I miss my tastebuds

The worst part of my cold has come today. I am totally stuffed up: can't smell, can't hardly taste. Have you ever lost your sense of smell? It is truly discouraging. Like all good things, I don't realize how good it is until it's gone. It should be back by tomorrow I hope.
It's just so weird to be putting on my favorite lotion, Love Spell, and not being able to smell A THING! It really smelled like perfectly unscented lotion. Then there's my minty Burts Bees lip gloss. I still feel a tingle, but not mint. My favorite dish soap, Seventh Generation Lavender Scent, was utterly plain. My mom got me a lavender pillow last week when she visited, and it has quite a strong scent. I was crushing all the little buds and couldn't smell anything! I'm really looking forward to smelling lavender again, I love that scent.
Along with not smelling my taste is severely affected. I can distinguish between sweet and salty but that's about it. Which is too bad because I've actually been cooking lately. I made some spinach ricotta Calzones yesterday. Jason said they were delicious, but I thought they were pretty bland. Today I made Chicken Tetrazinni. It was okay I guess. Jason liked it, so it must have been better than I could taste. The good news was I couldn't taste my broccoli so I got that down no problem.
Now, maybe this would be a good time for me to stop eating, or eat totally healthy food, but I of course still feel hungry. And food still has texture that can be appealing. It was sad, even though I could hardly taste my dinner, the pasta was the best part. I guess we love carbs for that great bite they have.
Anywho, for those of you who still have smell and taste buds, I'll post a few of the recipes I've made this last week.


First, Bruschetta. This is probably my #1 favorite food! It's so simple:
small loaf good baguette bread
soft butter
fresh tomatoes, preferably a mixture, even more preferably heirloom tomatoes
fresh basil--small to medium handful
1-2 garlic cloves
Parmesan cheese

Slice, butter, and lightly toast bread.
finely chop tomatoes (1-2 large, or mixture of several smaller), drain juices and seeds
chop basil finely
add finely chopped garlic
mix in Parmesan cheese
top onto bread and toast or broil again.

I could eat this every day!




Next, Chicken Picatta
This is a fairly simple dish, delicious, and nice for company or something special. Very good over buttered angel hair pasta!

2 large lemons
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, split in half horizontally, creating 8 thin breasts
salt and pepper
1/4 cup flour
4 tbs. oil
1 small shallot, minced, or 1 small garlic clove, minced
1 Cup chicken stock or canned broth
2 tbs. drained small capers
3 tbs unsalted butter
2 tbs. minced fresh parsley leaves.

Halve one lemon pole to pole. Trim ends from one half and cut crosswise into thin slices; set aside. Juice remaining half and whole lemon to obtains 1/4 C. juice; reserve.

Sprinkle both sides of cutlets with salt and pepper. Coat with flour.

Heat pan over medium high heat until hot; add 2 Tbs. oil. Saute half of the cutlets, without moving them, until lightly browned on first side, 2-3 minutes. Turned cutlets and saute other side. Remove and transfer to warm oven (200 degrees). Repeat with remaining 2 Tbs. oil and cutlets.

Add shallot or garlic to now empty skillet and return to medium heat. Saute for a few seconds until fragrant. Add stock, heat to high, and scrape bottom of skillet for the brown bits. Simmer until liquid reduces to about 1/3 cup, about 4 minutes. Add lemon juice, lemon slices and capers and simmer about 1 minutes. Remove pan from heat and swirl in butter until it melts and thickens sauce (mmmmm); swirl in parsley. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve immediately. Serves 4-6.




And lastly, something sweet for fall days
Molasses cookies
1 stick butter +1/4 C. canola oil
1/4 C. light molasses
1 C. sugar
1 large egg
2 C. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cloves

Melt butter and oil over low heat. Remove from heat and beat in molasses and 1 c. sugar until blended. Whisk in egg. With spoon, stir in flour and remaining ingredients. Transfer dough to medium bowl and freeze 15 minutes until firm. roll into ball and roll in sugar. Cook 10 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet at 375.



PS, Check out this cooking sight, I love her pictures and explanations
http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/