Honey, What’s For Dinner?

Bloggers get a bad rap for droning on and on about what they ate for breakfast that morning. I want to put that complaint to rest by telling you what I made for dinner tonight.
What?
No. This is totally different!
Anyhoo, I had some leftover slices of grilled eggplant in the refrigerator. But it wasn’t quite enough to make a side dish for each of us. Off to the pantry where I spotted a small jar of marinated artichoke hearts (always a big hit with Wonder Hubby). But I didn’t want to start tossing things together to make an improvised ratatouille. I wanted those yummy, smoky eggplant slices whole. So I finally settled on laying the eggplant into two individual casserole dishes. Then I drained and arranged the artichoke hearts around the eggplant. Color was needed. Back to the pantry where I found roasted red peppers. I sliced some up and added them. Done. Into the countertop convection oven.

Main dish? When in doubt: chicken. I quickly ground some salt and pepper onto a large chicken breast and pan seared it in a little olive oil. Something else - rice? pasta? I had some shiitake mushrooms Chuck had brought home from the local farmers' market. Maybe add them to some rice... Wait a minute. That reminds me of mushroom risotto, which I happened to have a bag of in the freezer, direct from Trader Joe’s. Done. But the chicken was starting to look a little boring compared to the side dishes. So I removed the chicken and deglazed the pan with a bit of balsamic vinegar and some sherry. Better. I sliced the chicken. I added a dollop of light sour cream to the vinegar and sherry mixture, stirred it gently and returned the sliced chicken to the pan. Covered, I let the chicken stay warm on super low heat in the improvised sauce. Ding! Out came the risotto from the microwave. I spooned some into two gratin dishes, then popped those into the oven along with the eggplant dishes to finish off.

Wine? Sure, why not? (Is there a "No" answer to that question?) Chuck arrived to pour a not too sweet Gewurztraminer from Washington state, as I ladled the chicken onto the mushroom risotto. Dinner was served.

Now wasn’t that better than cereal and milk?