Oh my darling, oh my darling Clementine

There's a new kid on the block. Clementines have hit our local markets and these tiny little tangerine/ mandarins are packed full of juicy flavor and there's more. The big bonus is that you don't have to enter into seed spitting contests with your significant other because they're almost always seedless although I did find one in the dozen I used yesterday ...one seed. Imagine that.

I came across this recipe for Chicken Paillards with Clementine Salsa in Bon Appetit and figured it would be cool to have it on a spinach salad, so that's what we did. Course I made an assumption that cooking a "cool" dinner would be a requirement with the temperature heating up but darned if I wasn't wrong. The weatherman can't decide whether to bring on the heat or freeze us out - as I write this it is only 49 degrees and I'm contemplating thieving Max's blanket from him.

Regardless, this salad worked well last night because the big guy's in the throws of exam week and between giving exams for his 3 classes and covering for another instructor with her two, dinner's going to be late every night this week so I gotta' make it something worth coming home to. Dinner last night certainly made the grade! Download Chicken Paillards With Clementine Salsa on Spinach

I loaded up a bunch of crispy fresh spinach with some sweet onion, dried cranberries and toasted walnuts, topped it with chicken tenders that I pounded out a bit so they'd cook evenly and finished with a glaze made from reduced clementine juice. I served the salsa as the salad dressing - it's chock a block full of clementines, tomatoes, red onion, fresh basil, cilantro, a serrano chile from our back yard and some fresh lime juice. It's an interesting combination - at least that's what the big guy said when he saw the citrus with tomatoes and onion but when he tasted it he was singing a different tune.

In fact, we were both singing it when we checked out the scale this morning. Hopefully those pounds are "lost and gone forever ...oh my darling Clementine."

Comments

[Mags]

Now you've got me singing the song. I'll have driven Dave nuts with it by the time the night's over...LOL

Lovely and tasty looking salad June. I'd scarf on that in a new york minute.

[pam]

This look wonderful! I know what you mean about the weather. It has been cold for days and now today it's almost 90!

[June]

Mags - ha,ha - isn't that the way with some tunes. I've been singing it too, if you can call what I do singing.

Pam - it's a soup day here today. Only 75 and I'm wearing fleece. There's something wrong with this picture! LOL

[Nanan]

Beautiful - simply beautiful - and looks so tasty! I want some, please!

[June]

Thank you Lea and imagine we made Tastespotting! BONUS!!!