Day 77: Devil Skillet Chicken, Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Salad

Although tonight's meal was delicious, it wasn't exactly a fun experience to eat with the family.  It was one of those nights where I had to actually put some of my discipline philosophies about table manners into action, which is never fun, but necessary.

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."  Proverbs 22:6

For more of my thoughts on children, mealtime, and table manners, see Day 68.  My goal is not to embarrass my daughter or speak of her disobedience on such a public forum, so I won't go into details about our dinnertime.  I will simply say that we had a busy and fun afternoon (lunch at "Five Guys" and frozen yogurt at "Orange Leaf" plus a lot of outside play) and she missed out on her nap.  Her father and I let her down a cup of "Hi-C" (full of things you should "never" give your child and we probably won't do it again) and we suffered the consequences.  But, what goes up, must come down, right?  Abby was dismissed from the table early and I read her a story and put her to bed.  But besides those things, dinner was great!  Here are my recipes:

Devil Skillet Chicken
6-8 pieces of chicken legs/thighs (bone-in, skin-on)
2-3 TB dijon mustard
1-2 TB freshly chopped rosemary
1-2 tsp dried oregano
1-2 tsp red pepper flakes
olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine

Heat a cast-iron skillet with some olive oil over medium-high heat.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place in the skillet, skin-side down.  Cook for about 5 minutes.  Turn the chicken to cook 5 minutes on the other side.  (You may want to cook them longer depending on how hot your skillet is/how brown the skin gets.)  Mix the mustard, rosemary, oregano, and red pepper flakes together.  Spread over the skin of the chicken pieces.  Remove the skillet from the heat for a minute.  Pour the white wine into the skillet and place in a 400* oven for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through.  Serve with a pasta salad to counter the heat of the chicken.  Crusty bread is always a great option, too!

Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Salad
3/4 lb pasta (cork-screw or penne, or your choice)
1 jar of sun-dried tomatoes, drained
8 oz feta cheese
fresh chopped parsley
fresh chopped oregano (or dried)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 TB white wine vinegar
option: black olives  (These would be a great addition to this salad if you like them.  Randy does and I don't so I don't put them into the salad, but I always buy them for Randy to add to his on his plate.)

Cook the pasta according to package instructions.  Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking.  Chop the sun-dried tomatoes and add them to the pasta.  Crumble and add the feta.  Put in the parsley and oregano and garlic.  Drizzle in the olive oil and white wine vinegar.  Mix together well to combine.  Serve cold or at room temperature.