It was a week or so ago and my daughter, Dana, mentioned to me in a phone conversation that she’d had a really, really tasty chicken dish at her sister-in-law’s home. She thought I’d like it too. A few days later Dana made it herself, and again, raved about it profusely, and the next morning she faxed me the recipe.

Now, the recipe came via Dana, via Ahnalinn, via her friend Laurie. But, after doing a tad bit of sleuthing on the internet, I found out the recipe was actually from Sunset Magazine, in 2004. Sunset does some great stuff. Maybe, in 2004, I hardly knew what panko was, so didn’t know what a great addition it is (now) to my pantry. And I likely didn’t clip out the recipe because of that.

Why do we use panko, you ask? Because when you bake with it, the crumbs stay crispy. I read just recently what it is that the Japanese producers do to make it that way (i.e., how’s it different from American or European style bread crumbs), and maybe it was the way it was torn or pulled, or something. Anyway, the panko crumbs don’t soak up fluid the way ordinary bread crumbs do. So it stays crisp. At least more crispy than the traditional.

The chicken does have three steps (coating, baking + sauce), but they’re easy steps, so don’t be dissuaded from trying this. I did slightly pound the breasts, a Phillis Carey tried and true technique that’s always worked for me – you want to make each breast about the same thickness, so the thinner parts don’t dry out. Then you dip them in a mixture of butter, Dijon and garlic. Then you dip those in a panko, parsley (actually I didn’t have any parsley so that was eliminated in mine) and grated cheese mixture, then you bake them in a terrifically hot oven. While the chicken is baking, you mix up the easy sauce – mayo, mustard, sesame oil and a tiny squirt of soy sauce. That’s it.

I served it with Brussels sprouts, a few tomato slices, and some wild and brown rice. Absolutely delicious. Moist, tender, and the crust was nice and crispy. And the sauce, well, what can I say, but it was so easy and really good. Thank you to Dana, Ahnalinn and Laurie.
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Finding a new salad dressing recipe is always a good thing in my book. I could have made one of my tried and true recipes the other day, but when there are so many other NEW ones to try, I’m easily swayed. I’m so glad I was, as I’ll be making this over and over. I love lemon juice-based dressings. And the addition of oregano was so extra good. It’s nothing difficult – I made about a quart of it because I was making a huge, HUGE salad to serve at our son Powell’s 40th birthday party. Oh, gosh, does it make me feel OLD to now have a 40-year old son. He’s successful, happy, has a darling wife and they have an adorable young baby, so life is good for him. That makes us proud.

This recipe started from one published in Gourmet, April 2006, and it was from the Signature Room at the 95th, a restaurant in Chicago. I changed the recipe a little bit – added more garlic, did my usual crush-the-garlic-with-the-salt thing that I do with several of my other salad dressings. Other than that, it’s the same recipe. You should try it.
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Only vaguely do I recall when Rice-a-Roni came on the market. Way so many years ago. 1958 to be exact. It was a time when food producers were coming up with just the beginnings of boxed mixes. Cake mixes had been around for awhile, but not much of anything else. I thought the rice mixture was quite good. Tasty for such an easy combination in a box. But then the food police told us about sodium, and I began noticing how much was in lots of the foods I purchased. There still is a lot of sodium in many prepared foods. I started avoiding those products, especially after the medical experts told us we were only supposed to consume a max of 2,000 milligrams a day. It’s easy to consume double or triple that if you eat out and/or eat pre-packaged foods. Because Rice-a-Roni was so high in sodium I stopped buying it. By the way, it’s now owned by Quaker Oats.

Beginning in the late 1960’s I started avoiding nearly all packaged and ready-made foods altogether, in favor of making things myself, adding only fresh food, fresh vegetables, my own herbs and spices. And I’ve continued to adhere to that with only a few exceptions. There are a couple of cake mixes I do use for some family favorites. I do buy an occasional frozen vegetable, some Trader Joe’s mixes (that contain no additives or preservatives). And once in awhile I buy Pillsbury biscuits because I have one recipe that is just so good and easy. I try to buy organically fed meat. Sometimes I buy organic produce. Not always, depending on the quality or freshness of it.

Having done a search for this posting today, I discovered that the combo of rice and pasta is an Armenian thing. I thought it was Italian, but no. The founders of Rice-a-Roni actually created it from something served to them by an Armenian neighbor. Thus, the rice boxed mix was born. And why they must add so much sodium to it is beyond me. But they sure enough do.

Because I always walk right past that boxed mix section in my grocery store, I’d forgotten all about the rice/noodle combination until a recipe was printed in my local food section last week. Labeled Carrie’s Rice, it is identical to hundreds of other pilaf recipes out there on the internet. Some add mushrooms, garlic, maybe some dill weed, pine nuts perhaps, but they all contain noodle-type pasta or orzo, white rice, butter, onion and chicken broth. Some recipes brown only the pasta; others brown both pasta and the rice. If you use low-sodium chicken broth, as I did, you’ll likely want to add some salt to it. And you can vary the amount of butter. Many recipes call for a full stick of butter for 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of pasta. I cut it down by half, and think that was still too much. So I’ve reduced the amount even more in the recipe below. It’s a very quick side dish. The kids will like it, and since you’re doing all the cooking of it, you know exactly what’s in it. Unadulterated rice, pasta, butter and canned broth. Maybe some onion, and/or garlic too.
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If you don’t know it already, I’m crazy about soups. I make them all four seasons of the year, although in our hottest months, I must say it doesn’t always appeal as much. This is a hearty one – for those times when you want something to fill your stomach. And if you need a really quick throw-together soup, here’s your e-ticket. I didn’t have quite all the ingredients on hand (I rarely buy frozen vegetables, let alone the “mixed vegetable” type) but I was in a hurry to get a meal on the table. My DH had invited a friend for dinner, and we were going to a concert right after dinner, so it needed to be a casual meal and one that I could prepare, serve and clean up quickly.

If you have all the mirepoix ingredients on hand (onion, celery and carrots), use that. I bought the quart-sized already-chopped one at Trader Joe’s. You render some bacon, add shallot, the mirepoix, a little flour to thicken, some thyme and ground bay leaves, some chicken broth (or fish broth, or vegetable stock . . . whatever you have), a load of milk, then add the potatoes, the vegetables (I bought an “Italian mixed vegetable” package at the grocery store that contained green beans, carrots, asparagus, red bell pepper, soybeans and corn). Cook until the potatoes are just barely cooked through, then you add the shrimp and cook just a short time. I added a splash of heavy cream and garnished with some Italian parsley. Done.

As I’m typing this it’s 95 outside, and even with the A/C on, I’m uncomfortable. Preparing hot soup over a hot stove on a hot night is not my idea of fun. But I didn’t have anything on hand in the freezer that seemed appropriate. Nor did I want to do a full-on dinner with a meat, veg and salad or something else. That seemed like way too much work. My dear friend, Linda, came up to visit (an overnight stay) the day before, and I was enjoying catching up with her, rather than doing food prep in the kitchen. Once she left I dashed to the market and bought what I needed before our other guest arrived. We were delighted to have this friend come by; it’s just that I was very pressed for time and knew I couldn’t do a very elaborate meal. Sometimes, though, those are the best.

In my view, adding bacon to almost any kind of soup just gives in a lot more character. More depth of flavor. Period. So, even though I’d not made this soup, I was sure it would be delicious. And indeed it was.
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Last Friday came and went, and I totally forgot I was going to write up a brief post about the one-year anniversary of my blog. Here’s what this blog-writing has done for me:

1. I didn’t know I was going to enjoy the writing part so much. Maybe I really am a frustrated journalist, or something. I surprise myself sometimes with how much I can write about one little recipe. Now, ask me to write something about politics, or air quality, or to write a short story, and I’d likely develop night terrors.
2. Making and eating some of my old favorites have been a real joy. You know, the comfort kind of food we made back in the 60’s and 70’s. And since my daughter Dana reads my blog every day, who grew up eating those favorites, it’s given me a fun connection with her I certainly didn’t predict! Even her husband reads my blog – for a guy who doesn’t cook much, I’m tickled that he enjoys reading my posts.
3. Lights, camera, action! The blog made me buy a light so I could photograph better. I was really unhappy with the state of my food photos until it arrived on the scene. Learning more about my camera has been a good thing. I’d never read the manual, really, so now I know how to do very close photos. I don’t stage them as well as many other food bloggers, but my photos are passable, I do believe.  [And since I posted this essay, I’ve purchased a really good DSLR camera that takes even better pictures – starting in mid-2009]
4. Making friends, albeit long-distance and via email only, with people here in the U.S. of A. and around the world has added a lovely dimension to this whole blogging business. If you haven’t read The World is Flat, blogging is just one cog in that level playing field (most of it related to world economies) we’re all a part of.
5. My husband wouldn’t be able to tease me – if I didn’t have a food blog – about how I whisk every plate of food over to the photo corner just before we sit down to eat. He loves exaggerating about how I slide a plate past his nose and then it disappears.
6. My routine – certainly if I didn’t have this blog I’d be more carefree with my morning time. I rise, dress, breakfast, blog. Some mornings there’s a detour to the gym in that routine.
7. The writing does take some time – probably more than I’m willing to admit. Time that I probably should be cleaning windows, paying bills or filing. It does take about an hour for me to write up a recipe (if it’s not already in my MasterCook file), export it to text, upload the photo, go to Picnik and manipulate it, add titles and my copyright, write the story text in LiveWriter, spellcheck it, upload it to my WordPress wysiwig editor window, fine-tune the photo, correct the posting date and time, add categories and tags, enter the trackbacks. Then I upload the PDF recipe onto FileDen, where I store all of my printable recipes, enter the link back into the story.  And then it gets posted. Whew!
8. But overlying all of it is the FUN I have doing this. If a blogger doesn’t have fun, she/he wouldn’t do it. Trust me on that one.

I do thank all of you who read my blog, near and afar. It makes my day. Since I’ve moved my blog to this new site, lots of my readers haven’t migrated over. Don’t know why. I still have more people looking at my old site. Presumably with time that will change.

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A friend, who lives on an actual small farm just a few miles from us (we mostly live in a suburb of several small cities, but we do have some lovely homes that are also zoned for livestock, horses, etc.). We actually live on county property, not city, so technically we could have chickens too. Fortunately none of our neighbors have begun raising any livestock to date.

So, this friend Fay has a bunch of chickens, and when they’re laying, she’s overwhelmed with eggs, so she gives them to everyone she knows. She dropped off a dozen lovely brown eggs for us. I hadn’t made specific plans for dinner, so I gave my DH a choice: an omelette or a big green salad (we’d had a nice lunch out that day, so wanted something lighter). He chose the former, and I concurred.

I dug around in the refrigerator for whatever I could find that lent itself well to an omelette: fresh dill, fresh mushrooms, Monterey Jack cheese, very sharp Cheddar and a bit of red onion. Perfect. Like you, I don’t generally follow a recipe for making an omelette. I mean, why? Eggs are so forgiving unless you cook them over too high a heat, or don’t use enough.

After sautéing the onion, I cooked down the mushrooms a bit (and set them aside), then whipped up the eggs, added a slurp of water to the bowl, poured it into the buttered pan. Using a spatula I gently spooned the cooking eggs toward the center, and once they were nearly cooked through I lapped the top with the mushroom mixture, the chopped fresh dill, and the grated cheese. A squirt of salt and pepper and I was nearly done. I sort of rolled one side over the other, and let it sit until the cheese melted. Once done, the omelette went onto plates and I sprinkled the top with some of Napa Style’s Citrus Rosemary Gray Salt.

For many years I’ve been a real fan of Michael Chiarello. I may have mentioned him on this blog before – early in his career he taught a few classes here in Southern California. At the time I didn’t really know much about him, but he taught a class about infused olive oils, which was really very interesting. Everyone went home with a small vial of infused oil, and I never forgot Michael Chiarello. The fact that he was (and is) a hunk of a good looking man didn’t hurt any, either! He was, at the time, just opening Tra Vigne restaurant in St. Helena (a fabulous restaurant, by the way, if you’re looking for a great meal), which consumed him for some years. The restaurant had a very cute cottage in which they sold lots of Italian inspired kitchen and house wares, and Napa Style was born. Then he got sideways with the partners, and they parted ways. Am sure there’s a long story about all that, none of which I know. He left Tra Vigne, and has gone on to great success with his mail order Napa Style business (now with physical stores here in California as well) and being a star on the Food Network.

Absolutely nothing contained in Napa Style is inexpensive, but most of the things are unique. Rarely have I seen any item in other stores, or in other catalogs. I respect him for that. I’ve ordered some things from them, and recently purchased a lovely metal side table to grace my office. But what I do buy from him are his salts. I do believe he started the flavored and herbed salt boom, and I’m grateful. They’re a cook’s epiphany. The perfect foil, the quintessential sprinkle. And I forget to use them as often as I should. I have several kinds, not just his – truffle, rosemary, lemon, and salts from the Himalayas, France, and other locales. I keep saving them for some special occasion. Now, what’s that about? Every meal is a special occasion . . . well, almost anyway. And some of Michael’s rosemary gray salt was the perfect topping for our glorious omelette.

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Several years ago I was confused about a lot of the (east) Indian cooking spices and methods, so when Suneeta Vaswani taught a class at Sur la Table, I signed up. She was a delightful teacher. Very informative and easy to understand. Among the things she made at that class, this was the standout in my book. It happens to be a favorite in her family. My recollection is that she mentioned whenever she’s off teaching classes her husband always wants this – if he can have this available for his dinner, he’s a happy man. So, it’s a staple in her freezer. I also bought her Easy Indian Cookbook, which I’ve used several times. I don’t cook Indian food very often, although my DH and I both like it very much. She’s recently published a new book, which is already going for a 2nd printing apparently.

Truly, this dish is simple. Really simple. First you get out the sauté pan you’ll use (make sure you have a lid to fit this one) and the ingredients are mixed right in the pan itself and allowed to sit for half an hour before cooking. It’s merely a mixture of nonfat yogurt, a bit of cornstarch, minced ginger, garlic, a Serrano chile pepper and salt. You roll the chicken thighs around in this thick mixture and let it sit. Just like that. Then you put the pan over the heat on the range, and begin slowly cooking the chicken. It does not get browned, just heated and slowly cooked. Then, at the end, you actually sauté some cracked peppercorns for about a minute, then those get poured into the sauce. Garnish with some cilantro and you’re done, except for spooning some of the scrumptious sauce over basmati rice. Oh, is that ever good, I’ll tell you.

The yogurt separates during the cooking process – it is a little off-putting when you see it, but the sauce comes together in the end. You can cook this without a lid, but how much sauce you get depends on how much the fluid evaporates. You’ll need to be your own judge about that. I like the sauce, but the nonfat yogurt is the thinnest, and doesn’t firm up much. That’s why I’ve been using Greek (strained, thicker) yogurt for this the last several times. I prefer it because it sticks better to the chicken (see photo), but it’s likely not traditional.
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At a recent cooking class, my friend Cherrie and I watched the chef prepare these puff appetizers. We looked at one another and whispered, no, we wouldn’t be making these things. Mind you, we hadn’t tasted them yet. Too much work, we said. Hah. One bite and we were both hooked. These little guys are nothing but small rounds of puff pastry topped with a bit of caramelized onion, some shredded gruyere and a sprinkle of fresh sage. It was the caramelizing of the onions that seemed to us to infer too much work.

Having caramelized onions many times, it’s not really all that difficult. Just takes a bit of time to get them to that honeyed succulence released from their internal cells. The onions could be made ahead, but the rest of the prep must be done just before baking. You might glance at this recipe and think the same thing we did – ah, too much work – but you’ll be missing out if you do.
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So many people discount parsnips. They look at them in the grocery stores and think they look like anemic carrots, and pass them by. But they’re actually sweeter than carrots, and have a really delicious flavor when roasted. I simply forget about using them, so was delighted to be served them recently. This recipe is quite easy – whether or not you have all the fresh herbs to add at the end or not. It’s obviously better with the compound butter, but if all you have is butter alone, make these anyway.

All that’s required is to cut up the carrots and parsnips into thin squarish matchsticks, toss them with a tad of olive oil, roast them in a hot oven for about 40 minutes, toss with butter and herbs and you’re DONE.

I liked them so much I created a dinner around them a few nights later. We were having the last dinner with our son-in-law, Todd, before he left to drive home to his family. So I decided to have a really special dinner. Here’s what I prepared:

Ribeye Steaks with Amazing Glaze – these steaks, oh my, oh so good. I’ve posted about these before, have made them several times. A marinated and grilled steak, served with the thick red wine-based reduction.

Roasted Asparagus – baked at 450 for about 8-9 minutes, tossed with olive oil, S & P

Applesauce Spice Cake with Caramel Icing – I posted about this recipe a few weeks ago. It was much enjoyed by everybody who tasted it. Very moist, wonderful caramel icing.

and then, I made the following:
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There was a time when I was a younger woman, maybe still a teen and even a young adult, when I had no interest whatsoever in the few old antique type things my parents had in their home. Like the antique cabinet that I do have (but I’ll save that story for another day), or particularly all of the mix and match fancy plates my mother used now and then. Only on holidays were the plates removed from the cupboards in the dining room to grace the table for a holiday meal. My mother must have sold one group of plates – she didn’t even remember them from my recollection – so maybe they were a figment of my imagination. They were the only dinner sized plates my mother used for these sit-down-at-the-dining-room-table special occasions. They had cut work around the outside edge, and I recall having an occasional pea or something fall through the kind of lattice-like edge.

After my paternal grandparents died, my dad saved a few things from their house – likely my mother had something to do with the plates – like a big gnarled bed and dresser, a 5-foot high mirror on a stand, the music cabinet I now have, one painting that has an interesting story (another day also). Oh yes, there was also a rather ornate silver (plated) tea service, which I finally gave away some years ago because it was completely and solidly black from improper storage. I tried numerous times to clean it up, and never was able to make a dent (ha, so to speak) in the black tarnish. If I’d paid to have it dipped, am certain it would have lost all its plate. At the time I had no place to display it. Nor funds to have it re-plated. Never, likely, would have used it. I kind of wanted to make a lamp out of the cream pitcher – thought that would be a clever use of it. But the solid black tarnish kept me from pursuing that idea. I hope somebody else was able to do something with it.

But, let’s get back to the plates. My paternal grandmother, as I have mentioned here before, enjoyed baking and regularly entertained some of her lady friends on an afternoon, for some tea, coffee and a cake of some kind. I remember looking at her loose-leaf recipe book after she passed away. It contained only desserts, all clipped from magazines. Very elaborate affairs they were, layers of cake, meringues, frosting, fillings, etc. (a King or Queen would have approved, I’m sure.) There weren’t any recipes for salads, or meat dishes. Or vegetables. She died when I was still quite young, so I don’t have many memories of her. But, what did eventually get handed down to me were all of her dessert plates.

Sometime after I reached adulthood, I began to like dishes, plates, serving pieces. That kind of thing. I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was nothing more than realizing I liked entertaining, and at the time I had nothing except my 1962 wedding dishes. It wasn’t until my parents moved into a retirement home that some of the dishes finally came to live with me. The furniture piece became mine a long time ago because it didn’t really fit with my parents’ style or décor. I never did want the huge bedroom set (a double bed . . . who sleeps in a double bed anymore? . . . we certainly don’t). The large mirror was mine for some years too, but without the stand. It got lost somewhere along the way. So it leaned onto a wall, but finally it didn’t fit with my décor either.

What brought this subject to mind was an article by Sarah B. Coffin in Martha Stewart Living magazine. It was a monthly feature called “Object Lesson,” and subtitled “dessert plates bedecked with blooms bring the fanciful forms and vibrant colors of spring right to the table.” A lovely sage-green painted wall in Martha’s house was decorated with a randomly placed group of about 18 plates. Every one different. Some color rimmed. Some medium sized, others larger. A real conglomeration of color and style. I studied the photo. None were even similar to my collection of dessert plates, but then, hers were mostly current designs by Vera Wang and Kate Spade. They’re not antiques at all. A second photo with a rosy pink background showed a similar collection of plates. All with pink in them. This looked much like my collection, which all contain some pink, various flowers. According to the article, in studying the history of dessert plates, in the late 18^th century, an array of desserts was reserved for honored guests of monarchs, aristocrats, and later, wealthy merchants. Large dessert arrangements connoted power and wealth. Porcelain finally found its way to European tables (from China) in the 17^th century, but was rare and costly. But revered because porcelain allowed the use of color and naturalistic decoration (flowers, leaves) and were considered appropriate for dessert.

According to the article, in 1742, Meissen, the German porcelain manufacturer, originated the idea of special dessert plates and produced small pierced plates. They were accompanied by compotes and other centerpieces and figurines. I have one small compote (see picture). Most of my plates are Haviland from France. In reading about this, I came across a really interesting online history of Haviland in Limoges. The Haviland family is American, and after years of trying to work with the French artisans, the family established their own factory in Limoges, France. It rocked the industry there, because Haviland had specific ideas about what would be manufactured and exported to America. Altogether new and different designs. Very interesting reading, if you happen to be intrigued by it. I have a new perspective and appreciation for my Haviland ware, made in Limoges.  Over the years they created nearly 60,000 patterns. Can you imagine?

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