Chicken Saltimbocca

Possibly as long as I've known of Maggiano's Little Italy's existence one of my favorite dishes has been Chicken Saltimbocca. Heck, it was one of the dishes we served at our wedding! Plus, I like the name. Saltimbocca, translated from Italian, means "jump mouth".

With my new home business (which I can't explicitly say what is; darn rules and darn my ethics for following them! shoot me an email if you are curious) I have even more of an excuse to try some new dishes, and Chicken Saltimbocca was Tuesday's adventure. I looked at a few recipes, took a bit here and a bit there and ended up with this:

Chicken Saltimbocca

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
all-purpose flour (about 1/4 - 1/3 cup)
2 T. butter (NOT margarine)
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 small onion, wedged
1 tsp. dried marjoram or sage (or about 2 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped - I just didn't have any on hand!)
2 large slices prosciutto, cut in half
4 slices provolone or mozzarella
3/4 C. dry white wine

Directions

1. Pound the chicken breasts to an even thickness with meat mallet. Season with salt and pepper to taste (fresh ground of both if possible) and dredge in flour spread on a plate.
   Tip: Pounding the chicken flat means it will cook evenly, especially important when pan cooking.


2. Melt 1 T. of butter (save other tablespoon for later) with olive oil in a large stainless steel fry or sauté pan until very hot. Add the chicken and onion wedges and cook about 5-6 minutes (until the undersides are golden brown). Turn chicken and onion wedges and cook an additional 4-6 minutes (until the chicken is firm when pressed in the center).
   Tip 1: You need to use stainless steel to create the "fond", the brown bits stuck to the pan used in making the sauce. You won't get them in non-stick cookware.
   Tip 2: The easiest way to cut up the onion is with an apple wedger/corer. Use as many wedges as you like, save the rest in freezer for another use.


3. Reduce the heat to very low. Sprinkle the chicken with marjoram or sage. Top each piece with a piece of prosciutto and cheese. Cover pan and cook about a minute to a minute and a half (until the cheese melts). Remove chicken to a serving plate and cover loosely (without touching cheese) with foil.


4. Bring pan to high heat until it sizzles. Add the wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes, until reduced to about 1/4 cup, then remove from heat and whisk in the remaining 1 T. butter.
   Tip: deglazing the pan not only creates a great sauce, but makes the pan really easy to clean!


5. Spoon sauce and onions over and around the chicken and serve immediately. Be prepared for accolades.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

I may not have picked the best year to start a Christmas Cookie tradition, but the good news is that every other year will seem easier, right? (That's what I tell myself about picking a bad year to finally join the church choir and do the Christmas musical (which, by the way, is called Christmas Is Forever and is next weekend and for more information on times and such click here))

Keith and I both wanted me to do Christmas Cookies. It was a tradition in Keith's family (and still is - his mom makes great cookies), plus we just like cookies. So far we've made three batches. The first was Lemon Supreme cookies, and they were super easy. You just use

• one box of cake mix (you can use any kind - I just used Lemon Supreme)
• two eggs
• 1/4 cup oil or butter (we used butter)

Blend, put on the cookie sheet, bake at 375 for about 10 minutes.

Using butter they were firm enough that I think next time I will try making them in the cookie press or making cutouts. I just rolled into balls and flattened this time, and they tasted a bit like lemon sugar cookies. Yum! They're all gone. Next year I totally need to clear out enough room in the freezer to store cookies there for greater chance of making it to Christmas.

Then we made Peanut Butter Fudgies, a Dohlchester favorite. I contend these are candies, not cookies, but in Keith's family they were called "No Bake Cookies", so I'll count them.

Most fun of all was our most recent cookies (made on the day of the first snow of the season, not that any of it stuck). They were from a mix, but oh so fun (and yummy). Kaitlyn and I made Gingerbread Men (and Angels)! Kaitlyn always loves to help cook, especially taste testing (she has to fight Keith for beaters or spoons, though). This was our first cookie cutouts since she was old enough to help and she thought cookie cutting was very exciting! She called the gingerbread men "gentlemen" and the angels "ladies". We didn't get to decorate them, this time, but we'll add that to our cookie wishlist for later.

On our "Cookie Wishlist" for the rest of this season? My Grandma's Molasses Cookies, spritz cookies, peanut butter sandwiches (like homemade Girl Scout Tagalongs), thin mints (like homemade Girl Scout... well, you can guess), chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter Hershey kissed cookies, peanut butter cup cookies, decorated sugar cookies, and chocolate covered pretzels (ok, also not cookies, but falls under "Holiday Baking").

Cookies aren't the only thing making our house look Christmasy. My super-wonderful husband got all of the ornaments and whatnot out, put up both trees (my white-light, red-glass-ball, white-thread-crochet, and glass ornamented tree with a thread crochet angel topper and his blinking-white-light, fun-ornament, light-up-star-topped tree). He set out two of our Nativities. He hung the stockings and wreaths. All that was left was the "family" ornaments. Kaitlyn loved looking at the tree and helping pick up the ornaments but not putting them on the prickly tree. She also loved (or at least indulged me) listening to stories about the ornaments.

The ones I got when I visited Tante Suzanne in Germany. The one's Keith and I got on our honeymoon in Italy. The one from my childhood church's 125th anniversary celebration. The one celebrating our church's 40th anniversary. Ones with names on them. Police ornaments. The white thread ornament from the year Keith and I were dating when I traded him one red bow from his tree for one of the stars I had crocheted for my tree (to this year "my" tree has that bow and "his" tree has the star). Ornaments from vacations we've taken, from the State Fair, and from ChesterFest. Ornaments make great souvenirs from trips, because you get to pull out the memories and stories every year.

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day!

May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Happy (Belated) St. Patrick's Day!

On Saturday Kaitlyn and I both decked out in a bit of green. Keith escaped pinches by (1) threatening retrobution and (2) claiming he was wearing green underwear. I hear kids don't get to pinch for St. Patrick's Day anymore, anyway.

Sunday we got to have corned beef and cabbage - minus the cabbage. It was the first time I had fixed this childhood favorite meal, and the first time Keith (and Auntie Kris) had had it at all. It was actually much easier to cook than I thought!

When I was growing up we had this meal every St. Patrick's Day weekend, as well as many other times during the year. We loved it! Mom would make cornbread in a cast iron skillet, and my dad would slice the top on and layer in thin ribbons of real butter, then wrap the round cake in a towel and put on a plate. It would be cut in wedges and was so good and moist that we would eat it with a fork. Mom cooked potatoes, carrots, and cabbage in the broth while the corned beef and cornbread cooked in the oven (you crockpot the corned beef overnight in a broth of water, bay leaf, and minced onion and carrot, then you put on the glaze and cook it in the oven). I'm so glad that Keith like it, so that we can have it again!

Pizza Night

Tonight was pizza night in Dohlchester. Since Keith worked in a pizza parlor (like his brothers before him), this doesn't mean calling Domino's or even Papa John's, but rather a homemade pie with even the dough from scratch.

Here is our dough recipe. You can tell we make it often, since this recipe is memorized!

Place, in order, into the bread machine pan and set for dough cycle:

7.5 oz water (3/4 cup+3 Tbs) warm water

2 Tbs. olive oil (or vegetable oil)

1-1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup wheat flour*

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp yeast (or 1-1/2 tsp bread machine yeast)

*2-1/2 cups of all-purpose flour can be used if you just don't want (or don't have) wheat flour

Keith's tips for a great homemade pizza:

• Use a preheated pizza stone, like you can get from Pampered Chef, with a little cornmeal down to keep it from sticking
• Put the cheese on first - not the sauce! Mozzarella is a favorite for all, but grate some white American (we get ours from the deli) for about 50% of your cheese.
• Still no sauce - add fresh garlic and pepperonis for a classic pie.
• NOW the sauce. Water down commercial sauces to spoon evenly over the toppings. "Sauce down" your pepperonis so the don't get too crispy.
• Bake for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees (if no wheat flour is used, decrease temperature and time slightly).

Kaitlyn loves Pizza Nights. When we make it from scratch it's hard to say no, since we know it's a lot healthier than ordering out (it's a lot like giving her a ham and cheese sandwich).

White Lake Bound!

Well, it's almost time to climb in the car for our last trip of the summer. Usually White Lake is the first trip of the summer, so this is a little unfamiliar feeling. And we're going to a new house. Have I mentioned I am resistant to change? I still cringe every time I go to my home church and see the interior walls painted pale pale lilac, and think of the layout of the old building - the new one still confuses me a little.

But the times they are a changin'

One thing that is the same about White Lake... people I love, fun games, and a big table full of snack foods that will make you feel a little guilty all year.

This year I am making pine bark, with a twist:

35 saltine crackers; 1 cup butter; 1 cup brown sugar; 1/2 tsp almond extract; ~16 oz M&Ms, crushed in food chopper
Boil butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes; remove from heat and add almond extract. Pour over saltines (salt side up) in greased & foil lined pan. Bake for 5 minutes at 400 degrees. Sprinkle chocolate bits over, and spread when chocolate melts. Cool, crack, and cool some more.

Usually I use semi-sweet chocolate bits, but I think this will be fun and delicious. We'll see.

Off to cook some candy!