bbq chicken

Too cold to grill outside! But I've been craving grilled anything! So I grabbed my cast iron grill pan, heated the oven to 500 degrees and viola! I have fire! Or I have grill, inside, where it's nice and warm. And you know what? It came out fabulous. My cast iron has grill-nubby thingee's on it so I got the grill marks. It's all about the grill marks right? Oh yeah! Since it was night time I don't have the best of pics, but you can imagine how good this tasted. I used a wonderful barbeque sauce from my buddies at Stonewall Kitchen.

my kind of "missing" cat...

It was such a nice day today, the sun was finally out, it was a warm 33 degrees outside! That's warm for us that have been stuck in the artic tundra for the last few weeks. I decided to get out early and do all my errands, get in my exercise of walking while the sun was still high and strong in the sky. Now normally when I go out and come back home my cat always, I mean always greets me at the door. Not today. He's such a friendly loving little guy. He always hears my car pulling into the driveway, runs over to the sun room watching me get out of the car, walk up the pathway, and at that point he runs to the other side of the house to the front door to greet me. No kitty to be found. I was so scared. I thought the worst....and told myself not to panic. I thought maybe he got outside? We don't let him outside because of all the coyotes we have around here. And then I remembered this did happen a couple times before and I eventually found him in my bedroom closet (he knows how to close the closet door, and for whatever reason he loves to close the closet doors and have a nap on the floor of my closet). He was not in the closet. I searched everywhere in the house, nothing. More panic came over me. I started thinking maybe he got into the back of the washing machine? You know how your mind starts thinking the absolute worst and craziest outcomes? Yeah, that's where I started thinking towards. And then all of a sudden, as I was walking down the stairs to go check out the laundry room, I looked over to the post & beams of the ceiling, over by the skylights and found this.....

Relief flooded over then a little bit of anger as it's not the safest place to be since the drop to the ground floor is a long way down. How did he get there? Upstairs in the bedroom, there is a little lookout window, that overlooks the downstairs. He jumped up onto that little railing, hopped onto the post beams and over to the windows.

This is the little opening. Crazy right? He got down fine and now, goes back and forth like it's nothing. I think everyone in this house has a bit of cabin fever lately, so maybe that's why he was feeling 'creative & daring'. So after that mini heart attack, I put away the groceries and wanted to go outside and see where my duck buddies were. Lately there have been a few ducks brave enough to kind of come close to me and say hi, but only if I feed them some treats. So, I wanted to give a few stale pieces of bread to them. As soon as I opened the slider, they heard that noise and came right over.

But as I was feeding them I turned to my left and looked at what was coming....

I had never seen this before! I was in shock and slowly, walked into the house to get my camera. I mean is this a shot or what? And if you can see in the distance, there are more crossing the little pathway heading over! And just behind that bush, by the pathway, are tons more coming over! It was so cool! I was lucky to get this shot, and wanted to feed them more, so on my way back to the house (to get more bread) a ton of them got spooked and flew back into the river. The fly-away wind they created was INTENSE!

chai crumbcake

My love for crumb cake runs deep. I love NYC style crumb cake with a thick, thick crumbly topping and a rich buttery cake. I love how it's a 2 to 1 ratio for topping and cake. But some of the recipes I've found only give it a 1 to 1 ratio, so when that happens I just double the ingredients for the crumb topping, just like I did with this recipe below. I mean the best part is that darn sweet and gently salty topping filed with spices or just plain cinnamon, right? Oh yeah! And I also love what you can do with crumbcake: you can add fruit to it, add nuts, glazes, drizzles, chocolate, and now I've found you can add chai. I love that strange but warming flavor of chai, every once in a while I love to get a hot chai tea from Starbucks. I highly recommend this recipe from Baking Bites; it's really good and has a gentle flavor of chai.

If you were going to kick up a crumbcake, what would you add to it?



chai crumb cake (with extra crumb topping)
adapted from Baking Bites
print recipe

Topping: (I doubled this for an extra thick topping. Below is the regular size, if you want double crumb topping, then double all the ingredients for topping)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp cardamom
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

Cake:
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2/3 cup butter, soft
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9″ square baking pan with parchment paper or lightly greased aluminum foil. (I used an 8inch pan and sprayed with Pam)

In a medium bowl, combine all topping ingredients except butter. Whisk to blend.
Gradually stir in the melted butter, using a large fork or spatula to mix. When all the butter has been incorporated and the mixture looks like wet sand, squeeze small clumps together to make large crumbs ranging in size from that of a pea to that of a grape. Set aside. (I doubled the amount of crumb as there was such a thin layer of it).

In another medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. With the mixer set on a low speed (or by hand), alternately add in flour and sour cream in two or three additions. When no streaks of flour remain, pour into prepared pan. Top evenly with crumb mixture.
Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack before slicing. (I baked at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, turned pan, then another 15).
Serves 9-12, depending on how you slice it.

honey sesame shrimp

A fabulous taste sensation of flavors in this shrimp dish. Just like I love my sweets with a hint of salty, I love my spicy foods with a hint of sweet. The key to this dish is the marinade, but then again isn't that always the case? The longer something sits and marinades in a good sauce, the better it tastes. So, if you can, let this marinade overnight. I also added in more of the Thai chile sauce, you don't have to, but the flavor is a deep spice, not an instant HOT, but a slow warming heat as you eat it; that's why I love spicy Thai chile sauces.
Sorry I don't have better pictures this time around as this was a dinner meal and it's so dark here by the time we get around to eating. But I had to share this recipe with everyone as the sauce was soooooo good. And when something is good you just have to share it with friends.
I don't know about you, but I am a huge lover of ginger root. I am amazed at it's healing powers and more importantly it's taste. Whenever I eat sushi I always ask for more ginger. I'm the person in Whole Foods buying the jars of pickled ginger and bargaining with the sushi chefs to pile on some more ginger onto my sushi lunch rolls. In this dish, I added big chunks of thinly sliced ginger...you can see it in the first pic, on the left side. When those chunks of ginger marinaded in that sauce and then were cooked through, oh the taste! I ate all the chunks in this dish as the hubby won't touch it.

Honey Sesame Shrimp
print recipe

1 ½ pounds jumbo shrimp peeled and deveined
4 slices fresh ginger 1/4-inch thick (I did 6 slices)
5 trimmed scallions
6 TB dark sesame oil (also called Asian sesame oil)
4 TB rice wine sake (or dry sherry)
6 TB soy sauce
5 TB honey
3 TB sesame seeds
1 TB Thai sweet chile sauce or paste (I did 2 TB)
1 ts Chinese five-spice powder
4 cloves garlic crushed

Flatten white parts of scallions with the side of a cleaver. Finely chop green parts and set aside for garnish. Rinse the shrimp under cold running water, then drain and blot dry with paper towels. Set aside while you prepare the marinade.

Combine 3 tablespoons of the sesame oil, the rice wine, soy sauce, honey, sesame seeds, chile sauce (if using), and five-spice powder in a large bowl and whisk to blend.
Stir in the garlic, ginger, scallions, and shrimp to coat, then cover and let marinate, in the refrigerator, for 30 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the grill to high. Using a slotted spoon, remove the shrimp from the marinade to a bowl and toss with the remaining 3 tablespoons sesame oil.
Pour the marinade into a saucepan; remove and discard the garlic, ginger, and scallion whites, using the slotted spoon. Bring the marinade to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, uncovered, to a thick, syrupy glaze, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
When ready to cook, oil the grate.
Arrange the shrimp on the hot grate and grill, turning with tongs, until nicely browned on the outside and firm and pink inside, about 2 minutes per side. Brush the shrimp with the glaze as they cook.
Transfer the shrimp to serving plates and or a platter and sprinkle with the scallion greens. Serve immediately with sticky rice

Serves 3 - 4
(I've also stir fried this dish and it came out just as good. Right now the grill is buried in snow...somewhere)

potato chip & cc cookies

My love for salty, crispy food things combined with chocolate is endless. I love making my potato chips dipped in chocolate, and my new found love of dipping Cheez Its in chocolate was a thrill when I found I could further kick it up a notch by using it in my Poor Man's Toffee. I had yet to make a good chocolate chip cookie with potato chips in them. It was hard as I wanted to find the perfect balance of potato chip and cc's. I would make normal cc cookies and add chopped up potato chips to it, but never tasted the potato chips in the end. To make a long story short and to sum up my many experiments in finding the right balance I finally came up with the fact that you have to use small chocolate chips because the bigger ones (or normal sized ones) were too overpowering and I could never taste the potato chips. I also found that using salt & vinegar potato chips that are hearty and have a bold potato flavor like Kettle Brand worked perfectly. These potato chips have enough salt on them to stand out with the sweet contrast of the chocolate chip, and the intense flavor of the salt & vinegar doesn't break down/get lost as much during the mixing and cooking sections. You really don't taste the vinegar in the chips, just the salt. I think the vinegar dissipates during baking. Also, never grind the potato chips too fine, leave them a bit hearty-like so you have that crunch in each and every cookie. These were so good, I mean really good. If you like salty & sweet then you need to put this on your 'to bake' list. Next time I make these I am trying other flavors of the Kettle Chips; those spicy thai, the chipotle (oh yeah!) and the salt & pepper. Endless possibilities, I love that.

potato chip & chocolate chip cookies
print recipe

1 cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup crushed (not too fine) salt & vinegar potato chips (used Kettle Brand)
1 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder; mix well.
In a mixer combine butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla.
Gradually add in the flour mixture and combine well.
Stir in potato chips and chocolate chips by hand.
Place in fridge to chill for at least an hour or more.
Once dough is nice and chilled use a mini scooper or your hands to form about 1-inch balls. Place on an ungreased baking sheet, 2 inches apart. (they do spread when baking)
Bake 14 to 18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on baking sheet.

Makes 2 dozen.

Note: you can add crushed salted pretzels to this as well in addition or in place of the potato chips. You don’t have to use salt & vinegar chips. Just make sure to always use a hearty/sturdy type of potato chip.

winter, so far....

Obviously you've heard the northeast had quite a cold spell? Yeah, I'm living in the artic tundra. This past Friday & Sat. nights we had temps below zero and the wind chill was a -5. Today, Sunday, isn't so bad, we're having a mild heatwave as the temps are finally back into the low 30's. I thought I'd share some winter photos from my neck of the woods...


The docks in my town. The commercial fishing boats, most of them are all out. How'd you like to go and fish in zero degree weather with cold water all around you for 10+ hours? That's gotta be a very hard job to do in the winter. My hat goes off to these guys & girls; I'm grateful for their hard work and some of the best local seafood around.
Look at that sky! How magnificent, how monstrous! When you're standing in zero degree weather with below zero wind chills staring up at that sky you truly feel alive. (and truly friggin frozen!)

Down the road a bit from the docks is the cape cod canal. This is a place where I like to walk, long walks, as the canal is about 8 miles long. It's a great place to walk in the spring & summer, not in the winter as the winds are brutal here. The wind is so strong here in the winter that it literally slaps your face.

That's that Sagamore Bridge in the distance; a bridge that separates cape cod from the mainland; only way on to cape cod is this bridge or the other bridge (Bourne Bridge).

Look at the clouds! Friggin awesome.

Ever since 911, cameras are everywhere along the canal, thankfully.

My back deck with the beginning of snowstorm number 7? I lost count by now.

One hour later, two more inches fell. I love the sound/no sound of the snow falling. No other noises, no cars, no animals, just snow falling...you know that almost non-existence sound?

This photo is from Friday, the creek that runs to the marsh in our backyard is frozen in some parts: that rarely happens; this shows you how cold it was. But I worried about my friends the ducks, how can they stand that cold water? Aren't they just freezing? Can they not feel the cold water in their feet? I wanted to bring them in the house so badly.





When I went over to feed them, they started to move, so I my thoughts of bringing them inside would never work. I love my duckie friends. They do chat A LOT with each other early in the morning.


Very early one morning I saw these tracks on my back deck. How cool? Nothing else touched the snow, but these tracks. I'm pretty sure it was a bunny.

You know it's cold out when my cat literally gets under the blankets!

A skylight window above my bedroom at 9am--yes, 9am! It's that dark outside. Can you say SAD (seasonal affective disorder)? I swear I have a touch of it every winter; I crave the sun so much these days.

My bedroom outside deck, not very deck-like these past few months. I loved sitting here in the summer soaking up the warm rays and watching sunsets at night.

My cocoon. Winter makes me sleep a lot more. Hibernate is more the term. See the ivory blanket on top of the mattress? That's my electric blanket, I put ON the bed so I lay over it me--that's how cold I am at night. Sooooo nice and comfy that way. When we have frigid cold days I swear I love getting into bed with my electric blanket set high, and my comforter surrounding every inch of skin, I can't leave any skin unexposed, everything covered!! Cocoon!

My night table these days is nothing more than a pharmacy and watering hole. My skin is so dry this winter. On Friday night the dew point was a minus -4. Minus people! It's been so dry here this winter. During the middle of the night I get so parched and my skin so dry that I have to mist it. I put eye cream on my dry eyes at least 3 times a day...crazy. The dark gray box behind the water is my late kittys' ashes; it's always on my nightstand, near me.

I finally broke down and bought a warm mist humidifier. I LOVE this. The amount of clean, warm mist this little guy spouts out is amazing. No more waking up with dry throat. It really is a great little machine.

This is where I'd rather be this winter....

Or here.... aloha `aina

cheesy cheeseburgers

It was oh so thrilling to get emails from some of you asking me if there were pics of the cheesy hamburgers I made for hubby's birthday. Yes, there are! I only have one decent one as taking pictures at night is tough without the daylight to help lighten up the photo. And this photo I know the burger is upside down, not the best photo, but still good enough.
The recipe? Nothing special, very easy. I am a firm believer that it all starts with the beef. You need good beef with some fat, to build a good burger. I always buy my meats at Whole Foods. I respect how sanitary they are with all their meats, and I feel safe knowing I won't get tainted beef. Plus it just overall tastes better. I use an 85% lean beef, never 90% as it's way too dry; a packet of Liptons Mushroom & Onion soup mix, a few splashes (not dashes) of Worchestshire sauce, a couple dashes of hot sauce, a dash of sugar (yes), a good-size pat of butter. In a large bowl, combine all with my hands, don't overmix though! Form a very large meatball, put a pat of the butter in the middle of the meatball, close the pat over with the meat and then gently push into a very thick hamburg patty. Cook on a preheated pan, over medium heat. Don't go touching and flipping the burger! Leave it, let it do it's thing. You want a nice char on both sides so only flip once! Cook about 6 - 8 minutes each side; on first flip put some nice thick slices of sharp cheddar on that burger! Sometimes I do a cheddar & monterey jack mix and my famous caramelized onions. Sure on really good hearty buns. I am in love with, and use all the time those Iggy Rolls--they are the best bread makers ever, well, plus San Fran has some stellar ones too.
(I know the cheese is upside down in the photo, I just plated the burger wrong...I had a very hungry hubby waiting patiently for his burger!) Yes, those are deep fried sweet potato fries. Slice fries really thin, dip raw fries into some egg whites, chill till hardened, then deep fry in small batches in peanut oil, salt immediately.

red velvet cupcakes w/ buttermilk frosting

It was my hubby's birthday this past Sunday. Happy Birthday sweetie!
I asked him what he wanted for a treat. "your cheesy hamburgers!" He exclaimed. Ok, that was a given, but what sweet treat, what type of cake? He didn't care. A good old chocolate cake from the box was fine with him. :::shudder::: A cake mix from a box? Oh no, as much as I love a good fast and easy cake mix, I just couldn't on a special birthday. A birthday deserves a homemade moist, buttery cake from scratch, period.
How about red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting? Sure, he was in--as long as it has frosting on it he was in.



I remember seeing on 'Throwdown with Bobby Flay" a duel on red velvet cupcakes recently and wanted to try it out.
So with these cupcakes I wanted, really wanted, a better cream cheese frosting. I wanted cream cheese for sure but wanted the cream cheese frosting to be really cream-cheesy tasting, if that makes any sense. So, to spare you the long details, after playing around with various cream cheese frosting combo's I came up with a cream cheese-buttermilk frosting. Yeah, it's really decadent, but it truly went so perfectly with the tangy red velvet cupcakes. I love what flavor buttermilk creates in a recipe.



The recipe for the cupcakes is here and my frosting is, well, off the cuff...like all my other creations. So bear with me as I don't have precise measurements. Experimenting is fun, yes? And you all are cooks and know how much to put in....yes?

red velvet cupcakes
from bobby flay
print recipe

buttermilk-cream cheese frosting
from vanillasugarblog.com

Notes:
You can use my frosting or you can use bobby flay's; I've included both here.

For the cupcakes:
15 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
13 ounces granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons red food coloring
1 1/4 teaspoons vinegar (white or apple cider can both work)
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 cup water

For Bobby Flay's the cream cheese frosting:
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound butter, room temperature
2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a bowl and set aside.

In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix oil, sugar, and buttermilk until combined. Add eggs, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla and water and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix on low, scraping down sides occasionally, and mix until just combined. Be sure not to over mix, or the batter will come out tough.

Line a 16-cup cupcake pan with paper liners, scoop the batter into the liners and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.
For the cream cheese frosting:

Whip the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until creamed. Gradually add powdered sugar to the mixture and scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
The frosting can be used right away, or stored in the refrigerator up to a week.
Frost cooled cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting.

buttermilk-cream cheese frosting (off the cuff):
1 block of cream cheese (8oz.) room temp.,
about 1 cup + or - of confectioners sugar,
2 tb + or - of buttermilk.

Sift confectioners sugar to get out lumps, then cream everything together until desired consistency.
It has a nice buttermilk & cream cheese taste--which I loved.
I have always put toasted walnuts or pecans on my red velvet cake, on the sides, all the way around or just on top.
Do you? It's a southern thing isn't if memory serves me right.

sugar donut muffins

I loved photographing these. So simple, so basic, the sunlight was finally out on Saturday and was just the perfect light. Plus the sugar was so pretty on the tops of the muffins. It felt good to have some sun today--we haven't had much of it lately. This Saturday night we are expecting yet another snowstorm. It's the second week of January and we've already had seven snowstorms so far this winter! We met our quota for snow, we're done, ok? No more. I hope winter doesn't keep this snow-storm pace, by March I'll be screaming for warm tropical weather. Summer: it felt like just yesterday I was sitting outside on the back deck at night listening to the resounding crickets and frogs croak away as if they were having their own who-can-croak-the-loudest contest. The warm air of summer nighttime surrounding me and my cold, sweaty glass of wine....

How were the muffins you ask? Well, you're asking the wrong person as I thought they were ok; a little plain tasting. Don't get me wrong, they came out just fine. You all know I like things kicked up a notch. So, if I were to make these again (and I will) I want to put a vanilla custard in the middle for a little extra something. Or even a jelly center would be perfect. The muffin has a wonderful mild, tasting vanilla base, but I just wanted to add something to it. My husband LOVED them, but see he loves plain old anything, so...if you're like him then you'll just love these. I have to admit these are the perfect base muffins for experimenting add on or add in's.

sugar donut muffins
print recipe

1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking power
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ cup plus 1 TB vegetable oil
¾ cup plus 2 TB buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

For topping:
4 TB butter, melted
½ cup sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color. Add in all the vegetable oil, all the buttermilk, vanilla extract and mix well.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; add this to the wet mixture.
Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
While muffins are baking, melt butter in one bowl and in another bowl pour in the ½ cup sugar. When muffins are done, take muffin one by one and dip top of muffin into melted butter then dip into sugar. If, you’re feeling even more creative you can dip all sides of the muffin. I also used cinnamon on half of the muffins. After I was done doing 6 muffins with the plain sugar I added some cinnamon to the remaining sugar and dipped accordingly. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

bad girl...

Do you have those times when you go to the grocery store starving...ravishing. And you get a lot of extra stuff because you are so hungry? Yep, ok. And then once you get home you are just so hungry and can't wait until dinner that you just break into a 'bag or box o' junk' just to have a small bite to tide you over till dinner? And one small bite leads to another small bite which leads to 10 small bites? Yeah, that's what happened to me. I didn't even make it to dinner, as I ate a good amount of this.



I didn't even cut a piece and plate it, I just grabbed a fork and dug right in. How bad is that?
Those grocery stores are smart by putting the Entenmann's baked goods right near the checkout aisles, so when we pass them by we are enticed to buy them, now.
My favorite, obviously, is the raspberry danish. Don't buy it!
What is your worst 'I'm starving while grocery shopping moment?'
Do share...

cheesy chicken & veggie soup

Do you have a bunch of leftover chicken or turkey or even veggies you need to use up? Want to get your kids or hubby to eat more veggies? Want something nice and hot to warm your bones? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then do I have the answer for you....
Ha ha, don't I sound like a TV commercial, selling the latest and greatest chopping gadget for only $9.99?
But seriously, this cheesy soup is super easy to make, very versatile when adding any type of leftovers, and I swear your kids might just love it. If my over-the-moon fussy hubby eats it--veggies and all, then so will your fussy kids. The best part I love is you can add whatever veggies you have from the ice age in your freezer and chopped leftover chicken or turkey (never tried roast beef, but hey, I bet it might work too).
I was just frozen today, pretty much all day. No amount of hot tea was going to warm my cold bones up. I wanted a hearty, warms you to your bones, soup. This is it for me. Yeah, plus I had a bunch of leftover roasted chicken that I needed to use up too. Leftover potatoes would be wonderful in this too. See, just about anything can go in this cheesy soup.
This time around I added in leftover broccoli, corn and leftover roasted chicken. Wouldn't it be great to add this soup to a hollowed out bread to use as a bread bowl?

Cheesy Chicken & Veggie Soup

2 TB butter
2 TB of extra virgin olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
2 cups cooked chicken breasts, grilled is even better
1 cup frozen peas, corn & carrots veggie mix, or whatever you crave
8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese
1 can (14.75oz) creamed corn
1 cup milk
2+ tsp. of chicken bouillon cube, chopped fine (add as much or as little)
Couple dashes of black pepper
1 cup of mozzarella cheese
Chopped fresh parsley as garnish, optional

Melt butter and olive oil in a saucepan and add onions. Slightly brown the onions.
Remove onions to plate. Then stir fry the chicken breast slices till fully cooked. (or you can grill the chicken, cut it up into cubes).
Add veggie mix, then add the cooked onions back in. Stir together, then add in the cream cheese, stir until the cheese is melted. Add in the creamed corn and milk; sprinkle in the chopped chicken bouillon. Stir well to mix and bring to just boiling, turn off heat, and stir in the mozzarella and some black pepper. Taste test to see if you need more chicken bouillon or salt. Serve with crusty, warm bread.

Serves 4 (depending on portion size)

Note: I like my soup very thick. If you don’t want it thick then add a couple dashes of water or more milk to thin it out. The next time I make this I will be adding chunks of cooked, cubed potato.

aged cheddar, cranberry & pecan crackers

Savory. Very savory. I loved these little cheesy critters immensely. I almost want to call it a cheese shortbread; so thick and rich. The tartness of the cranberries melded so well with the aged cheddar. Plus I added in some roasted nuts. You simply must try these if you are a lover of cheese crackers. I did make these once using craisins and I was so very sorry I did; I just don't like the taste of craisins, they don't taste like cranberries to me. But feel free to use whatever you like, even raisins might go well in here. These go great with a nice cold glass of white wine.
Are these a cracker or a cookie? Maybe even a savory shortbread nib. Who knows, they are delish. Perfect for upcoming summer parties.

cheddar & cranberry cookies/crackers
print recipe

1 & 1/2 sticks butter, room temp.
1 1/2 cups extra old (at least 3 years old) cheddar, finely grated
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans
1/2 cup rough chopped dried cranberries
(I also used a dash of half & half as the dough was really dry)

Cream the butter and cheese together at high speed in your stand mixer. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. Combine flour mixture, nuts and cranberries with the butter mixture on high. (there is where I added in the dash of h&h)
Turn dough out onto a large piece of waxed paper. Roll the dough into a log shape, roll the paper around it and twist the ends shut. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. You can freeze the dough at this stage as well.
When ready to bake; preheat oven to 375F.
Unwrap the dough log and, using a very sharp knife, slice the log into rounds 1/2 cm thick. Place rounds on cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown. Remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Should make about 30.