pre-gaming for finals week.

Currently, school is a cartoon tidal wave frozen in time waiting to come crashing down.
Which means that I've been cooking my ass off, because its the only thing i will allow myself to do guilt-free: No matter how busy, I still have to eat. Which means I still have to cook. Which makes cooking my only waking escape (sleeps a pretty ok escape too). I have of course, made fairly elaborate dinners the past three nights, two of which worth mentioning.

Monday: Chicken in White Wine Tomato sauce
I had chicken and prosciutto in the fridge, so I searched the two ingredients at epicurious. This was the first hit i got. I kinda botched it up from the original recipe; i really only used the " flavor profile" of the dish and not the actual recipe. (yea, thats right, I said flavor profile.) Regardless, it was completely delicious.

1 lb or so of chicken ( used pre-cut breast tenders)
4 slices or so of prosciutto, diced. (how do you dice paper thin meat? I dunno either... don't think, just do it. and watch your fingers.)
3-6 cloves of garlic thinly sliced * I accidentally chopped it. sliced sounds nice tho.
1 tbs of fresh rosemary (I think you're catching on that I don't measure anything and don't think you should either)
1 cup ish dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup crushed tomatoes with puree (artists note: if you have whole tomatoes, crush them in your hand (like one of those stress balls) for some cheap, edible therapy)

In a large frying pan or shallow pot, brown the chicken. ( I rubbed in some Tj's lemon pepper first).
Remove the chicken from the pot.
Add the the prosciutto, garlic and rosemary over medium low heat (especially important if you have an electric stove- make sure the heat is low enough that you don't burn the garlic- remove the pan from the heat when you add the garlic if necessary. burned garlic is foul.) Sautee, stirring, about a minute.
Then add your liquids: wine, then chicken broth, then tomatoes. Scrape up any stuck brown bits. Bring to boil. Let thicken considerably. (5-10 minutes).
Then, add the chicken back in to the pot: nestle it back in to the liquid. Turn down to a simmer.
Some where in the middle of that process, Start some simple polenta (or, as Alex says, here in 'merrica, we call it grits)
Boil 3/4 cup skim milk with 3/4 cup water.
Once it comes to a boil, add one cup cornmeal-- SLOWLY, stirring constantly so it doesn't lump. If you want add some dried herbs to combat blandness: basil, oregano, etc.
continue to boil/simmer until it thickens enough to stick/stay on a fork. (you do want to eat it don't you?)

Serve a nice glop of polenta with a few chicken tenders and a heaping spoonful of sauce.