Chicken and Winter Vegetables with Balsamic Fig Sauce

Have you ever had a particular flavor or spice in a dish that you've tried to recreate? Our good friend had us over for a holiday dinner and made a recipe that entailed delicious apricot preserves with Dijon mustard and shallots over pork tenderloin. I'm not doing it justice by that description but it was really tasty. I've decided to make a variation of that using fig preserves, shallots and chicken along with seasonal vegetables. One reason for this recipe is that I'm always trying to include lots of fresh vegetables especially at dinner time; using a large skillet I simply saute seasonal vegetables adding a little no salt chicken or vegetable stock at the end and steam until tender. I suppose in the recipe below you could skip the chicken and just use the vegetables for a healthier and lighter version.

Recipe:
Trim 2 chicken breasts of extraneous fat and season with salt and pepper. I use kosher salt sparingly.

Heat 2 tbls of olive oil or expeller pressed grape seed oil in saute pan and cook chicken until no longer pink inside.Remove chicken and keep warm.  Add one chopped shallot and saute for 2 minutes then add 1 cup each of broccoli florets, cauliflower, and carrots and some chopped thyme and cook for 10 minutes adding a little chicken stock at the end. Cut chicken into strips on the diagonal and put back into pan with vegetables and cook another 3 minutes then remove to warm plate.

Sauce: 2 tbls fig preserves, 1 tbls balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon mustard. Whisk into saute pan with remaining chicken stock and heat through. Pour over chicken and vegetables. Serve with brown Basmati rice. I cheated a little and used the microwave version of rice from Whole Foods ( Seeds of Change), it's delicious.

I also made a salad of winter greens, radicchio and escarole with a vinaigrette. for the vinaigrette: macerate small shallot with juice of lemon add a pinch of salt and pepper. Add 1/4 cup of olive oil. This is a tart but good dressing for heavier lettuces.

Hearts

You would think we had our fill of sugar cookies during the holiday season...we (my kids and I) bake lots of cookies and eat a majority of them. We always have good intentions of sharing, but they just seem to disappear!

Over the weekend my daughter asked me to make sugar cookies so I thought hearts would be nice since Valentine's Day is around the corner. This recipe is from an old neighbor who loved to bake. It's so simple: cream 1 cup of butter (2 sticks) together with 1and a half cups of sifted powdered sugar; then add 1 egg and a tsp of vanilla and mix until combined. Next, add to the mix 2 and a half cups of all purpose flour and a teaspoon of baking soda until a dough forms. Chill dough for several hours then roll into shapes and decorate with sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes. They really are delicious, and I think it's because of the confectioners sugar. Light and crispy so you can't eat just one, sorry.

The Art and Science of Kitchen Tools

I think we can all agree that cooking is both an art and a science because of the obvious...fire, water, heat, all science and spices, sauces, presentation, all art. Well, after reading Bee Wilson's book, Consider the Fork, I have a new fondness for the tools ( art and science) we use in our kitchens. Her book is a little history mixed in with the evolution of kitchen tools discussing everything between the universal use of spoons to refrigeration. For example, consider the wooden spoon, balloon whisk, or mortal and pestle that is a staple in almost every kitchen in the world and has been around for a long time. Yet the technology side of cooking begs us to keep inventing more gadgets to help us make life easier...enter the Cuisinart. So whether you use a wok, or a stainless steel saute pan, and a french press for coffee, the equipment is as important as the food that results. And there is no stone, I mean tool, left unturned in this book. 
By the way, I really appreciate the chapter on tongs, because I constantly use the only pair of kitchen tongs that I have and cannot seem to find a suitable replacement. My pair is held together by a simple clip at the top and is indispensable in my kitchen. I use them for everything from salad tossing to turning meat and plating foods.

Maialino Restaurant at the Gramercy Hotel NYC

Someone asked me to recommend a place to eat lunch/brunch in Manhattan.
If you are looking for a great place to have weekend brunch in NYC, Maialino in the Gramercy Park Hotel (21st and Lexington) is wonderful.
We took my son there this past fall for his 26th birthday. The Roman inspired brunch menu offers everything from frittata, stone cut oatmeal, olive oil muffin and toffee glazed brioche, and pasta dishes that are hearty yet nicely portioned. Also, if you are staying at the hotel, you'll be able to stroll in the Gramercy Park across the street which is lovely and very private...only 300 or plus keys for private residents. We had a chance by sheer luck to walk through the park after brunch and you do feel sort of hemmed in with gates all around, but that can be a nice thing in NYC.

Photo from website of the Gramercy Park Hotel

Stamp of approval

The New York Times did a recent article on a rubber stamp shop in Manhattan that has over ten thousand stamps! Crafty you might say, but not for me. I used to think that making a card for someone was way beyond my crafting abilities-enter desperation to find a card that was simple without too much waxing on about love or greatness or whatever, and didn't have sparkles a plenty. I must admit that there are beautiful cards available and I do love sparkles, but sometimes it's nice to put your own ideas on a card whether they are simple or elaborate ( I vote for simple). Enter stamps...
Below is a picture of some of the stamps that I use when I want to add a little pizazz to a card. I always seem to have card stock around so making a card can save time and money. Who doesn't like that?

Comfort food with a nutrtional twist

Lately my house has been chilly. If you live in a chilly house you'll need some warm food to comfort you, right? Reminds me of the book, If You Give A Mouse a Cookie...and so one thing leads to another. 
The dish below, Chicken Paprika, is from an old tried and true cookbook called Main Line Classics. This time I added lots of broccoli florets and used reduced sodium chicken broth and only a pinch of half n half. Adding lots of parsley gives it intense flavor and a few more shakes of paprika doesn't hurt either. I also made a salad with spring mix, goat cheese and pears along with some multigrain bread. Then, after dinner of course we needed a sweet...

Art and Lunch

 This past weekend my family and I visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Dancing Around The Bride.  The exhibit features works by John Cage (composer), Merce Cunningham (choreographer ), Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg (visual artists) and pays tribute to Marcel Duchamp's influence as one of the most important artists of the 20th Century. Luckily, we happened to be there right around the time that the Cunningham Dancers performed while occasional notes were played on the piano blending the visual and performing arts together. January 21 is the last day to experience the artistic collaboration of these five artists under one roof.

After the show, we were lucky enough to happen upon Granite Hill, a Stephen Starr restaurant located on the ground floor of the museum. Below is a picture of my frisee salad with poached egg and warm butternut squash in a creamy lemon dressing. Perfection. We loved having such a quiet and civilized lunch so we could discuss the exhibit of course!

Cookies and Cookbooks

Chocolate Chips

January in our house is usually a time to hunker down and recharge ourselves after a busy holiday season traveling to see relatives and eating rich foods. But I have to admit that during the coldest month of the year, I find myself drawn to being in the kitchen returning to making simple things like these chocolate chip cookies. They add a nice bit of warmth to a cold afternoon. I also really enjoy reading new cookbooks and exploring new ideas for the year ahead.  







I've recently been spending long evenings reading The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis.  I was attracted to this book to learn more about life on a Southern farm and the seasonal eating that was a part of everyday life. And while some of the recipes are a bit rich for my usual menus, it is a wonderful account of living off the land.
 


In this cookbook/memoir Ms. Lewis emphasizes that it's in the planting, gathering, and preparing that we teach ourselves the unforgettable lessons of food that later define our traditions and memories. The book is divided into four seasons relating stories of how each season brought a bounty of fresh and wonderful food and the recipes that resulted from hard work, collaboration, and devotion.  My favorite season so far is summer for the fried chicken and the strawberries and cream. I love how they gathered both wild and cultivated strawberries then topped them with cream that had set from the milk. A Simple and delicious sugary treat on a hot summer day. 

Italy

Arno River

As I spent part of the day tidying up our holiday gifts, cards, and pictures, I came across these pictures that my daughter recently took in Italy. She just returned from a four month study abroad in time for Christmas and we could not stop talking about her wonderful time there. Her courses  focused on sustainable agribusiness and the global food culture of Italy which included visiting farms throughout Tuscany. My husband and I and younger daughter were lucky enough to visit her in September, and here is a recap of our trip.

The Duomo

Rome: This past September, when we spent a couple of days there, I was truly amazed at the enormity of the Coliseum, the splendor of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica, the awesomeness of the Forum and the captivating Tivoli Fountain. I could spend much more time talking about the Spanish Steps, The Parthenon, the food…etc but I must reiterate how awestruck we were of Rome and the feeling that you get that lifetimes were spent cultivating the events that took place there.

The Coliseum

Florence: Imagine that Florence was originally a place for Caesar’s soldiers to go when they retired in 59 B.C...of course back then it was a vastly different place. But still I have to think of the Florence I got to know, its tiny streets packed with trattorias and shops, the daily accordion players that lumber into trattorias just as you dip your Tuscan bread into the best olive oil in the world and the cool, sunny weather that never disappoints.  The fact that no matter where you look in Florence there is history…The Duomo, Uffizi Gallery, Baptistery, Accademia, the cobblestones that simply guide you along rather than trip you, to see Florence’s charm. Last word, gelato…simple yet sublime.

So I come away with the thought that travel is worth its weight in gold for the idea that it’s not to say you’ve been here and there but to feel that you’ve really experienced the culture and all its offerings.

Remembering Dr. Barnes' Birthday

Credit: Photo © Tom Crane courtesy the Barnes Foundation

 

Thought it might be appropriate to do a post on the Barnes because January is the month that the art visionary Dr. Albert C. Barnes was born (1872-1951).


This past summer after much controversy and court discussion, the Barnes Museum opened in its new location in Philadelphia. I must say that I approached visiting the new location with trepidation. The original house in Merion, PA where the Barnes collection was previously located (since 1922) has a special place in my heart. I frequented the Barnes as a young lady in my twenties and spent the better part of a day there on the day before my first child was born 26 years ago. I knew straight away that he would become an avid art lover because of that. I continued to visit the Barnes bringing my children and family over the years. When I finally got around to visiting the new Barnes, I was happy to see that the new location and museum are wonderful and should be a must do on anyone’s art museum list.

Reading

Next on the nightstand is Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Sometimes I move it to the floor when I can’t imagine what in the world she is trying to say. I have always been intrigued by Dickinson’s work but have never had the time until now to read. Dickinson’s life was shrouded in mystery and her writing is quite the same. I have learned more about the spirit and the soul which Dickinson loves to write about by understanding the period in which she lived. The idea that she shunned the religious beliefs that her family believed so strongly tells us that she was steadfast in her own beliefs of life, and redemption. I just picked up a copy of Dickinson by Harvard critic, Helen Vendler. If she can’t ease my understanding of Dickinson’s poetry well then on the floor it remains.

Next up: The New Yorker Magazine...January is a perfect time to catch up on short stories.

Chocolate Cake

Beatty's Chocolate Cake from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook made by Caroline.

We all agree in our family that this is the best chocolate cake ever! We have made this cake for birthdays and celebrations and just because it's so good. We recently had this on New Year's Day.