So I don't know about you but after a holiday or a big meal I always go directly into a healthy eating/exercise craze. I know that binge eating for one day probably can't derail your entire year of hard work however it never fails that psychologically the Cooking Light cookbook always comes out the day after a big meal. So this weekend is not any different. Yesterday I ran 9 miles and today I went to spinning.

Growing up whenever we decorated for Xmas we had crab with melted butter for dinner. But after growing up with fresh Dungeness crab straight out of the ocean finding seafood that compares to that for decorating tradition sake is really pretty challenging. So after 6 years of living in So Cal I have given up that tradition and have just settled for a really good meal to celebrate the Xmas tree/decoration day.

I also normally go for the biggest/fattest real tree I can find, however this year I even mixed that up a bit. Ok no I did not go with a fake tree although I will admit I looked, however you just stare at that fake tree and it doesn't smell and it doesn't look real and it comes complete with lights attached...sorry just cant do it. So I went to Underwood Farms and amazingly the first tree I walked up to was the perfect 5' fattest most perfect tree I have ever seen...so "put it on the Volvo" was the next phrase out of my mouth. Normally I go for taller but this one just truly wanted to come home with me...so here it sits!!! This tree would definitely make my Mom proud as she always taught me that trees should be fat, without any spaces and should pretty much stand-up and sing "Oh Christmas Tree," as soon as its in the house. I also had to redo the lights twice because I wasn't thrilled with the first set so the tree now has white lights with red/silver balls and a "lucky owl" ornament in the middle that one of my co-workers gave me a few years ago.

I don't know about you but I love buffalo chicken wings, however they are fattening, messy and hard to eat. And if you are going to eat them it has to be with a really big, cold, frosty beer. Which just doesn't work for the day after Thanksgiving, I am trying to eat healthy thing. So while I was looking through Cooking Light trying to find a "festive feeling Xmas tree decorating recipe" that sounded good and healthy I came across a recipe for chicken stuffed with blue cheese and covered in a red pepper sauce. Yum! I decided this was the perfect meal to celebrate my fat tree.



So you take thick chicken breasts and stuff them with a mixture of blue cheese, sour cream, lemon juice and pepper. The stuffing is easy as you just cut a pocket in the chicken and stuff them. Then bread the chicken starting with flour, egg and water mixture and panko bread crumbs. Cook the chicken in a pan for approximately 4 minutes and then place the pan in the oven. The recipe does say to cook the chicken for 20 minutes however I found that since the chicken was so thick 40 minutes was closer to the truth...however I will admit that I am chicken undercooked paranoid so the increased time could have been a result of this paranoia.

The red pepper sauce is also easy as you utilize butter, roasted red peppers and seasoning. I did find however that I craved the spice of buffalo chicken sauce so I did add some Franks Buffalo Chicken Sauce. The sauce is low in fat and calories and added the additional spice that I was craving.

I know I serve everything with asparagus but yet again I made sauteed asparagus and it was perfect with the chicken. So I will admit that I still miss the crab memories of my childhood but sometimes in life we all just have to make traditions of our own....hmm buffalo chicken? No I don't think that will be it but its still a good recipe. Cheers!

So for the last 3 years I have invited myself over to some friends house for Thanksgiving. How can I go wrong-good food, good wine and great entertainment. As I am sure many of you have discovered holidays with friends can be a completely different occasion compared to holidays with family...no stress, no drama and no angst filled with history. They have taught me so much such as what a fried turkey was. Prior to my attendance at their annual turkey day gathering I thought fried turkey was something white trash, unhealthy and kind of scary due to the fire hazard. However, they have completely transformed my vision as in general I am not a huge turkey fan but frying it makes it moist, flavorful and fast. It also leaves the oven open for other things that need to be cooked...homemade pies, rolls, warming up side dishes, etc. It has truly become one of my favorites. So let me just say "I am sorry" for all of you in my past who I have laughed at and made fun of for frying your turkey.



This year I was tasked with stuffing...oh the burden of it, right. Uh yeah no I actually got off way easy since they provided EVERYTHING else!!! I wanted to do something a little more creative so I shied way from Stove Top unlike my best friend who told me that she was making everything from scratch and then sends me this picture....hmmm really?



I found a recipe in Food Network Magazine for Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing and it was truly one of the best stuffing recipes I have had. I did find that the original recipe only made 3 cups which really wasn't enough for a Thanksgiving crowd so I did double the recipe. I used pork chorizo and I cooked it in a pan for 5 minutes and then added the onion, celery, carrot and garlic and its cooked together for 10 minutes. After that you add the cornbread and cilantro. I made cornbread from a mix so that it was extra moist however I am sure if you are short on time you could use the cornbread in the box or if you have way too much time on your hands you could make it from scratch.



Once you add the cornbread you add chicken broth to make it moist and spoon the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. The recipe was super flavorful, way easy and added the perfect amount of heat to the fried turkey and mashed potatoes. I was told after Thanksgiving dinner that it was a favorite so the recipe is definitely worth keeping.

I do have to say there were several highlights of my Thanksgiving...spending it with my 3 favorite kids...especially Jon who wore a vest, black shoes with yellow laces and showed me the Dance Revolution (I think that was the name of it) video game....complete with memories of the running man and roger rabbit. Oh yeah!!! I also received a napkin folding lesson because the way I put the napkins in the rings..hmmm lets just go with no bueno. Standing around staring at the turkey frier mesmerized...was that out of fear, amazement or fascination? Or was that just too much wine? And oh yes there was the nap...nothing is better than a nap on the couch on Thanksgiving....that should really be a national tradition.

However, now I am back to reality...back to the gym/running, eating healthy and waiting another year for fried turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie that is to die for. Love these food holidays! Thanks again to the Murrays for making another holiday special!

Don't you love the bottles of wine in the background

So yesterday was one of those few rainy days in Southern California and to make it even better it was one of the more rare  days when it is raining and I don't have anywhere to be. I went for my run in the morning and I truly love running in the rain...must be from growing up in the rainy Pacific Northwest...you either run in the rain or you don't run at all. And then I decided to spend the rest of the day watching tv and laying on the couch...felt so luxurious. I got caught up on the new season of Top Chef Texas...have to see I do have a baby crush on Chris Crary...and it does help that he lives in LA...but I am not to the stalker stage of my crush yet. So I don't have his address but if anyone knows and wants to share I will not turn away that information....hmmm or at least I need a field trip to his restaurant...because what if he isn't as attractive in person and my little crush bubble will be shattered.



I digress...so due to the weather and my lack of desire to put any effort into any activity yesterday I was looking for a dinner plan that was easy, comfort food based and did not require hours of preparation. I found a recipe on Food Network for Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas and they were the perfect necessity for a cold November night. They were easy as the chicken is already pre-cooked...having me a love affair with rotisserie chickens right now...they are moist, easy to shred and easy to take the skin off. They were warm with a little spice as they are covered in homemade salsa verde and they were cheesy which screams comfort food, right. Oh and even better they took 30-45 minutes to make. I served them with Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc and it was absolutely perfect.



So the recipe starts by roasting tomatillos, onions and serrano chiles in the broiler for 7-10 minutes. All of these vegetables are then added to a blender or in my case a food processor since after this weekend I am a little blender gun shy. Add salt, pepper, sugar and chicken broth and process. Instant salsa verde!!!



Then take corn tortillas and as I learned on Top Chef...enchiladas have corn tortillas and burritos have flour tortilla...thanks Tom Colicchio for that lesson...now I won't be sent home for making enchiladas with flour tortillas. Fill the tortillas with the shredded chicken, jack cheese and cilantro. Brush the enchiladas with olive oil and put them back in the broiler for 3-5 minutes...this gave them a really nice crispy exterior shell. Cover them with the salsa verde and remaining jack cheese and put them back in the broiler again for 3-5 minutes which warms the salsa and melts the cheese. Yum!!! Cover the enchiladas with thinly sliced onions and queso fresco and serve. This truly was so good and if you are looking for an easy, tasty weekday meal this is it. It would also be super easy to make this with just cheese if you are a vegetarian.



So now we are 3 days from Thanksgiving...dear god the grocery stores are insane...too bad I am not organized enough to already have my Thanksgiving shopping done. But the good news is that the ingredients for my chorizo cornbread stuffing just arrant in high demand so I should be ok...and if not I will come up with plan B...not sure what plan B is yet though.

I feel as if its been forever since I had an opportunity to cook and to write. Two weeks ago I was at a training class in Dana Point and although the view was beautiful I didn't think you would all be enthralled by my detailed account of how to make microwave popcorn in a hotel room. And last week I had one of those weeks where you just get your ass handed to you at work...no other way to describe it...75 hours in 6 days and truth be told I just didn't have a lot of time to cook. So this weekend has lent me the opportunity to catch up with my kitchen, other peoples kitchens and my blog.

This weekend has lent me some new opportunities and experiences. I catered my first Poker Party...making slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches and potato salad. However, it was strange not to be able to taste my food...so here are the recipes but I can't vouch for them other than to say I did receive some positive text messages from some inebriated connoisseurs. I actually did try a bite of the potato salad and it was really good, but it hadn't had a chance to chill yet.

The pulled pork is super easy and perfect for this rainy weather as you just throw everything in the crock pot and it can be done as quickly as 3-4 hours or as long as 7-8 hours depending on whether you decide to cook it on low or high. And the potato salad is definitely a truly traditional potato salad recipe. Love the hard boiled eggs and sweet relish.

I also had the opportunity to send a text message that said,"sorry I destroyed your kitchen." My good friend had a white kitchen until I volunteered to come over and make Tomato Vodka Soup and exploded the blender not once, not twice but I think a total of 3 times so that everything within a 4 ft radius was covered in soup....myself included.



However, the soup was really good. You saute sun dried tomatoes in chicken broth while you cook the vegetables in olive oil. Infusing the chicken broth with the tomato flavor was a really great and easy way to add additional flavor. The vegetables are then deglazed with vodka...I don't know if it matters what type of vodka but I used vodka from the Netherlands. Then you add crushed tomatoes, the sun dried tomato broth and some additional chicken broth and cook the mixture for approximately 15 minutes. Then the fun and entertainment started with the blender (I should have taken a pic of her kitchen). Finally, add the cream giving the soup a smooth texture. Overall, this soup has great flavor and we didn't over blend the soup mixture so it still had some texture from the vegetables which was nice. I also have to say that the recipe calls for dipping the rim of the bowl in a spice mixture of celery salt, garlic powder and paprika and we opted to just sprinkle the spices on the top of the soup and it was really good and added some nice additional flavor. 

I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving is in 4 days. I do have to say I am thankful for the fact that I am not cooking the whole meal this year just because I feel like my schedule is non-stop. However, I do have the very overwhelming responsibility of providing the stuffing. And of course I can't do traditional Stove Top stuffing that would just be so way too easy so I am going to try and make Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing...that adventure to follow

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday and enjoy great food, time with friends and family and reflection on what you are thankful for. I know this has been a hard year for a lot of people and I can honestly say that I will be happy when 2011 is behind us however I still have so many things to be thankful for such as:

1. Amazing friends and family
2. Health
3. A great job at a time when so many people do not have the means to support themselves
4. Sense of humor
5. Good wine

Cheers and Happy Turkey Day!

So I bought my bread maker a million years ago at a yard sale I believe in Nor Cal. For those of you who know me you will know that it had to be a million years ago because my yard sale days are long gone. I was the proud owner of a Nor Cal 1940's Bungalow and I so enjoyed spending my weekends looking for treasures...especially retro kitchen products to accessorize my cute little casa. If you look in my garage today you would still be impressed by the fact that I own a complete set of Fire King Jadite dishes, an art deco mantel clock and a deco beveled mirror to name a few of the collectibles that have traveled with me throughout the years. However, today owning a 1970's residence just doesn't inspire the same level of desire to recreate that look...hmmm cant imagine why-shag carpet, lava lamps and bean bag chairs...yeah no.

Anyway I digress so I recently found my bread machine hidden in the hall closet and I decided to bring it out and try it again. Unfortunately I had lost the instruction manual over the years so I went on-line to try and remember how to use it....yeah its so old the manual is no longer on-line. So I found some generic bread machine recipes and decided to give it a shot. I made Herbed Vinaigrette Bread and as you know I never make a recipe multiple times however this bread recipe is so good that yesterday I  made it for the 3rd time in the last 6 weeks. I have also found that it is really good leftover and toasted with some butter spread on it. The bread has a subtle tang due to the balsamic vinegar and the herbs and onions give it a nice flavor. It is chewy on the inside but it has a nice hard crust on the outside. I highly recommend it!!



Herbed Vinaigrette Bread (1 1/2 lb recipe or 12 slices)

3/4 cup + 2T water
1T balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup chopped red onion
1T vegetable oil
3 cups bread flour
1 tsp dried tarragon
2T sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

Put all ingredients in your bread machine in the order recommended by your bread machine maker. Select the basic/white cycle and use medium or light crust.



I served the bread with a Sausage and Vegetable Stew which was perfect considering it was actually cold. I went for a run at 0830 and it was 42 degrees...although I love running in cold weather  I felt like a human popsicle for the first 2 miles and then of course I was way too hot after that. So there I was stripping off layers of clothes halfway through my 6 mile run and trying to figure out where to tie, stash or carry the rest of my additional clothing. But I was bound and determined to get in my run because I was a spaz and decided to sign up for a half marathon for next weekend...yup nothing better than a cold turkey half marathon...hope I can walk after.

Back to the stew you saute the onions and garlic in olive oil which smells heavenly. Then add 1T paprika which gives the soup its pretty red color. I used smoked paprika to give it more of a well I guess smokey flavor haha. The broth is just water but between the sausage, paprika, salt, pepper and butter it truly has a great flavor. The stew is laden with vegetables-carrots, parsnips and potatoes. My only suggestion would be to go with the low end of potatoes unless you truly are a carb lover. The recipe calls for 6-8 red potatoes and my potatoes were medium sized and I used 7 of them and there were a lot of potatoes. The kielbasa adds an additional smokey flavor and makes the stew a little more hardy. It is served with an herbed sour cream and I just have to say don't skip it because it gives the stew an additional creamy and fresh contrast.

Hope everyone is staying warm and dry this weekend. And I will miss you next week as I am out of town for work so unless I can figure out a way to write about creative microwave meals in hotel rooms I probably won't be doing too much cooking. Cheers my friends!