Yes it’s true – The UnKitchen Diva went on a rather long hiatus this spring. During that time a house was sold, she went on the road for 21 days straight and moved to Maryland.  To say she was otherwise occupied would be an understatement!!  Once she got to Maryland she heard over and over again about CSA.  What is this CSA?? Apparently all over the country there are Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) projects.  You buy a share in a local farm and every week pick up fresh produce.  Everyone in her area of Maryland raved about One Straw Farm – so obviously that was the place to go.  Besides The UnKitchen Diva figured if this didn’t get her to like vegetables NOTHING will!!  After getting lost and then saved by one of the owners of the farm, she was escorted into the huge cooler.  In there were Strawberries, Lettuce, Chard, Garlic Scapes and other things she had no idea what to do with.  The UnKitchen Diva turned to the farm owner, relayed her story (probably in far to much detail) and asked for help!  This is how she ended up with Chard and Garlic Scapes in her bag of loot! Now what to do with it??  I give you Baked Chicken with Sauteed Chard and Garlic Scapes!

Baked Chicken with Sauteed Chard and Garlic Scapes

1 Chicken Breast                                   Olive Oil

1 Garlic Scape                                       Several Chard Leaves

1/2 Cup Brown Rice (precooked)              Pepper

Paprika                                                 Garlic Salt

Salt                                                       Spoonful of Butter / Margarine

1) Get the owner of the farm to tell you in step by step detail how to cook the vegetables in your bag, immediately forget it all, go online to learn it all over again…

2) Preheat oven to 350˚.  Plop a frying pan on the stove top and pour some Olive Oil in (I’d guess about a tbs. but honestly I just pour until I think –“yep that’ll do”). Measure out ½ cup of cooked brown rice, put in microwave bowl, put some tabs of butter on top and put in microwave.

3) Take one Garlic Scape (and seriously am I the only one who wants to say Snape and thinks of Harry Potter??) Chop up into ¼” pieces and put into cute little glass bowl – because where else are you going to put it??

4) Take 3-4 leaves of Chard, roll them individually length wise like your making a snake with play dough, unroll because you forgot to wash them, wash them…, re-roll. Cut them into 1” sections. Then cut sections in ½ (first time I made this I didn’t cut them in ½ and it was like trying to eat long spaghetti strands of chard – difficult at best!!). Put in cereal bowl and make sure it’s heaping over the sides.

5) Unless your super speedy your oven should be heated now. Take a square pyrex pan put a huge spoonful of butter/margarine in the bottom and stick back into oven to melt.

6) Take 3 sections of paper towels – why 3 no idea, but it must be 3 – wash hands, rinse chicken breast, get grossed out by chicken fat, put on the 3 folded sections of paper towel and wrap the towel like a burrito around the chicken to dry, wash hands again!!

7) Take pan out of oven, put on stove top – not counter…, unroll chicken from paper towel burrito, place in pan and roll in melted butter, getting butter everywhere.

8.) Sprinkle on salt, garlic salt, pepper and paprika – in that order – it’s easier to see how much you put on – trust me….

9) Stick in oven and set timer for 9 minutes.

10) Run around the house, check your email, update your Facebook status….

11) When the timer goes off turn the burner under the frying pan on to medium to medium high heat.  Take chicken out of oven, flip, sprinkle spices again, stick back in oven and reset timer for 9 minutes.

12) When oil is hot plop in the Garlic Scapes, move them around, hear the sizzle, look for some browning on the edges – about two minutes.

13) Ok this part is like magic – I was told it would do this but didn’t believe it. Dump the Chard in, mixing it up so it gets covered in hot oil. Stir a bit and then watch it shrink to ½ it’s size – seriously it’s like a Honey I Shrunk the Kids moment! Stir around making sure what’s on top gets to the bottom etc.  After about 2 minutes it looked done to me and there was 3-4 minutes left what to do? I moved it to the back of the stove and stuck a top on it – seemed like a good plan to me!

14) When the timer reaches 2 minutes press the 2 minutes express cook on your microwave to heat the rice.

15) Timer goes off take chicken out of oven and cut into cube like pieces.

16) Layer chard, then rice, leaving the chicken for the top – making it look pretty!

Viola – Baked Chicken with Chard and Garlic Scapes!!