Delicioso!!

OK. So I didn't cook a Giada dish tonight (see previous entry), but I did cook and I was going through blog withdrawal, and so here we are! My intention was to make the Hungry Girl Crazy Good Coconut Chicken Taco. I didn't have any coconut, so I knew that wasn't going to be part of it (the recipe said to use coconut syrup anyway, but who has that?). It also wanted me to use pineapple salsa which I also didn't have. Instead, I took my excellent sweet corn salsa from the cider mill and mixed it with a cup of pineapple. Same thing right?

Bottom line, I ended up completely reinventing the recipe, but kept it to a simple five WW points (woohoo!). I started by cooking a clove of chopped garlic with half a chopped onion in my pan on the new double burner (let's hear it for the double burner, it truly is fabulous). I then added half a chopped red pepper. I seasoned all of this with some salt and some chili powder (heat is definitely necessary in Mexican cooking).

To the veggies I added a chopped chicken tender that was also seasoned with some salt and chili powder. For future reference, I might add more chili powder to the raw meat or maybe treat it more like a rub, or even make it into a marinade. Thankfully the other flavors of the dish were able to flavor the chicken enough. As all of this was cooking, I mixed some chopped pineapple with two tablespoons of the corn salsa and let them sit. Just as the chicken was done cooking, I threw in the pineapple salsa and turned off the heat. I wanted the flavors to emulsify but not actually cook the salsa (plus, I LOVE fruit that's been roasted or grilled in some way so this was a plus).

As I let it cool a bit, I put my tortilla onto a plate and sprinkled some Gorgonzola cheese in the middle. I then put the hot mixture on top of that and attempted to roll up the burrito. No such luck. The filling was far too big for the tortilla. I suppose this is something I will need to work on in the future, though it really didn't take away from the dish at all. Anything that fell out of the burrito I scooped up with my fork :)

The dish came out VERY well. The pineapple, corn salsa, and cooked onions were all sweet in flavor and it was balanced out by the chili powder. The sharpness of the Gorgonzola also helped to cut the sweetness. I'm glad I added the salsa to the pan at the end because it actually helped to deglaze it and pick up all the flavor from the bottom of the pan. It ended up making a nice chili powder sauce. Not too shabby for throwing it all together without much of a plan!

It's days like today that I wish I was on the show Chopped on Food Network. I think it would be so cool to be given this random set of ingredients and try to make an edible dish out of them. Granted, I wouldn't want to work as fast as they have to or feel that crazy pressure, but I would love to have these random things in front of me and somehow make them work. Yes, I am a food nerd to the max. This, I will admit.

It's about halfway through the week and I'm trying to survive without my Everyday Italian!! I plan to start again this coming Sunday (possibly Saturday if I'm feeling adventurous) so please check back then for another dessert!!

P.S. Obviously I did not include a picture of my meal tonight, but check out the pretty view outside my window! Don't you love fall?