Miss Finney's Apple Cake

We had apples in the house that needed eating. Now... One could grab an apple and eat it out of hand like a normal person, or one could make an apple cake. Guess which one I chose?!?

Our go-to apple cake has been a recipe Victor has made for years. It's great, no question about it. But this time around, I wanted something a bit different. And whenever I want something a bit different, I start looking in Mom's Cook Books.

The first recipe I saw was called Miss Finney's Apple Cake. With a name like that, I figured there had to be something to it - and since mom had written Great! on the page, I thought I'd give it a try.

I think the real reason I chose this one was because you don't have to peel the apples - you simply grate them, peel and all! Plus, it called for coconut - something I bought too much of over Christmas and never used. It's about cleaning out the cupboards!

One thing I noted on the recipe was mom had crossed out "Buttermilk Sauce." Nothing unusual, since mom had a habit of taking recipe ideas and creating her own dishes from them. (Sound familiar?!?) But I was curious, so I googled "Miss Finney's Apple Cake" and actually got a few results - with the missing Buttermilk Sauce. It seems the original recipe called for making a sauce with butter, sugar, and buttermilk, and pouring it over the cake while it was still warm. I'm agreeing with mom, here... it sounds totally unnecessary!

I did make a simple cream and powdered sugar glaze to go on top, however.

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The cake?!? Rich and moist. Not too sweet, either. The apples just sort of melt into the cake and the coconut gives a nice texture.

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And here's the missing Buttermilk Sauce recipe, if you're so inclined...

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No matter how ya do it, it will be good.

 

 

 


Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

It's so nice to be married to a man who knows how to cook!

I took a pork tenderloin out of the freezer last night with plans to cook it for dinner, tonight, when I got home from work. However, when I got home, I found a beautiful stuffed pork tenderloin just needing to go into the oven! All I had to do was peel a couple of sweet potatoes and dinner was ready - definitely my idea of Saturday night cooking!

Victor stuffed the tenderloin with breadcrumbs, sun-dried tomatoes, celery, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, onion, green peppers, chicken broth, salt, and pepper. I baked it - along with the sweet potatoes - for about 40 minutes at 375°F (190°C).

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The pork was fork-tender and the stuffing bursting with flavor with just the right amount of crunch and chew. I completely cleaned my plate and Nonna was close to licking hers clean, as well. You know it's a successful dinner when the finished plates look like they just came out of the cupboard.

My original plan was to cook the tenderloin with apples and onions since we have apples that need using up. It looks like I'm going to be making an apple cake tomorrow, instead. The biggest question now is which apple cake will I make? I have a recipe of my mom's that I haven't made in years - and it doesn't require peeling the apples... decisions, decisions...

Life is rough around here...


Chocolate and Sour Cherry Torta

Easter treat that deserved a post of its own!

Crust

  • 1¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ½ cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces plus more for greasing pan

Filling

  • 3 large eggs
  • 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70%), finely chopped
  • ½ cup blanched almonds
  • ⅓ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • ⅔ cup sugar
  • 1½ cups sour cherries in syrup, drained (from 24-ounce jar)
  • 1 bittersweet chocolate bar for shaving

For Crust: Place flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor; process for a few seconds to combine. Add butter, and process until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With machine running, add 3 tablespoons ice water in a slow, steady stream through the feed tube, just until the dough holds together. Do not process for more than 30 seconds. Turn out dough onto a work surface; flatten to form a disc. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 1 day before using.

Heat oven to 350º with rack in middle. Grease the 9-inch springform pan with butter, then dust with flour. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to a 12-inch round. Fit crust into pan. Chill in refrigerator until ready to fill.

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For Filling: Separate eggs, placing 3 yolks in one bowl and 2 whites in another (save remaining white for another use). In a heatproof bowl in a microwave oven, heat chopped chocolate at medium power at 15-second intervals, stirring between intervals, until melted, about 1½ minutes; set aside to cool. In the bowl of a food processor, combine almonds, flour and salt; pulse until mixture resembles fine flour.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk, beat together butter and 7 tablespoons sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With machine running, add egg yolks one at a time, incorporating between additions. In a slow and steady stream, add melted chocolate. Reduce speed to low, then add almond flour, mixing just until incorporated.

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Fold in half the cherries. In a large, clean bowl, beat together egg whites and remaining 3 tablespoons sugar until shiny, soft peaks form.

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Gently but thoroughly fold whites into chocolate mixture. Spread remaining cherries in bottom of prepared crust, then pour in batter.

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Bake until filling is puffed and just set, 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes, then run a thin, sharp knife around edge of pan to loosen. Remove pan sides. Let cake cool completely.

Just before serving cake, hold chocolate bar with a paper towel. Pass a vegetable peeler over the side of the bar to create shavings. Pile shavings on top of cake. Dust with cocoa.


Scallops and Homemade Cavatelli

I've been staring at a bag of cavatelli in the freezer since Victor made it a few weeks ago when we were having our little snow storm. That first night we had it with a red sauce but I wanted to try something different the second time around.

As I was rearranging the freezer on Monday - a task I need to do every few months because of my strange food-buying habits - I came upon a bag of scallops and knew that they would be the perfect foil for the cavatelli. A recipe started formulating...

My first thought was making a cream sauce because if there's a way to add fat and calories to an otherwise healthy dish - I'm your man. It's not really my fault. My mind just works in variations of butter and heavy cream. It's a gift and a curse.

I had an idea of what I wanted to do but always like seeing what else is out there so I perused the internet a bit. I found lots of recipes for a cream sauce with scallops, but none of them were very promising. I wanted creamy - I just didn't want their creamy. So I went with wine and cheese, instead.

Good ol' Rachael Ray had a recipe for linguini with scallops that held some promise, but it still wasn't what I was looking for, so I took her concept and started playing. The end result was pretty good.

Scallops with Cavatelli

  • 1 lb cavatelli
  •  1 lb scallops, cleaned
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 large shallots, minced
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 1 cup clam broth
  • 1 cup grated pecorino romano
  • 1/2 cup minced basil
  • 1/2 cup minced parsley
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
  • olive oil and butter
  • salt and pepper

Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta. You will want to time it so the pasta is done the same time as the sauce - neither take long.

Melt a bit of butter with olive oil in a large skillet. Cook scallops about 3-4 minutes per side. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add shallots and garlic and quickly saute until shallots are wilted. Add wine and bring to a boil. Add clam broth, lemon zest, and lemon juice and simmer.

Stir in basil and parsley. Stir in cheese, being careful not to bring it to a boil.

Stir in the cooked pasta and coat it well with the sauce. Let it simmer in the sauce a few minutes to pick up the flavors.

Stir in the scallops along with any juices that have accumulated in the bowl.

Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

It was a 20 minute start-to-finish dinner. The longest part of the entire production was waiting for the water to boil.

And it was unexpectedly good. As in really good. The homemade pasta really made a difference, but I'm sure it would be excellent with any good pasta.

I need to convince Victor to make several pounds of this one day and let me freeze it in 1 pound packages for those other fun and unexpected meals I'm waiting to make...

Stay tuned...

 


Valentine Lasagne

Early last week Victor decided he was making lasagne, today. For many folks, lasagne for dinner usually means putting the frozen block of Stouffer's into the oven and coming back in an hour.

Not around here. Lasagne in our house is a bit more complex - it starts with making the sauce and making the lasagne noodles. It's the old adage if you're going to do it, do it right...

The sauce was not overly-difficult. He added ground beef to his jarred sauce along with some garlic and herbs and cooked it down a bit. It came out a bit richer, meatier - more substantial.

And them he made the lasagne.

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Fresh Lasagne

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups '00' flour
  • 1/2 cup semolina flour
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add eggs  to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from inside rim of well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.

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Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.

Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting, then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.

Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is a scant 1/8 inch thick. Cut to fit your dish or pan.

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There are few things in this world that are better than homemade pasta - and right now, I can't think of one of them...

The lasagne was layered with sauce, pasta, ricotta mixed with herbs and parsley, fresh mozzarella... All the good stuff. We had a hard time waiting for it to set up before diving into it.

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While Victor was getting lasagne together, I made a loaf of Pane Siciliano.

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This is a great bread I've made a few times - and even made it in Sicily! The original recipe comes from one of my favorite books - The Italian Baker by Carol Field.

Pane Siciliano

Makes 2 loaves

  • 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp malt syrup
  • 1 cup water, room temperature
  • 2 1/2 cups semolina
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup sesame seeds

Stir the yeast into the 1 1/4 cups warm water in a large mixer bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.  Stir in the oil and malt and mix until smooth.  Knead on medium speed until; the dough is firm, compact, and elastic with lots of body, 4 to 5 minutes.  Finish kneading by hand on a lightly floured surface.

First rise. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.  The dough should be springy and blistered, but still soft and velvety.

Shaping and second rise. Punch the dough down, knead it briefly, and let it rest for 5 minutes.  Flatten it with your forearm into a square.  Rollit into a long, narrow rope, about 20 to 22 inches long.  The dough should be so elastic that it could almost be swung and stretched like a jump rope.  Cut the dough in half and shape each into a loaf.

Place the loaves on floured parchment paper, peels sprinkled with corn meal, or oiled baking sheets.  Brush the entire surface of each loaf with water and sprinkle with sesame seeds; pat the seeds very gently into the dough.  Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Baking. Thirty minutes before baking heat the oven with baking stones to 425°.  Bake 10 minutes, spraying 3 times with water.  Reduce the heat to 400° and bake 25 to 30 minutes longer.  Cool on racks.

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We've become almost-exclusively an Italian Flour family. The exception is Daisy Organic Flour grown and milled here in Pennsylvania. I bake too much to buy mediocre flour, and Victor's pasta is just unbelievably outstandingly good. Quality ingredients give quality results. It's just worth it.

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The lasagne was both rich and decadent, while also being light. The homemade pasta makes all the difference. It's not gummy like no-bake noodles usually are, or belly-bombs like some traditional lasagne noodles. I wiped my plate clean, sopping up every bit of goodness with bread slathered in butter. It really took a lot to keep from going back for more.

Take your chocolates, your flowers, your going-out-to-dinners... This was Valentine's Day!

Fun in the kitchen, great smells wafting through the house, and eating a great dinner on hand-painted plates custom-made for us in Florence.

It does not suck to be us...


Breakfast For Dinner

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We were just sitting down to dinner when the phone rang. It was my brother, asking if we had seen the news. We hadn't, and it was with a glass of blood orange juice in my hand that I learned of Antonin Scalia being found dead in Texas.

I smiled and raised my glass in a toast saying that I was glad he lived long enough to see gay marriage the law of the land.

And then we continued dinner, remarking about what a lovely day it was.

Fresh-squeezed blood orange juice. What a treat. And corned beef hash - from a can. Fried potatoes and eggs over-easy. Perfection. Well - the perfection part came from the toast - French Bread Toast.

As a kid, one of my most favorite things was crunchy-crusty French bread toast. I'm a bread-lover from way back. And I have always been a fan of Corned Beef Hash.

I know, I know... the stuff is not exactly health-food, but, damn, once in a while it just can't be beat - especially with a couple of nice, over-easy eggs on top and some crispy potatoes on the side. The mandoline comes in handy for dicing potatoes. Nice, even slices turn into nice, even cubes.

As good as it was, though. not going to top our Valentine's Day Dinner. Victor is making Lasagne - including homemade lasagne noodles  -and I'm making Pane Siciliano - a Sicilian bread.

Lovely day, indeed...


Butternut Squash and Candied Bacon

Ya know what it's like when you've cooked the same things over-and-over-and-over?!? Of course, you do. We all do. It's the infamous dinnertime rut.

It's rather amazing that I am surrounded by food all day, have at least three cooking magazines delivered to my door every month, have a couple score of cook books, and an internet connection with access to several million - billion?!? - recipes - and the same things keep getting cooked.

The Dinnertime Rut.

I just broke it. Well... I put a snag in it, anyway...

I've been looking at the December/January issue of Fine Cooking magazine thinking there are easily a half a dozen recipes that could fill the rut holes - and that's not counting the Italian cookies!

The first one I decided to try tonight was Butternut Squash with Kale, Cranberries, Hazelnuts, and Candied Bacon. The title had me at candied bacon, but, naturally, I had to take their idea and rearrange things to fit our tastes.

First off, I think kale sucks. I'll eat it if I have to, but at best, I just tolerate it. And please don't bother sending me your favorite you won't believe it's kale recipes. I'm over it. And second, I pretty much never have hazelnuts in the cupboard, but I always have pistachios. They're pretty different, but I'm a rebel.

Substitute 1 = Spinach for kale
Substitute 2 = Pistachios for hazelnuts
Substitute 3 = Smoked Maple Syrup for brown sugar

Yeppers, boys and girls... In making the candied bacon, the recipe calls for brown sugar. I just happened to have a bit of Sugar Bob's Smoked Maple Syrup left, so I used it. It was ridiculously good.

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Candied Bacon

  • 12 oz thick-sliced bacon
  • 6oz smoked maple syrup, regular maple syrup, or brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400. Line a sheet pan with foil and place a rack on the pan. Dip the bacon in the maple syrup and lay out on the rack. Bake about 6 to 8 minutes. Brush with more syrup and continue to bake until the bacon is brown and glazed - another 10 or so minutes.

Put the sheet pan under the broiler and broil the bacon until the sugars bubble and you start drooling looking at it - another couple of minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

Candied Bacon. I've seen it but I've never made it, and now I'm wondering why it took me so long. I had twice as much as I needed for dinner tonight, so the rest has gone into the 'fridge. Victor will probably have it finished off before dinner tomorrow. It's crazy-good.

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The finished dish was spectacular. The flavors melded together perfectly, there was just enough crunch from the pistachios and sweetness from the cranberries and squash. And the smokey-chewy-sweet-bacon pieces sent it right into gastronomic heaven. It did take a little time but it was time well spent. The biggest surprise was that Nonna actually cleaned her plate. She's not an adventurous eater, by nature, but she all but licked her plate clean!

So the rut is getting slowly filled in. Let's see what tomorrow brings...

Oh... and I'm linking to the original recipe and not copying it, here...

 

 


新年好 - Gung Hay Fat Choy

Okay... you've heard it all before, but I'm gonna tell it, again... I got to spend Chinese New Year in Hong Kong in 1973, courtesy of Uncle Sam's Yacht Club. What a total blast.

Three of us got a room for a week at the brand-new Excelsior Hotel - it had only been open about 2 months - and we lived the life of luxury. I can't even begin to describe the place back then. It had a disco in the basement, a rooftop cocktail lounge overlooking Causeway Bay, one of the fanciest restaurants I had ever seen - and unparalleled service. The hotel is now a Mandarin-Oriental property - and a lot more expensive than the HKD119/night we paid. (Their best rate right now is HKD1,680/night - excluding taxes and fees.)

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We started having fun the moment we arrived. I had form-fitting gaberdine's made for my 6' 150 pound 20-year-old body. I wouldn't be able to get a foot into them if I still had them - no idea what ever happened to my seabag - but I was definitely stud material. Well... in my mind, anyway. They really were cool.

The food. OMG. The food. We ate like kings for nothing. Impossible amounts of food for pennies. And every bit of it delicious. Stuff I had never seen before and will probably never see, again. But dayum, was it good.

One of the neatest things we did was go out to the Red China border. This was 1973. Nixon had started the talks with Mao and the ice was thawing. We could now actually buy Red Chinese goods - just not with American dollars. I bought a harmonica that rivaled any Hohner harmonica I ever owned. And a dozen copies of Mao's Little Red Book.

One thing we wanted to do was go out to see the Red China Border. The concierge at the hotel said we should take a guided tour - we said we wanted go out there on our own, and after they realized we weren't going to take a tour, they reluctantly wrote us out directions and off we went.

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What an adventure. Catching the Star Ferry, buying train tickets - we were only allowed to travel First Class - and then catching a local bus... The bus was totally surreal. It was the epitome of what you think of as rural transportation with chickens on the roof and the whole bit. The highlight on the bus was an elderly couple giving up their seats for us.

We got onto the crowded bus and an elderly man and woman stood up and motioned for us to take their seats. I immediately said no - for them to sit. They were both crestfallen with heads bent low and looking very sad. Finally, it dawned on us that they were offering us the one thing they had to give - so we sat. They beamed the entire trip just smiling and shaking their heads up and down. I cannot tell you how uncomfortable I was - but they were happy. It was a bit of a cultural learning experience for me.

It was obvious anywhere we went that we were American Servicemen but people treated us good. 1, they wanted our money, but I think more than anything else, people were able to differentiate between the GI and The Government. They all knew we didn't want to be over there, either.

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The people were fantastic, the food was fantastic, the nightlife fantastic, and the drugs... fantastic.

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I do have to admit that I smoked some pure heroin when I was there. The method was to empty out a bit of tobacco from a cigarette, put a bit of heroin in the cigarette, add some tobacco back, light it up and inhale.

Holy Shit, Batman!

Not one of my wisest decisions I ever made by a long shot. It was so good it scared the bejezus out of me. Just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine. I sure as hell never did it, again. But WOW!

Hong Kong was a city of contrasts. We were staying in a luxury hotel and watching little old ladies climbing scaffolding carrying bricks.

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There was a building boom going on and the old was being torn down and high-rises were going up. It didn't dawn on me at the time that those were homes being torn down for office buildings and tourists like me. But it was fabulous to witness bamboo scaffolding 30 stories in the air!

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The lights, the lights, the lights! It was neon-overload. During the day it was just kinda dingy away from the water. But at night, it was pure magic. The Wan Chai district - Lockhart Road - was the main bar district where the GI's and the hookers all hung out. It was pretty seedy. I didn't spend a lot of time down there, but definitely had to see it!

Hong Kong was a place out of time - and a place I would never recognize, today. It's an island with a finite border. The only thing they could do is go up. And up they have gone. I'm glad I was able to see it when I did.

And I wouldn't mind going back to see it, again. And that HKD1,680.00 Excelsior Hotel room is still less than a mediocre hotel room in New York.

Hmm... air fare...

 


White Bread

I bake a fair amount of bread but I don't make a lot of sandwich-type breads. The loaves I usually bake tend to be rustic Italian or French-style. No real reason other than I just like the crusty rustic breads.

I thought it would be a nice change to bake off a couple of loaves of sandwich bread just for the hell of it. I do like sandwiches - even if I don't eat them all that often. And we all know that my favorite food - after hot dogs - is toast.

So... armed with Mom's Cook Book, I went to work. I quickly found a recipe that seemed perfect for what I was looking for.

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It's a really straightforward recipe that was really easy to put together in the ol' KitchenAid. I used exactly six cups of flour, so do add slowly at the end and use your best judgement. Making the loaves was easy, as well, but it's obvious I need to work on my loaf formation skills. They've gotten a bit rusty since those massive-loaf-production-days in Uncle Sam's Yacht Club. But - it's not all about what they look like - it's about what it tastes like - and I do have to admit it tastes pretty damned good.

It has a soft white-white crumb with a slightly crunchy/chewy crust. I cut the first slice when the bread was still a bit too warm for a proper cutting but the flavor is definitely there. One loaf will be going right into the freezer and the other will be dinner tonight, breakfast and lunch - and probably dinner - tomorrow.

Not bad. Not bad, at all...

 

 


Sunday Breakfast

Imagine being in a house with the smell of freshly-baked scones and bacon wafting through the air...

I, of course, did not have to imagine it - it was my house! Victor has been plotting a frittata for breakfast all week. It started with me cutting up some peppers and having him ask me to save some. It kinda grew from there.

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Red and green peppers, asparagus, kalamata olives, bacon, potatoes, garlic, ricotta cheese... Just little bits of this-n-that that were in the 'fridge. The perfect assortment of flavors.

We were fresh out of bread for toast - I'm going to be baking that later on today - so Victor threw together some cherry scones to go along with the frittata.

It's rough living in our house.

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Cherry Scones

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 cup dried cherries
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 egg

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in butter. Stir in cherries. Mix sour cream and egg and stir into flour mixture.

Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into an 8" circle about 3/4-inch thick. Sprinkle a bit of sugar.

Cut into 8 wedges and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Bake about 15 minutes or until nicely browned.

A great way to start the day. It's the perfect sustenance to get us through comfy-chair shopping, today.

Yeah... we need to go shopping. Our leather La-Z-Boy has seen better days. Springs have sprung and it's finally beyond repair - or comfortable sitting. I love the look of the chair, so here's hoping we can find something similar.

It's a sad state of affairs when we would rather leave the house to go furniture shopping than watch the Super Bowl.

 

 


Corn Flake Chicken

I brought home a bottle of ranch dressing the other day. Yes, it's true. I bought a bottle of salad dressing. Organic Ranch Dressing, to boot. Not that organic makes a bottled dressing all that superior. An organic pop tart is still a nutritionally-unsound meal choice regardless of where the sugar comes from. But I wasn't thinking in terms of salad. I was thinking chicken.

Once upon a time, chicken dipped in mayonnaise and dredged in crushed corn flakes was the dinner to make. It was definitely a childhood-type meal and one that is still surprisingly satisfying. I've made it before, but looking back through old blog posts, the last time I made it was in 2011.

Time for an updated version - of sorts. Not that this is even remotely original. I'm sure Hidden Valley has been making it for 50 years.

Corn flakes are always in the cupboard - they're Victor's cereal of choice. There is always chicken in the freezer. All I needed was the glue to bring it all together.

The simplicity of it all was astounding. Put the chicken breasts in a bowl with ranch dressing and cover them. Dredge the chicken breasts in crushed corn flakes and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. No other seasonings required.

Bake in a preheated 425°F oven for about 20 minutes.

I was planning on frozen corn for a side when I spied fresh packaged ears of corn. They are not something I normally purchase, but I thought what the hell. I'm coating chicken in ranch dressing. It's kinda difficult to pretend I have standards all of a sudden.

The chicken came out excellent! It was moist, crunchy, and had a really nice, nostalgic flavor - probably because the corn flakes and the chicken were organic, as well. It reminded me of the days of my youth before factory farms made conventional a bad word. I can see more of this happening. The corn wasn't horrible, but it also wasn't summer-fresh. I think I'll pass in the future, but it was fun, tonight.

And now I have a half-bottle of salad dressing in the 'fridge... Any bets it turns into a science experiment?!?