Destination: South by Southwest

I am not sure how to classify tonight's dinner, but I think the label above is correct. I took a recipe from What to Cook & How to Cook It for Cajun chicken with pineapple salsa, and changed it up only slightly. The pineapple salsa was very simple: fresh pineapple, red onion, red bell pepper, cilantro and fresh lime juice with salt to taste. I love the colors of the salsa. And I have a 'fession to make. I love salsa, so much so that sometime when I buy salsa, I eat it straight out of the jar, no chips between us. Just salsita and I.

Instead of mixing up the spice mixture for the chicken from the recipe, I discovered blackened seasoning in my pantry. I completely forgot that I bought it a few months back to use with seafood. I covered the chicken breasts with the seasoning, and then "grilled" them on a lightly oiled grill pan, which is becoming my new kitchen hero. The chicken was really tasty, although it did have a little kick that I had to rinse some seasoning off it so my girl would eat some of it.

As a neutral accompaniment to these flavor packed dishes, I served brown basmati rice which I seasoned with a teaspon of canola oil, salt, some fresh chopped cilantro and about two teaspoons of lime juice. If you have never tried brown basmati rice, you really should because it tastes amazing. It has that nutty flavor that brown rice has, but then each grain is in for itself: no mixing, no squashing and definitely no sticking.

In conclusion, our tummies were very happy and very full, and now I am again hungry because I mainly filled up on salsa. And I already brushed my teeth, so any late snack is out. Only about 8.5 hours until breakfast...