This recipe is written as I made the soup, which is certainly a time intensive method – but there are several shortcuts you could employ.  If your freezer is home to one of my staple whole roasted chickens minus the breast meat which was eaten at an earlier date, skip the first paragraph and throw your freezer portion in the pan with 2 raw split breasts.  If your freezer is bare AND you’re short on time, use 3 raw split breasts and cook for at least an hour before adding your vegetables if you can – but even 30 minutes will get you started.  When you are lacking a whole or part of a roasted chicken your broth isn’t going to be as flavorful, and there will be more room in your pan.  So cover the split breasts, then when you add the veggies, add 4 cups of chicken stock.  If you have cooked white rice on hand, that would totally work as well, I just like this method since the rice absorbs some of your stock’s flavor without stealing all of the stock thus leaving you with a thick, dry soup.

Now get out there and make some for yourself, and a friend, or just throw it in your freezer in individual sizes to bring you through the winter!

Lemony Chicken with Rice Soup Recipe

1 whole chicken approx 5 lbs, rinsed giblets and neck removed

1/2 a lemon, cut into 4 pieces

4 large cloves garlic

1 and 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

olive oil

5 stalks celery, sliced

4 carrots, peeled, then sliced lengthwise, then again, then chopped into 1 inch slivers on an angle

1 yellow onion, peeled, sliced, then rounds sliced into quarters

2 bay leaves

2 c.  long grain white rice

3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

Preheat oven to 425.  In a roasting pan fitted with a rack, stuff the chicken cavity with the lemon pieces, garlic, salt and pepper.  Drizzle skin very lightly with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast chicken in oven for just over an hour – if you’re going to eat the breast meat at this point, you’ll need to keep cooking it to a safe internal temp of 165.

Since I’m going to continue boiling mine, I took it to 145, then put it in the stock pot and covered with water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, for 2 hours.  Add celery, carrots, onion, and bay leaves, simmer another hour.  Carefully remove the chicken with turkey forks or a fish spatula, being sure to remove all bone pieces from stock.  Shred chicken meat with two forks, then return to broth.  Add 2 teaspoons kosher salt and 15 turns fresh ground pepper.

Cook rice in  four cups of boiling water.  Reduce heat to a simmer, cook covered about 15 minutes – until mostly cooked, then remove with a slotted spoon, drain, then add al dente rice to soup.  Cook 10 more minutes in covered soup pan.  Add lemon juice and crushed red pepper.  Simmer another 5 minutes, then adjust seasonings to taste.  Serve and enjoy!

This is pasta with spirit.  It’s essentially a melding and blending of flavors that grab your tongue and say, “Open up!  This is what it feels like to really live.”  Olives seem to be a love them or hate them kind of food.  I am constantly surrounded by people (including my sweet sisters and a best friend who thankfully grew out of her repulsion) who proclaim to despise olives.  I love them all black, purple, green, etc.  Nicoise are my favorite, but my eyes still close to fully experience the blissful joy of a Kalamata as well.  In general, I like food with zest – not the outermost portion of peel on a citrus fruit – but the sparkle of food.  That’s generally why I don’t like white sauces and why I’m fanatical about vinaigrettes and anything marinated, brined, salted, or citrused.  Speaking of which, I’m in a sparkles phase, in retaliation to the fleeting sunshine and warmth of summer.  So if you see me out wearing sparkly eyeliner and a dusting of glittered powder and think “What in the world?”  It’s my personal attempt to combat the approaching winter solstice.  Laugh at me if you will, but I’m enjoying it.  Anyway, this recipe marries all the zest I could pack from the Mediterranean with a penne pasta, but if you’re looking to lighten it up, this would be lovely over leaves of fresh baby spinach instead.

There were marinated artichokes, too.  I left those out of the title.  This recipe packs so much flavor between the sundried tomatoes, the kalamatas, the capers, and the aforementioned marinated artichokes, it doesn’t even require spices.  They’re already in the additions.  My husband would have chosen grated Parmesan Reggiano over the fresh Mozzarella, but I have a true and steady love for mozzarella, and often think of Parmesan as the bossy kid from fifth grade who’s always trying to steal the scene.  It has it’s place, but doesn’t always play well with others.  Also, we have the Dallas Mozzarella Company here and it’s simply in my blood to support the local purveyors.  Should you run across a local Parmesan manufacturer, please send me an email or post a comment!

Mediterranean Penne with Sundried Tomatoes, Kalamatas, Capers and Fresh Mozzarella

(feeds 4 with leftovers, who am I kidding at least 6!)

3 c. dried Penne pasta

2 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

8 sundried tomatoes in oil, drained then chopped

shredded chicken from two split breasts, about 4 c. shredded chicken

1/2 c. sliced, pitted kalamata olives

3-4 tablespoons capers

3 oz. marinated artichoke hearts (half of the small jar)

1 c. diced fresh mozzarella

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425.  Very lightly drizzle split breasts with olive oil, then sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper.  Roast in oven about 50 minutes or until internal temp reaches 165.  Let rest to the side five minutes, then remove skin and bones and shred meat using two forks.  Reserve.

Meanwhile in a large saucepan, bring  water to a boil.  Add 1 teaspoon kosher salt and penne.  Follow package instructions, to cook until al dente.  Drain, and reserve pasta.

In the same saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil on medium heat.  Add garlic and tomatoes, saute for 4 minutes.  Add pasta, chicken, olives, capers, and artichoke hearts.  Stir to combine and let continue cooking for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, add mozzarella and continue stirring until mozzarella until it just melts.  Let your family/friends use finely ground sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste, the flavors should already be leaping out of the bowl!

I created this side dish for a different, healthy, light choice to replace our usual suspects.  If you haven’t jumped on the quinoa(pronounced keen-wa) bandwagon yet, you should.  Are you a vegetarian?  Do you tend towards high blood sugar?  Are you looking to add iron, folic acid, or fiber to your diet?  Are you exploring gluten-free options?  Are you looking to reduce costs while saving time and adding flavor to your diet?  If you answered yes to any of these, quinoa should be your friend.  It cooks in 15 minutes – way less time than rice, is significantly healthier than pasta – while being packed with flavor and interesting texture and it’s a great conversation starter!

I came up with this recipe largely because I way over purchased fresh ginger in my efforts towards my making my own ginger ale, a work still in progress.  I don’t often cook with fresh ginger which is really a shame.   I minced mine by hand with a very sharp knife, but if you own a fine microplane grater, you should absolutely use that.  I just haven’t purchased one of those yet.  If you’re short on time, I’d recommend just cooking 1 c. of quinoa in 2.5 cups of water for 15 minutes instead of the two part method below.  I usually cook it that way and can’t imagine that it would make too much of a difference.  Quinoa can be bitter if not rinsed well – so I’ve heard, so far I’ve never run into this myself – so take caution to rinse extra well in a strainer before you get started.  I like my quinoa al dente – kind of crunchy tasting – almost like the texture of the teeny tiny brightly colored roe used in sushi, I forgot what they are called, I don’t eat sushi nearly as much as I used to.  If you’ve tried it and prefer a softer texture, just up your cooking time by about 3-5 minutes.

Quinoa, Black Beans, and Tomatoes in a Citrus Ginger Vinaigrette

1/4 c. fresh squeezed orange juice

2 tbsps fresh squeezed lemon juice

3 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1 tbsp yellow onion, minced (green onions would have been great!  I was out)

1 large clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp kosher salt

10 turns fresh ground pepper

1 c. organinc quinoa, rinsed very well in a strainer

1 c. canned black beans, rinsed and drained

1 c. canned diced tomatoes, rinsed and drained

In a bowl, combine juices, oil, ginger, onion, garlic, and salt and pepper.  Set aside.

In a saucepan, bring 3 cups water to a boil.  Add 1/2 tsp kosher salt and quinoa.  Let cook uncovered for 8 minutes, then drain into strainer.  Place strainer over a 1 inch of simmering water, then cover quinoa with a clean dish towel (fold to make small enough that the sides won’t catch on fire!), followed by the saucepan’s lid.  Steam quinoa for 7 minutes, then set strainer aside.  After cooling a few minutes, add quinoa to vinaigrette stir, then add black beans, and tomatoes.  Stir then season to taste with salt and pepper.

I’ve started several chocolate cupcakes posts this year, only to later decide the food wasn’t really blog worthy.  These turned out extremely cute for the preschool craft, were quite good, and the frosting glided on gently and attractively, something I’ve been struggling with.  That said, I’m not totally sold on this as the ultimate chocolate cupcake recipe either.  So I’m still looking.  If you have a from scratch chocolate cupcake or frosting recipe – send it my way lane@dinnerandconversation.com – I’d love to try it out!    I’m looking for a light and fluffy cake consistency and a very chocolaty frosting that ices beautifully and easily.  The answer may well be that I should stick to molten chocolate cakes, that I don’t actually like cupcakes very much, but I’m going to keep experimenting for the time being.

These chocolate cupcakes were destined as decorating fodder for the preschool Fall Festival party.  My mom gave me the idea from a luncheon she’d been to recently, so Thanks, Mom!  The four year olds did very well with the decorating process, especially the girls.  After that party, I did scrap the idea for my son’s older 2’s/young 3’s class.   I’m pretty sure their Owls would have wound up frighteningly Dali-esque.  They likely would have loved receiving a pre-decorated owl of their very own.  Truth be told, I just didn’t have another 20 cupcakes in me, so they had to survive with pumpkin bread alone.  That’s what happens when you’re not the firstborn.  In retrospect, perhaps mine looks more like a mouse or a bat or some other indistinguishable creature.  Arts and crafts have never been my strong suit.  That’s why we’ll be mixing dry soup gifts at the Thanksgiving parties.  I’m really much better with food.

Chocolate Cupcakes adapted from joyofbaking.com

1/2 c. natural cocoa powder (Scharffen Berger)

1 c. boiling water

1 and 1/3 c. white lily all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/2 c. butter, room temperature

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Use paper liners to fill 20 cupcake tins.  Preheat oven to 375.  Combine cocoa and boiling water, then stir until smooth.  Reserve for later.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir to combine.

In stand mixer, cream butter and sugar with flat beater.  Cream until totally combined and color is very light.  Add eggs, one at a time and beat until smooth, being sure to scrape sides of bowl.  Add vanilla.  Reduce mixing speed to low and add the dry ingredients a third at a time.  Mix until just combined then add cooled liquid cocoa and stir with a spoon until smooth.

Spoon mixture evenly into cupcake liners.  Bake 18 minutes – or until center top springs back to touch and wooden toothpick can be pulled out clean.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

5 oz. chopped bittersweet chocolate (Scharffen Berger)

2 sticks butter, room temperature

2 c. powdered sugar

1/4 c. heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

In the top portion of a double boiler, place the chopped chocolate over barely simmering water.  Let cook until you see chocolate beginning to melt, then stir occasionally until chocolate is a uniform consistency.  Set aside.

In a stand mixer, beat the butter with a flat beater until smooth and light, add powdered sugar and mix thoroughly.  Add heavy cream and vanilla, beat another minute.  Scoop in cooled melted chocolate with a spatula then stir until you have a consistent color.  Frost cooled cupcakes with a spatula.

Cupcake Owl Assembly

1 chocolate frosted chocolate cupcake

2 double stuffed Oreos

2 chocolate chips

1 candy corn

Split Oreos in half so stuffing is all on one side of cookie.  Place Oreos stuffing side up side by side on the top half of cupcake.  Place one chocolate chip on each Oreo background for eyes.  Break one leftover plain Oreo in half and use one half to fashion each eyebrows.  Place candy corn for beak.

French Onion Soup has always been one of my favorites.  It’s warm, comforting, and a perfect accompaniment for everything from Caesar salad to a giant Ribeye Steak.  Traditionally it’s served topped with a crouton then shredded Gruyere as shown in the picture.  I’m not a huge fan of soggy bread, but I love dipping so I’d really recommend serving the croutons on the side to dip for execution of the perfect crunch.  You could go ahead and top the croutons with the Gruyere and quickly broil those for a cheesy crouton or add the Gruyere straight to the soup or skip it all together.  I’m not picky, I like it all ways.

I’ve been uninspired in my culinary pursuits lately, and just plain distracted in my grocery runs.  Consequently, I realized yesterday I had 16 yellow onions on my counter.  What better way to remedy that than french onion soup?   So I got out my rubber gloves and goggles and got to chopping.  Kidding.  Luckily chopping onions doesn’t bother me nearly as much as some people.  I only cried twice.  And frankly, I think I needed it.  Perhaps preparing this soup should be considered an emotional cleanse.  I attribute my success in limited tear production to my very sharp chef’s knife, thanks to my brand new knife sharpener, and the flame from my gas stove.  According to this wikipedia article, there’s some science to the sharp knife theory, and they also suggest chilling your onions if you’re concerned.

It’s no wonder I love this soup with the amount of alcohol that goes into it, the heating process actually burns off the alcohol content, but the flavor remains.  If you’re not a huge alcohol fan, I’d recommend keeping the sherry/cognac for deglazing – at least at half their amounts, but skip the red wine and replace it’s quantity with more beef stock.  But that’s only if you’re anti-alcohol.  I think the flavor is perfect, complex, and engaging just as written.  I think most chef’s use white wine in their French onion soups, I use red for a variety of reasons.  First, because I use beef stock and beef pairs best with reds, IMO.  Second, for color.  Third, I simply prefer red wine, and someone has to finish off that bottle.  And if you’re not a beef eater, like I know several of you aren’t, feel free to change this to chicken stock, or vegetable stock if you must.  But then you’re really going to need the alcohol for flavor. *wink*

The last caveat I have is that the easiest way to destroy this soup is  to accidentally use sweet onions.  Well it won’t destroy it, it just won’t be the flavor you’re expecting at all.  You need the yellow, dry onion flavor.  Sweet onions like Vidalia, Walla Walla, Maui and Texas 1015 are generally larger and rounder.  Yellow onions are small and firm, and in my experience, the outer papers seem more closely attached to the skin.  If you’re worried, look for the onions in bags, then confirm that the label reads “Yellow Onion” and nothing else.

French Onion Soup

8 peeled yellow onions, sliced to rounds, then halved to half moons

2 bay leaves

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter

1/2 c. cognac

1/2 c. dry sherry

1 and 1/2 c. Shiraz or Cabernet  wine

8 c. beef stock (Kitchen Basics recommended)

1 tsp dried thyme leaves

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

In a stock pot with the heat a quarter of the way past medium towards high, combine the onions, bay leaves, oil, and butter.  Cook for 55 minutes until onions are soft and browned, stirring every five minutes or so with a wooden spatula.  Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan, and if you’re at all concerned about your onions burning, reduce the heat just a bit.

Add cognac and sherry to deglaze the pan, being sure to scrape up any brown bits and and combine.  Cook uncovered for 5 minutes.  Add wine, cook 20 minutes uncovered.  Add beef stock, increase heat to high, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a quarter of the way past low towards medium.  Add thyme and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste, amount will vary based on seasoning content of stock.  I used approx 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt and probably 15 turns of fresh ground pepper.  Let simmer another five minutes, retest, and adjust if needed.  Remove bay leaves, then serve traditionally, topped with a crostini and shredded Gruyere, broiled for a quick minute or with toppings to the side.

It feels surprising that I have yet to cover one of the most basic homemade meals of all times, chicken soup.  Aside from being good for the soul, chicken soup is also thought to have actual healing properties when made from scratch.  In the depths of winter, it’s almost like running a humidifier in your house all day, so that right there should help a bit.  Either way homemade soup usually makes me at least mentally feel better.  I generally make mine just chicken and vegetables, served with a bit of baguette for dipping, though feel free to add noodles, rice, orzo, or even barley to the broth.  I recommend cooking these on the side, then adding to the broth shortly before serving so the grains don’t steal all your broth.  This seems to be my year for adding red chili flakes at serving to the majority of dishes, so go ahead and try that if you’re inclined.

I’m using the carcass reserved from one of my whole roasted chickens.  After we eat – which usually involves mainly cutting off the breast meat, I throw the carcass in a gallon size freezer ziploc for the next soup making adventure.  I’ve made plenty of chicken soup from just split breasts, but personally, I think the broth becomes more rich and deep flavored with the addition of all the bones.  If you opt to go for the straight chicken breasts route, not my broth contains the the garlic and the lemons and seasonings from the inside of the chicken when it was roasted.  You may want to integrate some of these flavors to your broth.  Many people call for sauteing of the vegetables before their addition.  I’ve done it both ways and in this case, I don’t think it really adds enough to the flavor to bother.  I feel differently about my vegetable soup – in that case I have changed my position to vote for pre-sauteing.

Homemade Chicken Soup

1 frozen chicken carcass

3 large split chicken breasts

1-2 bay leaves

water

1 lb baby carrots

2 small white onions, sliced

6 tall celery stalks, chopped

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

In an 8 qt stock pot, place chicken carcass, breasts, and bay leaf.  Cover with water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a just above low and simmer for two and a half hours.  Remove meat, bones, and pieces with a slotted spoon, or if your carcass is really disintegrated, strain whole pot into a clean pot through a fine strainer.  Add carrots, celery, and onions to broth and simmer for another 40 minutes to an hour.  Meanwhile, remove chicken from breast bones and skin.  Shred into a bowl.  Add chicken meat back to soup at the end of the vegetable simmer time.  Season to taste with salt and pepper – this is a large amount of broth so don’t be afraid to add a big amount of seasoning.  I generally add at least 3 teaspoons of salt.  Add cooked rice or pasta if using.  Let simmer together 5 minutes then serve.

Cannellini Beans are ubiquitous this year.  I’ve been talking to anyone who will listen about this years food trends.  Reading as many food lits as I do, each year seems to garner ingredient trends.  This year I see cannellini beans everywhere, along with smoked paprika – well smoked things in general.  I’ll remember more later, and I haven’t been keeping official track, but some other examples are like the year everything was topped with a chutney.  And the year the tangine was featured prominently in every catalog and food mag.  And the year or couple where every food article written seemed to be about Aisan cuisine.  I haven’t taken a running tally, and maybe it’s my imagination or maybe the universe is conveniently placing items in my precense of which I should take note.  Either way, I don’t remember cannellini beans being so ever present before this year.  Cannellinis are white Italian kidney beans.  This dip merges them with artichoke hearts, fresh rosemary (swiped from Emily’s garden, Thanks!), and a few more staples to create a hummus like alternative dip.  The recipe for the dip came from Farmgirl Fare, a food blog written by Farmgirl Susan.  Her site was recomended to me by a John D. on the rec of his school’s nurse, and this recipe for Cannellini Beans, Artichoke Hearts, and Fresh Rosemary Dip literally jumped out of the computer at me.  I’ve also started my own Homemade Pita Bread Experiment inspired by the recipe on her site.  I’ll be detailing those adventures in an upcomming day.

I’m a big fan of the slow food movement.  If you’re not familiar and don’t want to read that wikipedia article, my 30 second summary of what slow food means to me is based on creating foods from start to finish using natural, less processed, more local, more seasonal ingredients to cultivate healthy, whole meals which are good for your body, nourish your soul, and create great conversation.  Now I live a very moderate lifestyle, meaning attempting to use moderation in all (most) that I do.  And I certainly don’t mean to insinutate that I never go through a fast food drive through.  Some things catch my attention in the prepared foods market, like the woman I witnessed seeking pimento cheese at the grocery today.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but pimento cheese has about five ingredients.  If you buy it preprepared, there’s also going to be preservatives and other stuff, and it’s stored in plastic, and you have to throw away (recycle) the container.  I’m not overly concerned by getting sick from plastic or food preservatives, but I know it will taste fresher and better if I made it myself.  And I get the satisfaction of my time in the kitchen.  I realize that not everyone derives as much joy from food prep as I do, and to you fellow groceryer, I am in no way insinuating that a market should not exist for you to purchase prepared foods.  I just love what I do, and this is what works for me.

So the dip is quick and the pitas are not.  Though if you’d asked me last week how to make homemade pitas, I would have shrugged and my initial thought would be that it would probably require a special oven or at a minimum, special equipment.  Internet, I am here to tell you – that is not true.  There in lies the power of food blogging.  I write this blog for me.  I love that people enjouy reading it, but it started because I thought someday I might like to write a cookbook.  Before this year I’ve never written any of my recipes down, and my recipe box probably contains a sad 25 note cards.  Plus, I could talk about food, think about food, read about food, and create food all day long and that gets boring for my loved ones.  I read a lot of blogs in the past several years, but ironically, no food blogs.  I had no idea how large and crowded this community was.  It’s a phenomenal wealth of information available for you, the Internet, free of charge.  I think the end result will be that we’ll all wind up phenomenollay better cooks, and more and more people will realize the pleasure of dining intertwined with the pleasure of creating.  So thank you google, and thank you FoodieFarmGirl, and all the others to be unveiled during my adventures in pita making and beyond.

Cannellini Bean, Artichoke, and Fresh Rosemary Dip adapted from Farmgirl Fare

1 can organic cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 can artichoke hearts (not the marinated kind!), rinsed and drained

2 very large cloves garlic, chopped

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 c. finely grated fresh Pecorino Romano Cheese

1 tbsp chopped fresh Rosemary

ground sea salt

fresh ground pepper

Place first four ingredients in a food processor, pulse for 3 minutes, then turn to on for 3 more minutes.  Keep your food processor in the on position and drizzle olive oil through top to emulsify.  Pour contents to a bowl and stir in  rosemary and cheese until combined.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Chill for at least two hours, then serve on crostini or pita chips.

Is this technically even a pesto?  Or just a texture similar to pesto involving pureed nuts, herbs, garlic and veggies.  I don’t know.  It seems in essence pesto generally refers to basil, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil, but has been expanded to include about a billion other things to create gourmet accouterments.  This recipe includes nearly all of my favorite ingredients lovingly crushed together in a food processor.  It’s remarkably low fat and only contains “good fats” from the artichokes and almond slivers.  Well – there’s the Parmesan too.  I forgot about the fat from the cheese.  Woops – guess it’s not low fat at all.  Well at least it’s lighter than it could be?  In essence, this pesto is a cousin to the warm Parmesan and artichoke dip my family makes containing a truly sinful amount of mayonnaise.  It’s delicious, but definitely not an every day habit – unless you’re looking for a heart attack in dip form.

I originally served this tossed with gemelli pasta and shredded chicken.  To be honest, I’m not really a huge pasta fan.  Or rice.  Or other side grains.  I started wondering halfway through my meal why in the heck I had served it this way.  Because I really would have rather had this pesto lovingly served on the side of beautiful roast bone in chicken breasts, with a vegetable for a side, that could share the dipping glory with the bites of chicken breast.  Then I remembered.  I am very used to preparing straight to the table meals, cooked to order so to speak.  But every so often the occasion arises where I need to prepare a dish well in advance.  Pasta dishes are good for this sort of thing.  You could totally serve this cold.  Or warm it just before serving, and it would still be good – in fact probably better if the pasta had time to rest in the pesto and let the flavors lovingly meld together.  So if it’s your turn to host your book club, make this the day before and pull it out right before the guests arrive.  Or if your friend has a baby, and it’s your night to bring dinner – try this out, because it’s wildly difficult to make and deliver fresh roasted chicken breasts, I know, I’ve tried it.  Or any other occasion falling into that Make and Store Category that remains so empty on my side bar.

But the way I advise eating it – to really get the flavor kick – is the way pictured in the top photo.  I made the crostini from half a loaf of leftover baguette, which I revived with a bit of water in a paper bag in the microwave for 20 seconds.  Unless you’ve recently broken it off with your vampire love interest and you’re trying every angle to keep him away, don’t rub the bread with garlic the way I usually do, just generously lather it with olive oil.  The garlic really has a way of becoming more pronounced when the pesto comes out of the fridge on the second day.  This would also be delicious on cucumber slices or veggie sticks.

1 can artichoke hearts in water, rinsed and drained

3 tbsp chopped Italian parsley

4 large cloves garlic

1 c. grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese

4 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/4 c. slivered blanched almonds

1 tsp kosher salt

8 turns fresh ground pepper

3 tbsp olive oil

Combine all ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor.  Pulse to chop, then turn food processor to on/medium, then slowly drizzle in olive oil from top to emulsify.  Continue to run food processor until you like the texture.

I’ve been thinking about pumpkin bread ever since I left San Francisco.  My nephew is obsessed, which in and of itself is a curiosity, since for the time being he’s generally offended by food.  85% of canned pumpkin hails from a small town, that I guess could be considered a suburb of where I grew up (another not very big town).  Since I love all things small town and all things food, the Morton pumpkin festival is something I always think of fondly.  Where else can you see a machine toss a pumpkin literally thousands of feet at high speed?  I even grew up with an extremely dangerous, though loads of fun similarly themed pvc potato gun as teen, involving flame, aqua-net hairspray, pvc tube, and a huge element for danger.  I can only hope the thing is still in my parents garage, since I *know* my drivers license would be scanned to a suspects database if I went purchase the requisite materials today.  The weird thing is, I can’t find the the pumpkin toss contest description on the agenda from last months festival, so by God, I hope they didn’t discontinue the event due to lack of proper liability insurance or something.  If you’d like to hear more about what I’m referring to, please check out this pumpkin chuckin article from 2007.  Fall makes me extremely nostalgic for the midwest, pumpkin fields, apple orchards, fall leaves in phenomenal colors, it’s enough to make me want to run a 5K just to reminisce about my cross country days.

So all this nostalgia brought me to pumpkin bread.  Since I’m not an intuitive baker and able to create bread recipes off the top of my head yet, I googled it.  One entry brought me to this Olive Oil Pumpkin Bread recipe (and what a perfect rise that loaf had!).  I love all things olive oil, so I gave it a shot.  This is a delightfully moist bread, the polar opposite of dense, and lovingly spiced to awaken your tastes without overwhelming.  The only change I made was using fresh ground nutmeg, which I was totally enchanted by when we visited Jamaica last year.  If you decide to head that direction, at least halve the nutmeg quantity, since fresh ground nutmeg is *STRONG* and has a much more sturdy, earthy flavor than the ground counterpart found in your grocery’s spice aisle.

Olive Oil Pumpkin Bread Recipe (from seriouseats.com)

4 eggs

1 c. extra virgin olive oil

2/3 c. water

2 c. canned pureed 100% pumkin

3 c. sugar

3 and 1/2 c. lily white all-purpose flour, sifted

1 and 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinammon

1 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 and grease two metal loaf pans with olive oil.  In a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, gently beat the eggs, then add olive oil, water, pumpkin, and sugar to mix completely.  In a large bowl, sift flour, then use a spoon to measure out 3 and 1/2 cups, discarding any extra.  Sift flour again, this time adding salt, spices, and soda.  Add dry ingredients to wet, stirring just to integrate.    Divide mixture between two loaf pans, then bake for 45 -50 minutes, or until center is firm when shaken and a wooden toothpick can be inserted and removed clean.

My sister had the recipe for college chicken casserole on an index card in her recipe box.  The original source was a Cooking Light magazine issue from May 1998.  Some time during the last decade, her index card was spilled on and only partially legible.  Luckily, nearly everything survives on the Internet.  I found a legible version of College Chicken Casserole on myrecipes.com.  The original version was created to lighten up someone’s college memory food, a casserole containing sauce, chicken, and cremini mushrooms.  I’d guess the original version probably contained cheese and butter as well.  I’ve probably gone back and fattened it up a bit, but that’s just because I don’t own or use cooking spray.  I had an olive oil mister once, but the thing kept getting clogged and generally didn’t work very well.

I wound up making quite a few other changes to arrive at my own version.  We’re still out of white wine, so I again went with vodka.  I think chicken is highly preferable roasted, so instead of boiling it like the recipe requests, I roasted chicken breasts, then used less water and more chicken stock to provide a base for the sauce.  I didn’t have dried basil on hand and probably wouldn’t have used it if I had, so I opted for a bay leaf and fresh Italian Parsley mixture that gave the stock a lovely color.  I also used my homemade breadcrumbs instead of herbed stuffing.  Then to top it all off, after nearly abandoning ship on the recipe entirely, I failed to notice they only wanted you to use 2 of 4 cups of chicken broth, so my liquids were off and I wound up with a thinner and cooked much longer sauce.  I’d like to point out that the technique for separating the fat from homemade chicken broth in the Cooking Light recipe is pretty novel.  I’m hesitant to put hot things in plastic, and actually, hesitant to waste plastic in general, but it does seem like a handy trick to keep in the back of the mind for just in case situations.

Also, were chicken breast halves REMARKABLY smaller in 1998?  I can’t remember, but the recipe calls for 6 breast halves and 4 thighs, I used 3 chicken breast halves and wound up with the required 4.5 cups of shredded chicken.  *Shrug* go figure.

Decent casseroles, let alone healthy casseroles, capable of being prepared in advance, then say, delivered are almost non-existent.  The whole reason my sister and I were discussing casseroles to begin with was due to me considering purchasing Park Avenue Potluck: Recipes from New York’s Savviest Hostesses.  I was guessing it wasn’t going to contain a recipe for broccoli, rice, and cheeze casserole.  I glanced through it quickly, and it didn’t actually strike me as portable or potluckable food at all.  I may definitely have been to quick to judge though.  If you have this cookbook, please leave me a comment in the comment section – or email me lane@dinnerandconversation.com – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

NOTES – this recipe is adjusted for my error in the sauce measurements.  No need to reduce broth further.  : )

Chicken and Cremini Mushroom Casserole

(inspired by Cooking Light by way of myrecipes.com)

3 chicken breast halves

olive oil

2 c. chicken broth

1 c. water

1/3 c. vodka

3 tbsps fresh Italian Parsley

2 bay leaves

2 cloves garlic, halved

4 c. cremini mushrooms, sliced

1/4 c. flour

1 c. 1% milk

2 c. breadcrumbs

4 tbsp butter, melted

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400.  Drizzle rinsed and dried chicken breasts with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast in oven for approx 40 minutes or until chicken reaches and internal temperature of 165.  Remove skin and bones from chicken, shredding meat using forks.

In a sauce pan over medium heat, combine, chicken broth, water, vodka, parsley, bay leaves, and garlic.  Cook on medium heat, reducing to a quantity of 2 cups, approx 45 minutes.

Grease a 9 x 13 casserole with 1 tbsp olive oil.  Line bottom of casserole with shredded chicken.  In a saute pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil on medium.  Add mushrooms, saute until soft and moist.  Remove mushrooms and reserve.  If saute pan looks dry, add another tbsp olive oil, then flour.  Cook until paste-like and flour assumes a slightly yellow color.  Add milk, whisk until smooth and thick.  Add broth mixture and cook over medium until thickened, whisking nearly continuously, about 10 minutes.  Add mushrooms then season to taste with salt and pepper.  Pour mixture over chicken.

In a small bowl, pour butter over breadcrumbs.  Stir to combine then sprinkle evenly topping the chicken and sauce.  Bake 20 minutes or until bubbly.