Food for the Childless: Grilled Chicken with Stone Fruit Chutney, Savory Summer Salad, Pasta with Asparagus

I have a couple of dear friends whom I share the circumstance of finding ourselves near the middle of our lives, all for different reasons, without children. While our peers are shuttling kids to and from soccer practice, balancing kid friendly dinner menus, packing up lunches, and wiping snotty noses, we are free to contemplate more leisurely quandaries of life, "What's for lunch?"

Didn't I make being free from the shackles of parenthood sound terribly enticing? I am leaving out the hugs, the bedtime prayers, the joy on little faces when they reflect the love you show them. I know that all of the mom's that read this would give anything for one afternoon to live the freedom of a life without something crusty on their person somewhere....almost anything.

Though none of us have chosen this particular freedom, we have come to embrace it. We embrace it by coming together without the burden of having to think of a way to fill a conversation gap between discussions on the prices of diapers and the benefits of a morning nap versus an afternoon nap. Instead we talk about.... FOOD! We talk about where we want to eat, what we want to eat, what we want to create, or try, or what flavors we think sing together. Occasionally we get the beautiful occasion to cook together.

We recently had one of these opportunities. We flew by the seat of our pants and let creativity and the seasons availability dictate our menu. I think that we managed a beautiful symphony of flavor. If food were therapy this was the cure.

Our menu can loosely be defined as:

Grilled Chicken with stone fruit chipotle chutney, Savory Summer Fruit Salad, and pasta for when you forgot the Parm.

Grilled Chicken

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts. Salt and Pepper. Throw on a Medium High grill until juices run clear.

Stone fruit Chipotle Chutney

2 peaches stoned and diced

2 plumbs stoned and diced

3 Tb. of Raspberry Fruit Spread (or any fruit spread you have lying around)

1 Tb. of chipotle in adobo sauce (available in the ethnic or Mexican food isle. You only need the sauce not the actually chipotle)

1/3 cup water

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until fruit is broken down and it lightly coats the back of a spoon. Will thicken as it cools.

Serve Chutney on top or alongside Grilled Chicken

Savory Summer Fruit Salad

While this recipe using only fruit its in no way a dessert or sweet dish since all of the fruits are usually used as vegetables. I like the irony.

A

pint of cherry, grape, or heirloom cherry tomatoes quartered (we used what the garden yielded as this tastes better than almost any food on the planet)

1/2 to 1 Whole cucumber seeded and peeled (we didn't peel and wished later that we had)

About 10 large Kalamata Olives halved

4 oz. Fresh Mozzarella diced into bite sized pieces

a bunch Fresh Basil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Dressing:

4 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Tablesppons Cider or Balsamic Vinegar (you will get a completely different taste depending on what you choose, we used what we had)

1 clove garlic pressed or diced fine

Salt and Pepper to taste

Toss "fruit" together and dress until evenly and lightly coated. You will most likely have left over dressing. Let sit at room temp for up to an hour or in the fridge for up to a day.

Pasta for When you Forgot the Parm:

The original recipe called for parmesean cheese but some miscommunication lead to us not having any. What do you don in such a situation? Add more bacon.

1 LB spaghetti or linguini/fettuccini cooked to

1 TB olive oil

4 strips of thick cut bacon cut into 1/2 inch strips or diced

1 TB of butter

1 Lb of fresh asparagus (I wish on all that is sprinkly with fairy dust that it was unnecessary to use the word fresh to describe asparagus, as I feel that all canned asparagus should be thrown into a bottomless pit) trimmed of their woody ends, and cut into thirds or bite sized pieces.

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup reserved pasta liquid

2 cloves garlic crushed

A few springs of fresh Basil chiffonade

Boil pasta to al dente and drain. Before draining scoop up a cup of the cooking liquid and set aside.

Render bacon in olive oil on medium heat until bacon starts to crisp. Raise heat to medium high and add asparagus and butter and garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes and add heavy cream. When cream bubbles add cooked and drained pasta. Stir to incorporate and add about half of the reserved pasta liquid and return to a boil. Lower heat and as the pan becomes dry add more and more of the liquid until the entire cup as been added. When pasta is coated and no more liquid remains in pan sprinkle with Basil and season with Salt and Pepper.

I do hope that you use these recipes as a jumping off point to create your own seasonal dinner with friends that you gather to share with.