Okay…with all this talk about salmonella poisoning, and the fact that I don’t think that the CDC, the FDA, the WHO (no…not Daltrey and company), nor the CIA has a clue as to what is causing it, I think eating produce now flies in the face of danger. First it’s the tomatoes, Roma’s and red plum not Heirloom or grape. Really? How can they be sure? Did they test EVERY tomato? What is really puzzling is that now that a sobering 1000th person has been poisoned, the bug origin could be jalapeños. Wait, what? Oh yeah, and we should stay away from serranos too, because the CDC doesn’t think that people know how to tell the difference between a serrano and a jalapeño. I personally believe that Al Gore is the origin of the salmonella outbreak.

What are we supposed to do? I love tomatoes, and right now they are in abundance. And what of chilies? After the 1500th person is poisoned, will the CDC then say they think the origin is green peppers, or like last time, lettuce? I really think they are guessing. Oh yeah, cilantro is on the hit list as well. But when will we actually know something definitive? In the mean time, I hope to stay healthy. I’d hate to eat something, get sick, and then the food police tell me “oh yeah, you didn’t know that ice cream was on the list? You shoulda got that memo!” I really hate to be scared of my food.

I digress…what I really meant to tell you all about was this delicious grilled chicken with artichoke panzanella. I was inspired by this recipe from this month’s Food and Wine magazine. Their’s was roasted, I grilled. I am sure my version tasted better because, in the words of my wife, “everything tastes better off the grill!” And indeed it does.

For this dish, I marinated the chicken for 2 days and that proved to be a most excellentish idea! Man those flavors were bold! Ginger, cayenne, cilantro, lemon!

For the panzanella, my first by the way, I used a nine grain Tuscan loaf.

I grilled the tomatoes with the artichokes…

Then I grilled the bread, diced the bread and put it all together for a really good looking, and downright tasty, side dish.

All in all, this came together nicely. Besides a little prep work, this was an easy dish to execute.

The recipe is here and I highly recommend it whether you’re scared of your food or not.