Kosher-Style Pork Cracklins

This was the first recipe I picked out when I bought my first fine cooking magazine, and I had been eager to try it out. I wanted to try it on my own first, but never ended up having the time. So I made it last night.

It specifies Lucques or Picholine green olives, but when I asked the olive expert on duty at Whole Foods at Gateway, the guy barely knew what I was talking about. Picholine was listed on their info sheet about olives, but wasn't labelled on the olive bar below. Also, they didn't have a very good selection of canned olives. All of them were green olives stuffed with something. So I asked said olive expert for advice, and he suggested using Beldi olives. Of course I could have figured it out on my own if I had noticed that those were the only non-stuffed green olives available. I bought a small amount, when I planned on cooking 1 chicken for me, but on Friday I just got nearly a big container full, just so I wouldn't run out. That was a good move, as we were able to eat a few while cooking and have enough for the recipe. I halved the recipe, so I should have only needed about 3/4 cup of olives, but the magazine also said about 1/4 pound (4 ounces), and when I hit 3/4 cup of olives it was only 2 ounces. So I filled it up to 3 ounces worth, which was still below 1 cup, and called it good enough.

I skipped adding any parsley since I am not a parsley fan.

I happily mashed up a garlic clove.

Then I thumbed through the magazine looking for information on toasting almonds. I thought I had read something in the magazine about it. Instead, I found a little tip on what they mean by pounding garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt. I had done it wrong. Oops. Oh well, it was good enough I figured.

I ended up following the instructions for How to blanche Almonds and then How to toast Almonds. said I probably didn't need to blanche them, but then I realized I wasn't sure just how I would get the skins off if I didn't. I will welcome any advice that is better than that given in the links above. "Slip the skins off" my ass!

About 30 minutes later, I had enough whole almonds blanched and skinned to make 1/8 of a cup. I "toasted" them, but as far as I could tell, they only browned where they touched the pan. The whole almond didn't turn a golden brown. Looking back, perhaps I should have been more scientific about it, and kept one almond as a control. However that would have added another 2-3 minutes. Boy was I glad to only be cooking for two!

Good enough, I hope... ? Cooking this meal took so long, Jay got a nice nap in. (and this was after he helped me chop the thyme!)

I woke Jay up to fire up the grill. Somehow he had managed to go back to sleep despite me pounding the chickens. The magazine didn't say what temperature the grill should be, only "a hot grill fire", so I figured 350 degrees was good enough.

In addition to grilling the chicken, Jay made yummy salads (spinach, grape tomatoes, sprouts, red pepper, etc) for the both of us.

This turned out to be soooooooooooooooooooooo good. The almonds were GREAT in the mix of things! I may have added a wee too many olives, and the relish seemed to have a wee bit too much olive oil, but it all just went onto the plate, so it didn't make the food taste more oily. It was perfect! In fact, By the last two pieces of chicken, I had pretty much reached my olive limit. I had no idea I even had an olive limit! It seemed like there was enough relish for three chicken breasts.

The recipe doesn't say it's a make ahead one, but I think the majority of the relish could have been made a day ahead, and then just added in the almonds and prepared the chicken to grill the day of the meal.

We had this with a spinach salad and a bottle of 2004 Indian Wells Chardonnay.

Grilled Chicken Breasts with Green-Olive Relish - Fine Cooking #79

I was eager to start cooking new things this week, and it turned out that today was the day to start! Yesterday, I left my workout in south Austin knowing I had to eat something quick and light for lunch. Some fast food joints crossed my mind, but I crossed them off my list because what I would have ordered would not have been healthy. Ah ha! I was driving south to north, so a stop at First & Oltorf to get a yummy Southwest Chicken salad from Baby Greens was in order. On my way home, I kept thinking how I needed to look up a recipe that would be just as good as their Tangy Lime Vinaigrette!

Today I started searching the net. The recipe I finally settled on had no cilantro (a lot of them do! ew!) and it was a sure winner citing balsamic vinegar on the ingredients list. I knew it wouldn't be a copycat of the Baby Greens Tangy Lime, but I was still quite eager to try it.

It was very quick and easy to shop for. I couldn't find any fresh mint at my local HEB. Since it was late, I just skipped it.

This recipe was very easy to make. It didn't dirty hardly any dishes. I GOT TO USE MY NEW LEMON JUICER!!! It worked flawlessly, simply, quickly, easily. I don't know why anyone would buy a smaller juicer just for limes. I also knew how to use it properly because Amy taught me several weeks ago!

As I took a picture of it, I couldn't wait to dig in. Mmmmm! It was so good! Even better than the picture. This will definitely be a repeat. I paired it with some homemade leftover artichoke, mushroom, pepperoni pizza (originally was going to be grilled chicken until I saw the leftovers), warmed sourdough bread and some Tangerine Pomegranate juice. If only I would eat this healthy every day!

Ingredients
4 cups (about 4 ounces) baby spinach
1/4 cup mint leaves
juice of 1/2 lime
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped shallot
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1. Place the spinach in a large mixing bowl. Stack the mint leaves and cut them crosswise into thin strips. Toss in with spinach.

2. For the dressing, combine the lime juice, vinegar, shallot, and salt in a small bowl. Whisk in the oil. Season to taste with pepper.

3. Pour the dressing over the greens, tossing to coat lightly. Divide the dressed spinach among 4 salad plates. Sprinkle the blueberries over the spinach. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

• Recipe source: care2

Cook up a pot any time of the year, hot, cold or mild weather. It's warm, spicy and satisfying like chili -- without the beans -- so it's lighter and fresher in taste and texture.

Now that I think about it, Francie's right about it being like chili without the beans. I figured I'd make another soup since I loved the last one so much. I mistakenly bought two spice jars of cumin. The store was out of cayene pepper everywhere except bulk, so I bought some bulk. I guess it's a good thing, because in the corner of my cabinet was a GIGANTIC bottle of the stuff. The recipe called for "crushed peeled tomatoes in puree". It sounds like a simple request. It was soooo difficult to find in the store, though! So many choices, but nothing sounded quite right. I ended up with a can twice as big as I needed called "ground peeled tomatoes". It worked perfectly.

Getting the kernels off the corn was a little messy! I had bought some frozen corn just in case I didn't have enough fresh, but I had plenty. It called for 2 cups, which I think took 4 ears of corn.

This time when I was sautéing the vegetables, I wasn't afraid to turn up the heat. Last time it seemed like the veggies were barely cooking, and they were a bit crunchy. This time, I could hear it cooking if I let it sit a little. Also when it came time to simmer, it definitely did... even with the burner on low! I also have to say that my 100% silicone spatula is a dream tool for this job! I love love love love love it. If only the spatula chopped veggies and moved soup from the pot to the bowl, I wouldn't need another utensil.

The chower tastes great! I'd definitely make it again. The corn has some crunch to it, but I think it's perfect. The other veggies, like the carrots and celery seem to have just the right consistency. Definitely have a nice glass of something cool with this, because it is a little spicy (with the chili powder, tobasco sauce and jalapeno, this is not suprising).

Since I had some time (Jay's plane is hours and hours late), I decided to make some cornbread to go with it. I should have tried the Café Cornbread recipe, but I didn't realize there was one til it was too late. I got a recipe off of epicurious. It's good cornbread, but nothing special. If I had more time to buy all the ingredients, I'd have made the green onion-jalapeno cornbread that people seemed to rave about. For this recipe, I ended up calling my neighbor to see if she had cornmeal. She did! So I borrowed some. Unfortunately, neither of us had any baking soda, so I still had to go to the store.

Kosher tip: Kosher salt boxes are wonderful for keeping the recipe book open.

• Mexi-Corn Chowder (Cooking at the Café, p. 56)
• Stone-Ground Cornbread (epicurious.com)

Friday evening, Jay and I planned out our dinner for Saturday. I suggested that we grill something, so we looked through the Cook's Illustrated Summer 2006 issue on grilling. I was looking for something simple, and the grilled asparagus sounded easy and would also make a great side dish. I offered to make a roasted chicken. Amy taught a friend and I how to make chicken in three different ways. The absolute easiest recipe was for a whole roasted chicken, so this would be the first time I tried it on my own. What I loved about our selections the most was that all we needed was a whole chicken and asparagus. The other ingredients were ones we always have around.

The roasted chicken recipe was simple. Just butterfly it, stuff in some yummy herbs, and add salt and pepper before putting it in the oven. (Roast a 3 lb chicken at 475° for about 45 minutes.) I cut out half of the backbone and Jay thought it was the coolest sound ever. I let him cut the other half. I grabbed some rosemary out of the yard and found it a little trickier to slide in between the skin and the meat compared to sage. Oh well, I love rosemary so it was worth it!

The grilled asparagus recipe said that the spears would naturally snap at the point where the woody section begins. Asparagus naturally snaps in a lot of other places, too! So I only snapped off ends that were obviously woody parts. Jay grilled the asparagus while I talked to my in-laws (who follow this blog, too! *wave*).

I thought the best part of the whole experience was being in the kitchen and hearing sizzling noises from the oven and smelling the chicken. But the smell was even better when I walked outside and then back in again. Mmmmm!!

We sat down for dinner and ate all the asparagus and chicken. We loved every bit of it! We agreed this would make a great dinner when entertaining. It makes so much yummy food for such little work! Even the shopping was simple.

We had a bottle of Pelican Ranch Chardonnay that I bought with my sister Judy when we were wine tasting in Santa Cruz the weekend after Ironman Arizona. From their website: This wine is revered Los Carneros (The Ram in Spanish) sub district of the Napa Valley. It is extremely rich with a beautiful straw-color and generous fruit accompanied by notes of pear and apple. The creamy testure accompanied by vanilla and tasted oak accent a hint of butter from the complete malo-lactic fermentation.

• Roasted Chicken recipe from Amy
• Grilled Asparagus (Cook's Illustrated, Summer 2006, p.42)
• Pelican Ranch Chardonnay 2002 Los Carneros Napa Valley

I recently bought a cookbook called "Small-Batch Baking" that has all sorts of baking recipes that yield between 2 and 4 servings. (It has very high ratings on Amazon.) So many of the recipes sound delicious. I'm eager to try out the muffins, especially.

Today, I decided to make up a batch of whole wheat banana bread before Jay headed out of town for work. For this, all I needed to do was buy bananas from the store. Although the recipe said 23-25 minutes, I think it took 28 or maybe even 30. I kept poking the toothpick in and thinking it was never going to finish baking! Then it finally poked through clean. I cut a hot piece off for Jay and he enjoyed it while sitting in the Admiral's Club waiting for his flight. :) I've already had two pieces. It's very good! Thanks to Amy for the petite loaf pans and I also got to use my cooling rack for the first time.

Another thing to note... yesterday, Amy and I were riding our bikes around town and we dropped by Anna's house to say hi. She's the one who created the Million Dollar Chicken Recipe. ...and wouldn't you know it, she was baking a cake at the time, too!

• Whole Wheat Banana Bread (Small-Batch Baking p. 329)

I love to make pancakes and enjoy making whole wheat and gingerbread pancakes. This recipe gives you really yummy normal-looking pancakes with blueberries in them! Blueberries are so easy to break, and if you just break one, the juice will turn the batter a less appetizing blue-gray color. So in this recipe, you just drop the blueberries into the batter once it's already cooking! It makes the pancakes look normal on top, but with blueberries inside and showing through on the bottom.

I loved how this recipe uses everything that you probably already have on hand (except for a lemon and blueberries). No special trip to the store just to buy buttermilk! This recipe took longer than all my other recipes, but it was well worth the extra effort. These were 5 star pancakes according to my Grandma. We halved the recipe, and it was just perfect for two!

I also learned how nice and easy it is to cook pancakes on a griddle. The sidebar article highly recommended the BroilKing griddle and West Bend as a second choice. The article mentions uneven cooking, and just like my Grandmother warned, one side of her griddle did not get quite as hot as the other side.

• Best Blueberry Pancakes (Cook's Illustrated, p. 20. No dates on this issue! Sometime past 2003. It is a darker red with pears on the cover. Amy gave it to me, so may not even be from this year.)
• Bacon cooked by Grandma
• Honeydew melon sliced by Grandma

Shopping for this meal was nearly a nightmare! It called for a dutch oven and I didn't have one. The magazine had an article rating dutch ovens, so I figured I'd go buy one and then buy ingredients for dinner. The Best Buy choice was a $40 one from Target, only the Super Target I went to didn't carry it (or any dutch oven). I walked over to Linens 'n Things only to find a poor selection, only sets of pots sold together. Sears had two or three dutch ovens, but none that had been rated at all. Maybe I needed to rethink dinner? I decided to try the Bed, Bath and Beyond which would be on my way to Whole Foods anyway. I found two models available for sale as a single piece, the All-Clad and the Calphalon One. The All-Clad model was so pretty on the inside and was a recommended model, but it was $235. The other was just $99 and recommended with reservations. The only reservation was in regards to cooking fries where it got two out of three stars, stew and rice got it 3 out of 3. I doubt I'll ever be making fries, and the Calphalon One model had handles that were easier to hold, so I bought that one. I was happy that I made a very informed decision and didn't feel like I had settled.

I only had to ask for help at Whole Foods once when I couldn't figure out which chile was the Anaheim. The one in the magazine was black and white, and even looking at the colored pictures on the display, it wasn't obvious. But I got them, along with the jalapeno and poblano chiles.

I decided to time how long it took to make the chili. Jay asked if the recipe had an estimated cooking time, and I said "No, that's why I like it." (It would be so awful to see it say 1 hour, but have it take 2 or 3!) Well, we titled this chili "Four Hour Chili". It took two hours to prepare and two hours to cook. Additional pain was from cutting all the chiles (next time I'll use gloves). Even ideas off the internet eased the burning only slightly. Plus pulling apart the hot chicken was the other kind of burning to my fingers. Poor fingers! When Jay found out how long it took me to make the chili, he said he'd feel guilty eating it. (and then he went into calculating the cost in terms of money, too... haha!)

The chili was good, and even lasted for two more meals. This worked out well, because I came down with a nasty cold that night and was sick the rest of the week. The house smelled like chili half the week... yum! It was good, but not GREAT. It seemed to lack something... not sure what. I'll surely be making this again and looking forward to easy leftovers.

Lessons learned:
Wear gloves when cutting so many chilis to avoid feeling like your fingers are on fire.
When the recipe says "cut into large pieces" and you see those pieces are heading for the food processor, save time: large means large.

This was also the first time I got to use my stove since September (Thank you Triathlete Kurt for hooking our gas stove back up!!) and the first time I got to use my food processor. Both performed flawlessly!

Kitty enjoyed the box before we reused it for shipping presents!

• The Best White Chili (Cook's Illustrated, February 2007, p.6)

Although we've had tuna steaks at home before, this was the first time it was me cooking them. They were very simple to sear, but I did notice that they continued to cook after sitting on a plate for awhile. It was good reminder to take it off the heat before you hit the desired doneness.

The sauce was a bit trickier, and I'm still not sure what I did wrong. It calls for a LOT of butter and some cream heated over the stove. I did cook it for 10 minutes (I think), but I did not ever get the dark rust color the recipe mentioned. I've had sauce that's the dark brown color before, so I'll have to try it again.

This dinner was delicious! I loved how the lemon and the capers tasted. This is the first time capers have been in a meal where I've just loved them! The fennel was very nice in this, too. I'll definitely be making this again, but I'll have to either figure out how to do the sauce right and/or try a slightly different version. The recipe was from the quick and delicious section of Fine Cooking, and I'll have to agree that it's in the correct section.

We also tried Sauted Spinach with Shallots. I let Jay be in charge of that part. He cooked it well, but neither of us thought it was all that great. The shallots were a bit overpowering. I love Jay's version of spinach so much, it will be hard to find a better recipe! But we like experimenting... or perhaps just proving Jay's recipe is the best spinach one out there. I'll have to post it sometime.

• Seared Tuna with Fennel Seeds & Caper Brown Butter (Fine Cooking, January 2007, p. 82A)
• Sauteed Spinach with Shallots (Fine Cooking, December 2006, p 94A)

Heaven.

• Braised Chicken Legs with Red Wine, Tomato, Anchovies and Rosemary (Fine Cooking, December 2006, p. 59)

I love love love salmon burgers, so when I found a recipe, I decided to try making these at home! They were pretty tasty, but just not the same as when I've had them in a restaurant. I'll have to find out what their secret is.

I also made one of the sauces that came with the recipe, but instead of parsley and thyme for the herbs, I used dill and thyme. The dill flavoring was very strong! Other options suggested were basil, cilantro (ick!), mint (erm...), or tarragon.

The crispy potatoes were quite simple. The bigger they were, the more likely it was that they'd fall apart. The salt didn't seem to stick to them very well, so I just added more later. If you use very small potatoes, they should turn out perfect!

This was my first cooking experience to make it to Kitchen F#!% Ups!

• Salmon and Tuna Burgers (Cook's Illustrated, Summer 2006, p. 54)
• Crowd-Pleasing Crispy Potatoes (Fine Cooking, January 2007, p.44)

It's extremely icy and snowing in Austin, and the weather will probably last a few days. I planned out some meals and made some last minute shopping trips, so we are cooking and eating to our tummies' delight.

Mmmm... pancakes! I especially enjoy them when they are not your typical plain buttermilk pancakes! Over Thanksgiving, I discovered a recipe for "Multigrain Pancakes Worth Eating" in Cook's Illustrated. Sweet!!

My big concern was trying to figure out the order in which to make the pancakes and the topping, as they both required a bit of attention and time. Jay solved the problem by making the pancake batter while I worked on the topping. I think in the future if I was cooking alone, I would make the batter first, and then the topping, leaving the topping on low heat while cooking the pancakes.

These pancakes are fantastic. I'd even say they have topped my formerly favorite gingerbread pancakes from The Omelettry! The topping was excellent, too. I used walnuts instead of pecans, though. I'm also not sure if I was supposed to put them in the topping or just sprinkle on top. The instructions simply said "Serve with toasted nuts."

The most interesting ingredient in the pancakes is museli!

• Multigrain Pancakes Worth Eating, Apple, Cranberry, and Pecan Topping (Cook's Illustrated, November & December 2006, p. 14)

You know you fly too much when you tell passengers on multiple flights what a wonderful cookie recipe there is on page 126 of the in flight magazine. One time I was telling the woman next to me, and I opened to show her the beatiful full page photo of the cookies only to find that someone had ripped out the pages to take home!

The article has the top five winning recipes of a cookie contest for the staff of the American Way. When I saw the Chocolate Mint Marvels, I just knew I had to make them! My oven was disconnected due to getting new kitchen floors in, so I went to my friend Jennifer's house to bake these. We had so much fun making them!!

I packed them up the next morning and took two plates of cookies to the airport as Jay and I were flying to visit his family for Thanksgiving. We left one plate of cookies with the Admiral's Club staff. They have treated us entirely too well over the year! We enjoyed some complimentary champagne on our way out on our honeymoon and ever since have been greated as "the newlyweds!" when we walk in the door.

I must say I didn't expect to have to fend off as many people as I did from the remaining plate of cookies. From the TSA saying "Sorry ma'am, cookies can't go through. They'll have to stay with us." (WHAT! We can't joke about things, but they can?!?) to flight attendants and of course, other passengers wanting to get one of these cookies. It was sure fun to say, "You can make your own! The recipe is on page 126 of the American Way!"

I made these cookies again during the ice storm and shared them with some of our neighbors. There are four other recipes I still want to try. I googled the name of the cookies and found the recipe shared on a few other blogs.

¾ cup butter
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 cups chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
3 or 4 packages of Andes mints

Preheat oven to 350°. Melt butter and brown sugar in saucepan over low heat. Add chocolate chips and stir to melt; put mixture into a bowl and let cool. Add eggs, and then mix in flour and baking soda. Chill dough for 1 hour. Roll into balls and place on baking sheet. Bake for 9 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and place an Andes mint on each one. As the candy melts, spread it across the top of the cookie with a butter knife. Makes 3 dozen.

Some tips: You only need 2 packages of Andes mints (unless you're planning to eat one extra mint per cookie made). If you start to run out of mints, you can snap them in half and they look just as good. If you can find the mints with the green part on the outside, they will look even better. However, I haven't been able to find them any place other than the Olive Garden! Also, the top looks best if you try to swirl the chocolate.

• Chocolate Mint Marvels (American Way, November 15, 2006, p. 126)

I got to spend an early July afternoon over at Amy's house and we made bread! It's the first time I've ever baked bread (unless banana nut bread counts and I'd say it doesn't). I've pigged out on this bread before when Amy has made it, and it's sooo delicious. This recipe is ridiculously simple, easy and quick. It's a winner. Amy says it makes good sandwich bread (but Jay and I ate it all before I could find something to put in between two pieces).

Focaccia

2 cups lukewarm water (85-95 degrees F)
2 tsp. active dry yeast
4 cups unbleached bread flour
2-3 tsp. salt
2-3 tsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp. kosher or sea salt

In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over the water. Stir until dissolved. Stir in 2 cups flour and the salt, until smooth. With a strong wooden spoon, stir in the rest of the flour until incorporated. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in volume, 30-40 minutes or overnight in refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Oil one or two nonstick baking sheets and pour the dough onto the sheet, carefully scraping it from the sides of the bowl, being careful not to deflate it. Brush the dough with 2 tsp olive oil. Dip fingers into cold water or olive oil and insert them straight down into the dough. Make holes in the dough with your fingers as you gradually stretch it into a 1" thick oval. Brush with 1 tsp more olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary and salt.

Place the pan into the oven and reduce the temperature to 450. Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown all over with a few darker brown spots. Cool on a rack.

One of the best things about getting Fine Cooking is that the recipes are seasonal, so they include fruits and vegetables that are in season. I made a quick visit to Boggy Creek Farms one morning and picked up some heirloom tomatoes and eggplant for two recipes I found in the August/September issue. However, I wasn't there right at the moment they opened, so it was slim pickin's in terms of good tomatoes. I found a couple that were satisfactory, but I had to cut out a lot of bruised and unripened parts. I swung by Whole Foods to pick up some other ingredients and completely forgot about getting an extra tomato or two. After getting the good parts off the tomatoes I had, I still needed a lot more, so I went back again to Whole Foods for more tomatoes. (and these babies are not cheap!) As you can see from the picture, I made sure I would not run out! I liked that I could let this no-cook tomato sauce sit from 30 minutes to 3 hours while I worked on preparing the rest of dinner. I made a topping for the grilled eggplant that had anchovies, olives and orange in it! I also made my first solo attempt at the Rosemary Focaccia Bread.

The meals were good. I think the salsa cruda would have been better if my tomatoes were all properly ripened. They didn't have a whole lot of flavor, but the dish was good. I invited my neighbor Gen over since I figured I'd have plenty more food than just for two. She said the salsa cruda reminded her of bruschetta. The grilled eggplant on its own was excellent, and the topping was good, too. Although it was good, I think there might be a better one of the four recipes listed. I'll definitely be trying one of the other recipes soon because grilled eggplant was easy and yummy. The rosemary bread tasted as delicious as always, but it really, REALLY liked the pan and wouldn't let go. There was a lot of pasta leftover. Like usual, I used whole wheat pasta. Jay did an excellent job of grilling the eggplant!

• No-Cook Tomato Sauce (Fine Cooking, August/September 2007, p. 39)
• Grilled Eggplant (Fine Cooking, August/September 2007, p. 49)
• Olive, Orange & Anchovy Vinaigrette (Fine Cooking, August/September 2007, p. 50)
• Focaccia Bread

This is the best use for orange marmalade I've ever seen. Wow is recipe good. Even the chicken without the sauce was good on its own. This is definitely eligible for the quick and delicious section as it didn't take much time at all! I'd like to try making chicken kebabs, too. There are a number of grilled chicken thigh recipes in this issue, and I'm determined to try them all.

• Grilled Rosemary Chicken Thighs with Sweet & Sour Orange Dipping Sauce (Fine Cooking, August/September 2007, p.32)
• Steamed Asparagus
• Brown Rice

Amy recommended these to me. We almost made them on our trip to Twinland, but we couldn't find crystallized ginger locally and we ran out of time. I decided to make them while visiting friends in Memphis over Christmas. During a trip to Wild Oats (which is now owned by Whole Foods), we looked for the ginger in the bulk food section, but they were out! I ended up finding bags of it elsewhere. I actually found organic crystallized ginger in two different places, but the price difference was astounding! Finding ground ginger was even more difficult because they were out of it in their popular spice brand bottle and in their spice bulk section. Eventually I found a bottle of it. I guess ginger is popular around the holidays!

We cooked these late on Christmas Day. The only odd thing about this recipe was that it said you could use a 1 Tbs cookie scoop to make the balls, a small ice cream scoop, or two tablespoons. Your tool of choice for this matter definitely impacts the yield! It said about 4 dozen cookies and we got 23. These cookies turned out perfect!

We cooked a lot over the visit. While staying there nearly a week, we only went out to eat once, and that was to Tejas de Brazil. Yum yum yum! I made multigrain pancakes and the apple topping, and the braised chicken with anchovies. I also purchased a finecooking.com account (and already had a cooksillustrated.com one) so now I don't have to have any of my magazines with me when wanting to cook something special.

One of the great things about visiting my friend in Memphis was learning some tips from her on food. She buys a lot of her food at Wild Oats from the bulk section and stores it in big containers in her pantry. Instead of pure cane sugar, she usually uses raw sugar, but she has containers for both. She made lots of cookies and fudge and separated them into colorful tissue papered tins to hand out to neighbors and friends. She also asked me for rosemary from my garden so she could grow her own. I'm glad I brought a lot of rosemary because we used it quite a bit in our cooking! Looking online, I learned that there are better ways to get a cutting to grow roots, and I also learned some tips for keeping rosemary healthy.

• Double Ginger Crackles (Fine Cooking, issue 75, p.45)

I was looking for a vegan dessert recipe, and Google wasn't so helpful. I'm pretty sure I went to fine cooking, but didn't find anything exciting or workable. So I went to epicurious and held my breath as I typed in "vegan dessert". Hundreds of recipes came back and glancing over them, it did look like they were desserts and vegan recipes. Nice feature!!!

This was a 4 out of 4 forks, and so many people would make it again. Plus it looked easy! I took the advice written in one of the reviews to put it over peach sorbet. It didn't take much peach sorbet, and I thought it tasted much better than just the pure fruit and sauce. I do think the yield of 4 is pretty low, especially adding in the sorbet. Either that, or my bowl was a nice small size. A half serving felt like plenty enough for me. (I ended up having the whole serving, anyway. Dessert is a rare treat at our house!)

• Balsamic Blueberries and Peaches (epicurious)

My last crackle cookies were so delicious, I was eager to make more. I was invited to two Superbowl parties, so I made a batch of cookies to split between the parties. I'm not a big chocolate fan myself, but these were pretty good cookies! I definitely liked the double ginger crackles the best. (The longest lasting cookies in the batch tasted fantastic!! But remember, I'm not a huge chocolate fan....) The neat part of these cookies is that there are melted chocolate chunks in them along with the chocolate and cocoa in the cookie itself. The orange zest in the cookies really added to the flavor of the cookies.

This was the first time I finally used my bigger Kitchen Aid, so it was fun to figure it out. (I got chocolate batter all over it!) I bought two silicone tray liners and those made it very easy to slip the silicone off the tray and onto the cooling racks. The cookie dough seemed a little greasy when trying to roll it into balls. Rolling just the top of the ball in sugar made it go faster than the last time I made crackle cookies, where I just rolled the whole ball in sugar.

(Although these cookies were really good, personally I'd rather have a brownie!)

• Double Chocolate Crackles (Fine Cooking 89, p. 71)

This recipe looked good, had familiar ingredients and it was in the quick & delicious section, so II planned on making this for dinner. While everyone at the table said it was good, I didn't think it really lived up to what it could have been. There were two problems that I can see that could be improved.

I had a hard time finding plain green olives at Whole Foods. So many people love olives stuffed or in exciting liquids rather than plain boring green olives. While I did find some at the olive bar, they had their pits in them and I didn't want to deal with figuring out how to get the pits out. I finally found a can of plain green olives and just bought those. When I opened the can, some of them had really dark black spots that just weren't very appealing. I skipped those olives or cut around them. This only required a half cup of olives, so it wasn't a large amount. I tried one of the olives, and it just didn't have a very strong or yummy flavor at all. I briefly considered using some garlic stuffed olives and taking out the garlic for this dish, but then decided against it. Looking back, I should have used those olives. I've only had one case where a not too exciting ingredient worked well in a dish, and that's because it was a tomato that absorbed a lot of flavorful juices. This is not something that's going to happen with an olive.

The other thing that I did was was not chop the onions fine enough. It just says "finely chopped", but when I compared my finished product with the magazine photo, my onion pieces seemed huge in comparision. In this case, I think smaller would have been better. Here's a nice little guide on chopping onions. Mine should have been more like the minced instead of looking more like chopped. I also think I used too much onion. "small onion" is just not a precise enough measurement for me. How small is small?

Also what is a chicken breast cutlet? I just bought chicken breasts by weight and then sliced them in half to get 8 thin pieces. It seemed to work for cooking, although the four chicken breasts sure varied in thickness to begin with.

Buying bulk pre-slivered almonds is surely the way to go!!! This worked out great.

I think this recipe has potential to be good, but I think in the future, I'd rather just make the Grilled chicken breasts with Green-Olive Relish. It has far more olives in it, and when you use the right ones, oh it's soooo tasty!! (Plus a chicken breast is a good meal size. Half a chicken breast means going back for seconds which somewhat interrupts dinner.)

• Sauteed Chicken with Sherry & Olive Pan Sauce & Toasted Almonds (Fine Cooking 92, p. 90a)
• Garden salad

How often have I had to compost outdated baby carrots, half a red pepper or some leftover broccoli? This recipe is just the solution to use up your veggie bits before they go bad! While typically fried rice is not the healthiest option, this recipe uses brown rice and lots of veggies.

I decided that the best way to try the recipe was exactly as it was described. Then if I liked it, I could try it with whatever veggies were around. I used fresh corn, and cut the kernels using an angel food cake pan to hold up the cob. It worked great. I did I still end up with some kernels on the floor, though.

A warning on this recipe: You need to use "very cold" cooked brown rice. So I'd advise making the rice a day ahead or in the morning, as hot rice does not cool quickly.

For me, the part that may not have worked right was getting the fresh ginger freshly grated. Does ginger actually grate? Or does it just turn into paste? I figured the paste was good enough, and mixed it in. Another issue I ran into was the rice sticking into chunks. As I stirred everything together, a big part of my task was breaking up the rice chunks. Not sure if there's an easy way to avoid that or not, but when it was all cooked, I didn't see any remaining chunks of rice.

I really really need to get a big pan. All the ones I have are medium sized. I realized pretty quickly that I was running out of room and ended up filling two pans. It was easy enough to do. Right before adding the rice, I put half the veggies in one side, and added only half the rice, bacon, oil and eggs to each pan.

This recipe was great! To me, it didn't have an overly "healthy" taste or texture. Brown rice works pretty decently in fried rice, and I think the edamame was a better choice than something like peas. Easy and yummy as leftovers as well.

• Five-Treasure Fried Rice (Fine Cooking 97 Feb/March 2009, p. 33)

The interesting part of this recipe is that you brine the chicken with an orange juice brine.

This recipe requires you to juice about 8 medium oranges. If you don't have the proper tools, this can be a pain and take way too long! Fortunately for me, Jay shopped for brandy and an orange juicer while the chicken was in the brine. So the second part of the recipe requiring juice was much easier! I will be ready next time.

Fine cooking does such a great job of teaching you about the various ingredients and how to select them and prep them. I love it because I need the help. This was my first time deboning chicken breasts. I did okay. Perhaps the proper knife would have helped? It is just perfect how right in the ingredients list, fine cooking points you to another part of the magazine to help you with how to prep or select items if the ideal isn't available.

A lesson learned upon re-reading the recipe for this post: When a recipe tells you to add something to taste, make sure you do a taste before adding any of it. The dish seemed just a touch too salty. Yes it was sitting in a brine for awhile, but I also added regular chicken broth when it called for low-salt. I also seasoned to taste with a bit more salt before even checking the sauce for how it tasted at that point!

The orange-brandy sauce is a reduction, and my history with reductions has been spotty. This time I bravely reduced and added things and stirred and estimated doneness and I think it turned out great! That was a ++ to my confidence level in making reductions.

Because this was a brine, the chicken was nice and juicy, even the smallest chicken breast wasn't overcooked while waiting on the biggest chicken breast to finish.

This also made fantastic leftovers.

• Pan-roasted Chicken Breasts with Orange-Brandy Sauce (Fine Cooking 97 Feb/March 2009, p. 45)