A Recent Recipe, for a change

I am here to tell you about a simple unassuming recipe I made last weekend (how's that for recent?).

Herbed chicken tenders with tomato sauce

This recipe is from Simply Recipes, a blog by Elise, who lives in California in a very nice area that I have actually visited. Her entries usually manage to cheer me no matter what the topic is- her positive and teasing tone, along with great ideas that seem both creative and easy-to-try, make her blog one of my favorites. Oh, and she's also so consistent. Something which not all of us, ahem, manage to be.

Yum-o! I even managed to construct a brand-new spatial arrangement for chicken tenders- maybe I should patent it?- it's called 'Zenga Tenders'! :-)
So, as usual I made a lot of changes. Let's see:

• 2 lbs chicken tenders (about 12 pieces) (halved the recipe, for starters)
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk* (cheated with the ol' lemon in regular milk, since, honestly, who BUYS buttermilk??)
• 1 cup bread crumbs (used panko- an improvement for every time something calls for bread crumbs)
• 2 Tbsp Italian seasoning herbs** (I didn't have al the herbs below, so I played up the thyme, rosemary, and oregano, all dried. It was still good enough that I opened the oven to check and said, "Now THAT smells Italian!" Take that whatever way you wish.)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted

Tomato Dipping Sauce

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 1 chopped garlic clove
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste (I used a T of concentrated red pepper dip to liven it up, and because it's so good)
• 1 15-ounce can of tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes (perfect! I had half of a can I needed to use up)
• 1 teaspoon salt (pinch)
• 1 teaspoon sugar (pinch)

*You can make a substitute for buttermilk by adding a tablespoon and a half of lemon juice or vinegar to 1 1/2 cups of milk and letting the mixture stand for 10 minutes. (I think I was a little impatient)
**A mixture of dried herbs often used in Italian cooking such as marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano, and basil

I followed most of the instructions after that, except for the blending of the sauce (too finicky). I ask you, WHO wants to clean out a food processor container, blade, and lid, when in exchange you could get a textured and tasty tomato dipping sauce? I think we all know the answer to that: not me!