Chicken Roll-ups and French Epicurean Peas

Tonight’s dinner didn’t turn out to be what I planned. I had chicken breasts thawed and ready to go for another of Ruth’s recipes, and after I had them smashed thin, I realized I’d left the recipe at my office. So, I had to improvise. I went through my recipes, and found a chicken roll-up recipe that looked pretty good, and since I had the ingredients, decided to give it a try.

Chicken Roll-ups



2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 3-oz pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 green onions, thinly sliced
dash t garlic powder
2 slices bacon, cut in half

Place each chicken breast half on a sheet of waxed paper. Flatten to 1/4" thickness using a meat mallet. Combine cream cheese, green onions, and garlic powder; mix well. Shape mixture into 2 equal-size balls; place one in center of each chicken breast half. Fold long sides of chicken over filling. Then fold ends of chicken over,and secure with wooden pick. Top each piece of chicken with 2 bacon slices. Place in a lightly greased small baking dish. Bake at 350˚ for 50 to 60 minutes. 2 Servings.

The next dilemma was the side dish. With Ruth’s recipe, I was going to do some rice, but wanted something different with this one. So, out came a can of peas and my mother’s French Epicurean Peas recipe. I grew up on this one. It was Mom’s way of stretching peas for a family of eight. It was also quite tasty. I’ve always been under the impression that this was a recipe that belonged only to Mom and her family, but I just did a google search and it has 176 citations. Most are for “Daryl Johnston’s French Epicurean Peas.” Who’s Daryl Johnston and why does he have my Mom’s recipe?! And I just realized while I was typing the reicpe, I forgot the mushrooms! Oh well, it tasted good without them.

French Epicurean Peas



4 slices bacon, diced
1 T diced onion
1 T flour
1 (17-oz) can peas, drained
1 c milk
1 4-oz can mushrooms, drained
salt and pepper

Partially fry bacon. Add onion and cook until golden. Drain some of the grease, leaving about 1 tablespoon. Add flour and blend. Add peas and milk. Cook until thick. Add mushrooms. Cook and stir until thick and bubbly. Makes 6 Servings

Since Wednesday’s negotiations, I need to bake some bread. Tomorrow night is the school board meeting, and I’ll be there instead of home(on my 25th anniversary!), I needed to bake tonight. I had finally found frozen cranberries at the Whole Foods Market in Santa Monica, so I decided to make Whole Wheat Double Cranberry Bread. They should like that.

I just realized, too, that since tomorrow night’s a school board meeting, that means I’ll miss ARF/5-a Day night at Sweetnicks . But it’s my 25th anniversary, too, (and I have to spend the evening at a board meeting....arrgghh!) and DH and I are going to lunch at a nice restaurant. I’ll try to eat some good veggies there.

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