Grilled Chicken with Rosemary Aioli

I can't stop making this sandwich. The rosemary sauce tastes like nothing i've ever had before. (Quick tip: don't substitute the rosemary for tarragon, I tried that as an alternative one time and it was pretty gross.) MAKE THIS SANDWICH!

Ingredients

For the Chicken Club
½ pound boneless skinless chicken breast
4 slices of turkey bacon
4 slices whole wheat bread or sourdough (your choice)
Iceberg lettuce to cover two sandwiches
2 thick slices fresh tomato

For the Rosemary Aioli
1 semi-hard boiled egg (the original recipe calls for a coddled egg and I tried that and failed, but a semi-hard boiled egg tastes just as good)
1 large clove garlic crushed
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
2 teaspoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
1/3 cup olive oil (or less depending on your love of olive oil)

Instructions

1. Cut the chicken into two equal portions and pound each out to about ¼ inch thick. Put it aside. 
2. Boil that one egg until it's semi-hard (if the water is already boiling, I put the egg in for 7-8 minutes then take it out and put it aside).
3. Cook bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels and set aside.
4. To prepare the aioli, place the egg, crushed garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, lemon juice and rosemary in a food processor and pulse to combine. With the machine running, slowly dribble in oil until the mixture resembles the consistency of mayonnaise. Use more or less oil as needed. But also, if you don't have a food processor, this can be done by hand and it's just as good (you just have to finely chop that garlic and rosemary).
5. Grill the chicken on both sides until cooked through. 
6. After you toast your bread, rub a piece of raw garlic against each piece of bread.
7. To assemble, place a piece of toast on your cutting board and smear with the aioli. Then lay a cooked chicken breast portion over the aioli and put the bacon, lettuce and tomato on top. Smear more aioli on the other piece of bread. If you can get the nice long rosemary stems, you can use them to skewer your sandwich, if not long tooth picks will work just fine.
8. If you have a slow cooker, you could also just cook the chicken in there on low for eight hours or high for four hours.

This recipe was adapted slightly from A Family Feast.

“It’s not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It’s our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.”

— L.R. Knost

A Cat & Bjork

Dog House Mat

This post will really only apply to you if you have a dog (and a dog house) in your home. And if you do? Please put a warm rug outside your pet's little home. The one that I put outside Baby Dog's house is just a carpeted-like bathroom mat that I got at IKEA for this purpose and she f-ing loves it. I swear to God she even lounges on it.

Humans wear slippers on cold floors, right? Well, unfortunately dogs don't wear slippers. (If I were running things in this world, though, that would be the first thing I'd change.) Their tiny feet must get so cold and they can't complain about it, so I'd imagine they must silently curse us constantly. Do you like waking up and walking onto a cold floor? I expect not. 

IKEA's New Sit/Stand Desk

A few months ago, Nathan read an article in Time that he kept mentioning to me - it was about how we all need to stand more and sit less. Anyway, it made some valid points. And while I'm sitting as I type this, I do think we might all be able to benefit from products/ideas like this one below. 

The Mindy Project - Season Three!

Mindy is finally back tomorrow (September 16th).

“If you burn toast, throw it away. Infact don’t eat burnt things in general. So terrible for your health.”

— #lizadvice

Fury of the Day - Servers Who Post Bad Tips Online

You can go right to hell if you've ever:

1. Posted a receipt showing a bad tip online.

2. Criticized a stranger's tip decision.

When that whole LeSean McCoy tipping story came out, I lost my mind for a minute. Not because he's on my fantasy football team, but because WE DON'T FUCKING KNOW THIS MAN and he should be able to tip or not tip whatever the fuck he wants since it's HIS MONEY. It's no one's fucking business what a person tips! 

We act as though waiters are the lowest forms of employment and we need to make sure they're tipped appropriately for the rest of time, no matter what the service is like. What the hell is with that? How did that become the norm?

I understand that a lot of waiters live off of their tips and obviously that's part of the problem. There's an article I love that goes into this more that I completely agree with and you can find here. 

It makes me so happy to know that a lot of these assholes posting these receipts online get fired. So fucking happy.

You can see more posts like this on my latest newsletter.

Sweet & Sour Tilapia

I swear to God this tastes like halibut. And it is out-of-this-world delicious. I always thought that tilapia was supposed to be gross, so who the hell knew this was possible? This recipe BEGS you to get more into fish, I swear.

Ingredients

4 Tilapia filets
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cups flour
1 eggs
1/4 cup water 

The Sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2/3 cup honey
1/4 cup cider vinegar 
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons soy sauce 
1 tablespoon corn starch

Instructions

"Mix together the flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. In another shallow dish beat the eggs and water. Dip the filets in the egg wash, then the flour, then the egg again, and finally the flour again. Fry in a small amount of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until both sides are browned and the fish flakes with a fork. 
Meanwhile cook the garlic and olive oil over medium high heat in a saucepan until slightly browned. Add the honey, vinegar, garlic powder, and soy sauce and whisk over the heat for a few minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is boiling. Whisk in the corn starch and cook just until desired thickness is reached. If it gets thicker than you wanted, add a little water. Pour over fried tilapia."

Recipe slightly adapted from Yammie's Noshery.