Living the Justopian Life

Barter — the New Way to Pay

Today was an exciting day. No, nothing related to work — to the place that I go to toil in order to win a paycheck. It was exciting for other reasons, although one of which is also financially driven. Here’s the story. I have a friend from work who has far more energy than I. She has more than 1 job. More than 2, actually. One of her many talents is that she is a massage therapist. Hmmm… is that really the correct term? I think so, but I also think she’s a physical therapist. But anyway, massage is what we’re going to talk about tonight.

One day she brought up the idea of “Food for Massage.” I wasn’t following. I thought she was talking about food for her clients and then I caught on — she was talking about me supplying her with food for her and her husband and in return, I would get a free paid for with food, massage. It was an offer I could not refuse. So today I headed into the kitchen as soon as I woke up and made a scrumptious dinner of the following:

• Chicken Milanesa Napolitana (Chicken Parmesan)
• Ensalada Completa (A big, fat salad including hearts of palm, fennel, and the usual suspects)
• Pasta with Pesto
• Peach Crisp

What could be bad, right? I packed up the food, headed to the studio, had a great massage and they hopefully, had a great dinner.

Now I just need to find more barter deals. I could use a bathroom renovation. Any contractors out there? How about someone to clean house for me 2 times a month?

Oh no! Wait! I need help with my new website — FRANtasticfood.com! Anyone out there want to trade food for a logo and website design?

Making croutons is easy. Cube bread (day old or more — but not stale — is just fine). Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper and if you like, minced garlic or garlic powder, mix it all around and toast in the oven until crisp.

Making a peach crisp is a breeze. Sometimes I use berries, other time nectarines, and when I’m feeling really frisky I’ll combine all three — peaches, nectarines and berries. Ooooh, that’s so good!

I mixed the fruit with a couple of tablespoons of sugar and about 2 tablespoons of mango margarita mix. Ok, so I happen to have a stash in my pantry because I like to use it with sparkling water as a juice drink, but if you don’t have margarita mix, orange juice will work just fine. And if your peaches are really juicy, you don’t need any additional liquid at all. The last addition is a thickener. I used white flour today, but tapioca or rice flour will work as well. You just don’t want to add too much or you will have a sticky, gluey mess. I like to taste my creations, and it was killing me not to be able to see how this little crisp came out today, but it looked good from what I saw when I pulled it out of the oven — bubbles around the edge and all.

The crisp requires butter — kind of a lot of butter, flour and sugar. I use brown sugar. Measurements? I don’t know! I do it by eye. I’m going to say 4 tablespoons butter, 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup flour. You can use a pastry cutter, your fingers or if you’re not too heavy-handed, a food processor. I used my fingers today. What you want is, well, a crumbly mixture. If you over work it you’re on your way to making a regular pastry dough and it would be a pretty heavy lump of crust. Not a pie crust that would win any medals at the county fair. As a matter of fact, you might be escorted out of the fair grounds with bowed head — in shame.

If things don’t seem to be going well, add more butter or flour and sugar as necessary. It’s ok to taste it as you go to make sure you have enough (not too much) sugar.

Sprinkle the crumble on liberally and cook in a 375º oven until brown and bubbling.

Next up — marinara sauce. Make a soffritto. A soffritto in this case is carrots, onion and celery seed. Celery seed?? Right. I am a master at making do with what I have in the kitchen and I had no celery, so I turned to the underused jar of celery seed. I keep it in the pantry for a couple of things; pickled shrimp and cole slaw. I don’t make these things often, so it always seems to be there waiting for me and it came in very handy today. It’s strong, so I added just a couple of pinches to give the soffritto the hint of celery.

Cook the soffritto until it’s very tender. It will take time. Don’t use a high heat. I started on medium high and quickly reduced to low so that the vegetables did not brown. I added minced garlic at the end for flavor. I am careful because when garlic gets too dark it becomes bitter and that would change the whole flavor of the sauce.

There, that’s how you want it.

Anyone that taught the classes I took in Italy told us that fresh tomatoes just aren’t necessary when making a sauce. San Marzano tomatoes are a must though. So, since my first trip to Tuscany in 1998, I’ve been using canned tomatoes and the discount I get at the store makes these Solania tomatoes crazy affordable.

I buy whole tomatoes and then get in there with my hands to break them up. I could put them in the food processor, but I love the texture of “mashed tomatoes.” Well really, “squished tomatoes.” This is NOT an attractive shot. My hand reminds me of an elephant! But I wanted you to see that I truly mean that I get in there and squish away.

I added salt, pepper, oregano and parsley. That is a simple marinara which works well for this dish.

This is not absolutely necessary, but pounding the chicken breasts helps to cook them quickly enough so that when the milanesa is in the oven, the cheese doesn’t burn because it’s taking to long. Oh! And please. If you have one of those mallets with spikes in it, get rid of it — NOW! Please! Alright, if you’re going to make chicken fried steak you can use it. I don’t know if I’ve ever had it, but I know it looks like someone has mauled it with spikes, so I guess that’s what you have to do. If you are a chicken fried steak person, you can have the spiky mallet, but keep it in the back of the drawer, ok??

Home made bread crumbs from a French baguette. I try to keep a bag of these in the freezer. It’s time to make more — I used the last bag today.

Then it’s time to get to the breading process. I dredge in flour, dip in lightly beaten egg and then in the bread crumbs.

The flour helps the egg stick to the chicken which is the “glue” that keeps the bread crumbs from falling off. Ok, yeah, that was obvious.

Next, the chicken goes into a hot pan with olive oil and butter. No one said this was going to be low calorie, ok?!

I like to put an “herby surprise” on top of the chicken, like these basil leaves. I spoon sauce on the bottom of the pan first so that the chicken is not lonely.

A generous portion of sauce goes on top of the breasts

I used a mixture of fresh mozzarella and a mixture of 4 Italian cheeses from the dairy section of the market.

Cook at 375º until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbling around the edges.

The salad? You don’t need any help here. It’s whatever you like. I was in the mood for just about everything. The only thing missing was avocado. Oh, and cheese. And maybe a few strawberries. I used field greens I picked up at the farmer’s market yesterday mixed with romaine hearts. I added sliced hearts of palm, slices of baby bell peppers (yellow and red), thinly sliced radishes, finely sliced fennel and onion, grape tomatoes and chick peas.

And finally, I put together a bowl of pasta with pesto. The basil I picked up at the market was organic, just like the field greens and it all smelled so good it I couldn’t resist. The ingredients are few:

• Fresh Basil
• Parmesano Reggiano
• Garlic
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Ricotta Cheese
• Toasted Pine Nuts

Get out that food processor and go to town! It takes a fair amount of olive oil. I’d say I easily used 3/4 of a cup. I used just one dollop of ricotta cheese. It helps tame the garlic and basil. And the two little chunks of parmesan you see are no longer. I used both and a bit of the larger chunk as well.

And that’s it, my friends. A wonderful meal. It’s not difficult to make and the results are so worth it.

Now, I need to go see if there’s someone around here that wants to get in on this bartering concept. Chocolate dipped macaroons for a logo anyone?

Filed under: Food, How To