Chicken with Leeks and Green Olives!  You will be shocked at how easy this is to make and how amazing it tastes!  The great thing about this recipe is that you can prep it in about 30 minutes and then pop it in the oven to cook while you do other things.  Don’t forget to make sure you have all the ingredients.

Two Important tips about this recipe (and cooking in general):  First leeks!  Besides being incredibly healthy for you and filled with lots of important nutrients, many people consider leeks to be more savory than onions and we agree!  They have a more delicate flavor than onions and they add a subtle sweetness to this dish.  One thing to remember about leeks is that they need to be soaked in water for several minutes to eliminate any sand or dirt.  Click out our recipe for more details.
Searing Meats Needs Patience!  Patience is important for a cook.  To properly sear or brown meats, you leave them alone in the pan.  You don’t move them around, you don’t keep checking on them.  You let them brown according to the time recommended for each cut of meat or poultry.  This gives the meat a slight crispness on the outside while keeping the meat juicy and moist on the inside.

For me, not peeking at the meat while it was browning, was hard to do.  I had this uncontrollable urge to keep looking to make sure the meat was searing when in fact I was interrupting the searing process.  So don’t peek; be patient.  Set your stove temperature as directed, follow the time recommendations, and let your meet brown.  If being patient is not your strong suit, set your timer and step away from the stove and keep yourself busy by setting the table, or chopping ingredients – the result will be well worth it!

Every time we serve this dish, our family and friends rave about the flavors and about how moist the chicken is – even the people who don’t typically eat chicken thighs.   They love this recipe! 

 Here’s a great, unique, fun appetizer that disappears as fast as you put it out!  Our sausage and pesto roll is, of course, easy to make and so delicious.  We used to serve this as the main course, but then realized if we cut it into smaller pieces, it makes the best appetizer ever!  

An Important Tip About the Dough: You can of course make your own dough for this recipe.  It is so much easier than you would think.  All you need is a little flour, yeast, salt, water and you are good to go.  However, if you are in a real hurry, Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets are our go to alternative.  It’s easy to find in local stores and is the closest to homemade dough that we have found.

Did I tell you that Linda and I teach cooking classes in the Bay Area?  Sometimes we teach to groups as small as 8 and as big as 30.  We served the sausage and pesto roll as an appetizer at one of recent classes and it was as if our guests had never had anything like it.  With every bite, the rave reviews just kept coming:  “Wow!  this is amazing!”  “What is in this, this is the best ever!” “Can I have just one more piece (even though they had already had three pieces).”   Back to our classes.  At the end of every cooking class, the group sits down together at the community table and enjoys the meal that they have prepared.  Every group is different and they all share great stories that make us laugh, cry and we walk away from the table feeling inspired and connected to each other is ways that are sometimes hard to explain.

During one of our cooking classes, we asked the group to come ready to share something they were good at.  During the meal, we went around the table to tell our stories.  One person shared the loving story of his grandma making him chicken soup when he was a little boy and he was sick, and another shared how she had learned the art of making their famous family meatballs in the basement of their New York apartment in a winter storm.  But probably the most magical moment was when one of our guests brought out his ukulele and started playing.  We were all mesmerized.  He played songs that  most of us knew and we all just spontaneously started singing along with him.  We ended up singing for almost an hour, not wanting the night to end.  But alas, everyone needed to go home!

This cooking class led to another great idea.  For my next big family get together I am going to have everyone come ready to share something that they are good at.  While of course, we know each other really well, when 22 get together, sometimes, it can be a  crazy loud time and we can’t really catch up on what everyone has been up to.  Who knows what surprises we’ll discovery as everyone shares their latest “thing that you are good at.”  It may be our next new recipe!