Merry Christmas and Early New Year
I had a grand plan this year, to bake mountains of cookies and pay really close attention and find one or two that were reliably good (read: that I could make without messing up). But then I got the flu, and all bets were off.
So in lieu of tons of Christmas cookies, I’m making an early new years resolution: to post at least once a week.
For now, here’s a link to a Christmas past – looking forward to sights similar to these in the next few days!
And, here are a few links to previous year’s recipes that would be good in a pinch, should you need last minute holiday appetizer ideas:
Fried Cheese with Lemon
Prosciutto Wrapped Greens
The Artichoke Appetizer
AND, here is a link to a great article by Frank Bruni. It’s about Thanksgiving, but is applies equally to Christmas, especially in my family. Thanks in advance Mom!
Food: Hot Chicken Salad
It should be criminal that I’ve had this blog for so long without mentioning my mom’s Hot Chicken Salad. It’s a family favorite and, while it will never be considered “health food,” it is low in carbs/sugar and really delicious. It is best when topped with potato chips, but I didn’t have any on hand, so the below picture has some extra almonds sprinkled on top.
Hot Chicken Salad (serves 2-4) 4
Chicken Breasts (about 2 lbs)
3 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1 cup mayo (maybe more, depends on how you like your chicken salad)
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 tbsp tarragon
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup celery, chopped
Potato chips for topping (wavy chips are best)
Preheat oven to 350. Place chicken breasts in a shallow pot, pour in chicken broth (make sure all chicken breasts are covered) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, heat until chicken is just cooked (it’s going in the oven later), 5-10 minutes (depending on thickness). Remove chicken from broth, set aside to cool. In a large bowl, mix mayo, almonds, celery, lemon juice, tarragon, and 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese. Dice chicken breasts and add to bowl, mix to combine. Spoon mixture into a baking dish, top with remaining cheese, plus extra almonds or potato chips (if you’d like). Cover with aluminum foil, bake for 30-40 minutes until hot.
This goes surprisingly well with the sweet potatoes I posted about recently – and they make it decidedly more healthy.
*Edit* Mom has reminded me that if you top this with chips, do NOT cover it with foil when you bake it- if you do, the chips will wilt!
Italian Christmas Cookies, Revisited
It’s Christmas! I love the holidays, and all of the food that comes with it. You may not remember the Italian Christmas Cookies I posted about years ago, but I do. Mainly because they are one of the few cookies I’ve made that were not a disaster (see: every other post I’ve made about cookies). I made these again this year, following my recipe, and they tasted good again! Win!* These cookies are dense and chewy, a texture I prefer to crispy. The dough will last in the fridge for a week, and so will the icing.
*I may have set off the fire alarm in the new kitchen while making these, but NOT because I burnt the cookies. New kitchen’s oven might be nicer, but the fire alarms are REAL assholes.
Happy Thanksgiving! Now Go Make Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon
Happy Thanksgiving! In case you (like me) always find yourself surprised that this holiday has actually arrived, here is a stupidly simple recipe that can be made in 30 minutes or less. As long as you have sweet potatoes, you already have the other ingredients in your house. Enjoy it, and make sure to save a plate for the empty seats this holiday season.
Ingredients:
Sweet potatoes – 1 lb per person (for the purposes of this recipe, 4 lbs)
1 cup whole milk (half and half or cream if you prefer)
1/2 cup room temperature butter, cut into pats (you can do this with less butter, but it’s Thanksgiving so chill out)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into chunks of about the same size. Put the chunks in a big pot of water, boil the water, then turn the water down to high but not boiling. It shouldn’t take more than 8-10 minutes for the potatoes to be fork tender. Once they are, drain the potatoes and return to the pot. Add 1/2 cup of the milk and all of the butter, mix with a hand mixer or a masher (I prefer a hand mixer with the beaters) – I like it pretty smooth with a few chunks, which just takes 20 second or so of mixing. Add salt and cinnamon, mix just to combine, taste. If you want a thinner consistency, add the rest of the milk. Add more salt and cinnamon to your taste. Voila!
Back in the (New) Kitchen
Happy almost Thanksgiving everyone!
Posts to this blog have been spotty at best over the past year (or more), so here’s a quick update/excuse:
–Dave Copeland and I got married.
-I opened up the Whole Foods Market in Arlington, MA.
-We went on our honeymoon to Italy for 2 weeks (and ate our faces off).
-We bought a house, which MEANS we have a brand new kitchen for me to cook in!
In the foreground of today’s picture, you can see the table that my family had dinner on every night when my brother and I were growing up. The fact that it now lives in my house, and that I now get to serve dinner on it, is very special. Thanks to my mom and dad for keeping it in such good condition, and for giving it to us.
Here’s to many wonderful meals on our old table in our new kitchen!
Happy Halloween! (From, The Great Pumpkin)
Chicken Tart and Apple Dumplings
I got this tart recipe from America’s Test Kitchen’s “6 Ingredient” edition. It was ridiculously simple, even for those who are baking-challenged. You could substitute pretty much anything you want for the filling, use whatever you have in the pantry.
Chicken Tart – adapted from America’s Test Kitchen
1 raw pie crust (the kind you unroll from the plastic, they come in packs of 2)
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 cups chopped frozen spinach
1 wedge brie (or 1 block cheddar), cut into small cubes or shredded
2 cups cooked chicken (easiest way is to buy a cooked rotisserie chicken and pick it apart)
salt and pepper
optional: chopped walnuts or almonds
Put chicken broth, spinach, chicken, nuts (if you want) and half of however much cheese you choose in a microwave safe bowl, microwave for 45 seconds. Stir, add salt and pepper to taste. Lay out the pie crust on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Put filling in the center and crimp up the sides of the dough to contain the filling. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.
Now, what do you do with the other roll of pie dough?
You make apple dumplings.
Apple Dumplings:
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored (or cut into quarters)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla (or more if you like more vanilla)
1 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp butter
whipped cream or ice cream for topping
Put vanilla, sugar, and butter in a small saucepan, heat slowly and stir until melted and combined. Remove from heat. Cut pie dough in half. (If you want to get fancy, you may want to then roll out the dough to make each piece a uniform circle, but you don’t have to.) Place each apple in the center of its half of pie dough. Spoon some of the sugar mixture on top of each apple until you have used about half of the sugar mixture. Roll the dough up around the apple and pinch it shut. Place dumplings in a pyrex dish or pan. Spoon remaining sugar mixture over top of dumplings. Cook at 350 for 40 minutes. Top with whipped cream or ice cream, or just eat plain.
An Italian Affair
Last year was busy. This year I hope to get back to more regular blogging and cooking. Here’s a start – photos from my Italian honeymoon, where my husband and I both had affairs – with food.
Happy Birthday Mike!
My brother is smarter, better looking, and more athletic than I’ll ever be. If he wasn’t such a great person I’d really, really dislike him. He’s embarking on new adventures this year, stuff that is intimidating to even the most self-assured individuals. My birthday wish for him is to remember that some days you’re the winner, and some days you’re the loser, but each day you get to play the game again. Happy birthday, I love you!
Happy Birthday Dad!
My father is not overly sentimental, which is a problem for someone who lives with pack rats. There is not a member of our family that hasn’t had to paw through a bag of trash to retrieve some precious scrap of nothing after Dad has decided that there is just. too. much. crap. laying. around. But that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a big heart- he has a huge heart, a heart that is getting stronger every day.
My dad gave an unforgettable toast at my wedding last October, and on his birthday this year I want to give part of it back to him.
Per cent’anni, Dad. A hundred (more) years.
Happy Mother’s (Birth)Day!
This photo is from my wedding day, my mom spritzing me with Chanel #5 – her mother’s favorite perfume, and one that both my mother and I wear. My mom is the most positive person I know. She can have a hideous day, a dreadful month, or a year that would absolutely break a lesser woman, then take a deep breath and suggest we all go out for ice cream sundaes. I don’t know how she does it. My Mother’s Day/Birthday wish for her is to know how much the whole world appreciates her sincere zeal for life. (My birthday wish for myself is that she never loses that positivity!)
Happy Mother’s Day/Belated Birthday to the most wonderful woman I know! Love you mom!
Rant: A Special Kind Of Hell – Reservations
My husband and I are taking my parents and my best man/best brother to New York to thank them for their generosity of time, word, and dollar in regards to our wedding last October. When my husband and I go to NYC, we go to eat, and we want to share some of our favorite places and try some highly lauded new spots on this trip. This morning, I began making reservations at the one month out mark. It was hell.
Carbone opened their reservations line at 9am today for the date we wanted. I started calling at 8:58 – answering machine. 8:59 – answering machine. 9:00 – busy. 9:01- busy. 9:02- busy. I kept dialing that phone like a monkey on crack until 9:12, when I finally got through and was immediately put on hold for another 5 minutes. And at 9:17 I was told, in a very specific tone, that the only reservation they had left was for 5:30pm.
I understand that Carbone is popular. Very popular. But I can’t help thinking that it didn’t really matter that I did everything right to get this reservation and was still shut out. As I was dialing to get through and then on hold I just kept imaging all of the shiny, smooth-haired personal assistants sipping lattes and entering a special code to get early access, while my split ends and I had to run a meeting while pretending to make a doctor’s appointment with the phone stuck to my head.
This is why I hate popular places. I really, really do. Give me tried and true, or old school, or a dive, or the unknown (the really unknown, not the known unknown) any day. Those are the places that try the hardest, have the nicest staff, and don’t give you heartburn before you even get to the door.
Note: I also called the lesser known Lupa today, got a warm greeting and a legitimate dining time of 7pm. I’m really looking forward to it.
Review: Fitbit Force
view of fitbit force app screen
It’s time for my yearly fitness product/app/whatever review. I got a Fitbit Force (thanks mom!) for my birthday, and I’ve been using it since then to track my activity during Weight Loss Month Or More (turns out it needs to be More.)
The Fitbit Force is basically an advanced pedometer that you wear like a bracelet on your wrist. It tracks steps, flights climbed, active minutes, total miles traveled, calories (burned, eaten, and left to eat for the day), pounds to lose, sleep patterns, and water consumed. With the Force you can press a button on the side of the display to see your progress, or use their iPhone app or online dashboard.
The pros:
-Really easy to set up and check stats on. I downloaded the Fitbit app for my phone so I rarely use the computer syncing chip, but the online dashboard is just as good if not better.
-Comfortable. The Fitbit is just a thick bracelet, which isn’t even noticeable if you are wearing long sleeves. Water resistant, choose blue or black in color, wear on your non-dominant hand.
-Super long battery life. Needs to be charged less than once a week.
-Cost. As I mentioned, I was lucky enough to be gifted the Force, but at $129 it’s not particularly cheap. However, I would say there are much pricier investments you can make in your health, and this one is definitely worth it. If you wear it every day for two months, that’s just $2 a day.
-It makes you hyper aware of how active – or inactive – you are, and it encourages you to be more active. More on this below.
The cons:
-Does not recognize all activities as “steps” or “active minutes.” For example, I take a strenuous heated yoga class that shows up as nothing on my Fitbit, yet I know I am being active. Walking in place also seems to be hit or miss – it catches maybe 80% of your effort. But, you can add an activity and it will estimate your calorie burn.
-The food finder used to estimate your calories burned is not as intuitive as that on the Lose It! App. (Or, I’ve just been using Lose It! for so long that it’s too hard for me to switch over.) However, a pro is that you can link Lose It! (and several other apps) to your fitbit easily, and all of their information just syncs together.
-The sleep function isn’t particularly useful, to me at least. I guess this isn’t really a con, just an observation. I’m pretty aware of when I’ve had a bad night’s sleep, so having it tell me that I was restless 18 times isn’t really information that I need or want.
The Fitbit has definitely opened my eyes to my basic, non-gym activity level. The default goal settings are 10 thousand steps, 15 flights, and 30 active minutes- and I really thought that since my job is fairly active, I would blow those away before even working out. Nope. Most days, it is a real challenge to hit 10K steps, and I really have to hit the gym to get there and above. In my normal, non gym activity – full day at work, doing a few errands, walking to my car – I typically top out at 6.5K, on a good day.
What I’ve found is that this makes me park farther away from Target, or take several trips instead of one, or walk in place in front of the tv to hit an extra thousand steps. I’ve become a real step-fiend. I’ve also become fidgety. If I find myself standing for long periods of time (something that happens at my job), I’ll start walking back and forth to get in some steps. I walk when I’m checking my email. I walk when I’m cooking dinner. I walk when I’m blow-drying my hair. (This is probably getting pretty annoying to everyone around me.)
I’ve also found, unfortunately, that on the off day that I do hit my goals before I head to the gym, I’m kind of like, nah I’m all set, I hit my goals. This is either an unexpected deterrent, or a function of laziness brought on by extreme cold this winter. The bottom line is that, overall, the Fitbit Force is a great tool to get a real sense of your basic activity level, and to encourage you to move more in every day life, in addition to whatever workout regimen you already have.
Food: Healthy Broccoli Cheese Soup
This soup has about 250 calories per 1 cup serving (before the cheese topping), is filling and healthy. It is slightly adapted from a Moosewood recipe. It would be best served with some sourdough bread if that is in your calorie budget/food plan.
2 tbsp butter
1½ cup onion, chopped
1 waxy yellow potato, peeled and chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1 bell pepper, diced
4 cups broccoli, chopped plus 1 cup florets rough chopped and steamed
2½ cups veggie stock or water
2 cups 1% milk
½ cup fromage blanc
pinch nutmeg, pinch cayenne
1 cup grated sharp cheddar
salt and pepper to season
Optional toppings: grated cheddar, scallions, fromage blanc, etc.
Melt butter in large pot, sauté onion and bay leaf with salt over medium heat until onion is clear. Add bell pepper, broccoli, potato, and stock. Bring to a simmer, cover, and continue cooking for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until broccoli is well cooked. Discard the bay leaf and purée the soup in batches, adding cheese into the blender at the end. Stir in fromage blanc and spices, bring almost to a boil, top with optional florets (plus cheese or other toppings), and serve.
Food: Heart Healthy Steel Cut Oats (Happy Valentine’s Day!)
In perhaps my lamest Valentine’s Day post ever, I give you Alton Brown’s recipe for Steel Cut Oats (with minor modifications). He says it serves 4 at 142 calories each, but I’d say it serves 2, so that would mean this is about 300 calories (before toppings). This took a good 45 minutes to make, but it’s worth it on a weekend. And my Valentine said it was the best oatmeal he’s ever had, so that’s a pretty good endorsement.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup steel cut oats
3 cups boiling water
1/2 cup whole milk (you could definitely substitute 1% or skim milk here)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon low-fat buttermilk
Optional toppings:
brown sugar, cinnamon, berries, greek yogurt, peanut butter, jelly, etc.
In a large pot, melt the butter and add the oats. Stir for 2 minutes to toast. Add the boiling water and reduce heat to a simmer. Keep at a low simmer for 25 minutes, without stirring.
Combine the milk and the buttermilk with the oatmeal . Stir gently to combine and cook for an additional 10 minutes, or until it reaches a consistency you like. Spoon into a serving bowl and top as you like.
The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread 