Food names can be so confusing at times. I grew up calling a candy VERY similar to this one, Buttercrunch. It was and still is my mom's favorite candy, though usually it is coated on all sides (individual pieces have been dipped) with milk chocolate and nuts, not just on one side with dark chocolate and nuts as this one is. English toffee, as I've always known it, is just the toffee part of this treat without ANY chocolate or nuts, so those of you Brits out there reading this may be awfully confused by the apparent discrepancy between the name of this dish and the photo above.
Stuffed Chicken and Herb Gravy
This is another super easy and flavorful dish from my friends at Cooking Light Magazine. Published in their January issue, this recipe originally calls for making a quick batch of polenta to go with the chicken, but I had some left-over simply mashed spuds in my fridge so I used them instead.
Gooey Chocolate Chip Sandwich Bars
I came across this recipe a few weeks back as I was looking for a kid-friendly treat to bring to a holiday party. The recipe is by Sally Sampson, a friend of mine, and the founder and President of Chop Chop Magazine which aims to inspire and teach kids to cook and eat real food with their families. If anyone knows what appeals to a kid's palate, its Sally!
Gingerbread Steel Cut Oatmeal
How lucky am I today that I can tuck into a hot bowl of this amazing oatmeal while I gaze out my window at the SECOND blizzard we've had already this season. School was preemptively cancelled yesterday, so I knew I'd have some late-rising hungry mouths to feed today and planned ahead by getting a batch of this oatmeal prepped last night for an easy finish this morning.
Spicy Tamarind Skirt Steak
As I've mentioned on more than one occasion here, I am a junkie for skirt steak. So quick to cook, loaded with great beef flavor and chew, and easy on the wallet….what's not to love. It used to be that skirt steak was a special request item from the butcher, but no longer. A long, well-grained strip of a thing that is cut from the flank, the skirt steak is actually the diaphragm muscle that sits between the abdomen and chest cavity of the cattle. It became famous a number of years ago as the preferred cut of meat to use in fajitas and ever since has become a more prominent fixture in local markets.
Chocolate Coconut Granola
As a Christmas gift, my Mom bought me a bag of True North Choco Granola which is made in Brattleboro Vermont where I grew up. Now I love a good pain au chocolat for breakfast as much as the next guy, but I have to tell you that I've always looked at chocolate breakfast cereals with a bit of disdain. No Cocoa Puffs or Count Chocula for me, thank you very much. So it was with more than a little hesitation that I tried the granola this past week, fully expecting that it would be too sweet to contemplate as a staple at breakfast, but rather might be put to better use as an ice cream topping or something.
Sweet Potato Cornbread
The recipe for this unbelievably good cornbread was originally found in Southern Living Magazine, but I came to know of it through my friends over at Leite's Culinaria. The first time I made this it was to accompany Michael Symon's Black-Eyed Pea – Pork Shoulder Chili, and I loved it so much that I made it again recently as a side to a double batch of Sweet Potato and Turkey Chili that I cooked up to deliver to a local church to feed about 20 homeless men who were taking shelter there for the night.
Turkey Meatball Soup with Greens
This recipe from the September issue of Cooking Light Magazine is a total keeper and one that I am already anxious to make again. It was part of the magazine's "We Love Meatballs" feature….so much fun! It'll feed a crowd, 3-4 meatballs per bowl of soup is a pretty good portion and the recipe makes 24 of the little gems. I think the next time I make it I might even double the meatball part of the recipe and freeze half so that down the road I am never more than some store bought stock, a quick mirepoix, and a bunch of shredded kale away from a super tasty soup.
Cranberry Cake
This little lovely is the culinary creation that I gifted my close friends and family this year for the holidays. I found the recipe on theKitchn and gave it a test run a few weeks before Christmas to rave reviews. The cake has a super dense crumb and is as moist and rich as you'd expect given the amount of butter and sugar in it.
Hey, it was the holidays….there will be no calorie counting until well into the New Year!
Duck Breast with Orange-Chipotle Sauce
I LOVE DUCK!
Cooked in it's own fat to confit, lacquered with Asian spices as a Peking Duck, ground into sausages, transformed into duck prosciutto, or as it is most often offered at restaurants here in the US, a boneless breast seared, sliced and served medium-rare. Yes, I love it all these ways and more.