And another Monday night

So here I am at Caribou in our old neighborhood working on this grant that is due on Thursday. It is actually going pretty well, but I needed to take a break. And while I really do like sitting in coffee houses sipping my java (well, iced tea right now - but Mango!) sometimes the neighboring conversations are a bit much. Tonight there is a young college girl (I can tell because she is toting a college bag, college notebook, wearing her college's sweatshirt and wearing pajama bottoms) sitting next to me. She had a very long conversation on her cell phone with some friend....

Snippets of the conversation (which was kind of hard to ignore) included why her father expected so much of her - just because he paid for her flights to visit them and her college tuition. And, my personal favorite - how some "friend" on facebook was really old - "but not that old, I suppose... I mean my cousin is 26 and this guy is 22."

WHOA!!!!!

Talk about making ME feel aged...

SHEESH!!!! If 22 is "old, but not too old" - what about us poor blokes who are in their late thirties with 2 kids and a great job!!!!!

Well anyway - I always knew I had reached that tipping point when there really was a generation gap when the converstion about favorite movies focused on "American Pie" - and I thought they were talking about Mrs. Callendars.

Onto bigger and better things I suppose - like what I made for dinner last night.

I was really tired of pasta and rice (A also contracted this terrible stomach flu from her older brother so we were in bland city most of the week). At the same time, I didn't want to go too over the top - so chicken was the plan...

Here's what I made:

Simple Grilled Chicken with Olive Oil, Lemon and Tarragon

3 chicken breasts (I pounded them out to make them even - but not too thin - and you don't really need to do this if you don't want to)
2 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp crushed dried tarragon (I used some that was hanging from our kitchen window - dried from this summer's herb garden)
pinch of salt

1. Put chicken breasts in baggie (I pounded them out in the baggie, so it was just easier this way - less mess...more "sanitary" - whatever...)

2. Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, tarragon and salt (and pepper - forgot about that).

3. Pour marinade into baggie and smoosh around with chicken breasts. (You will need to "reflatten" the chicken breasts after this - but that isn't too much trouble - do it in the baggie so you don't get things too messy).

4. Heat up a grill pan with a small bit of olive oil.

(Or you could heat up an outside grill - it was 20 below with the windchill in Chicago - so grill pan had to do...)

5. Place chicken breasts on grill pan. Grill about 3-4 minutes on each side depending on thickness.

(This is another reason to pound out - besides releasing some tension and making your youngest daughter giggle to no end as she beats a pan and bowl with a spatual- it does reduce cooking time.)

6. Plate and serve.

I served the chicken with 2 side dishes - very simple saute of spring onions (aka scallions) and brocollini (cooked until crisp/tender in a small amount of olive oil) and a refreshing salad made of shredded green and purple cabbage (about 1/2 head of each) tossed with 2 tbsp of white balsamic vineger and 2 tbsp of olive oil along with a couple of pinches of salt - sort of very lightly "pickled cabbage" thing... Even the big guy (my almost 5 year old) loved it!

Enjoy! It is back to writing for me!