Andea Immer - Love this book

Andrea Immer’s book, Everyday Dining with Wine has been dog-eared and stained over the years it’s been a member of the top shelf.




That surely is a sign of use…all the water and wine marks, a few food smears adorning the pages. Andrea states that “a roast chicken is like a blank canvas for wine…the perfect backdrop to carry off any color and flavor palette (and palate), from sparkling wine to the biggest red.”


Rosemary and Sweet Garlic Roast Chicken is probably the favorite recipe in this book. And let me tell you….that page is stained.

Jamie Oliver has a similar recipe using the almost the same ingredients (he doesn’t use garlic, Andrea doesn’t use sage) and we love that one too.

You’ll need …………

1 head of roasted garlic

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

Salt

Fresh ground pepper

A pinch of sugar

One 4 pound chicken, washed and patted dry (I used a 5 pound roasting hen)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter


Preheat oven to 425 F. Combine garlic, olive oil, rosemary, a teaspoon each salt and pepper, and sugar in a food processor. I used my little smokin’ mini Cuisinart.
Process into a paste.



Yep, it still works after the guava paste cracked the blade attachment!


Gently loosen the skin covering the chicken breast, you know the little tunnels that you can gently fit a finger in at the top of the breast? Work some of the paste under the skin so you have a little pocket of flavor.



Spread the remaining paste around the chicken, extra on the legs and thighs. Tie those legs together.

Place those 2 tablespoons of butter in the roasting pan and place that in the hot oven for about 30 seconds. Set the chicken in the roasting pan on its side and roast for 15 minutes. Carefully turn it to the other side and let roast 15 minutes there. Then you put the chicken on its back and roast until skin is crisp and brown.


Use a thermometer if you like to be sure the internal temperature is 165 degrees and cooked through. There is nothing more disappointing than having your side dishes ready, your tummy rumbling after being seduced by the smell of garlic and butter…then finding your chicken is bloody, uncooked…..needing more cook time. Blah!


It is recommended you allow the chicken to sit for 10 minutes before carving. Usually we can do that while the table gets set, the sides are moved to the serving table…..



Wine recommendations are French red Bordeaux or a California Cabernet Sauvignon.



There are many good recipes in this book but this one is a sure fav. The front of the book has a course-by-course recipe listing – breaking it down by Soups and Salads, Vegetables, Eggs and Cheese, Poultry and Meat and much more.



Each chapter is devoted to a particular type of wine ( One starts you with Riesling and Aromatic Wines) and details the type of grapes, tastes associated with the wines, recipes that blend well with those wines – both for cooking and for enjoying with the meal.



Another good cookbook that I was lucky enough to grab for a few bucks at a consignment shop.

White Mac and Cheese

Before I start talking about the mac and cheese I'd like to give a shout out to Kim at Stirring the Pot.
I hope you are feeling better!! You just need a nice Nigella dish prepared for you...that is just what you need :-)

Okay...on to the dish..........

For Magazine Monday we prepared chicken Parmesan with pasta as the side. Good combo if may say so myself.
Since the pasta was consumed, except a small portion that was snipped into soup, I whipped up a side of mac and cheese to go with the leftover chicken Parmesan.


Having announced that I'd be preparing this for the side dish, I was committed to it and I had my mouth set for it. Ooey, gooey cheese...nice warmer-upper, comfort food theme for a cold evening. Then I discover...we had but a scant amount of cheddar cheese in the fridge. Grrrrr....

Fortunately, there was an excessive amount of mozzarella and Fontina cheese.



Mix the flour into the melted butter



You'll add two cups of milk....

Using shredded mozzarella and thick slices of fontina, gently stir into milky mixture.....



Pour over the cooked elbow macaroni noodles......



It was a hit. I think I prefer the cheddar but this was a great change of pace.



Went well with the chicken leftovers too.



We have a Christmas luncheon scheduled at work and I am bringing....mac and cheese....but it will be a vat of the cheddar variety :-0

Magazine Monday

Chicken Parmesan has always been an old standby meal for us. It tastes good, it doesn’t require too much planning and most of the ingredients are generally on hand in the pantry and/or freezer.

This particular one is from an old magazine (Readers Digest, believe it or not) and it’s a healthier version as its baked, not fried.



Instead of heating up that frying pan grab a casserole dish large enough to accommodate 3 or 4 chicken breasts and a bit of sauce.



You’ll need the following…………



3 large chicken boneless breast

1 beaten egg

¾ cup or so of Italian bread crumbs

1 large jar of pasta sauce or about 2 cups of homemade sauce

1 ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Linguine, either boxed or fresh (I like the fresh Buitoni)


Line up your ingredients.........




Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dip chicken I egg, the in breadcrumbs.

Place chicken in a baking dish, bake 20 to 30 minutes (depending on the thickness of the chicken breast).



Pour sauce over chicken, top with cheeses and bake another 10 minutes.



The last part is the perfect amount of time and temperature because we needed to pop a loaf of Le Petit Francais
the oven too.

It bakes at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?



Served with Buitoni fresh linguine and a Pinot Noir. Alas, our local package store did not have a Chianti but the pinot blended quite nicely.



This is from a 2006 issue of Reader’s Digest. Definitely a keeper as it’s economical, super easy and fast to get on the table.

Guava Pastry....thanks to Pepperidge Farms...yummm

The generous folks at Pepperidge Farms and Foodbuzz (a lovely new partnership) very kindly sent me a certificate for free puff pastry. Free. That’s right……..being a featured publisher has its perks.

When I brought the puff pastry home I immediately made another chicken, bacon and mushroom pie which I had written about here. I used just the one sheet.



Now…… the other sheet of puff pastry was calling out to be used for something new…(new to me anyway), and something just a bit out of the ordinary….

My SIL Barb visited during Thanksgiving and suggested I make guava turnovers. Have you ever had guava? Oh. My. I had not had any before last evening when I made a big pastry with it. Love it!



I planned on turnovers but after sharing a bottle of wine with steamed shrimp (don’t judge…I said I shared) I went the easy route. No triangles.

So, before dinner I got the following ready for prep:


1 large egg

About ½ tablespoon of water

6 ounces of softened cream cheese

1 tablespoon sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

5 ounces guava paste (about 2/3 cup)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 sheet thawed puff pastry sheet


Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Step One - OK….you are supposed to beat the egg with a fork and then put 1 ½ TBSP egg in separate bowl with ½ TBSP water.. Lightly beat and make egg wash.



Here is what I did - Beat egg and add water. I didn’t leave any of the egg minus the water aside for later. Will that make a difference you ask…wait for it!


Step Two - If you followed step one correctly then put remaining egg in food processor with cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Puree until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl.


Here is what I did – Took the beaten egg and water and put in food processor with cream cheese, sugar, vanilla (free hand poured so probably more than ¼ teaspoon). Pureed until smooth. Transferred to a small bowl.


Step Three – Puree guava paste with lemon juice in cleaned processor until smooth.



I cleaned the processor and I did not cut myself on the wicked sharp blades. Good on me, huh?

While I DID follow step three to the letter, here is an interesting note for those of you with a mini-processor such as I have.



Guava paste is not as pliable as one might think. I think I smelled smoke! It whirled and whirled and a strained sound issued forth.…then the bowl would unseat itself off the processor and jar to a stop. I’d lock it back into place and pulsed again.

It did finally make a smooth paste but I am not sure if the rocking about didn’t cause the bottom of the blade attachment to crack. Just slightly…but still……

Ok, back to baking the rectangle non-turnovers……….

Put a baking sheet in the preheated oven to warm up for about 5 minutes.

Roll out the puff pastry on a floured surface. I did not use flour, rebelliously rolling the pastry out without benefit of flour and you know what? It didn’t stick. It was perfect!



I placed the rolled out pastry on the baking sheet and poured the cream cheese mixture out evenly along the pastry. If you had followed step one then your cream cheese wouldn’t have been as liquidy. The cream cheese starts slowly rolling toward the sides. No problem.



Plop spoonfuls of guava paste atop the cream cheese. Now the cream cheese mixture is definitely coming out the ends of the pastry! Quickly fold the flaps of the puff pastry and seal. Now fold up the ends to capture the escaping cream cheese.



I scored the top of the pastry with a knife, gently, just enough to make some nice looking slices after it baked.

If you followed step one then you will have a small amount of the egg wash mixture left to brush on the enclosed pastry. I just used a small amount of water at that point.

Bake 25 minutes, then cook on a rack before cutting.



Was this good? Oh… yes…this was amazingly good. It was browned properly. It was flaky. In spite of my slightly inebriated happy mindset in the beginning of this endeavor…..it came out so well and looked bakery quality.



Content with a dessert we’d never made before, just the right amount of sweetness, the correct blend of flaky sweet pastry dough. And it was relatively easy.



If you try it please let me know what you think. I’m sure you could substitute another fruit for the guava if you are not a fan.

Cheers!

Randomness and “Fast” Food

Do you ever have such a day where nothing in the fridge looks appealing, leftovers had been polished off, you’ve had chicken for the umpteenth time in a row (so that is clearly out) and there were just enough errands to run after work that….well, you need “fast food” but not fast food like Burger King or that lot.

My son brought this home...but that wasn't going to cut it .....



We had but three criteria for our dinner.

We wanted a quick prep meal, a light meal and we wanted wine. After leaving an unfulfilling day at work (for me anyway), swinging by the Toyota dealership to get the car, we had to bust it to the veterinarian’s office before they closed for the day to get our pups.

The shibas were treated to spa day where they are bathed, nails clipped and we benefit from the lack of….uhh…stink-butt syndrome. That is the best way I can describe it and if you have dogs….you know what I mean. They were silky, clean, happy and tired shiba inus.



Doug walked Aja and Kobe around Publix market while I went in to grab dinner. Publix markets will steam seafood free of charge and they will add a seasoning to it if you so desire. They have garlic, lemon pepper, Cajun, sea salt and Old Bay available.

I walk immediately back to seafood department and order a pound and a quarter of sweet pink shrimp (which happened to be on sale for $5.99 a pound) and Old Bay seasoning.

Seafood guy pops this in the steamer and in the 4 minutes it takes for him to cook our dinner – I have retrieved a bag of Le Petit Francais baguettes, a box of Clementines,



a box of lo mein from the ethnic food aisle,



a bottle of Alice White because it’s on sale (and this Chardonnay is always quaffable ).



So, dinner is basically done…..the shrimp is cooked. I popped that lo mein the microwave and loaf of bread in the oven. Peeled two clementines, got the wine out of the fridge and we were set. A bit of Fontina cheese for afterwards..............



Relaxation…………………



Tell me, are you rushing around for the Christmas holiday? Stressed at work? Tired of the cold...of daylight savings time ? I hope all is well for you and life is good.

The theme at I Heart Cooking Club this week is.... Domestic Goddess

Join me over at IHCC for the Domestic Goddess theme this week. Nigella is the epitome of such a definition …she makes all of her meals seem so easy to throw together. This one actually is very easy. But I’m the only one who likes it (deep sigh)……



Lazy Loaf…just the name says it all. I’ll tell you up front, I like it but I wouldn’t necessarily make it again. Not unless I added something else. Doug does not like it…it isn’t offensive, it’s just too bland.


You will need the following..........

2 ¾ cups bread flour

2 cups oaty unsugared muesli (do NOT use granola)

2 ½ teaspoons or 1 package rapid-ride or instant yeast

1 teaspoon table salt

1 cup 2% milk

1 cup water



Mix flour, muesli, yeast and salt in a bowl.



Pour in the milk and water, and then stir to mix. It will be thick…very thick.



Transfer to a greased loaf pan. Put in a cold oven, turning it immediately to 225 degrees. Leave at this temperature for 45 minutes.



After 45 minutes, turn temp up to 350 and leave for 1 hour. It should be golden brown and done by then. Slip it out of the pan and let cool. This is incredibly dense bread.

Spreading the bread with a good quality strawberry preserves was very tasty.



From Nigella Express, Quick, Quick Slow section, Page 131