When you’re roasting a chicken breast, skin and bones yield the very best flavor.  It’s also very important to have your split breasts closer to room temperature before throwing in the hot oven.  I drizzled and seasoned these about an hour before they went into the oven creating an optimally tender result.  I’ve cooked them straight out of the fridge lots of times.  Fear not, in a time crunch this won’t wreck your dinner.  You simply won’t have *ideal* results.  I’m led to wonder if this is what went wrong with my bone in ribeye at Wolfgang Puck’s CUT in Las Vegas – surely they couldn’t be aiming for mediocre?

As a photography aside, I am dutifully working through a Publix (grocery store generic) paprika that I picked up this summer in Rosemary Beach, FL.  I kind of hate it.  The flavor is fine but the color is WAY TOO ORANGE!  I’ll probably throw it out soon, but take note if you use a different brand your chicken will have a slightly different color.  As my mother taught me, the purpose of  paprika is for coloring – not for flavor.  So if it’s not serving it’s purpose, I guess I should throw it out.

Roasted Chicken Breasts with Whiskey Portabella Mushroom Pan Sauce

serves 2

2 medium chicken split breasts (out of the fridge an hour before cooking if you can!)

olive oil

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

paprika

1 and 1/2 tbsp butter

2 large portabella mushroom caps, chopped

pan drippings 2 roast split breasts

1 c. hot water

1/3 c. Makers Mark Bourbon Whiskey

1 tsp corn starch and 2 tbsp water mixed together

Preheat your oven to 425.  Place chicken breasts in a heavy bottomed saute pan.  Drizzle chicken breasts with olive oil, then generously sprinkle with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and paprika.  Roast chicken in oven for about 45 minutes to an hour – until they have an internal temperature of 165.  Remove to a cutting board to rest.

Warm a separate saute pan over medium high heat.  Add butter after two minutes to melt, then add chopped portabella mushrooms.  Sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, then brown thoroughly until mushroom water has been released and evaporated.  Set aside.

Spoon off any oil gathered in your pan drippings, then add hot water to pan over medium high heat.  Use a wooden spatula to scrape up the brown bits, cook until volume is reduced by half.  Add whiskey, then cornstarch and water mixture.  Stir continuously with spatula.  Stir until slightly thickened, then add mushrooms, stir and serve immediately.

Yesterday I was migrating my website to a different server to correct the interminable slowness my site has been experiencing.  The first tech support call was great.  The second guy is responsible for the rampant hostility toward computer guys everywhere.  You know like the Nick Burns computer guy skit from Saturday Night Live.  I used to be Nick Burns – well hopefully I was less of a jerkhole, but that was my job.  At the end of the day, the site has been migrated and from my end all the issues seem resolved.  Please let me know if you continue to experience any time outs or slowness, and I’ll try to keep traceroutes, ping tests, and packet loss out of casual conversation.

I really was trying to be reasonable with the chicken tetrazzini.  I planned to make one for dinner and one for the freezer.  Found the recipe, then completely abandoned any potential for taking the easy road.  Cause I’m all from scratch, y’all.  Don’t feel compelled to fall victim to my insanity.  If you do, I recommend this as a Sunday project if you’re a working person or at least as a part of a larger meal plan.

My dear friend, Elizabeth, tried some Oprah meal planning awhile back.  In my memory it involved something like buying two rotisserie chickens, shredding them, then making four meals from the bounty.  I can’t remember much other than I don’t think she was wowed by the results.  My problem is we don’t really eat dark meat, so rotisseries don’t really provide a lot of shredded chicken.  Many things in cooking don’t translate into economies of scale but shredding chicken does.  No need to go all crazy and roast first, then boil the chicken like I did.  I was suffering from existential angst on Monday, forgive me.  I’ve been boiling split breasts for chicken soup for years with wonderful results, the extra roasting is so *not* necessary.  In any case, if you want to shred your own chicken, just get a large pot and do a bunch – like 8 or 10 large split breasts.  Then you can have shredded chicken and broth for Chicken and Goat Cheese Enchiladas or Chicken Stuffed Fried Avocados or Mediterranean Penne  or Chicken Salad or something of your very own creation.

Chicken Tetrazzini Recipe

adapted from Martha Stewart Everday Food April 2007

makes 2 casseroles, each having about 5-6 servings

5 split chicken breasts

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

1 lb sliced white mushrooms

1/2 c. flour

3 c. 1% milk

3/4 c. dry white wine

3 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves

1 lb. linguine

10 oz. frozen petite peas

(Martha uses the shredded meat from a rotisserie chicken, if you go that route you’ll also need 2 c. of chicken broth)

In a large pot, cover split breasts with water, then add 2 teaspoons of salt and 16 turns fresh ground pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for about an hour, then remove chicken to a bowl.  Using a two bowl system, remove the skin and bones from the split breasts with two forks, then move your chicken to clean bowl and shred.  Repeat until you’ve shredded all your chicken.  Reserve 2 cups of chicken broth.

In a heavy bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter, then add sliced mushrooms.  Season mushrooms generously with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  I sprinkle the whole surface, but you can use approx 1/2 teaspoons of salt as a guide.  Increase heat to high to brown mushrooms, stirring occasionally.  Wait for mushrooms to release all their water, then continue over high heat until nicely browned.  Remove mushrooms to a bowl.

Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to a bowl.  Break linguine in half, then cook approx nine minutes until just slightly less than al dente.  Drain.

In the same skillet used to brown the mushrooms, melt remaining 4 tablespoons of butter, then add flour, stir, and brown for 2 minutes.  Add milk while whisking furiously, then add wine and chicken broth.  Bring to a boil, then continue to cook over medium heat for 3 more minutes.  Whisk every 30 seconds or so.  Add a teaspoon of salt and 20 turns of fresh ground pepper, then 2 cups of the grated parmesan and the thyme.  Stir to combine, then adjust seasonings to taste.  This is the easiest place to mess up the recipe!  Be sure to season your sauce to taste.  The pasta, the chicken, and the peas are all pretty bland – all the flavor comes from the sauce!

In the now empty pasta pan, combine pasta, shredded chicken, browned mushrooms, peas, and sauce.  Stir until thoroughly coated.  Pour into two 8×8 glass pans.  Top with remaining cup of Parmesan.  Cover one pan with Saran wrap, then press down on casserole to create an airtight seal.  Freeze for up to two months.  Bake other casserole for 30 minutes at 400, until bubbly.  In full disclosure, I don’t use my freezer very often.  I’m not entirely sure what will happen when I cook the frozen one, but Martha says it’s freezer friendly so I believe her.  I’m guessing to thaw it in the fridge the day before, then cook it covered at 400 (30 min?), then uncovered  another 15-20 for browning.  I’ll let you know when I cook mine!

As for grill lighting, I’m becoming the master. After a tragic winter of failed attempts at chiminea lighting, I simply won’t be outdone by my grill. Incidentally, I can not believe I haven’t blogged about my awesome new grill/smoker combo. Mr. Richard bought this mammoth grill then only used it three times, at the end of the day, realized his vision was merely a pipe dream and lovingly passed the grill to me. Because of course I want/need a way to cook for a small army at one time. Back to the point, if you’ve been thwarted when lighting a charcoal grill, look no further. This method is absolutely fool proof. First, you need a chimney starter.  Next, you need lighter cubes.  You can light it using newspaper coiled into tubes in the bottom of the chimney starter, but if you live with someone like me, all newspaper is instantly recycled upon delivery.

To start, open the grate, pour in most of your charcoal into a small group, but no more than to about two briquettes deep.  My grill has two grates, if yours only has one, hopefully it will swing open halfway, otherwise, I don’t know what to tell you.  Place two lighter cubes on the remaining grate, then place the chimney starter on top.  Pour a small bunch (15? briquettes) onto the top grate of the chimney starter.  Light the cubes and then wait about 10 minutes until the large flames begin to die down.  Use a heavy potholder glove to dump the freshly lit coals onto the waiting pile in grill.  Wait about 20 minutes and you will have a piping hot fire, that’s hot, but not too hot.

If you’re a boy scout reading this, you’re surely laughing at my step-by-step breakdown of charcoal kindling.  And embarrassed by my necessity of gear and equipment.  But I’m neither a boy nor a scout (I don’t think that brief stint in Brownies counts) and even though I’ve done this a bunch of times, I still have to look up directions from Google.  Heaven help me, I could have never made it before the Internet, I’m certain I would have simply starved on the spot.

Beer Can Chicken on the Grill

serves 4

1 whole roasting chicken, giblets removed, rinsed, and patted dry

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1/8 tsp cayenne

12 turns fresh ground pepper

1 beer in can

2 wedges lemon

3 cloves garlic, chopped

Prepare a grill.  Use the instructions above to light charcoal grill until coals are nearly completely white or turn a gas grill on medium high.  Open beer, I of course, prefer Bud Light, but please use your beer of choice.  Drink half the can.

Mix together all the spices in a small bowl, then rub all over the skin.  Squeeze the lemon juices into remaining beer and add chopped garlic.  Place beer on grill, then lower the chicken onto the beer can so the bottom of the drumsticks are standing tripod fashion on the the grill.  That’s it!  This will need to cook for about an hour on the grill, check for an internal temperature of 165, being sure not to press the thermometer to the beer can.  When you’ve reached this temperature, we use a combo of turkey forks to remove chicken and tongs to slide out the beer can and leave it on the grill.  Be gentle!  The chicken is unbelievably tender and the bones will pop right out!

Enjoy!

Speaking of Spiceman, there is an intriguing artisan grocery delivery service which recently sprung up in Dallas.  I haven’t tried the service yet, but I am curious about it.  Artizone’s model allows you to purchase artisan grocery products from multiple gourmet stores in one order for home delivery.  Some of the stores currently offering delivery through Artizone include, Spiceman’s 1410, La Duni, Flavors from Afar, and Scardello.  Since that’s a pretty impressive list of vendors, I’ll have to give it a shot.  I’ve used nearly every online grocery delivery service in existence back as early as the late 90′s, unfortunately they all tend to go bankrupt as soon as I’ve become accustomed to the service.  Here’s to hoping that Artizone’s niche service will break the trend!  If you’ve tried Artizone, send me a note!  I’d love to hear about your experiences.

This batch of mushrooms came from Central Market.  They seem hit or miss to me on what types of fresh mushrooms they will have in stock.  The varieties don’t particularly matter, I’ve used all sorts over time.  I look for the most tender mushrooms, (think of the opposite of the creminis, they’re the only meaty mushrooms I choose).  This batch used hedgehog, brown clamshell, oyster, and creminis.  At least two of those are described as being similar in flavor to chanterelle mushrooms, which are my all time favorite mushrooms, but currently out of season.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

(approx 3 qts, serves 7-8 bowl size, 10-12 cup size servings)

8 tbsp butter

1 large yellow onion (not sweet!), chopped

4 stalks chopped celery

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1/3 lb. fresh oyster mushrooms, chopped

1/3 lb. fresh Hedgehog Mushrooms, chopped

1/3 lb. fresh Brown Clamshell Mushrooms, chopped

1 lb. cremini baby bella mushrooms, sliced

1 tsp dried thyme leaves

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

3/4 c. Courvoisier

6 c. chicken broth

1 c. heavy cream

Heat a large stock pot over medium heat.  Melt 4 tbsp of the butter then add the onions, celery, and cayenne.  Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, then add the garlic.  Cook 2 minutes, then add the remaining 4 tbsp butter and all the mushrooms.   Sprinkle the mushrooms with thyme, 1 tsp of kosher salt, and 10 turns fresh ground pepper.  Raise heat to high and brown about 8-10 minutes, stirring every minute or so with a wooden spatula.  Add Courvoisier and cook until liquid becomes thick and syrupy, 3-4 minutes.  Add stock, then bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.  Use a ladle to transfer 1/3 of  soup to a blender to chop.  Pour to a clean bowl, then repeat with the last two portions.  Return soup to stock pot.  Add cream, cook 5 more minutes, then taste and adjust seasonings.  I added an additional 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt and a few quick turns of pepper.  Enjoy!

In keeping with my Thanksgiving theme, here are my Top 5 Mashed Potato Tips for home cooks.

1. Russet Potatoes.  You may know them as Baking Potatoes.  These are the ones you see in the photo.
2. Start with cold water from the tap.  Place potatoes in cold water, then turn on heat.
3. Buy a potato ricer.  If you don’t have a potato ricer use a slotted spoon, then ask for a ricer for Christmas.
4. Use real butter.
5. Use real cream.  You can use milk it’s fine, I do it, too.  But if it’s Thanksgiving, use the cream, then go run some stairs.

One of my Monday Night cooking class participants pointed out that the idea of mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving was really odd to her.  Truth be told, I didn’t grow up with mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving either.  I think we had sweet potatoes and rice.  But if you’re already making gravy, I consider it a crime against humanity not to provide mashed potatoes as a vehicle for gravy delivery.

In other news, I woke up to an email from an email from a casting director informing me of a casting call for a new Food Network TV show.  Unfortunately, they weren’t asking me to have my own half-hour instructional cooking series where I could wear snappy outfits, cook in a beautiful and well equipped kitchen set, all while engaging enthusiastically with my viewers, and creating my own signature tag line while you watch me lovingly and debate the merits of my latest hairstyle.  What they *are* looking for is a team of two people who are dreaming of opening a restaurant.  She asked if I’d post the information on my blog, so if this sounds like you, here’s the casting call info.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

10am-1pm

Westin Park Central

12720 Merit Drive, Dallas, TX 75251

If you haven’t yet had a chance to hop on over to Marx Foods site and Vote for my Beef Tenderloin with Calamarata Pasta in Porcini Mushroom Sauce.  They have all sorts of contests going on while you’re there to win some magical bounty of your very own.  Just follow the link, click Vote, and then click the button next to DinnerandConversation.  As always I thank you for your support and look forward to providing you with as many fresh recipes as I possibly can!  Poll will be open through Friday the 19th!

Mashed Potatoes Recipe

4 big, giant Russet Potatoes

4 tbsp butter

3/4 c. heavy cream

1 tsp fine ground sea salt – or even better Murray River Pink Flake Salt

10 turns fresh ground pepper

Peel potatoes with your trusty vegetable peeler.  Slice in half length-wise, then place the cut side down, and slice into 1 and 1/2 inch segments cross-wise.  Place cut potatoes in a large pot, then cover with water until the water reaches 2-3 inches above the top of the potatoes.  Turn heat on high and cook uncovered.  It takes approximately 55 minutes for this quantity to become fork tender.  You don’t want them to completely fall apart, but you do want the fork to easily pierce and break a piece into two pieces with a gentle application of pressure.  Drain the potatoes into a colander.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer cooked potato pieces to your potato ricer.  Rice back into pan.  Bury the butter into the riced potatoes covering it completely.  Wait about 4-5 minutes, then add cream and turn heat half-way between low and medium.  Gently fold in cream and butter to potatoes, then season with salt and pepper.  Taste, then season again.  If you’re using kosher salt, wait about two minutes before adding additional salt for the kosher salt to dissolve, then stir and taste.

As for peeling tomatoes, cook books generally advise scoring one end with an X, then blanching and peeling.  I find the process significantly easier with my OXO vegetable peeler.  I core the tomato, then peel from the cut down the length of the tomato using a slight wrist jiggling to gently ease the peel right off the surface of the tomato, no large pots of boiling water required!  As for the seeding, I gently scrape the seeds from the flesh with my paring knife.

I think this sauce would be excellent paired with a bucatini pasta.  Does anyone remember eating that kind of pasta more than 5 years ago?  I don’t, but perhaps I wasn’t paying attention.  In any case, it seems to be one of the more recent food trends.

Pasta with Fresh Tomato, Red Onion, Bacon, and Crushed Red Pepper Sauce

serves 4

6 slices center-cut, thick sliced bacon

2 lbs roma tomatoes on the vine

2 small red onions

1 tsp kosher salt

12 turns fresh ground pepper

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

spaghetti, capellini, or bucatini pasta

Prepare the bacon in a wide skillet over medium heat.  When crisp, remove to a plate covered with paper towels.  Drain all the fat except for about 1 teaspoon to a coffee cup and reserve for later use.  Slice the ends off of onions, then peel.  With a cut side facing down, slice into half, then half again then into wedges to create little crescent moons of red onion.  Cook onion in remaining bacon drippings for about 4 minutes.  Peel tomatoes, seed, give a rough chop and add to the onion.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, reduce heat to low, then cook for 10 minutes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Cook pasta of choice to package instructions for al dente.  Add crushed red pepper and 1 ladle of pasta water to tomato sauce, then cook for 5 more minutes.  Crumble reserved bacon, then add to tomato sauce.  Add drained pasta to sauce, toss, then serve.

1. Breakfast Gravy and Chicken Fried Anything = Cream Gravy = Milk and Flour base
2. Meat Gravy (i.e. Turkey, Chicken, Beef, etc = Brown Gravy = Water or Broth and Flour base
3. Mashed Potatoes = BROWN GRAVY I am seriously affronted by cream gravy on mashed potatoes

The other important method of gravy is how you incorporate your fat, flour, and liquid components.  For cream gravies, I usually use a roux method – or browning your flour in the fat before incorporating the liquid.  For meat gravies, I usually combine my flour and liquid first then add to the fat.  That’s the way I was taught to make gravy, so why mess with what works?  In retrospect, my mother often used Wondra flour – which is more easily dissolved in in cold or hot liquids than regular all-purpose flour, so perhaps that’s why we combined it first?  I stopped using Wondra in college because a nutrition teacher swore Wondra flour was the most grave sin a person could commit when making gravy.  She was a bit extreme, but my parents paid good money for that class so by golly I was going to learn from it ; )  That said, Mom – don’t change your method, you weren’t officially present in that class so you can just keep on sinning and pretend you’ve never heard such a thing in your life.  Your gravy is excellent, don’t mess with perfection!

Anyhow, the important thing is to start with low heat when incorporating, whisk like crazy until you feel like your arm will fall off, and never panic.  If it looks to thin, it won’t thicken until it starts to boil.  If it looks to thick, you can always add more liquid.  And salt can cure a multitude of sins.  For that matter, I don’t see why you couldn’t treat it like pudding and throw it in the blender in a pinch if you couldn’t correct the lumps.

Sausage Gravy Recipe

1 package breakfast sausage

1/4 c. all purpose flour

1 and 1/4 c. milk, I use 1%

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

Brown your sausage in a heavy bottomed skillet on medium heat.  Remove sausage to a plate.  Add flour to the remaining fat and brown, scraping up any brown bits from the sausage.  You want it to resemble a paste.  Keep browning, if it looks too crumbly, add a teensy bit of bacon grease to the mixture.  (Always keep a coffee cup of bacon grease in your fridge for cooking and seasoning!)  If it looks to wet, add just a little bit of flour to adjust.  This picture is what you want yours to look like – but it’s a double recipe, so you’ll have less paste!

When you can smear the mixture across the bottom of your pan with a gentle nudge from your spatula, you’re ready to add your milk.  Turn heat to low, If you’re right-handed, hold the milk in your left hand and your whisk in your right.  Pour the milk in a slow stream, while whisking furiously with your right hand.  Keep going until all your milk is added, then keep right on whisking.  After about 3 minutes turn your heat to medium, still whisking.  After about 3 more minutes, turn your heat to high, whisking all the while.  When it begins to boil, gauge your thickness and whisk in additional milk if needed.  If after it boils it’s still too thin, mix 1 tablespoon of flour with 1/4 cup of milk in a cup, then whisk that into your gravy.  Return to a boil.  Season generously with salt and pepper to taste, then serve.  Enjoy!

Don’t forget to book your holiday cooking class by emailing lane@dinnerandconversation.com spaces are filling up quickly!

Weekly Menu Week of October 19th

Order by email to lane@dinnerandconversation.com or cook along side me at home with recipes from dinnerandconversation.com

Chicken Marsala over angel hair pasta $24

Flank Steak with Herb Sauce served with Basmati white rice $22

Roasted Turkey Breast served with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy $18

Roasted Shrimp with Lemon Basil Orzo $28

Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto $10

Fresh Lemon Cupcakes $2 each

Fresh Blackberry Cupcakes $2 each

Lemon Artichoke Pesto $8

I also wanted to try the polenta base with a Port Salut and Montasio cheese so I’ll be trying that later this week.   You can also make them with blue cheese or a parmesan or probably fontina, but the cream cheese was yummy.  Really surprisingly delicious for me.

All of my food idols recommend cooking with as nice a wine as you would drink, if not nicer.  I’ll admit, I don’t do that.  This recipe was made with Black Box wine and a part of an already opened bottle of Bogle Cabernet. I do drink box wine.  I like it.  It takes up less room in both the grocery cart and the recycling bin than the equivalent 4 bottles of wine.  It’s cheap.  It doesn’t compare to a $50 bottle of Cab, but I can’t really afford those anyway.  Now the already opened for a couple days of Bogle?  I probably wouldn’t drink that.  That’s another bonus to the box.  It stays fresh.  Once a red wine has been opened, I tend to think of it as expired.  I tried the Bogle before I cooked with it and though it tasted a little vinegary.  Not horrible, but not preferable either.  Cory thought it was fine, but I’m never quite sure if he’s telling me the truth or if he just didn’t want me to waste that bottle and open another bottle.  Either way, it didn’t make one bit of difference in the sauce.  The sauce was divine.  So good that I’m thinking about eating it again.  For breakfast.  So the moral of the story is, I don’t know who is right on the mandatory quality of wine for cooking.  I’d say no to using a big jug of red table wine, but that’s mainly because I don’t really like that flavor to begin with.  But I think I’d still consider it sacrilege to cook with a $30+ bottle.

Cabernet Braised Boneless Beef Short Ribs

adapted from Bon Appetit October 2007 serves 10

5 lbs boneless beef short ribs

4 long stalks rosemary

dried thyme leaves

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

1/2 c. olive oil

4 and 1/2 c. cabernet sauvingnon

1 can beef consomme

1 can water

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 tablespoons flour

Use your thumb and forefinger to strip all the leaves from the rosemary stems.  Chop leaves into smaller pieces with a sharp knife.  Rub beef ribs with the rosemary, then sprinkle with the ground thyme leaves from a shaker top spice jar.  Next, season with kosher salt and pepper.  Heat a heavy bottomed stock pot or dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add olive oil let warm 1 minute, then add 4-5 of the ribs so they can sit in a single layer.  Turn the heat up to high and brown ribs on all sides. When thoroughly browned, remove to a plate and continue until all ribs are browned.

Preheat oven to 375.  Pour any fat from stock pot, than add wine, consomme, and water and bring to a simmer.  Add ribs and any juices from plate, cover and put in the oven.  Cook for two hours.

Remove stock pot from oven and use a large shallow spoon to skim any fat from the surface of the liquid.  (Up to this point you can do a day in advance – reheat on the stovetop to a simmer, then continue.)  Remove the ribs to a bowl and cover tightly to keep warm.  Turn heat on stock pot to high and boil sauce until reduced to about a third of the volume.  In a small bowl, use a fork to mash the softened butter and flour to a paste.  Add to stock and whisk furiously to combine.  Continue heating until thickened – about five minutes.  Serve ribs over polenta then spoon sauce over both.  Happy Eating!

Creamy Polenta Recipe

I used Elise’s recipe from Simply Recipes with a minor adjustment.  I’d say this recipe serves about 6 – maybe 7.  I used a 5:1 water to polenta ratio instead of the written 4:1.  To stir in the cream cheese with ease, I’d suggest having your cream cheese at room temperature, then adding it to your pan, covering it with a mound of warm polenta, cover the pan and walk away for 5 minutes.  Then come back and it’s a lot easier to stir.  Yum.

Hands on Holiday Meal Class

Learn to roast a perfect turkey, every time.

Learn to make mashed potatoes that make your relatives weep with bliss not to be outdone by the art of perfecting a brown gravy.

I still love a green bean casserole, yum.  But it seems they’ve gone out of vogue on most holiday tables.  So we’ll cover haricots verts with almonds.  A crisp and crunchy bright green dish perfect for the holiday table.

Don’t forget the stuffing.  Herbed or cornbread?  Don’t be confused when you hit the grocery store.  Perfect stuffing, every time.

Only responsible for bringing a dessert?  Great, we’ll cover the basics of pie crust making, both the flaky pastry crust and the graham cracker crust.  I promise, it’s really very easy.  But don’t worry, there’s no shame in buying a pre-made crust.

Class time 3 hours -$70

each class will be kept to small groups, no more than 4

Email lane@dinnerandconversation.com for more information and to schedule your dates.

When I moved to Austin, everyone was dipping their pizza in ranch.  Which is just wrong.  Well, maybe wrong is unfair since I’m not really a fan of ranch dressing.  But I’m all for sauces and dipping, so I’ve been on the lookout for a suitable replacement.  Thus far, I’ve yet to find any pizzerias in the Lone Star State serving a vinaigrette sauce.  I’m pushing the trend.  If my extra thin crust pizza recipe seems like too much work to you, please consider making a quick batch of my Sabertooth Sauce the next time you order Campisi’s or other takeout.  It adds a zip and a twist enhancing your pizza experience and making  takeout something truly worth writing home about.  Or at least a status update on your facebook page.  Plus, don’t you just feel more powerful by adding a little Sabertooth to your life?  Whisk some up, and drizzle some spice into your life.

Happy Eating!

Sabertooth Sauce – Zippy Vinaigrette Sauce Perfect for Thin Crust Pizza

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp apple cider vinager

1 tbsp white wine vinager

1 tbsp water

4 dash (shakes through the shaker top) ground mustard

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp onion powder

Whisk like crazy, then drizzle from a spoon over your favorite thin crust pizza.

8 turns fresh ground pepper