Passion in the Kitchen or The Day I Met the Just Bare Chicken People

A week or so ago I got a call from my friend Heidi, telling me that she took the liberty of signing me up for a cooking class at Dierbergs, our local grocery store. Great, count me in! All I knew was that subject would be chicken. Okay, I can always use some inspiration in the chicken department.

What I love about these cooking classes is that they take into account my generally lazy attitude and eagerness to have other people do the work. Awesomeness (as my daughter Rachael would say).

I also love to see people who know what they are doing cook 4 main courses in about 2 hours.  For real??? Yup. 

Enter Lisa Golden Schroeder from the Just Bare Chicken company. (My husband and I like to call it bare naked chicken because we think it's funny), but don't be confused, it's Just Bare Chicken. 

So anyway, she explained a little bit about the philosophy of the company, how they network with small family farms and actually have a tracking number on each package of chicken, so you know exactly where your food comes from (how cool is that?) Then she got to work.

She started off with Garlic Chicken and Toasted Couscous Salad which she made with orzo pasta.  Lisa made it look so easy and really, it was!  Anyway how can you go wrong with boneless chicken, garlic, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives and greens?  The dressing was made using lemon juice and  

zest, prepared basil pesto, olive oil and white wine or tarragon vinegar... hungry yet?  Lisa followed this show stopper with Korean Barbecued Chicken, Osso Bucco-style Chicken Legs, and Roasted Citrus Chicken with Olives. YUM!!! Oh yes, we got to try everything and it was all terrific.

I was the last one out- no surprise there- and I mentioned that I actually buy their brand- because I'm always on the lookout for better choices, and we got talking... Which led to... an interview on the Just Bare blog.  I also got to share my friend Nancy Doyle's Chicken Piccata recipe!

I hope I tempted you to check out the Just Bare Chicken website and blog, I really enjoyed meeting Lisa Golden Schroeder, a fellow Mom of three growing boys and food expert.  For recipes galore and the interview with yours truly go here: http://www.justbarechicken.com/blog/

Enjoy, and stay healthy!