Ever heard of wattleseed, or wattle seed (one or two words, you’ll see it both ways)? It’s the seed from a specific type of Australian acacia shrub. It’s not a variety grown anywhere but Australia, otherwise I’m certain we’d have  wattle seed on our spice shelves.

My daughter-in-law brought me a very small package of  several Australian herbs and spices some years ago after a trip, and I’d planned on using all of them, but we had a bug infestation in my pantry, and they loved the wattleseed and everything else in the other packages too.

So it wasn’t until we visited Australia a couple of years ago and I sought out some wattleseed (not on every grocery store shelf, I discovered) that I now have some to try. I’d intended to make something with it right away, but I stored it in a jar and promptly forgot about it. The picture at left was taken near Hobart, Tasmania, and shows my DH’s hand holding the acacia flowers out in the sunlight. The seed pods from this shrub were and still are harvested by the Aboriginal people in Australia. They use it in a variety of cooking methods – in a drink – in stews. Eventually non-Aboriginal people discovered the interesting flavor profile it has, and began using it in other (mostly dessert) dishes.

When we were in Australia we ate some wattleseed gelato. Oh my goodness, was it ever good. Tasting it, it conjures up hazelnut and vanilla  on my taste buds. It has tiny dark and light flecks in it which look something like the tiny seeds in a vanilla bean. It’s the kind of mottled color of ground coriander (see picture at right), but bears no flavor resemblance. Some people taste chocolate and coffee in it too. I’ve not found any source for ground wattleseed here in the U.S. (although I read somewhere that any U.S. grown wattleseed is poor quality and not worth buying – I haven’t found it in any case). Here’s a link if you’re wanting to buy this from Vic Chericoff, the man who really put wattleseed on the world culinary map in the 1980’s. Maybe one of our friends will visit Australia sometime soon and I’ll be able to ask them to buy it for me – although as I mentioned, we had trouble finding it. My DH was so patient with me – we walked all over a farmer’s market in Melbourne trying to locate some – finally did at a butcher shop, of all places. They said they used it for a particular kind of seasoned roast.

Anyway, after all that info about wattleseed, let’s get to the recipe, okay? The only recipe I had was wattleseed ice cream which I researched a couple of years ago after we returned from Australia. Going online I also found a recipe for a cake, which I made, and will post here in a few days – it was kind of like a pound cake using wattleseed and citrus. There aren’t lots of recipes for the spice, surprisingly. There is a short list here, and here. You may not remember a post I did from our trip to Australia about the ANZAC biscuits – I wrote up a recipe provided by our Aussie guide’s sister who brought a plate full of them to our tour bus when we stopped near where she lives in New Zealand (they’re cookies developed during WWII to ship to soldiers at the front because they’re sturdy and because they couldn’t get eggs and butter during the wartime shortages, yet they’re still very popular today). Anyway, I did find several wattleseed ANZAC biscuit recipes.

Some years ago Emeril made wattleseed ice cream on one of his Food Network shows, and it’s his basic recipe I used, although I did make a couple of changes. Vic Chericoff mentions Emeril’s recipe on his website and makes suggestions like not adding vanilla, as he feels it’s redundant since wattleseed has vanilla undertones all by itself. He also doesn’t think you should strain the custard mixture of all the wattleseed segments because they add a lot of color and interest to the ice cream. I used a really fine-mesh strainer and most of the seeds still went through it, which was fine. Usually you strain the ice cream base because you want to remove any possible egg “stuff.”

When you use wattleseed, you want to extract as much flavor as possible, hence adding the ground wattleseed to the cream you scald helps accomplish that. Other than wattleseed, the base mixture is very similar to every other egg-based ice cream base you’ve made. In my case I poured the base into a plastic bowl, nestled it into a bigger bowl filled completely with ice, then I added another bowl on top filled with ice – all this to chill it faster. And chill it below 38°. Chilling the base as fast as possible doesn’t allow for as many ice crystals to form (makes for smoother ice cream).

So, after making the ice cream base – and chilling it quickly, I made it in the ice cream machine. Since it was so cold, it only took about 40 minutes. I scooped it out into a quart-sized plastic container and froze it. When I served it about 3 hours later it was still slightly soft and smooth in the middle – made for easier scooping.

Serving it to our friends Cherrie and Bud, who have never been to Australia, and had never heard of wattleseed, they were blown away. I mean blown away by the taste. Dave and I relived our Australia visit too.

What I liked: well, there’s no question I like this stuff or I wouldn’t have run all over in markets throughout Australia trying to find wattleseed! Good. Tasty. Ah yes. I have just enough to make one more wattleseed something and it will be ice cream. Wattleseed has such a unique flavor spectrum. It’s worth seeking out somehow. Any of your friends going to Australia? Get them to buy you some! Buy me some too, okay?

What I didn’t like: well goodness – nothing at all. Loved it! As long as you can find wattleseed!

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One of the things I crave for dinner, especially in warm weather, is a big, honkin’ green salad with oodles of fresh veggies chopped up in it. I like fresh fennel, carrot, celery, sugar snap peas, tomatoes (in this case I had super heirloom cherry tomatoes), avocado, radishes, arugula, Belgian endive, some red leaf lettuce and usually some Romaine too. If I have left over baguette I might make some garlic croutons (in this case I didn’t). I’ll add some Feta cheese perhaps. Maybe hearts of palm or pickled beets; even a few kidney beans. If I had them languishing in the refrigerator I’d add hard boiled eggs, left over chicken, or maybe tuna.

Under most circumstances I have a jar of one of my home made salad dressings in the refrigerator. Today, no. I’d used them all up. But I did have some of the Little Girlie’s Green Sauce remaining, so I perused a Southwestern cookbook I got as a gift recently and sure enough, there was an avocado dressing in it. It contained all the ingredients in the Green Sauce and then some. So I adapted it and came up with a scrumptious avocado dressing that tasted just great on the big salad to which I added a lot of the ingredients I mentioned above. My DH gets weary of chewing a big salad. Not me. I enjoy all the crunch and know that it’s so good for me too. I go several days sometimes without making a salad as we have lots of veggies (2 sometimes) instead. But this time of year we have so much beautiful garden bounty at the farmer’s markets, and perfect for a salad.

This dressing tastes something like the avocado dressing they used to serve at one of our local Mexican restaurants. With pepitas sprinkled on top, it made a delicious meal. I never knew how they made it – I’d say I nailed it without even trying to do so. To my mind, the mayonnaise is what makes the difference – it’s not just an oil/vinegar or oil/lime juice vinaigrette, but has a creamy consistency. I used to think it had sour cream in it. I think not! It was mayo. The cookbook I consulted didn’t have mayo in it, so that’s one of my additions. Just don’t make a lot of the dressing as it probably won’t keep indefinitely – avocado tends to go “off” after a day or two. And cilantro isn’t a keeper in liquid either, although it managed really well in the Green Sauce, I noticed. It kept fine for about 6 days. If you have left over of this dressing, serve it like guacamole with chips.

What I liked: well, the avocado garlic flavor was rich and tasty in the salad. Use your own judgment about how much to use. My salad took about 3 T. per serving, I think – I didn’t measure. In any case, with the avocado as the main ingredient, it’s not bad for you anyway. So scoop more as needed until it tastes right.

What I didn’t like: nada.

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Think lemon zest. Think sugar cookie. Think almost like lemon curd in a cookie, but it doesn’t have any lemon curd in it. Just lemon juice and lemon zest. Oh, yes, yum. If you look very closely at the photo you can barely discern the lemon zest in the cookie itself.

My friend Peggy made these cookies at a book group meeting a couple of months ago. Normally I pass on by eating sugar cookies. Although good, if I’m going to have cookie calories, I want them to be in something much more flavorful than a sugar cookie, maybe even gingerbread, chocolate or chocolate chip. But some one of the other book group guests standing next to me put the cookie in her mouth and raved about the lemony flavor. I couldn’t exactly think how you could get lemon concentration in a cookie, but it works.

Peggy gave me the recipe, then I found it yesterday at Martha Stewart’s website. Maybe I even have it in my M.S. cookies cookbook. If you read the comments there, you might wonder, as some did, if there is something wrong with the recipe because the batter is very loose and soft. So it requires chilling before you can manipulate the dough. The batter is mixed at a medium speed for awhile, giving it an almost ribbony quality like a cake batter. But no, it’s cookie dough. So, no, I don’t believe there is a mistake in the original M.S. recipe. It makes a very, very  tender cookie. Tender = fragile. The recipe below makes just 30 cookies, supposedly. I think I got 26, so I should have made them slightly smaller to get 30 of them.

The batter has a tiny bit of reduced-down lemon juice in it, plus a bunch of grated lemon zest – that’s how you get the extra lemony flavor in a cookie. Do take the time to chill the batter before trying to roll the cookies in the lemon-zested sugar mixture and baking. I suggest overnight, but I think I was able to make the cookies after about 4 hours of chilling. You roll them in the lemon zest/sugar mixture, then flatten them with the bottom of a flat glass. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Cool on the pan for a bit – remember, they’re fragile – and remove carefully to a rack to cool completely. Then I packaged them into a ziploc baggie, 3 across, 3 down and 3 deep and froze them. They’re actually very tasty frozen, too.

Our daughter-in-law, Karen, dropped by the next day and was preparing a quick dessert to take to a party they were going to near where we live and she left the left overs of the lemon curd tarts she assembled. So, when she saw the cookies she suggested we use the lemon curd and blueberry jam sweetened ricotta cheese on some of the cookies with a fresh raspberry on top. There was dessert for a family gathering we had that night.

What I liked: the lemony-ness of the cookie. I just love lemon, so it was a no-brainer that I’d like this cookie. Yes, I’d make it again, maybe even to make the dessert I mentioned above. To me it tastes like there is lemon curd in the cookie. There isn’t, but if you like lemon curd, you’ll just love this cookie.

What I didn’t like: if I had to say something, I’d just say they’re almost too fragile. Not impossibly fragile, but they are tender. But that’s part of what makes them good. Don’t mash the cookies too thinly, that’s all.

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Most of you won’t know that just a few months after I started writing this blog back in 2007, as my husband and I were bringing our sailboat into the dock at our yacht club in San Diego after an afternoon putt around the harbor, I jumped off our boat onto the dock while the boat was going forward – my job was to quick-like wrap a line around one of the cleats on the dock to STOP the boat from plowing into the dock itself because you have to motor into the space under some power – I know, too much information –  (I’d done dozens of times before) – and as I jumped I was off-balanced somehow, my right foot went over sideways and just like that I fractured a bone in my foot, the one on the outside edge. Having never broken a bone before, let alone one in my foot, I tried to carry on, thinking it was just a sprain, which I HAD done before jumping off our boat at a different dock 10 years earlier and had to wear a boot for several weeks. This day, though, within 10 minutes I was in moderate agony. Later that day, my DH actually had to pull me, sitting in one of the rolling dock carts, up to our car because I couldn’t put any weight on the foot at all. If you don’t think that looked funny – my husband with 2 artificial legs pulling me sunk into a dock cart (they’re square-ish and quite deep). My foot swelled up like crazy, of course, despite icing it immediately. But no, it was a fracture and I was laid up for near-on 3 months. Most of which I spent in a wheelchair since I couldn’t put an ounce of weight on my foot. Needless to say, I don’t jump off our boat anymore – I sit on the rail and hop off carefully. Very carefully. That day, though, my DH was able to reverse the engine to stop the boat, without me cleating the line, thank goodness! He’s been a sailor for 60 years, so he surely knows how to handle a boat!

So what does this have to do with the spice rub, you’re wondering? Well, I carried on writing my blog, but didn’t have photos because my DH (who was without a doubt a very DEAR Hubby during that endless 3 months) cooked all the meals – even he would tell you we didn’t eat very well since he truly doesn’t know how to cook. So I shared recipes on my blog (without pictures) that were favorites of mine, and I had every intention, immediately upon recovering, of making every dish and photographing them so I could include photos in each and every post. I did do that with many, but not all. And this was one that’s lived all these years with a generic photo of fresh corn in the husks as its only visual.

Therefore, I’m rectifying that right now. We bought fresh corn at the corner farm stand – that wonderful white corn that I adore – and I whipped up the spice rub – and took a bunch of pictures.

So, back in 2007 I wrote up this recipe. But since it’s such a sensational one, I decided you should revisit it too, just like I did today. I made up a batch of the spices and it should last us through the summer – assuming I make this just 3-4 times. But besides that, ground spices once combined don’t hold their pungency for more than a few months. The only thing that makes this North African is the combo of spices. Probably Moroccan, I’d guess. Whether they grill corn on the cob in Morocco I don’t know – do they even have corn in Morocco?

There really aren’t all that many things in this mixture – I gathered them up on the kitchen counter and combined them in a bowl, then stirred them up. Into a firm-sealing jar they went and it’ll sit on my kitchen counter (so I don’t forget to use it). You can see  up above what’s in the mixture – ground cloves, ground cinnamon, ground cumin, ground coriander, ground ginger, oregano, salt and pepper. That’s it. The recipe came from Cooking Light, in 2000.

If you prepare this according to the original recipe you have to do a “process” with the corn husks (opening them without tearing off the husks, removing the silk, adding the oil and spices, then re-wrapping the husks to cover the corn). I’ve stopped doing that part ‘cuz it’s just too time-consuming and tedious. Now I just wrap one or two husked ears in foil and they go onto the grill to cook/steam, rather than actually grill. Besides, with the original, it was just the outside of the corn husks that got “grilled,” so I can’t imagine it makes any difference to the taste. So I’ve re-written the recipe using foil and using olive oil spray (no butter). If you want the original, click on the link 2 paragraphs up. I sprinkle on the spice rub – the oil spray gives the spices something to stick to, a good thing. You could rub the raw corn with butter, but I can’t say that you really need to – it’s SO tasty with the olive oil spray. The corn itself provides plenty of flavor. I used to nearly roll the corn in the spice rub, but now I just sprinkle it on – sometimes more heavily than others – I didn’t use a whole lot this time.

What I like: well, I’m just plum-crazy about the spices. I love-love lots of flavors exploding in my mouth, and to find one that has almost zero fat in it and straight-forward cooking (i.e. simple), I’m a happy camper. It’s not often I have one of those I’m willing to broadcast here on the blog.

What I didn’t like: well, absolutely nothing at all. This recipe is a favorite.

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It’s been years ago that I found this recipe on a MasterCook (that’s the recipe software I use) user’s group recipe exchange. What got me was what she wrote about it – that she makes it up on Sunday, uses it for a family barbecue and always has leftovers to use all week long on everything you can think of – chicken, fish, even tomatoes and other veggies.

I think the gal who uploaded it was Terry Pogue – at least that’s the name I have on my original sheet for this. Whether it’s her original recipe, I don’t know. I also found it online at www.cookingjunkies.com and her name is associated with the recipe there as well. I just want to give credit where it is due. I’d want other people to do the same for me. The point is – I have no idea whatsoever what the title means or where it came from.

It’s not news that I love cilantro. And avocados, so putting the two together can just be a perfect duo for me. What makes this different is the addition of vinegar and water (plus the green onions, serrano chiles and a little bit of olive oil). We were grilling ribs (it wasn’t meant to go with the ribs since they had lots of barbecue sauce on them already) and some Italian sausages, so I made up a batch of the sauce – it makes a LOT – and served it that way. Not everyone at our dinner took any of it to go with the sausages, but those who did said they liked it a lot. I liked it a lot. Next time I think I’d make a 1/3 recipe (using one avocado) which would be fine for a dinner for 4-5, I think. It had to have made nearly 3+ cups of sauce. I gave half of it to our daughter-in-law, Karen, and I still have a big bowl of it! You don’t use a lot of it. It doesn’t stick much to the meat – you kind of dip it into it and try to get some onto the fork. It’s not a smooth sauce at all – it’s chunky and liquid, actually. Which is why I added less vinegar and water to it than indicated. Perhaps it depends on how much cilantro is in a “bunch,” too. Seems to me that cilantro bunches have less cilantro in them than they used to – do you agree? Maybe making the cilantro mixture in the blender would also emulsify it better as well. I just stirred it in at the end. The avocados are diced up and added after you’ve mixed everything else.

What I liked: the piquant taste (piquant=tart, from the vinegar), but it goes exceedingly well with a piece of protein. There’s almost no fat in it – I added about 2 T. to the entire recipe, so really hardly any at all. With all that acid, the avocados stayed perfectly green for many days.

What I didn’t like: it was just a tad too soupy to me, so that’s why I’ve reduced the vinegar and water in the recipe below – add more if you think it needs it. You don’t want it floating all over your plate!

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Are baked beans just baked beans? No, these are different. They may not LOOK different but they definitely are. They contain bacon. And ground beef. AND ham too. Plus a few other flavor enhancements to regular canned pork and beans. The dish is super-simple. I promise you’ll hear plenty of mmmmmm’s at the table.

My friend Cherrie has been making a version of this for years and years and I’ve eaten it at her house a couple of times. All of her kids and grandkids clamor for this whenever she does a barbecue for her clan. She’s promised a couple of times to send me the recipe, but she keeps forgetting. For the 4th of July I wanted to make baked beans and Cherrie is on a vacation, so I went on the internet and found this recipe which could be her recipe – it has most of the main ingredients that I know are in her recipe – so I’ll assume it’s close enough. This combination of meats just makes it exceptional. Without a doubt I’ll never be making another type of baked beans. Ever.

So, what it is – is – canned pork and beans (I bought Van Camp’s brand) – two of the large cans. Then it has bacon, cooked ground beef and a little bit of ham. You stir in some brown sugar, molasses, ketchup, chili powder and some onion. Pour it into a bean pot, a casserole dish (with a lid) or cover with foil. I baked it at 200° for about 4 hours. The recipe suggests doing it in a slow cooker, which is fine too. I’m sure both would taste the same. My crockpot is huge, and really it’s too big for this recipe, believe it or not. So a casserole, as you see pictured, worked fine. Everybody loved the beans. I think each person at our 4th of July dinner table (7 of us) said something about the beans, about how good they were. So. Make ‘em, okay?

What I liked: just the overall taste of them. The different meats add a lot to the flavor. And it’s so very easy to make. Truly!

What I didn’t like: since I never have canned pork and beans on my shelf I’d not be able to make this on the fly – I’d always need to make a trip to the grocery store. Well, and for the bacon and ham too. No big deal, though. Still worth the trip.

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This is an OMG dish. Sinful beyond measure. And delicious beyond measure as well. Corn, green chiles and oodles of cheese mixed up and baked. To serve hot with tortilla chips. Make this, okay?

A month of so ago my DH and I drove to the San Diego area to attend the “promotion” events for two of our grandchildren – one from grammar school and one from middle school. We stayed at a Hampton Inn in Poway, near where one of our daughters live. We had dinner in Escondido at a restaurant called Tango, highly recommended over at Trip Advisor (I rely heavily on that website for travel recommendations). But before we headed out to dinner, we stopped in the hotel lobby to enjoy the complimentary happy hour there. My hubby was quite content with the wine they offered and insisted I had to try the appetizer (only one) available. Sure, I said. I dipped a big tortilla chip into a huge heated chafing dish full of ooey-gooey corn dip. As it hit my taste buds I had an ah-ha moment. Oh my goodness. SO good. I took another and did my best to figure out what was in it. I could see corn, of course, and knew there was cheese in it, and green chiles. And then it had some unctuous creamy stuff oozing all around it. Did I say OMG already? Yes, I did. That was it with the tasting – two bites, and I was hooked. But we had to leave, so I didn’t get to taste any further. I walked over to the front desk and asked them about it. The staff said it was provided by a catering company and they have different appetizers each night, but about 3x a week they did serve this corn dip because it’s so popular. But no, they didn’t have a recipe for it, sorry. Oh well, I tried.

So, some time has gone by since that trip, but I hadn’t forgotten the dip. When the occasion arose to make a dip for a big gathering (July 4th), I figured this was the time. I researched all over the internet and found several recipes. I pulled from them all and also added my own twist to it. So my recipe below is my own version – very similar to all the others, but not identical. We had 2 events on consecutive days, so I made a double batch. I used Colby cheese (a mixture of Monterey Jack and Cheddar) and I added a fresh poblano chile that I minced up in the food processor. I could have used just canned green chiles, but I had a poblano in the refrigerator that needed to be used, so I did. I used canned corn because it was easier (some recipes use fresh, some frozen and some canned). One recipe called for Mexicorn (the type that has some green and red bell peppers in it), so I went with that type. It gets mixed up in a big bowl with mayonnaise (that was the unctuous creamy stuff) and grated Parmesan (I used a combo of Pecorino and Parm) plus a generous pinch of red chili flakes, then it’s poured into a casserole dish and baked. That’s it. Done. I made it up a few hours ahead, chilled it, then removed it from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking and baked it for 40 minutes. If it’s made at the moment and not chilled, 30 minutes will have it ready to serve. The first night I actually took it on a 30-minute drive, covered with foil and wrapped in a big towel and it was still plenty hot enough when we got there to serve it immediately.

If you serve it right out of the oven be careful – it’s VERY hot. I’d let it sit for 10 minutes at least before serving, so I’ve added that to the recipe info. I served it with those Doritos “scoops” type of tortilla chip – they are just ideal for this dip because it’s a perfect little cup for just the right amount of dip. I put a spoon in the dip for people to use if they wanted. Most people just dipped in the scoop chip. This dish is NOT healthy at all. I’m sorry! But I guarantee you’ll enjoy it if you make it. And just eat two scoops full and you won’t have to feel guilty.

What I liked: every, single thing about it. So delicious. So worth making. This is going onto my favorites list, if that’s any indication of how much we liked it.

What I didn’t like: really nothing at all. A definite make again dish. Just don’t count calories, okay?

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Oooh, was this ever good. A simple pie crust filled with a mixture of ground beef, green chiles, corn, and a bunch of tasty Southwest seasonings. Then each slice is enhanced with a little milk gravy and some chopped parsley.

First I went to my cookbook shelves and pulled out one of the community-type ones that I’ve had since the late 1960’s. They’re full of options for ground beef, which back in the 60’s was the standard dinner staple. I went through my usual ritual – no, I don’t want pasta, which eliminated at least 80% of the casserole type dishes. No, I didn’t want stroganoff, or meatballs, or Lazy Day Casserole (there must have been 15 with that title!). No, I didn’t want potatoes with it. Or rice. No, not chili either. Then I spotted this recipe. The seasonings sounded good. But I’d only defrosted 1 pound of ground beef instead of 2 called for. So I improvised. I added more green chiles and I had about 2 cups of frozen corn, so that went in there in lieu of the 2nd pound of ground beef. I also amped up the seasonings as well. I made a bit more of the sauce too (a milk gravy with just the addition of Worcestershire sauce).

First I made the piecrust. A simple recipe – one that includes an egg and milk. I changed the recipe a bit and used unsalted butter instead of shortening. I also mixed it in the food processor. The meat was cooked gently, then I added onion, and green chiles (I had a nice package of roasted Hatch chiles in the freezer – gosh were they ever good, but you can just use ordinary canned green chiles), and then some frozen corn. I added ground cumin, chili powder, dry mustard plus salt and pepper. I tasted it to see what else might be needed. Nothing that I could think of.

Then I carefully put the top crust on it, crimped the edges, made a few steam-vent slices in the top and it baked for 35 minutes. Done. Meanwhile, I made the gravy, which took no time at all. Served it up to raves.

What I liked: overall, the great taste. Loved the spices – and the chiles – and I liked the corn texture in it too. All of it delicious.

What I didn’t like: nothing, really. The piecrust is a bit of a pain to make, but you could easily use refrigerator crusts if you’re piecrust-challenged.

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Ah, chocolate cake. What’s there not to like? Yet I was intrigued with this recipe because it’s from a diet type book. In reading the introduction to this recipe Marlene Koch mentions that this recipe has been in every single one of her cookbooks because she LOVES this cake, and she doesn’t want us to give up eating the things we love – hence the subjects of two of her most recent cookbooks about Eat More of What You Love.

We were invited to some friends of ours for dinner and I offered to make this cake – I’d just been reading the recipe and needed an excuse to try it. The cake is a cinch to make – you mix it up in the bowl with a whisk. No electric mixer required. Just some wrist and arm power. The sweetening is a little bit of brown sugar (real) and mostly Splenda, which makes it diabetic friendly for my DH, although there are still a significant number of carbs in this cake, which is what Type 1 diabetics need to count.

It bakes a very short time – only 16 minutes for me, though the recipe says 18-20. I used a 9-inch round cake pan since I don’t own an 8-inch square pan anymore. An 8-inch square pan is about the same volume as a 9-inch round pan, so I made no adjustments other than checking on the cake a few minutes early.

Any. . way . . . the cake. Once cooled enough I inverted it onto a rack to cool completely. A couple of hours later I mixed up the frosting (you don’t have to make the frosting part – although I highly recommend it –  just sprinkle with powdered sugar if you’d prefer). If you followed Marlene’s frosting recipe you’d be using low fat cream cheese (I didn’t have any of that) AND you’d use light whipped topping too (I didn’t have that either). What I did have was a tub of Cool Whip in the freezer that I’ve had in there for 6 months. The frosting is sweetened with Splenda too, and flavored with Dutch process cocoa. It’s easy to make with a hand mixer and was cinchy to frost on top, especially with an offset spatula. It was downright delicious right out of the bowl. I recommend you make the frosting and leave it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve. It’s very easy to spread on the cake. Once frosted, though, it will need to be chilled if you have left overs.

AND, the result? Gosh, it was fantastic. Instead of repeating everything, I’ll just go to my usual bottom-line thing:

What I liked: the fact that I could eat a nice sized piece of chocolate cake – with frosting – and not feel guilty! There’s LOTS of chocolate flavor. It’s intensely chocolate, actually. And I just loved-loved-loved the frosting. It makes the cake in my opinion.

What I didn’t like: if I have to be brutally honest, I’ll tell you that I could taste the Splenda in it. It has a sweet aftertaste. But in comparison with eating a full-fat and full-calorie piece of frosted chocolate cake, this is absolutely stupendous. Don’t make it without the frosting, though. I think it is just the best part of it. Will I make it again? Yes, I definitely will.

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What is that? A chicken breast on the bottom, with a piece of melting Mozzarella cheese on top, sprinkled with some pepper and Italian herbs, and topped with a mushroom Madeira sauce. VERY easy to make. You’d absolutely never – ever – know it’s low calorie.

Just because I tell you this recipe is a healthy one, please don’t go on by – you’ll be very surprised at the succulence of this chicken dish. My friend Linda T told me about a new cookbook she purchased. She’s been going to Weight Watchers for awhile, and I would guess someone told her about this cookbook there – mostly she mentioned it because the food is so good – but she also said the author includes Weight Watchers points with the nutritional info about each recipe.

The author, Marlene Koch, is a dietitian. She’s a wife and mother, and decided there had to be a way to incorporate her (and our) favorite things (like cheese, butter, and ooey gooey goodies, in her words) into everyday healthy cooking. So first she published Eat What You Love. That was a couple of years ago. (I don’t own that cookbook.) This year she published a second book, because she now has a huge following (she’s been on QVC apparently, and has written several other cookbooks about using Splenda in cooking). She has her own website, and she’s on Facebook, in case you’re interested. Her secret, of course, is everything in moderation. She uses foods (like Madeira wine in this recipe) that are full of flavor and then adds in just a little bit of oil and/or butter. The cookbook I have is her 2nd one in this genre of Eat What You Love, and it’s called Eat More of What You Love.

If this recipe is any representation of what else is in this book, I’ll be a happy camper. My husband had nary a clue the entrée was low in calorie and fat. He almost licked the plate. I’d made some plain rice and that was almost the same as licking the plate since it soaked up all the scrumptious sauce.

Truth be told, my DH and I never eat at the Cheesecake Factory. (A Chicken Madeira is on their menu, but one that loaded with fat and calories.) We don’t not go there because the food isn’t good, but because it’s about a 25-minute drive, and it’s always very crowded. It’s in a shopping center and it takes at least 10+ minutes to walk from the parking garage to the restaurant. Way too much trouble. Once in awhile my friend Cherrie and I will meet there for lunch (we usually share an order of their Shepherd’s Pie, which is SO good) and then go to a movie together. Otherwise, I never even go to that shopping center, period. Oh, yes, my DH and I did go there to buy a Sleep Number Bed (the best bed we’ve ever had, by the way) a couple of years ago.

Anyway, this chicken . . . it’s in the 2nd cookbook listed up above. My friend Linda told me this was one of her favorite recipes from the book – this was after I’d already chosen it as my first test. Starting with 4 chicken breasts pounded to about 1/2 inch thickness, you brown them in a tiny bit of oil, just until they’re browned on both sides and nearly cooked through. Remove them, then you make the sauce. I added mushrooms and let them sauté a bit, then added some red onion. It only took a few minutes and they were cooked completely. Then the wine and beef broth were added and allowed to simmer, to reduce down a bit. Lastly you add some Italian herbs and a tiny bit of cornstarch stirred into the last bit of beef broth. It’s just enough to thicken the sauce some. The chicken is put back into the pan. The cheese is put on top (I used fresh Mozzarella because I had some and didn’t have any regular Mozzie). I sprinkled the top with some pepper and some of the dried herbs. A lid was put on top and the chicken was simmered for about 3-4 minutes while the cheese began to melt and the chicken finished cooking. The rest of our dinner was plated, then I added a scoop of hot rice and the chicken with the sauce drizzled all over both the chicken and the rice. Oh, heavenly taste!

What I liked: Would you believe me if I said that I would have no idea this dish was low calorie and low fat? It was absolutely wonderful – full of flavor and texture. Delicious in every bite. I’d even make this for guests – it was that good!

What I didn’t like: wow, nothing whatsoever. A definite make again dish.

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