Baked Chicken with Leeks

FIRST, I want to thank all of you for your sweet and kind comments on my anniversary post. Your comments brought tears to my eyes and I appreciate your friendship more than I could ever express in words. I am so blessed.

On to this chicken which was another stumper because I really didn't know what to call it - Leeky Chicken? That was my first idea but it doesn't sound very appetizing. On top of that my battery died when I started so there are no step by step pictures.

The inspiration for this chicken was all of the dishes made back in the day using onion "cup of soup" mix. There are so many sophisticated powdered and condensed soups mixes on the grocery these days - your imagination sets your limits as to what you can create. This turned out to be a easy and very tasty meal. It's great for supper guests and even better for picky eaters.


I started out with six bone in, skin on chicken drumsticks and 5 bone-in, skin on chicken thighs.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Salt and pepper chicken pieces and brown in a large skillet over medium-high heat in one tablespoon of canola oil and one tablespoon of butter. As the pieces brown, move them to a buttered 9x13 casserole dish, skin side up.

Once all of the chicken is browned and placed in the casserole dish, remove all but one tablespoon of liquid from the skillet and return the skillet to medium-high heat. Pour 1 cup of heavy cream, 1/2 cup chicken stock to skillet along with one package of Knorr Leek Soup Mix (Powdered). Mix with a whisk until smooth and slowly add 3/4 cup of Marsala wine and blend. Add two cloves of minced garlic salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a low boil and remove from heat.

Pour cream mixture over chicken, cover with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for one hour.

Serve over fluffy white rice. This is definitely no hum-drum baked chicken!

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

In my book, this is the richest, tastiest ice cream I have ever had. Every spoonful makes my eyes roll to the back of my head. My ice cream making adventures would be for naught had I not accidentally found this incredible delight. Kaitlin, my ice cream freak, likes the chocolate better, but what does she know?

Have you seen this in the grocery store? If so, buy it; buy lots of it! Don't participate in the recession, participate in instant gratification; you'll thank me for it later.

This recipe is VERY loosely adapted from my Kitchen Aid book.

1-3/4 cup whipping cream

1-3/4 cup 1% milk

1 can condensed milk (14 oz.)

1/2 can La Lachera Dulce de Leche (7 oz.)

2 (1 oz. each ) small boxes of instant Cheesecake pudding mix with Nutra Sweet

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Place all of the ingredients except the pecans in a mixing bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined and the pudding and Dulce de Leche is dissolved. Cover and chill in the fridge for about 6 hours.

Hook up the freeze bowl for the mixer and turn on to "Stir". Pour mixer into the bowl. Ok, you will really be spooning this mixture into the freeze bowl because it will be the consistency of pudding. Continue on stir for about 15 minutes. Turn off mixer, remove dasher and fold in chopped pecans. Place mixture in air tight containers and freeze for at least two hours.

You will not be able to finish this, it is so rich. Feed this to your sweetie and he or she will pledge their undying love to you.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Oysters Parmigiana

Ah, Valentines Day it's all about love and romantical feelings. Can you keep a secret? I am chaperoning the Valentine's Day dance at the high school tonight. Lauren does not know, if she knew she would lock me in the attic until the dance was over. Really, how embarrassing can I be? It's not like I'm going to show up with curlers in my hair covered with a scarf, highwater pants and white socks, that's my Mom's M.O. I promise not to line dance, do they still do that?

Did you know I got married on Valentine's Day in 1992? Yep, Saturday is our 17th wedding anniversary!

Instead of chocolate, we prefer the real food of love, oysters or erstas in you live in the Big Easy.

Oysters Parmigiana is a wonderful appetizer or side dish. Get your sweetie in the mood for love!

Blend together in a bowl 1/2 teaspoon , 4 tablespoons minced parsley, 6 cloves of minced garlic, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon, juice form one lemon, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, and 1/2 teaspoon marjoram. Blend with your hands to get maximum coverage of the lemon juice and garlic. Set the mixture aside.

Place 10 to 12 large oysters in a colander and let them drain. Do not rinse them!

Melt 3/4 of stick of butter over low heat and add 2 crushed cloves of garlic and let them hang out together while you get the rest of the dish ready. After the garlic and butter have been together for about 10 minutes, remove and discard the cloves and move from the heat to let cool slightly.

While the oysters are draining, mix together 1 cup of Italian bread crumbs and 1 cup of freshly grated Parmigiana-Reggiano cheese, and let that mixture set for about 15 minutes.

Using your hands combine the breadcrumb and herb mixtures.

Butter a small oven safe baking dish and line the bottom with the oysters. Pour the garlic butter over the oysters and evenly spread the bread/herb mixture over the oysters. Add a few pats of butter on top and sprinkle about 1/4 cup of grated Parmigiana-Reggiano cheese over the top.

Bake in a 450 degree over for 10 to 12 minutes. After the oysters are baked, you can place the dish under the broiler to brown the top for extra crunchiness.

Happy Valentines Day!

Almond Crusted Chicken Strips

Do you have those days when you just can't wait to get into the kitchen and "create" something special? All kinds of ideas and ingredients are running through your head. This happened to me and yes, I am reporting directly to the 12-step program for ingredient abuse.

This started out as breaded chicken strips with a blanc sauce and turned into, I don't know...let me show you what happened. You call it -

Beat 1 egg add a splash of water and set your chicken strips in it (about 1 to 1-1/4 lbs. of chicken breast strips).

Combine 1/2 cup sliced almonds, 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs, 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper in a food processor and pulse to chop almonds and combine dry ingredients. Dredge chicken through the bread crumb mixture.

Heat 1/4 cup of canola oil in a a large over medium to medium high heat. Add strips and cook 3 minutes on each side, transfer to a paper towel lined plate and cover with foil and keep warm. Repeat with remaining chicken.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove all but 1 tablespoon of oil (there probably will not be much oil left in the pan), leave the debris in the skillet. Add 2 green onions finely chopped, 1 can of quartered, drained artichoke hearts, 4 cloves minced garlic and a couple of handfuls of baby bella mushrooms. Saute for about 3 to 4 minutes of medium-high heat.

Pour in 1/2 cup of dry white wine to the veggies and let this sizzle for a minute, then whisk in 1-1-/2 cup cream into the sauce. Lower the heat on the sauce and whisk in 4 tablespoons of cold butter into pot until it is completely blended. Remove from heat and season with salt to taste and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes.

Plate the strips and spoon a little "blanc" sauce down over top and garnish with crumbled feta cheese.

This dish got rave reviews from the homegirlz they picked out the shrooms and artichokes but were all over the chicken and cheese. My husband loved it too.

So go home and get crazy!

Beef Mac

I had a really tough time thinking of what to call this dish. The pictures don't do the taste of it justice.

If your trying to eat healthy and you're keeping up with your New Year's resolutions then keep reading. If you're trying to sneak vegetables into your picky eaters, keeping reading.

This dish is healthy, packed full of flavor, easy, and economical. So let's make some Beef Mac!

Put the metal blade on your food processor and turn it on. Drop in through the feed tube, 3 cloves of peeled garlic and process until minced, then add 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces, 1 8 to 10 ounce package of sliced baby bella mushrooms ( you can use button mushrooms if that's what you have on hand) and process until finely chopped. Turn off machine and add 1 large onion cut up and pulse until roughly chopped.

Brown 1 lb. of extra lean ground beef in a large high-sided skillet or large pot over medium-high heat. Break up the meat while it is browning. Once the meat is completely browned stir in the chopped vegetables, 2 teaspoons dried thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables start to soften and the mushrooms release their juices, about 5 minutes. At this point the baby bellas will turn brown and blend in with the browned ground meat. To your kids it will look like one big pot of ground beef. I was questioned about the orange pieces and told them it was a red bell pepper....ain't I a stinker?

Stir in 2 cups of water, 1 1/2 cups beef broth, 1/2 box (8 ounces) elbow macaroni and 2 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender, 8 to 10 minutes. You can't even imagine how good this smells!

Whisk 2 tablespoons of flour with 1/4 cup beef broth in a small bowl until smooth; stir into the hamburger mixture.

Stir in 1/2 cup low fat sour cream. Simmer, stirring often, until the sauce is thickened.

Serve garnished with chives or parsley.


Now you can got get a couple of scoops of Dulce de Leche ice cream! I'll show how to make this completely decadent ice cream Friday!

Java House Chocolate Ice Cream

It was Super Bowl Sunday, February first; all lofty goals from one month ago totally forgotten, tossed away or stomped upon.

I live with banshee's it's hard to concentrate. Actually, it's impossible to remember what I walked into a room for much less be held accountable for what came out of my mouth after two glasses of wine a month ago when I was feeling particularly festive. Besides I had gotten this really neat ice cream maker for my birthday.
The banshee's were demanding not just chocolate but layers of chocolate. Evidently it is some sort of requirement for football contests. I don't ask questions anymore.


Java House Chocolate Ice Cream -



8 egg yolks
2 - 1 oz. squares semi-sweet baker's chocolate
2 - 1 oz. squares unsweetened baker's chocolate
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup coffee, room temperature
2 cups Half-n-Half
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons pure almond extract
1 large milk chocolate candy bar


In a small sauce pan, place 1/2 cup of whipping cream, semi-sweet chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate. Heat over medium low heat until chocolate melts. Stir frequently and remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium sauce pan, heat half-n-half over medium heat until it is very hot but not boiling. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and cocoa powder.

Place egg yolks in the bowl of stand mixer. Using wire whip, begin to mix on low speed and gradually add sugar mixture and mix about 30 seconds, then add chocolate mixture and half-n-half and mix until well blended.

Return the chocolate half-n-half mixture to the medium sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until small bubble appear around the edge and mixture is steamy. DO NOT BOIL.

Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl and add remaining 1-1/2 cups of whipping cream, coffee, vanilla, almond, and salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Attach freeze bowl, dasher and drive assembly to mixer and turn to "Stir", slowly pour mixture into freeze bowl and continue on Stir for 15 to 20 minutes. Add chopped up large milk chocolate bar and mix for 1 more minute. Transfer to airtight container and freeze for 2 hours before serving.

Candy Giveaway

I found a cool blog last week Southwest Candy and Sweet Services. Southwest Candy and Sweet Services is giving away a 5lb. box of candy.


I received a 5lb. box of candy this week and it was a bit hit at home and at the office. Sign-up to win or order from their wide assortment of sweets!