Come to the Table

Apricot & Walnut Chicken

Wow!  A new recipe that is quick for a weeknight dinner and involves dried fruit and nuts!

I don't think I've had dried apricots since I went on a backpacking trip many years ago.  Now I have a new reason to return to the dried fruit section of the grocery store: "Dried-and-True Apricot Chicken with Rice."  The recipe follows.

This recipe is another newspaper find.  It is easy to make and uses things that you probably already have in your pantry, fridge or freezer.  The apricot, walnut, and chicken combination is delicious with interesting textures.  It's sweet but not overly so for a dinner dish. 

We had it with sauteed zucchini sprinkled with lemon juice and Trader Joe's "21 Seasoning Salute."  Some friends gave me the jar of seasoning when I stayed at their place while on a road trip down the West Coast.  But that's a story for another day.

SHF #15 Chipper Banana Muffins

The concept for Sugar High Friday #15 is to make something sweet without using sugar.  I admit that my entry does have a bit of white sugar, and, oh, some chocolate chips.  But I think it still qualifies as low on the sugar scale.

These "Chipper Banana Muffins" from the Weight Watchers cookbook Simply the Best include bananas, unsweetened applesauce, and skim buttermilk.  You could omit the chocolate chips to make them less sweet, but who would willingly omit chocolate?!

Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Bars

This recipe could also be called "How to Make your Entire House Smell like Butter."

These shortbread cookies are another recent newspaper find.  When I read the recipe and article about them on a Saturday, I thought they would be the perfect thing to take to friend I was going to visit for lunch a few days later.

These buttery gems are simple to put together if you have the right tools: a cutting board, a good knife for chopping the bittersweet chocolate and almonds (I like to use a large bread knife), and a food processor.

Deepest, Darkest Chocolate Sauce

Why have a little bit of chocolate sauce on your ice cream when you can have a little bit of ice cream on your chocolate sauce?

I didn't really eat this inverted sundae but I hope the picture makes the point that this is a sauce to be reckoned with.

This silky concoction is from Fran Bigelow's Pure Chocolate.  It's called "deepest, darkest chocolate sauce" for good reason.  With the use of a sifter and a sieve plus two turns cooked over the stove, it's more complicated to make than the "pure chocolate sauce" I shared earlier, but worth it. 

Grains + Nuts + Butter = Yum!

One of the signs of a successful dinner party is when one of the guests end up at the kitchen table after dinner feverishly copying one or two of the host's recipes from the evening.  That is how I came to have a recipe for a favulous "Mixed Grain Pilaf."  I was living in Minnesota and part of a dinner group that met each month in different homes.  The host kindly shared her recipe with me.  This pilaf was wonderful for a Minnesota winter.  I have made it many times since in various climates.

The Blecch Factor

Let me do you a favor.  When you're cooking with a recipe that calls for fresh cilantro and you go to the store and all they have is cilantro in a tube, just forget it.  Skip the cilantro.

I was looking for cilantro to make Nigella Lawson's Sake Steak and Rice, but all the store had was mounds of parsley.  I saw this cilantro in the produce section where the real cilantro was supposed to be, and I decided to try it.  Bad idea.

It does taste pretty much like the herb I needed, but the texture was what made me say "blecch."

Toasted Almond Waffles

It's fun to receive a new cookbook as a gift.  So many new recipes and tastes to try.  It's especially fun to receive a new cookbook that comes with the giver's typed recommendations and variations on a majority of its offerings!

I received The Totally Pancakes and Waffles Cookbook and an accompanying guide last summer.  Recently, I made Toasted Almond Waffles according to the giver's specifications, which increased the almond extract and decreased the vanilla.  I think that was a good idea, an I might try even more almond extract next time to heighten the nut flavor.

Pancakes, Nigella's Way

How many pancake recipes can a person have in her breakfast repertoire?  As many as she wants!

Usually I make buttermilk pancakes with a classic Betty Crocker recipe (my version of Betty Crocker's cookbook is from 1987 with "Betty" wearing a fluffy white bow tie on her blouse.)  But without any buttermilk in the fridge and an urge for pancakes, I turned to Nigella to infuse some Domestic Goddess-ness into this simple morning treat.

I used Nigella's recipe for American Breakfast Pancakes.  My favorite discovery from this recipe is her suggestion to "put all the ingredients into a blender and blitz."   Now when I make pancakes I put the egg in the blender first and run it for a few seconds, then I add the wet ingredients to the beaten egg and mix.  Then I add the dry ingredients which I have already mixed with a fork, and blend everything together for the shortest time needed until the dry ingredients are moistened.

A Thank You Brunch

During December I read and hear about office parties and staff lunches and holiday get-togethers with co-workers.  Since I have a small staff of three other people who work very hard throughout the year, especially around Christmas, I decided to start a new tradition and host a New Year's Brunch for us. 

As we ate, I asked everyone about their highlights from 2005 that were not work-related.  We told stories, laughed, and bonded.  What a great way to begin working together in the new year!

For this brunch, I wanted to make dishes from scratch, ahead of time, with very little assembly required.  Here's what I came up with:

Staff Thank You Brunch
Coffee Cake (recipe follows)
Smoked Ham Rolls with Barefoot Contessa's Garlic-Herb Cream Cheese
Fresh Fruit (Blackberries, Blueberries, Oranges & Bananas) with Barefoot Contessa's Honey Vanilla Yogurt
Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Cranberry Juice and Orange Juice