A rudimentary kitchen; figs; strawberry salad

Our first home-cooked meal in Eastern Tennessee was, I suppose, about as good as it could be given the conditions. The conditions: a supposedly fully furnished townhouse that would actually best be described as "barely furnished," with four non-stick pans, a basic Pyrex set, a few plastic cooking utensils, no hot pads or mitts, no knives, no cutting board.

We've been eating out for about the past month since we weren't allowed to use the house while it was on the market, so we wanted something healthy. Melanie found a strawberry salad in Good Housekeeping, and we kicked it up a few notches. The original recipe was just a side, but we added some sauteed chicken and a few other bits (green onions, some goat cheese, a better dressing) to make it a meal. The dressing turned out pretty chunky and the greens were cut too big, but in my defense it's remarkably difficult to mash garlic with a pocket knife on a cutting board made of cardboard covered with plastic wrap. Check out the recipe.

We also had picked up a small wheel of goat's milk "brie" from Earth Fare (my new favorite supermarket) this weekend, and had some figs we brought on the trip, so I sliced a few wedges of the cheese, laid half a fig on top of each, and drizzled with honey. A glass of James Arthur Vineyards Edelweiss went nicely with it.

Strawberry salad with chicken

For the chicken:

3 skinless boneless thighs or 2 skinless boneless breasts
1 T coarse mustard
2 T olive oil
1 T white wine vinegar
1/2 T fresh or 1/2 t dried tarragon
Salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing:

2 T balsamic vinegar
1 T course mustard
2 T olive oil
1 T honey
1 garlic clove, mashed with coarse salt
Pepper to taste

For the salad:

1 bunch spinach
1 bunch red-leaf lettuce
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 c. toasted walnuts
3/4 c. sliced strawberries
2 oz. Goat cheese (a fresh chevre would be ideal)

Whisk the marinade ingredients together and let the chicken marinate for 2-4 hours. Grill or saute over medium heat. Let rest (even until partially cooled) and slice.

Assemble the salad. Whisk the dressing ingredients together and serve over the salad. Serves two people sick of fast food fat and calorie content but accustomed to fast food portion sizes.