Sugared Shortbread

Cookies are an important time of my day. With coffee for breakfast. As a pick me up in the late afternoon. And a couple with a shot of milk before bed make for a good night's sleep.

I was introduced to Sugared Shortbread by my neighbor and good friend Kathleen. She can brew a pot of coffee and have a tasty baked good ready at a moment's notice. Even if I stop by unannounced. These buttery, dense treats are melt-in-your mouth delicious and include rice flour as an ingredient. Rice flour is available at your local grocery store in the baking aisle or can be bought online. One brand I typically use is Bob's Red Mill White Rice Flour. Or make your own rice flour by grinding white rice in a coffee bean grinder.



If you start a batch of Sugared Shortbread now, it will be ready for when that next cookie attack hits.



Sugared Shortbread

makes 32 cookies

2 cups flour
1/4 cup rice flour such as Bob's Red Mill White Rice Flour *
1/4 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling on top
1 cup butter, melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 8 x 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

Combine the flour, rice flour and sugar. Stir in the melted butter. Add a little more flour if needed for the dough to be a firm consistency. Press into prepared pan to a thickness of about 1 inch.

Bake for about 40 - 45 minutes or until the shortbread is evenly golden brown. Cut immediately into cookie sticks and sprinkle generously with the extra sugar. Cool completely before removing from pan.

* note - rice flour can be made by grinding white rice in a clean coffee grinder.

Brie & Caramelized Onion Stuffed Chicken

When I cook dinner at home, I relax, usually take my time, have a glass of wine, and get dinner to the table in an unhurried manner. Cooking for my personal cheffing clients is different. Very different.

I cook for my clients weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. I even have a few clients that just call me up and hope that I can fit them into my schedule. The day starts with packing my car with my cooking supplies, zipping through the grocery store, chatting with my favorite checkout clerk Bonnie, and packing the groceries in my eco-friendly bags, before heading to my client's home.

Upon arrival, at usually an empty house, I chat with the dogs, unpack the groceries, sharpen my knives, put on my impeccable white apron (a la Julia Child), and start my day. With menu in hand, I plan my cooking balancing act. My goal is to cook a complete meal in about 45 minutes, give of take time for entrees requiring several steps to prepare like Brie and Caramelized Onion Stuffed Chicken versus ones that I can whip through such as Ginger Honey Barbecued Pork Tenderloin.

Typically, I have many dishes underway at the same time because I want to minimize the time it takes me to prepare all the meals. Pasta will be cooking for Parmesan orzo and peas, butternut squash, turnips, red potatoes, and baby carrots will be roasting in the oven, onions will be caramelizing on the stove top, and I will be mixing up the dressing for a Caesar salad all at the same time. Add in packaging the meals, adding the labels for heating instructions, and washing dishes and packing the refrigerator full of meals, my day is then complete.

A client favorite is Brie and Caramelized Stuffed Chicken. Chicken breasts are stuffed to overflowing with slow cooked, wine infused onions, garlic, and Brie cheese. After and quick sear to brown the outside of the chicken, it finishes up in the oven. A light sauce of wine, chicken stock and sage complete the dish.

This is a Sunday dinner type of dish. Put it on your menu next week and enjoy dinner with family and friends.


Caramelized Onion and Brie Stuffed Chicken

adapted from a recipe on myrecipes.com

6 servings

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large onion, sliced thin, about 4 cups
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3/4 cup white wine, divided
about 6 ounces of Brie cheese, rind removed and cut into 6 slices
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add sliced onion, salt and pepper and sauté, stirring occasionally,  for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown. Add sliced garlic and sauté 5 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup of wine and cook 5 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Spoon 3/4 of the onion mixture into a bowl and the remaining 1/4 into another bowl - reserving for the sauce. Let onion mixture cool.

Cut a horizontal slit through the thickest portion of each chicken breast to form a pocket. Stuff about 1 - 2 tablespoons of the onion mixture into each pocket along with a slice of the Brie cheese.

In the same saute pan that the onions were cooked in, add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken in batches and brown chicken on each side; about 3 - 4 minutes per side. Remove chicken and place on a large baking sheet. Finish cooking the chicken in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the thickest part of the chicken registers about 165 degrees on a thermometer. Make sure you are testing the temperature of the chicken and not the stuffing.

Meanwhile, in the same saute pan, add the reserved 1/4 of the onion mixture and 1/2 cup wine. Bring to a boil and reduce for about 3 - 5 minutes. Add the sage and chicken stock and continue boiling for an additional 4 - 5 minutes. Add the butter and stir to melt.

Remove the chicken from the oven and place on a platter. Spoon sauce over the top and serve.

The Crab Cake

As a God-fearing, church-going Catholic, I follow the Lenten regulations of abstaining from meat on Fridays mainly because I want to improve my chances of making it to Heaven. It is only these Fridays during Lent that I crave a huge, juicy cheeseburger because I am "not supposed" to eat meat on these days.

As a backup to my burger desire, I keep a can of fresh crab meat on hand to make The Crab Cake instead. A mostly crab meat filled patty with barely enough egg and panko to bind it together reminds of warm summer days spent at The Shore instead of the burger of my dreams.

Crab cakes are a weekly request from my clients. I think I will put in a request to make them for myself this Friday.

The Crab Cake

Use crab meat from the refrigerated section near the seafood department of your local grocery store or Costco. I use Phillip's backfin or special varieties.

makes 12 crab cakes or about 4 servings

1/3 cup diced onion
1/3 cup diced celery
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 egg
1 pound of fresh crab meat, either backfin or special varieties
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup panko plus more for dredging crab cakes in before sauteing
canola oil and butter for frying

for classic tartar sauce --
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
squeeze of lemon juice

shredded iceberg lettuce

In a large saute pan, heat about a tablespoon of canola oil and saute the onion and celery for 4 - 5 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, gently combine the Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, Old Bay seasoning, dry mustard, parsley, egg, crab meat, 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, and 1/2 cup of panko and the onion-celery mixture. Make sure that you do not mix too much because you do not want to break up the crab pieces.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, form the crab mixture into 12 crab cakes. If you have time, refrigerate, covered for 30 minutes to help the crab cakes hold their shape while sauteing.

Heat a large saute pan to medium high. Drizzle about 1 - 2 tablespoons of oil and add 1/2 tablespoon of butter into pan. Place about 1 cup of panko in a shallow dish. Dredge each side of the crab cakes in the panko and saute for about 3 - 4 minutes per side or until golden brown. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.

For the tartar sauce, in a small bowl combine the 1 cup of mayonnaise, pickle relish and lemon juice.

Serve crab cakes on top of shredded iceberg lettuce with a squeeze of lemon and classic tartar sauce.

Cinnamon Crunch Popcorn

Growing up, we had a Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper. By what seemed like magic, the popcorn popper would turn oil and corn kernels into an overflowing bowl of perfectly popped popcorn. The magic stirring wand on the base of the popper constantly moved the kernels insuring all the corn popped without burning. Adding a pat or two of butter to the special butter well on top of the popper allowed it to melt over the corn as it popped. The icing on the cake was that the plastic dome doubled as a bowl meaning less clean up after gorging on handful after handful of buttery popcorn.

When I had kids of my own, I first made microwave popcorn for them. Quick, convenient, and no mess to clean up, it was an ideal snack for a mom with 3 kids under 4 years old. As my kids got older, we experimented with making popcorn in a pot on the stove top. We liked the big, fluffy pieces of popcorn this method produced, and the popcorn did not have that processed taste like the microwave version. With lots of shaking of the heavy pot and steam sneaking out from under the lid, making popcorn was sometimes a dangerous cooking adventure for my kids and I.

When my daughter asked for a popcorn popper for Christmas a couple years ago, I headed to the Internet to do some research. There were fancy poppers which are miniature versions of the poppers used at carnivals and the circus. Fun but impractical. Where would I store that thing? There were poppers by major appliance makers each touting some special feature. But these poppers tended to be on the expensive side. I only wanted to buy a popcorn popper. Not a popper, chopper, dicer, mixer, and blender all in one.

Then I remembered the Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper of my youth and all the fun my best friend Susie and I had making bowls upon bowls of perfectly popped and buttered popcorn at our weekly sleepovers. I had found the popper for my daughter!

After over 2 years of near constant use, my daughter's Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper pops a beautiful bowl of popcorn every time. We usually are just butter and salt popcorn eaters. I decided it ws time to change it up and did a little experimenting to come up with with different flavored popcorns.

Cinnamon Crunch Popcorn was invented to satisfy my salty and sweet cravings. The corn is popped in a mixture of oil and sugar so each piece of popped corn in covered with a slightly crunchy sugary coating. The hot, just popped kernels are then tossed with a cinnamon, sugar and salt mixture for added flavor.

Make a double batch. Cinnamon Crunch Popcorn will disappear quicker than it took you to make it.



Cinnamon Crunch Popcorn
makes about 6 cups

2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup popcorn
1/4 cup oil
2 tablespoons sugar

In a small bowl, combine cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and the salt. Set aside.

Put oil, popcorn and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar into the popper If using a Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper, it will do all the work for you. After the popcorn stops popping, flip over the dome and add the cinnamon mixture. Using a large spoon, toss to coat the popcorn evenly with the mixture. Serve immediately or spread on a large baking sheet to cool and package in an airtight container.

If using a pot with a lid, place it on the stove top over high heat. Add the oil, popcorn and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar to the pot and place the lid on top. Start shaking the pot as soon as the corn starts to pop. Continue shaking until the popping almost stops. Remove quickly from heat, open lid and pour in cinnamon mixture over hot popcorn. Toss the popcorn and the mixture with a large spoon making sure all the popcorn is coated. Serve immediately or spread on a large baking sheet to cool and package in an airtight container.

Print recipe

The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We have been told this for years. It is the meal that jump starts the day. In the warm summer months, a smoothie whipped up with nonfat Greek yogurt and ripe strawberries, peaches and plums is a standard breakfast at our house. But as the warm days give way to cold and dark winter mornings, something a little more hardy and not so healthy is a grab and go meal that can be eaten with one hand.

I have loved the American institution that is the Egg McMuffin for as long as I can remember. The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich was created to fill my need for this McDonald's breakfast staple when there was not a McDonald's in sight. The English muffin is made with white flour, the egg is high in cholesterol, the ham and American cheese are loaded with fat, and the butter is full of calories, but boy does this morning sandwich sure taste good. On occasion, I have been known to make a half dozen of The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich, wrap each in parchment paper, and store them in the refrigerator for a quick breakfast. Just heat in the microwave on low power for about a minute and you will be out the door and on with your day in no time at all.

Swimsuit season is months away. Why not enjoy The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich today. Add a glass of orange juice and all your food groups are covered.



The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich

makes 1 sandwich

1 English muffin, split
butter
1 large egg
2 slices American cheese
2 slices honey ham

Heat a small skillet to medium and add a pat of butter. Spray the inside of a 3 inch round biscuit cutter and place in the skillet. Crack egg into the biscuit cutter and cook the egg until the outside of the yolk is cooked just through.


Loosen the egg from the edge of the cutter with a small knife and remove the cutter from the pan. Flip the egg and cook for an additional 2 - 3 minutes. You want the yolk of the egg just cooked through.


Remove to a plate and cover to keep warm. Add the ham to the pan and cook to just heat through.

Meanwhile, toast the English muffin and butter both sides. Immediately top each side with a slice of American cheese. Place the ham on the bottom half of the muffin and top with the cooked egg. Place the remaining half of the muffin on top of the egg.

Breakfast is served.

Print recipe

Triple Cheese Stuffed Shells with Sausage and Spinach

People comment on my blog posts. I don't get hundreds of comments like The Pioneer Woman or Smitten Kitchen, but I do get some comments. Some readers say they like my recipes or photographs. Others give me feedback on a certain recipe that they have tried. Still other readers relate to the story behind one of my recipes and then give me a little insight into themselves.

Personally, I do not know the people who comment on my blog. I only know my readers through the cyber world and many of them now seem like old friends. I did meet one person who reads my blog. By chance, we were both at a taping of The Martha Stewart Show. She recognized me from my profile picture. Kinda weird and kinda freaky.

I like reading the comments posted on my blog, and it feels like a warm hug. Realizing I am helping at least a few people get dinner on the table is a satisfying feeling. For some people, dinner time is very stressful and if I can do a little bit to make it less of a chore and more enjoyable, my blog is a success.

I received an email not to long ago from a reader inquiring if I had a delicious stuffed shells recipe. Little did this reader know that Triple Cheese Stuffed Shells with Sausage and Spinach is an almost weekly request from my clients - especially during the blustery, snowy, and long winter season. One client commented that it is the perfect meal with each shell holding its own complete meal.

With our latest blast of snow and bone-chilling temperatures, I whipped up a batch of stuffed shells on a recent school cancelling snowy day. Along with my kids, a favorite Guest Eater - Two Scoops - spent the day at our house and joined us for dinner. All were thrilled when finding out what was on tap for dinner except for No Thank You Boy. He choose to devour 2 bowls of pasta with marinara sauce.


Triple Cheese Stuffed Shells with Sausage and Spinach is a warm-you-to-the-bones meal that is a perfect make ahead entree. This recipe is for you Angela!!



Triple Cheese Stuffed Shells with Sausage and Spinach

I use Barilla Jumbo Shell Pasta. There are about 35+ shells per box. My recipe calls for sweet Italian turkey sausage but feel free to substitute your favorite kind of Italian sausage.

serves 6 with leftovers

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (14 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 stalks of fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried
1+ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 package jumbo pasta shells, cooked al dente rinsed with cold water and set aside
1 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage, cooked and crumbled
1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
3 cups ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To make the sauce, saute onions in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil until transparent. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil, salt and sugar and simmer sauce for about 20 - 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the sausage, spinach, ricotta cheese, 1 1/2 cups of the mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup of the parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

In a 9 x 13 baking dish, spread about 1 cup of the sauce. Fill each shell with the cheese mixture and arrange in the baking dish. Top the filled shells with another generous cup of the sauce and sprinkle with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Bake for about 25 - 35 minutes until bubbly and hot. Serve with remaining marinara sauce, if desired.

Serve with a tossed salad of romaine lettuce, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, slice peppercinis, and Parmesan cheese with a balsamic dressing and a big basket of garlicky toasted Italian bread.

Lemon Chicken with Artichokes and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Lemon Chicken with Artichokes and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Sometimes it takes a few trys until I get a dish right. That is how it is with most things in life.

I have loved to cook for as long as I can remember. Most of my jobs early in my life involved food in some sort of way. I was a busgirl at a local hamburger restaurant when I was 15. I worked at an ice cream shop and scooped until my arm was sore when I was 19. I was the weekend cook at my sorority house when I was 22. When I graduated college, the stars aligned and I took my dream job as....... a commercial real estate appraiser. Not.

I was lured by a job in the big city with a steady paycheck, a briefcase, and a train ride to and from work. My first appraisal job lead to two more appraisal jobs until 1 then 2 then 3 kids were running around our house. My appraisal life was over, and I was not sad to see it go.

Fast forward 10 years and with the kids in school full time, I was back in the kitchen and working in a small gourmet cafe. Planning menus, making sandwiches with funky names on focaccia bread, washing piles of dishing, waiting on customers; I was in my glory. It did not seem like work to me. Two years later the cafe closed its doors, and I was again looking for my next food job.

I cooked and I cooked and I cooked for my family. But there is just so much food one family can eat. I stumbled upon the notion of being a personal chef. My days are spent not only cooking for my family, but for 5 other families as well. Each family has a different set of tastes and the menus I prepare are ever changing. There is not a day that I am bored or I wish I was doing something else.

It took a few trys until I found the right job for me. You know it is the right one when it doesn't feel like work. Being a personal chef doesn't feel like work to me.

Lemon Chicken with Artichokes and Sun Dried Tomatoes was a dish that took a few trys to perfect. The pan sauteed chicken is bathed in a light lemony sauce punctuated by artichoke hearts, tart sun dried tomatoes, and gets a kick from Dijon mustard.

This dish comes together so quickly it doesn't seem like work to get dinner on the table.

Lemon Chicken with Artichokes and Sun Dried Tomatoes
serves 4

4 chicken breasts, sliced lengthwise into thin cutlets
salt
pepper
flour
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup white wine
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 (14 ounce can) artichoke hearts, quartered
8 sun dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and sliced in thin strips
1/2 lemon, sliced paper thin
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour.

Heat a large saute pan to medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon butter and the olive oil. Saute the chicken until golden brown and cooked through, about 3 - 4 minutes per side depending on the thickness of the chicken. Remove from pan and keep warm.

In the same pan, add the wine and bring to a boil. Whisk in the mustard and chicken stock. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter and whisk until it melts and the sauce thickens slightly. Gently stir in the artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and lemon slices. Add the sauteed chicken and season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with the parsley.