Are you ready to hear about how fantastic this dish is? OM Gosh!! It was – truthfully – the star of our Thanksgiving dinner. I asked, while we were finishing up our meal, what was everyone’s favorite – and of course, the children said pumpkin pie – but the adults all said “the Brussels sprouts!” And yes, these are COOKED Brussels sprouts, not raw, even though it’s called a slaw.

This is where the recipe came from . . .

I told you about this cookbook, The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century in mid-2011. My friend Linda gave it to me for Christmas, 2010. To say that I treasure it . . . well, that’s an understatement. It has no photos in it hardly. A few for decoration, but it’s a huge tome of just recipes. With headnotes (I love those headnotes that tell me why I should try the recipe just below it). Compiled by Amanda Hesser, who has her own website, along with her culinary journalist partner Merrill Stubbs, they run Food52, an online treasure of a website if I ever saw one! And the book, in case you live in Timbuktu and haven’t heard about what it is, contains Amanda’s favorite recipes from the archives of the New York Times going back to the dawn of its known printed history!

So impressed with how the book was written and how it was researched that I wrote up 3 posts about it last year, 3 posts over 3 days – here, here and here. At that time I’d really just started reading it – that was mostly the pink post-it notes you see above. In between times I inserted some more of the yellow hue. And recently I’ve been trying to go through the rest of it (I’m not done) and I’m on to purple post-its. The bookmark at the back is where I am (obviously). When I read a recipe I think I want to try, I write an upside-down post it (meaning the sticky part is at the bottom) and I write on it a quick title then attach it as a flag. So if I’m in a hurry, I can sort-of scan the flags to see if anything suits my fancy.

There’s another view. Maybe 20% to go, do you think? And part of that back part is an index, so maybe I’m closer to the end than I think! Sometimes I do breeze on by a few recipes – at the moment I’m in the candy section, and I just about never make candy, so there aren’t many flags in this chapter. But invariably I find something every few pages.

So, when I was planning dinner for Thanksgiving Day this year, I did go look at the flags. I’d already decided to do asparagus (the crumbled asparagus – that’s not in this book – that my whole family loves) and I wanted something new for Brussels sprouts. I found it here. And oh, am I glad I tried this recipe. It is SUCH A KEEPER!

Until a few years ago I really only prepared Brussels sprouts one way – a cold Marinated Brussels Sprouts Salad. But I’ve been ever so glad that chefs ‘round the world have begun giving B.S. their just due. I love the things, and I think one of the ways I’ve made it (with cranberries) is on my “Favs” list. This one is going on there too.

Truthfully, though, my daughter-in-law, Karen and our daughter, Sara, made the recipe. I can’t take any credit other than selecting it, bringing along the cookbook (we were at our Palm Desert house for the weekend), providing the herbs, butter and mustard. Karen brought 2 pounds of Brussels, and we in the kitchen contemplated that perhaps 2 pounds was too much for one dinner (there were 9 of us including 3 children). Am I glad we didn’t listen to that nonsense. There’s about 2 tablespoons of it left over, and I can’t wait to eat it! We did make one change – we used half of the butter called for. Amanda Hesser wrote a note about it –  she halved it also, so that’s the recipe I’m including below. We used all the seasonings, but half the butter.

The most complex (read: time consuming) part was finely slicing up the Brussels sprouts. We could have used a mandoline, but many hands made fairly quick work of the pile of cleaned and trimmed little cabbages. Karen mixed up the butter – with the herbs and mustard (good, imported Dijon style) and the lot of it is cooked briefly (about 5-7 minutes) and it’s done. Do cook it to your desired done-ness. Some folks prefer a really truly cooked Brussels sprout – if so, cook it a bit longer. The recipe is a bit vague, suggesting you start with 5 minutes and cook just until it’s “done.” You can add caraway seed if you want, but we used celery seed and I thought it was a fabulous counter-taste in it. The lemon slices are also an important element – DO squeeze some of it onto each serving or serve the lemon wedges in the bowl.

What’s good: everything about it. The just mild crunchiness of the leaves. The celery seed. Well, the butter of course. The mustard, you might think, would overpower the Brussels sprouts, but it truly does not. The herbs are lovely too, and the lemon juice squeeze over the top. I loved every single bite I had, and I’ll definitely be making this again. For guests or not.
What’s not: nothing, whatsoever. DO make this dish!

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It’s the season for ginger snaps. Yet there was a special reason I made something with ginger . . .

My best friend has breast cancer. It’s been several months and she’s been through chemo hell. Her surgery is this week, then she’ll have radiation next year. After she had her first chemo infusion she felt great for the first couple of days, other than a bit of fatigue. But then she got really sick. The doctors have ways to help the nausea – everyone is different – so what happens for one person may not happen for the next. Let’s just say she was awfully sick. She said a neighbor had mentioned eating ginger in different forms helped with the nausea (tea, cookies, candy or even nibbling on crystallized ginger). Ginger has that property – it helps with seasickness too. So I told her right away that I would make some ginger cookies for her. (That’s the link to the original ginger cookies.) Her only request was that they needed to be crisp. No problem – I had just the recipe. My friend ate them all. I did make some other cookies too – for her husband – because I knew if he knew there were cookies in the freezer – he’d eat them. He was forbidden to eat her ginger cookies. During the most difficult part of her chemo (4 times, 3 weeks apart) she was down hard for almost a week. Couldn’t eat. She ate some spoons of vanilla instant pudding, which seems to keep the metallic taste out of her mouth (caused by the chemicals), and every day she tried to get down something – and some days it was just a cookie and some hot tea or iced tea.

It was nice to dig out the Kitchen Aid from the cupboard and cream some butter and sugar since I hadn’t made any cookies in quite awhile!  I turned to the crispest ginger cookies I know, from a good friend – Ann N – and thought I’d tweak the recipe just a little bit – to make it more gingery. It’s a very simple, straight-forward recipe as it is – some brown and white sugar, molasses, powdered ginger plus the usual butter, flour, leavening, etc. I knew right away what I would do to make it even more gingery. I had a jar of Trader Joe’s Ginger Spread in the refrigerator, with just about a tablespoon of the jam left. That went into the batter. It’s a delish jam – very spicy, gingery if you eat it straight away. It’s thick – it’s not like the Sainsbury’s ginger preserves I buy in England every time we visit – that has a thick syrupy quality and chunks of ginger. This Trader Joe’s stuff is smooth and thick – sort of soft homogenous peanut butter. You need but a thin layer on a piece of toast to give it a lovely covering. But I also wanted to add some crystallized ginger to it too – it’s so perfect in cookies. So, I poured out about 3 T. of crystallized ginger onto my cutting board, sprinkled about a T. of sugar on top and chopped and minced and minced some more until it was about as tiny as I could make it (see photo at left). I used the sugar because otherwise the sticky ginger pieces cling to any knife you’d use, and the pieces stick to each other too. If you add the sugar IT sticks to those sticky edges and it’s ever so much easier to chop. You can remove a T. of sugar from the creaming batter if you want. I didn’t, but am sure it would be fine if you’d like to make it less sweet.

Anyway, the dough is shaped into small balls, rolled in granulated sugar and you can press them down with the a fork, or the bottom of a glass if you want – I just used my hand – or you can skip that step since the cookies spread out in the oven anyway. They’re very very thin cookies – I like them this way. If you’re expecting some chewy consistency – well, there is a little bit. But I freeze all of my cookies and when eaten from a frozen state they’re very crispy. If you defrost them, they have a little bit of chewiness rather than so much of the crispy.

What I liked: well, I like – no, love – these cookies already – and adding the ginger spread and the minced crystallized ginger just made them better yet! They’re very spicy (I like that part). And very, very crisp.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all.

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I know, I can hear it now – Carolyn has lost her marbles. She thinks we don’t know how to make cheese bread or cheese toast? No, that’s not the case. But it’s never been quite so easy or so flavorful as this one made with a cheddar cheese powder you can buy. Read on.

Earlier this year I visited a local Savory Spice Shop, and among lots of other things I bought and saw, they had this little packet of bright orange powder – cheddar cheese powder. Since I’d not too long before needed some of the little packets out of a Kraft macaroni and cheese box to make a replica of a particularly tasty bread called Smoke House Garlic Bread, I was intrigued and bought some. So the other night I decided to try it – I mixed the powder with some butter and fresh chives from the garden and made something similar. Unlike the garlic bread linked above, this one doesn’t have garlic in it (it would have overwhelmed the Soupe au Pistou I’d made) and it also didn’t contain any fresh, grated cheese. Just butter, the powder (which is cheese, but it’s so fine it’s almost like talcum powder and will go puff and disappear) and chives.

It was really simple to mix up. I mean EASY! All I did was toast some thick-cut Italian bread on one side, turned them over and spread the cheese mixture all over and broiled again just long enough to get the bread hot and bubbly. I served it immediately. I mean immediately. It will cool off so fast – so do have everything else ready. The Savory Spice stores also have a Romano cheese powder, a nacho flavored one, and yet another with blue cheese. All powdered.

What’s good: it’s just SO easy. Quick. And delish. Cheesy.
What’s not: nothing – maybe just that kind of artificial orange color – it’s really bright. It’s a vegetable dye, I suppose.

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This recipe I’ve had for about 6 years, and just hadn’t ever gotten around to making it. What a shame, since I know I’d have fixed it several times in the interim had I just known how wonderful it is. It could be a completely vegetarian meal if you make a few little tweaks. There is pancetta in it, and I added chicken, although that’s definitely non-classic to pistou.

The original recipe for this came from Paula Wolfert in an article in Food & Wine (August 2006). It has 2 components – the soup part which has white beans, oodles of veggies and a small amount of pasta – and the pesto (pistou) part that is slightly different than the traditional Italian pesto. The pistou uses basil and garlic and oil, but it has you add an aged Gouda, not Parmesan.

The basil pistou is buried in the bottom center of the soup bowl. I asked each person at the table to just stir it in. I could have put it on top – it would have been more noticeable that way.

You could – if you’re pressed for time – use canned white beans. But, I’d urge you to make the beans from scratch because of the wonderful flavors used in it (onion, garlic, bay leaf and pancetta). I soaked the beans overnight in cold water. In the morning, I drained them, then added more fresh water and the add-ins, and cooked them in 13 minutes in the pressure cooker. So easy! Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen gave me the idea in a recent post about pinto beans and how easy they are to make in the pressure cooker. Indeed!

The most labor intensive thing about this soup is probably chopping up the fennel, onion, and the veggies. I used my Alligator 11-1/4-Inch Dicer with Collector
for the fennel and onion. I don’t ever put a whole onion in this thing (as you can see from the photo). But I love it because it makes uniform dice. If I’m chopping more than one thing, I will dig this out and use it. It does cut down on a lot of time spent chopping.

Anyway, you sweat the fennel and onion in some EVOO, then you add the potatoes (which almost totally disintegrate during the simmering). Water is added (and I spooned in some Penzey’s chicken soup base to boost the flavor. Green beans and zucchini are added toward the end. Once they’re nearly cooked, I added in the already cooked beans and brought the mixture up to a simmer again (important). Then you do one more step – kind of like a step in making pilaf – you brown the raw (dry) pasta in butter. See picture at left. That is poured into the soup and you turn off the heat, cover the pot and set it aside for 25 minutes.

In that time, the pasta cooks completely. Sometime earlier in the day you will have made the pistou – it’s like a pesto except that this one calls for an aged Gouda instead of Parm. The recipe said you could also use Mimolette cheese (I’m not familiar with it). If you’re in an all-fired hurry, you probably could use bottled pesto in this. You’re supposed to make the pistou in a mortar, but that was taking the authenticity just a bit too far for me – I used a food processor. I just didn’t scrape it all down to a complete mush, so there were a few basil leaves that were left in shreds. My mortar isn’t all that big – I just decided it was easier altogether.

You’ll want the soup bowls at the ready, and at that magic 25-minute mark, the pasta is cooked just right and you spoon into each bowl a bit of the pesto and ladle in the soup. DO stir the pesto into the soup. The object is not to cook the pesto – otherwise you would just add the whole mixture to the soup pot. The pistou flavor is marvelous – you’ll notice it at the first bite. As I mentioned, I did add chicken (that I’d steeped in water to cover for about an hour – bring water to boil, add chicken – bring back to a simmer, cover, turn off heat and allow to “steep”). I chopped it up and added it to the finished soup – it did not sit in the 25-minute rest. I served the soup with some delicious toasted cheese bread. Recipe to come on that.

What’s good: well, I could go on and on. I absolutely LOVED this soup. Very hearty. Really, quite healthy too – it’s relatively low in fat. The only fat in it is the little bit of olive oil added at the beginning and the butter used to sauté the pasta. I LOVED the veggies. I LOVED the textures. LOVED the pistou swirled through it. It was marvelous.
What’s not: I couldn’t find a thing I’d change. If you would prefer to make this a vegetarian entrée, use vegetable stock, don’t add the pancetta to the bean mixture, and don’t add chicken.

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I hope each and every one of you has a very special, fun-filled Thanksgiving holiday. I’m counting my blessings. And I’m going to try to eat just one piece of pumpkin pie.

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Do you read foodgal? It’s a great food blog by Carolyn Jung. She lives in the Bay Area, and often writes about restaurants and foodie activities in her region. And she regularly shares recipes too. She’s a food journalist in her own right, so she must get sent dozens of cookbooks for review. I assume that’s how foodgal acquired this recipe, from Pastry Chef Joanne Chang, who owns Flour Bakery + Cafe in Boston. Apparently there, this cake is a top-seller. The recipe is from her cookbook, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe.  And the first time I made it I stuck to the recipe exactly. But in thinking about it I decided to change a few things. I added more spices (just more quantity, not different ones) and I reduced the sugar, as I thought the original was just a bit over the top. It was good – it was excellent, in fact – but too sweet for me that first time. So I changed it.

It’s only been in recent years that I’ve read any recipes that call a cake a “snacking” cake. Now, my idea of such a thing is something you’d make on a blustery fall afternoon and it would be ready for your 5 children when they tumble in the door with snow flurries around them. And the cake would be something sturdy and easily picked up in hand and gobbled down with a glass of cold milk. But maybe a snacking cake just means it doesn’t have frosting. Does anybody know? Do enlighten me if you do!

The description of this cake hooked me, though. It’s loaded – and I mean loaded – with minced-up apple (Granny Smiths). And it has some fragrant spices added, some golden raisins and nuts. As I explained I made this cake twice in 3 days. The first time to test it, the second time with my changes and it went to a dinner party. The first time it was made with walnuts, and the 2nd time (with a few tweaks) with toasted pecans. Both were good. We were going to a potluck gourmet dinner with friends (a new group we’re in), and I’d chosen to make dessert. Since it’s certainly apple season, I’d already decided I’d make something with them. I just didn’t know what. But spotting this recipe, and reading the headnote that said this was hereby the very last apple dessert recipe foodgal was ever going to use forevermore, that got my attention.

The first time I made it with Truvia mixed half/half with sugar so my DH could have some. He loved it. And I did too. But the next time I reduced the sugar and I used pecans (and I toasted them).  It was still plenty sweet. So the recipe below is my slightly adaptation of the original recipe. I served it with maple syrup-sweetened whipped cream (see photo below) for the dinner. I just drizzled heavy cream over each slice on the first one (see left photo).

What’s good: the wonderfully fragrant spices mixed in with the multitude of apples and a little bit of the cake part. If you like more cake then you might not like this recipe. It’s mostly apple with some of the cake batter to hold it together. It definitely IS a cake, but it’s just loaded with apples. It was best with the honey-sweetened whipped cream. We also ate it with heavy cream drizzled over it too.
What’s not: really nothing at all – it was a delicious cake. It’s not difficult to make, though you do have to peel and finely chop several apples. And that has to be done JUST before you add it to the batter because otherwise the apples will turn brown. Have everything all ready – the oven at temp, the cake batter ready to go, then cut the apples and finish making the batter. And as for the superlative about it being the best and last cake foodgal will ever make, I don’t think I’ll attach the word to this. It’s really good, but the Teddie’s Apple Cake is by far my favorite apple cake. And my Mom’s Crisp Apple Pudding is my all-time apple crisp type dessert.

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It seems like lamb shanks are a real treat. You don’t see them at Costco, and rarely at a traditional grocery store, either. I never seem to think of making them, although my DH will order them at a restaurant any time he sees them on a menu. The day I made these it was rainy and almost stormy, certainly a fall-like day, so these just sounded so “right.”

Sometimes when lamb is cooking, it isn’t very appealing to me. The smell. I suppose that’s the part that’s almost like mutton. It must be the fat, which has a distinct taste. So I decided I’d make this in the pressure cooker. That way I wouldn’t have to hover over it so much or smell it all that long, either. I’d found a recipe over at www.food.com, and it was really quite easy.

The lamb shanks were well-browned in a skillet first (at least that’s how I did it) in a bit of grapeseed oil. A whole bunch of whole garlic cloves were added later and sizzled just until they were light golden brown. Into the pot went chicken broth, Madeira (the original recipe called for Port, but I didn’t have any), dried rosemary, a bit of tomato paste, salt and pepper. Then the lamb shanks. That’s it. It rattled away for 35 minutes while I did other things. I made a green salad and some steamed broccoli and cauliflower too.

Once the meat was cooked, and the pressure released, I removed the shanks and to the small amount of liquid in the pot (which contained a lot of fat, I’m certain) I added a bit of fig balsamic vinegar. Probably plain balsamic would work too, but I thought a fruity balsamic would enhance the flavor a bit more. With the left overs I poured the sauce into a container, expecting I’d be able to remove the fat. There wasn’t any. I suppose that means the sauce was kind of homogenized, so it didn’t separate. Serve this on heated plates and drizzle the gravy on top and let it pool around the shank. You might want some bread too, to soak up any of that very tasty, garlicky, boozy gravy. Just sayin’.

What’s good: how easy it was to make – the pressure cooker just got dinner on the table in a bit less than an hour. The meat was tasty and meltingly tender. The gravy made itself, really – I didn’t have to reduce it at all – I merely added the balsamic vinegar and it was done. Easy meal beginning to end.

What’s not: if you watch calories and fat, well, you may want to give this one a miss. I was astounded at the statistics in this dish, although I’ll say in my own defense, there probably isn’t more than about a heaping 1/4 cup of meat on a lamb shank. Well, at least the ones we had were quite stingy with the meat. But that made each bite worth savoring.

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Once in a blue moon I’ll make a cocktail when we’re having dinner guests. Usually it’s just wine we offer, but the other day I was flipping through an old magazine, saw this recipe and decided it sounded interesting. Indeed it is – I liked it a lot. Of our 8 guests, only 4 opted to try it. I did. I tried. I liked. I’ll make it again, maybe real soon. But it’s one of those that could sneak up on you, so be careful and don’t guzzle.

All the ingredients I got out, at-the-ready, and just before guests arrived my friend Cherrie’s hubby, Bud, made these drinks. Now if you are a traditionalist with cocktails – the “give me the straight stuff” kind of person, you probably won’t like this. Maybe too frou-frou. There’s nothing in it, though, other than whiskey (Jack Daniels was what we had), orange and lemon juices, sugar, and then the glasses or tumblers are coated in sugar that’s mixed with ground cloves. A lot of folks, I suppose, wouldn’t want to sully a good shot of Jack Daniels whiskey with sugar! Well, I did, and I liked it.

A sidecar, from its origins in London over 100 years ago was equal parts cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice, now known as “the French school”. Later, an “English school” of Sidecars emerged, as found in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which calls for two parts cognac and one part each of Cointreau and lemon juice. So, whiskey was never part of a sidecar. Who knew? Certainly not me!

Maybe I’ve mentioned it here before, but the first alcoholic drink I ever tried (I was 20) was Jim Beam bourbon and 7-up. My former father-in-law thought it would be a nice introduction for me to try it – he made a very mild one. I actually didn’t mind it, and even recently when Dave and I were in Las Vegas and went to one of the bars in a casino, I ordered one. I’m not much of a drinker in any case. My parents didn’t drink at all, and when I went to college, drinking just wasn’t “done.” It wasn’t until I was in my late 30’s, when I was single again, my friends Kathy & Peter and I took a 2-3 month course at a local college in wine appreciation, and I began drinking wine now and then. After Dave and I married, I would have a glass of wine (just one) most evenings, usually while I was cooking dinner, but as I’ve gotten older I only drink wine (or anything alcoholic) occasionally. Part of it is because I don’t need the calories. And I’m not very fond of tannic wines anymore, at any time. My DH really likes sharp, tannic wines, and to open a bottle of wine for me alone (a lighter, smoother type) would be silly. It wouldn’t get drunk in a month. But if the sharp part is tempered some – like in Sangria (I do love Sangria, and Trader Joe’s has a great one, called Sangria Ole if you haven’t tried it), well,  I could be more often tempted.

So, with this drink – where the sharpness of the alcohol is blunted with something citrusy or sweet, well, I could probably drink one of these sidecars a couple times a week if someone would make them for me! Bud did have to read and re-read the directions a couple of times to make sure he was chunking the lemons and slicing the oranges, muddling some, adding sugar here, not there. Sugar-ing and clove-ing the tumbler rims, etc. He did a great job – if there had been enough for seconds I might have succumbed. But considering the amount of whiskey, well maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t as I might not have gotten dinner on the table! I’m such a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. One drink and I’m a goner almost!

So anyway, these little numbers are fun. The recipe is from Sunset Magazine, in 2010. Tasty. Worth the trouble – but it would be nice if you’re the hostess – if you can get somebody else to do the prep and serve them for you. I’m always a one-armed paperhanger during the last 10 minutes before guests arrive. I used these silver mugs (they’re actually mint julep tumblers) to serve them in. And don’t forget to drop the one clove into each glass or mug before serving. And sip it all around the rim so you can enjoy the ground cloves which enhance the flavor a lot.

What’s good: the citrusy, sweet flavor – a very nice way to cut the sharpness of whiskey. A fun drink all around.
What’s not: probably the time to make it – not all that bad, but you do have to cut, squeeze, slice, mix, muddle, measure, and use a shaker too before you can finally pour out the drink.

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Really, this could be any kind of sweet onion, but Vidalias were the first out there in the race for sweet onions which didn’t happen until about the 1980’s. You can use Maui, Walla Walla, or the more rare Noonday onions from Texas. My friend Joan generously gives me a few of those latter ones each spring and she and I both like to find new ways to use them – Joan, here you go! Anyway – it’s just sweet onions you need. The onions are caramelized to bring out that ultra-sweet flavor, then combined with Greek yogurt (no sour cream here). VERY easy to make.

Did you know that Vidalia onions were first grown in the 1930’s? That was news to me until I read about the different varietals in sweet onions at Wikipedia. In case you’ve forgotten what’s different about them, it’s that they have a low sulfur content (that’s the stuff that makes our eyes burn) and they contain a lot more water. Hence they don’t keep very long, as you probably have discovered if you’ve left them in your pantry for any length of time.  I don’t keep any in my pantry at all unless I have a specific (read immediate) use for them. Actually I wrote up a post about a caramelized onion dip 3 years ago which uses regular onions. It’s similar . . . but different. It also uses yogurt and it has sour cream in it too. This one surely is healthier (all yogurt). And this one has thyme in it – one of my most favorite herbs. You can see the sprigs of variegated thyme in the photo at top. I prefer the pungency of regular thyme, but the variegated looks pretty in the dip, don’t you think?

What was nice about this one was how quickly the onions caramelized. The recipe, which came from Sunset Magazine, didn’t specifically say to caramelize the onions – to the dark, golden brown state that you might expect, but once those suckers began to brown (in a fairly hot nonstick skillet) I had to stand there stirring often – very often – to keep them from burning. So my dip may be even more caramelized than the recipe intended. I liked it that way.

So, you brown the onions (chopped up in fine dice) in some olive oil, then I added the fresh thyme to help bloom the oils in the herb. It cooled, then the mixture got added to yogurt. The recipe called for low-fat Greek yogurt – I used full fat, but you sure could try it with either low-fat or fat-free Fage – it probably would be fine! Season with salt, pepper, and I added some dried thyme that I scrunched between my palms to open up the flavors of the dried stuff. Make it a day ahead so the flavors have ample time to permeate throughout the yogurt. If you serve it immediately it will taste like you have just mixed up yogurt and onions.

What’s good: the healthy part foremost, and it was a less rich appetizer than, say, cheese and crackers. I made this for a dinner party where I served my Easy Cassoulet (a fairly heavy entrée), so I wanted a lighter nibble beforehand. It had lots of oniony flavor, which is what I was looking for. I served it with sangak bread, actually, not the crackers I used in the photo above. The recipe indicated serving it with potato chips (like with Lipton’s dip) but that didn’t appeal to me at all.
What’s not: merely that it’s not going to taste like Lipton’s dip – just don’t even think of comparing the two, okay?

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Oh, I’m so tickled to share this recipe – it’s SO easy. And SO tasty. It’s boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded a little to make them thinner, topped with a slather of mayo with chipotle chiles, further topped with a panko mixture and baked for about 15 minutes. How’s that for easy?

Over on my list of “Favs,” there aren’t very many that I’d call easy. A few. But this? It’s going on the list. Oh, so easy to make. It may become part of my regular rotation. It’s full of flavor. The chicken is tender and juicy, and it takes about 10-15 minutes of prep time max, and bakes for 15 minutes. I had dinner on the table in about 40 minutes. While the chicken baked I whipped up a green salad, and I had a left over veggie to go with it. Dinner done! Love that.

Here’s the procedure . . . first I opened up this jar you see at left – it’s called The Art of Chipotle, Chipotle Paste with Adobo – found it at my local grocery store – instead of having to open a can of chipotle chiles in adobo, or dig out some of the frozen mush I have, I now have a new condiment (which will take up refrigerator space unfortunately). The paste is pureed, so you don’t have to handle the chiles (which burn my fingers) – just use a spoon to measure out what you need. You can see the chipotle paste in the bowl with the mayo. The original recipe called for up to twice as much chipotle – I tend to under-heat with chipotle – so I used just a tablespoon instead.

After mixing it up, adding dried cilantro (I learned a lesson recently about dried cilantro – it gives a nice punch of citrusy flavor), I slathered the mixture on the chicken breasts that I’d pounded out to 1/2 inch thick. I’d lightly oiled the baking dish so the meat wouldn’t stick. I also made a lightly moistened panko mixture too – moistened with a little bit of oil and added some more of the dried cilantro. The center picture is the chicken ready to bake. The chicken went into a hot oven for about 15 minutes. There you can see the finished dish, nice and golden brown. From start to finish this dinner took me about 40 minutes.

COSTCO CHICKEN POUCHES: Certainly I’ve mentioned before that I buy those pouches of chicken breasts (fresh) at Costco. The  6 pouches (2 per pouch) are separated and then get thrown into the freezer and I pull them out when I want them. DEFROSTING: The pouch goes into a deep bowl of cold water. I put a big wide pasta bowl on top of the chicken (the bowl just fits into the bigger bowl with enough room for my fingers to grab it), then a heavy object goes in the inner bowl (I use a ceramic canister that sits near the kitchen sink – it’s just decorative, doesn’t contain anything – use something that won’t spill, obviously) to weight down the meat. Sometimes as the pouches defrost they’ll move around in the water (air displacement, I suppose), so that’s why the wide bowl on top needs to keep that chicken under water! You don’t want the chicken pouch(es) to float – the poultry needs to stay submerged. It takes about 2 hours or so (maybe 3) to defrost the chicken, depending on how thick the package is. After 2 hours I massage the pouch – if there is still firm/frozen meat in the middle, it stays in the water for another hour. The cold from the frozen pouch keeps the water cold-cold, enough so there’s no chance of salmonella forming, and yet it’s warm enough that it defrosts easily enough.

We are back singing in our church choir, so  on rehearsal nights I’ve got to be prompt with dinner on the table by 6 pm. With this dish it will be easy to do! The recipe was adapted quite a bit from a Phillis Carey one I found in one of her cookbooks. I added the cilantro (fresh and dried) and the oiled panko crust. So the idea was hers, but I flew off on a tangent when I made it.

What’s good: certainly the ease of making it. It would even be worthy of a company meal. Now that’s saying something for me to have an “easy” dish I’d make for guests. Does that give you any idea how good this is? And FYI, there is just a little HINT of heat – some people might not even notice it.
What’s not: really nothing. It’s a winner of a recipe.

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