Arroz Con Cheating

So for my birthday my mother purchased some seasonings and things from Williams Sonoma for me. One of which was an Arroz con Pollo Starter. Since I had a wonderful friend visiting from Charleston, South Carolina for the weekend, I decided to cook dinner one night for her and a few amazing friends.

The issue was, it was over 100 degrees outside and my kitchen is far from our AC Unit. So I decided to cheat so I could avoid the hot kitchen as much as possible. So after a long visit at my local farmer's market, I brought (among other things) some serious fruit, a wonderful small loaf of zucchini chocolate chip bread, and some goat cheese. This way, I could have a couple cold dishes, and one hot dish that wouldn't require me to be standing in the kitchen for a long period of time.

Thus creating the night's menu.
Dinner:
- Salad
- Arroz Con Pollo
- Fresh fruit & zucchini chocolate chip bread for dessert

Round One: Salad

The salad was somewhat basic, made up of organic romaine lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, and red onions. I added one medallion of goat cheese which seemed more than enough for this salad. I also made a light oil/garlic dressing. It is very garlicky, so if you prefer a less pungent garlic flavor, feel free to cut the amount of garlic in half.

Salad Dressing:
-1/4th cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves of minced garlic
- 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt
- 2 teaspoons for Penzey's Tuscan Sunset dressingg

Directions:
- put all ingredients in a microwaveable bowl (yes, I said it)
- microwave on medium for 20-30 seconds, to ensure that all of the flavors will marry
- let it cool to room temperature

Now for about 2 cups of salad, I put about 2 teaspoons of dressing on top. This makes the salad very light, yet flavorful.

Now I have a lot of dressing left over, which is fine because I will be using it later for a different version of bruschetta.


Round Two: Arroz Con Pollo (Williams Sonoma Style)

For the first time in easily two years, I followed (almost) every direction for this recipe. I also decided to shred the chicken instead of serve it in pieces on top of the rice.

 I did it according to oven directions which were hard to find (they were on the top of the can, but you had to peel them off)
Directions:
 -Preheat oven to 350
-Take one 3-4lb chicken, cut up into eight peices (well, i used 4 pounds of split chicken breasts)
- brown in 1tbsp olive oil then remove from pan.
-Add 1 cup of long grain rice, cook for two minutes on medium high.
- Add Arroz Con Pollo starter , 1.5 cups of chicken broth
- cook for two minutes
- Add chicken
- place in oven for 20-30 minutes, then add 2 cups of frozen peas (didn't actually do that either)
- cook for another 15 minutes
- serve immediately (or, do it my way, which was to peel chicken off the bones, remove skin, and shred the chicken. Then serve)

It was really good, but it was one of those meals where I felt as if I could have made the same starter with a can of tomatoes and extra garlic. And a lot less oil. Seriously Williams Sonoma, gourmet does not mean I have to feel Ginormous afterwards.

Round Three: Fruit Salad & Zucchini Bread
Honestly, I cut all the fruit first because I like my fruit salad freezing cold. I just added things I found in my fridge and in a couple cans to make the salad as colorful as possible.
Directions:
- 1/4th Watermelon, cut from rind and cut in 1 inch pieces
- 1 can organic pineapples, drained (Greedy Cook's Tip: keep the juice for yourself!)
- 1 can organic mandarin oranges, drained (keep the juice for a delicious, well, juice!)
- 1/2 honeydew, cut from rind and cut in one inch pieces
- 1/4th cup of fresh mixed berries (strawberries and blueberries were in mine)

I don't hate on canned fruit, Especially those Mandarin Oranges!

Without the canned fruit, my salad would look like this

Bam! Now that is some serious color! And deliciousness, I might add.

So mix all the ingredients and keep cold until ready to serve. Once everyone finished a small fruit salad bowl, I came out for one more treat:

Yes it was delicious. I always buy a small loaf of bread from the farmer's market because, well, I am horrible at baking. I have so many stories of how I begin to bake something and it will go terrible wrong. Cooking is an art, and Baking is a science. And oh my how I am horrible at science.





Hope you enjoyed my incredibly long post! And as for Williams Sonoma, you get three stars. Five for flavor, but negative two for having half of your "starter" made of oil.