Maybe a bit sneaky

Things I have learned: my grandfather says that he doesn't like onions or garlic, but will inhale food laced with both of these things (in no small quantity) as long as they aren't pointed out. In fact, he will ask for seconds and wonder why there wasn't more of the (garlic and onion flavored) sauce. Good to know. Mind you, I've been doing this to people for years. If I've cooked for you with any frequency and you have some extremely common ingredient that you say you don't like (but are not allergic to), I've fed it to you. In my defense, no one has ever noticed or complained. In fact, there's often an abundance of yummy noises.

Of course, this makes me a huge hypocrite as I would bring about a swift end to anyone trying to slip fish into my dinner. Though who knows? Maybe someone already has.

Back to my original point: dinner was tasty and considered edible by several different palate persuasions. It's just a simple chicken dish with a carrot orzo, but it really went fantastically and is a good family meal.

Recipes!

Rosemary Chicken with Summer Tomatoes:

2 pounds ripe tomatoes
2 tbsp. rosemary
6 garlic cloves, smashed
5 chicken breasts
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/4 cup fresh basil, torn or chiffonade
salt/pepper

1) Remove stem of tomatoes, scoop out core of tomatoes and place in a fine mesh strainer. Squeeze all of the juice from the tomato cores and reserve. Cut tomato halves into large chunks and set aside.

2) In deep pan or dutch oven, combine garlic, oil and rosemary. Simmer on low heat for several minutes to flavor the oil without browning the garlic.

3) Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper and add to the oil, turning the heat to medium and browning the chicken on both sides (about 4-5 min per side). You want the chicken mostly cooked through. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside.

4) Add tomatoes, tomato juice and vinegar to the pan. Bring to a simmer and stir, scraping any browned bits off of the bottom of the pan.

5) Return chicken to the pan and simmer until chicken is cooked through and sauce has reached desired consistency, but at least 5 minutes. (If your sauce is too runny, you may remove chicken once cooked and simmer the sauce as long as necessary.)

6) Stir in basil and season as necessary, allow to cook for another minute or two and serve.

Carrot Orzo:

I'll be honest, this one came straight out of the pages of Southern Living, so I'm just going to link you to that recipe... We (Jenna and I) added spinach and forgot to pick up chives at the store, but other than that we pretty much stuck to it.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1990020