Chicken Piccata

We don't really go out to eat a lot and if we do, we don't do Italian unless we head towards our favorite place in the North End. One evening we met up with my in-laws and friends of theirs at a local place called Peppercorns. Peppercorns isn't in the North End but is located in Weymouth on Route 18. I ordered their Chicken Piccata dish and found a new dish to try for dinner. 

Bob and I eat a lot of chicken so we are always looking for new recipes. I made this dish for a first time sticking to the recipe I got from Bob's uncle John. I fell in love with the recipe because it was fast and easy to make and was delicious. At one time, I was making this dish once a week because it was so easy to do even after working all day and getting home late.  I've changed the original recipe a little but decided to type up the information given to me by Uncle John. I've added a few suggestions at the end, if you want to try them. Enjoy!

Ingredients: skinless, boneless chicken breast, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, flour, unsalted butter, Sauvignon blanc or another tart white wine, chicken broth, fresh lemon juice, capers

Instructions: (1) Pound chicken breast between parchment paper or plastic wrap until 1/4" thick. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (both sides) and lightly dredge in flour; shake off excess flour. (2) Melt butter in large skillet over med-high heat. Add cutlets to pan and saute for 5 minutes. Remove and repeat with remaining cutlets. (3) Place cutlets on plate to drip before adding wine to the pan. Scrap up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan and cook down. Add broth and simmer until mixture is reduced. Stir in lemon juice and capers and place chicken back in pan mixture. Cook for a few minutes. (4) Sprinkle broth mixture over the top of the chicken. Garnish with tarragon or parsley or thyme.

* Serve over wheat pasta, with veggies or a mixed green salad, or with garlic mashed potatoes.
* I use some olive oil with the butter during step 2.
* I usually add more white wine, a little chicken broth, and more lemon juice during step 3.

Almond Lemon Souffle

I love making souffles when it is cold out. I can make them for dinner or for dessert and since you want to serve and eat these creations immediately after they come out of the oven, it's a great way to have a warm meal on a cold winter's night. 

I  have definitely had some failures but once I got the technique down and started doing a few different things, the souffles have been turning out almost perfect. I can't say perfect because nothing is ever PERFECT.

This recipe I got from the Cooking Light Magazine. I like finding delicious recipes that aren't so bad for me if I eat them. I tried this recipe out during the weekend and enjoyed it. I would definitely do a few things different next time I make this recipe, but, as my husband says sometimes, this is a keeper! I'm planning on using other citrus flavors like tangerine or even grapefruit to see how they come out. The lemon flavor is nice but I would add more lemon rind for a more lemony flavor. The almonds make this different from a traditional souffle that usually has powered sugar sprinkled on top. However you decide to make it, enjoy.







Ingredients: cooking spray, 1/2 cup + 2 TBSPs of sugar, divided, 2 large egg yolks, 3/4 cup buttermilk, 1 TBSP grated lemon rind, 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, 2 TBSPs butter, melted, 1/4 cup of flour, 6 large egg whites, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar, 1/4 cup sliced almonds


Instructions: (1) Place a baking sheet with sides in the oven and preheat to 425. (2) Lightly coat 6 ramekins with cooking spray and evenly sprinkle with 2 TBSP sugar, titling to coat sides completely. (3) Combine 1/4 c sugar and egg yolks in large bowl and beat at high speed until thick and pale. Add 3/4 c buttermilk, lemon rind, lemon juice, melted butter, and flour; beat at medium speed until just blended. (4) Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl and let stand for 15 min. at room temperature. Using clean, dry beaters, beat at high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 c of sugar, 1 TBSP at a time, beating until medium peaks form. (5) Gently stir 1/4 of egg whites into lemon mixture; gently fold in remaining egg whites. Spoon mixture into ramekins. Sharply tap dishes 2 to 3 times on the counter to level. Sprinkle with almonds. (6) Place ramekins on preheated sheet and return to oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for 20 minutes or until puffy and lightly brown. Serve Immediately.

*Recipe obtained from Cooking Light Magazine, June 2011.

Maples Leaves are falling.

 Is it me or are the leaves turning earlier this year? Its the end of September and all around me the leaves are starting to show their other colors besides green. I could break into a science lesson on photosynthesis and chlorophyll production and tie it into the orbit of the sun but I won't. It is pretty to see the oranges, yellows and reds show up however, to me, it signals the end of a very busy summer and that dreaded Old Man Winter is on his way.  It's also a message to tell me that I need to do fall yard and garden clean-up when I have a free moment. But besides all that, it's a message that lets me know that I can start experimenting again with recipes. Usually during the height of the summer and the busyness of the market season, I don't get a chance to experiment and explore different things. I have a list of items I want to make and try but never the time to do it during the summer. So I guess you can say that in a way I am looking forward to the fall.

Last weekend I had a few extra minutes to try a few items out. I wasn't able to get to what I had planned to do that day but what was accomplished was great. First, I made some pumpkin muffins with brown sugar sprinkled on top. Not your average size muffins but the jumbo kind. Of course getting muffin tins big enough for the jumbo pan was a challenge and still is at this moment but it's on the ever growing to-do list for when I have a few extra minutes. Anyway, the muffins came out great and now I want to do other muffins to sell at our last few remaining markets. Maybe we'll start offering them for purchase on-line.

Second, I made a Maple Walnut Bread. I figured since the leaves were starting to fall off my Maple Tree in the front yard, why not try a bread that says "Fall". Grade A Dark Pure Maple Syrup from a local vendor was used in this recipe. Walnuts were split into two piles and one pile was crushed into a meal that was added to the flour. Everything was mixed by hand and turned out into several bread pans. While the breads were baking, the smell of maple filled the air. Just another scent of fall my sister would say. The breads not only looked good but were amazing when sampled. This item we'll only offer during the fall season. If you are in Cohasset this Thursday or Carver on Sunday, you can get one for yourself.

In the upcoming weeks, a lot of experimenting will be taking place in our kitchen. We'll keep you updated on the progress as time goes on. For now, enjoy the scenery and all the smells that fall has to offer.

Still working...

Last week I had some extra time to experiment in the kitchen. Of the 4 experiments I did only one is still not perfected yet, those darn Lemon Coolers. I made a batch and had the texture and size I wanted but when we tried them out with our guinea pigs, I mean our taste-testers, the same comment was made. They needed more lemon.

So I decided to add more lemon. This turned out to be one of the moments you just have to call it quits, walk away, and come back another day for another try.  My husband suggested adding double the amount of lemon. Of course he meant lemon zest and I took it for double lemon juice and zest! Needless to say the cookies were awful.

Well back to the drawing boards. Haven't had a chance to work on them again this week but will try them this weekend. Who knows, maybe with all that is going on with these cookies, they'll turn out to be amazing. One could hope! Stay tuned.

Under Construction

As most of you know, Bob and I both hold down regular day jobs and have Family Secrets Bakery as a side job. This upcoming week is Spring Break for most school system here in Massachusetts and since I'm not traveling with a group of students outside the country or going to some nice tropical place myself, I'm going to spend some time in the kitchen creating new products.

One of the products we've been working on in our spare time are Lemon Coolers. Over 10 years ago I spend some time in Savannah, Georgia on a National Marine Sanctuaries workshop. While touring the city, I picked up some Key Lime Coolers for my husband. They were amazing. Small circular cookies with an overwhelming flavor of Key Lime dusted off with powdered sugar.  Recently a customer asked if we made Lemon Coolers. At the time we were concentrating on the Oatmeal cookies but we've always talked about adding more than just the oatmeal based cookies to our product line.  I started combing through recipes from my side of the family. These recipes were either passed down or given to my mom at one time or another. For 13 years of my life, my family called Louisiana home.  I might not have been born in the southern state, but this is were I grew up and is what I consider home. It was here that I found a recipe for a powdered sugar cookie. Bob first tried a version and the cookie wasn't what we were looking for. He even added a very lemony frosting to add to the top of the cookies. Though good they weren't perfect. I tried another version. This was a comical adventure. I misread a certain ingredient and ended up adding instead of a tablespoon of lemon juice, I added a cup. This made the dough very watery so I tried to thicken it up by adding more of the dry ingredients. Needless to say I knew defeat when I saw it and tried again with a new batch. The third trial came out better than the first trial but still didn't have that citrus kick we were looking for. So this week, I'm going to re-work the recipe and see if I can get a cookie that is light but full of lemon flavor.

Another recipe I'm going to experiment with will be making a Chocolate Pound Cake. I have two recipes for a pound cake. One of the recipes comes from a family member who lived in Kentucky. As far as I know, my mom and I are the only ones to have this recipe. It is a Cream Cheese Pound Cake recipe. Not as heavy as you would think and is very addicting. It is good by itself or with a little bit of apricot preserves on top. I'm going to play around with this recipe and see what would happen if I add either melted chocolate to the mix or some cocoa powder to the mix.  My husband is a chocoholic and will eat any chocolate in the house. His behavior has been a joke in our house. I'm not real big on chocolate. I'm more of the sugary candy kind of person but I do enjoy a piece of dark or white chocolate every once in a while. Every time I'm in the mood for a piece of chocolate, there isn't any because he's eaten it all. I've had to hide it in order to have it when I want it. Just another chocolate item for those who love chocolate.

Two more recipes I'll try to get to this week will be bread recipes. I love lemon poppy seed muffins so I'll try a lemon poppy seed bread from a recipe I've filed away and kind of forgot about until now. My grandmother has always made a killer banana nut bread. It's very moist and though I have never loved bananas, I love this recipe. I also love coconut so I'm going to try making a tropical bread with both banana and coconut and see what will happen.

So as you can read, this week will be a week of experimenting with flavors and ingredients. Not sure how it will turn out but since I love baking and it is relaxing and I'm on break, why not try! I'll let you know later how this week turns out.