One Failed Dinner and Another That Almost Was...

So this week I've had two dinners that have failed, but I salvaged one of them. The first dish went like this...

Roasted Lemon-Garlic Chicken with Vegetables

First I sliced up a lemon...


And laid out the slices in a single layer in a baking pan that was sprayed with cooking spray...

Then I sliced a shallot and sprinkled that over the lemons.

Next I mixed 3 tablespoons of olive oil, juice of one lemon, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and some freshly ground pepper in a large bowl...


Toss about 1/3 pound of green beans and 1/2 pound of new potatoes cut into chunks in the oil mixture...
...and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon, I scooped the veggies out and layered them on the lemon slices. Then I put the chicken breasts into the oil mixture and tossed them to coat, and then arranged them on the veggies.


Then drizzle the whole dish with the remaining oil mixture.

Roast the dish in a 450 degree oven for about 45-50 minutes.


Served over parmesan couscous...

This was my failed dish. Surprised, right? It sure looks good and sounds good? Problem is the sliced lemons. The lemons disintegrate and meld with the veggies. The flavor is horribly bitter and...lemony. Very strong! Now if I eliminate the sliced lemons? Then I think that this is a keeper. So that will be the route I take next time. This is the second time I've used sliced lemons in a dish, and both times have had this result. So, in the future, NO SLICED LEMONS in a baking dish.

So the next night I tried a little pasta dish...

Angel Hair with Lemon and Creamy Spinach

So this dish started out with thin spaghetti (I like it better than angel hair) in boiling water.


Prepare the pasta via the normal cooking instructions.

Meanwhile I whisked about 3/4 cup of greek yogurt and 1/2 tablespoon of flour together in a small bowl.

Then I heated a little olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat (note this error). That should have been medium-low heat.

Then I tossed in 1 teaspoon of garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes and cooked this until fragrant...


Then, per the recipe instructions, I added the yogurt mixture to the pan. The problem was (1) I had added too much oil to the pan to start (just look at that pic above), and (2) I had set the pan too high on medium-high heat. What happens when you mix yogurt into really hot oil?


It curdles.

......

Yeah. Nice.

Sooooo, I had to, of course, throw that away. So now what? Well, I wound up turning the heat down to medium and then doing a variation on this recipe. I looked in the frig and found some cream cheese. So I once again cooked up a little garlic and red pepper flakes, and then put a little cream cheese (maybe 1/3 of a cup) in the pan. Stir it around until the cream cheese begins to melt and mix with the garlic.

I mixed this up and then I took some torn spinach and added this to the cooking mixture, handful by handful...


Cook the spinach until it wilts. Then add in a couple tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and salt and pepper.

Toss in the pasta and toss to coat. Serve the pasta on a plate with a sprinkle of fresh Parmesan and some chopped parsley. I served it up with a little salad with chopped pear and walnuts and a little raspberry dressing.



Yum! This was good! I had leftovers today. This is a keeper, just as I did it with cream cheese, but it may be just as good if prepared using the original yogurt recipe, as long as the pan is heated to medium-low only.

So two dinners failed, but I pulled the second one out of the fire. I was very proud of myself for saving it! In the past, I could never have adjusted a meal so quickly and just played it by ear. I'm getting much better at this whole thing, and it only took me 20 years!