This matches with how my wife cooks. She does not do recipes and measuring cups are rough guides for ‘how much’ of anything to add.

The ‘hit it with a mallet’ part I could get behind – that sounds like fun.

Just eyeball it and have a smell.

Jesse opened the door. Paused for a beat, and shouted “Yes! It’s coming from our apartment!”

Anyway. It turned out perfect. I take back what I said before. Your recipe only assumes a certain level of kitchen competency.

I mean, it’s not really a recipe anyway. It’s missing the basic structural elements of a recipe, like quantities and preparation methods. Did you put the garlic through a press? Did you dice the onion? How much onion and garlic is best?

How much of the spinach mixture will fill a breast? How thin is too thin?

I mean, I appreciate the process you provided. It matches my cooking style well: I haven’t used a recipe unaltered in years. But still, basic guidelines are required before a recipe can be altered to suit the cook.

I’ve never made stuffed chicken before. I’ve never flattened and rolled anything in any meat before. I have no idea how to do it.

But I’d like to learn.

So a challenge: I made this using only what information you provided. I mean, I have a half a package of bacon and a chicken breast in my fridge, and Jesse will be home from the Rogers Centre soon, hungry, why not?

I probably malletted the breast too thin and it doesn’t look as nice as yours (which is probably from a lack of experience). Instead of spinach I used asparagus, and instead of Swiss I used Havarti, because that’s what I had in the fridge.

It’s in the oven, and it smells great…

I’ll let you know how it turns out.