the dried orzo (about 1 to 1 and ½ cups ) to the saucepan until it begins to brown.
To that add some warmed chicken stock slowly in increments as if you were making risotto, and stir continually on medium to medium high heat. As the liquid evaporates, keep adding more and stirring so it doesn’t stick.
Repeat this until you have added about 3 cups liquid. When most of the liquid is absorbed, season with kosher salt and pepper, and some dried or fresh thyme. At this point reduce it to low, and cover with a lid for another 10 minutes, checking to make sure it is not sticking. When done, turn the heat off and keep warm til ready to serve.
To finish the chicken breasts, heat a large skillet with a bit of olive oil and butter to medium high. When hot, add the chicken breasts and allow to cook on one side til browned. Turn and cook until browned on the other side.
Add a small amount of chicken stock to the pan and the juice of half a lemon. When done, cover pan and let sit for a few minutes.
Serve the chicken breast over a bed of orzo.
Garnish with fresh lemon and oregano.