Without a doubt what I miss most about Texas is the food. Naturally, you would expect me to miss the Tex-Mex, the juicy chopped brisket, the deep fried Southern cooking, and the incomparable Mexican food. But I also miss the less expected--like la Madeleine's potato soup.
La Madeleine is a charming bistro style chain restaurant that I first encountered in Texas. Apparently, it was actually started by a Frenchman who found himself in Dallas. (Gotta feel for that guy!) As to the present day authenticity of these "French" restaurants, friends who lived in France for decades merely noted that, "They try very hard." But when you're stuck in living in Texas and unable to cross the ocean, la Madeleine lends even more variety to the already amazing regional fare.
There are few scenarios that rain on a home cook's parade like fixing dinner after an exhausting day of work. In my experience weeknight cooking has not been the hobby type of pull-every-gadget-out-and-labor-hours cooking but the I-just-got-home-and-everyone-is-hungry-NOW type of cooking. Oh, yeah. Been there, survived that.
With the back-to-school bustle underway, this herb stuffed chicken breast recipe is a great solution to quick weeknight cooking. I've only made it a handful of times, but it's so simple that I don't even use the recipe anymore. You can easily play around with different herbs and specialty goat cheeses. (I recently tried a peppadew variety on closeout at Kroger.) And if you're not up for experimenting, the recipe (click here for the original) will do just fine.
Now, is this a first class dish? No, it's not. I would love to tout this picture perfect meal otherwise, but I've been let down by the hoity toity descriptions of too many recipes to likewise disappoint (ahem, deceive) other home cooks. What I can say is that it's a great standby. It feeds hungry tummies. It uses ingredients you may already have on hand. And it can be thrown together in about 30 minutes. Oh, and since it's from Cooking Light, it's around 300 calories per serving.
