Christmas Eve Dinner

Quiet dinner at home before Christmas Eve service at the National Cathedral.

Salmon topped with Boursin creamed spinach, served over roast fingerling potatoes.

Birthday Cake!

GF yellow cake topped with fudge frosting.

Cake: Cherrybrook Kitchen gluten free yellow cake mix

Frosting: Pillsbury creamy supreme chocolate fudge

2 tiers of cake and everything!

Adventures in Gluten Free Baking

No bake cookies made of cocoa, peanut butter, and oats. Could only find extra-thick rolled oats at the store, so they're a little chewy, but still tasty. GF oats were super expensive, so I didn't spring for those, either.

Chocolate Crinkles, made gluten free. For future reference, 2tsp of xanthan gum is probably too much for cookies; this would make a fabulous brownie recipe; gluten free cookies take longer to bake. Still delicious though, and still good on a snow-day Monday morning with a Silk Nog latte!

Why we spent Saturday inside, baking cookies:

Sushi!

Smoked salmon with cucumber, smoked salmon with avocado, spicy crab with avocado, spicy crab with cucumber, cucumber and avocado, avocado with furikake rolls. Fun! They look less than perfect, of course, but it was delicious. We will definitely be doing this again!

Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast

De-licious snow day dinner. Chicken breast (bone-in, skin-on) stuffed with diced prosciutto and goat cheese, roasted at 375. Served with caramelized onions, roasted butternut squash, and crispy sage.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Prosciutto and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Tonight was quick sandwiches. Mine was GF sandwich bread from the Silly Yak, Dijon mustard on one side, mayo on the other, sun dried tomatoes, Jarlsberg, mozzarella, and prosciutto. On the Burrito's, you have mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, goat cheese and prosciutto. Salads on the side of greens, mushrooms, radishes, carrots, and cauliflower, topped with a Dijon and balsamic vinaigrette.

Tortillas, etc. - Tostadas

Toast tortillas until crisp in toaster oven. Top with refried black beans, cheese, tomato, pickled jalapeno, sour cream, and if you're feeling crazy - an egg. Bonus if the yolk is runny. These will probably make an appearance again some weekend for breakfast.

Quick Quesadillas

Perfect for a quick and easy Monday night dinner. Tortillas, Trader Joe's refried beans, shredded cheddar, sliced onion, diced tomato. Served with tortilla chips and Wholly Guacamole (doctored with salt and cilantro). Toast on skillet over medium heat (or toast in the toaster oven).

Busy Kitchen Extravaganza Sunday

After a delicious brunch of smoked salmon hash with poached eggs, I set about making:

Pistachio Biscotti



using the Food Network recipe from Tyler Florence,

Peppermint Bark



using a mix of a few different recipes I found online,

and goat cheese and sun dried tomato stuffed chicken breast with sauteed kale for dinner.

The chicken was an Ina Garten recipe from the Food Network and the kale is an Emeril recipe from Emeril Green on PlanetGreen. The chicken and the greens were both delicious recipes we will be making again, for sure.



Wine: Kemblefield 2009 sauvignon blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand. Pretty good. I'd drink it again.

Peppermint Bark:
about two cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used about 1/3 of a 32oz bag of Guittard)
1 12oz bag white chocolate chips (I used Guittard)
a scant 1/2 Tbsp peppermint flavor (peppermint oil and other oil)
1/2 cup crushed candycanes

Line 13x9 pan with foil, spray with Pam. Spread chocolate chips in bottom of pan and place in 250 oven until melty. Spread into even layer. Allow to cool until hard (for me, I let it cool on the stove for awhile, then the fridge for 20, and the freezer for 15. I was afraid to move the pyrex pan from stove to fridge or freezer. Melt white chocolate chips in microwave - 1 minute on high, stir. (The bag said 2 minutes on half power, stir, then go in 15 second increments until melted.) Stir in peppermint oil or extract. Measure extract with 1/2 TBSP because your 1 tsp. and 1/2 tsp. are dirty and you can't be bothered to clean them. Pour over chocolate layer and sprinkle with candycanes. Super easy. When layers separate when you try to cut them, stick the whole thing back in the oven at 250 to re-melt them slightly. Allow to cool. Mine got pretty messy. I'm still not sure they are going to stick together, but I re-baked them and they're cooling in the fridge again.

Smoked Salmon Hash

Rainy Sunday brunch. No photo, no camera batteries.

2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, steamed in microwave for 5 minutes
1/2 cup or so of chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small deli container smoked salmon "trimmed ends"
2 eggs, poached in Poach Pods

Brown potatoes in small amount of olive oil. Salt & pepper. Add onion, cook a few minutes to soften onion, add garlic. Keep warm while cooking eggs in covered pot of simmering water. Stir in smoked salmon right before serving, just to warm it through. Enjoy runny egg yolk mixed in smoked salmon hash.

The Poach Pods worked pretty well today. Well sprayed with Pam and cooked with lid on. I think lid on made a big difference.

Pomegranate-blueberry juice, espresso.

Chicken Tikka Masala

After a long day of household chores, before a trip out into the cold to visit friends, a warm dinner of chicken tikka masala.



1 jar Patak's Tikka Masala sauce prepared with
1 pkg boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 1 diced tomato
1 1/2 cup rice (last of the bag), seasoned with ginger, garlic, and a little butter.

Cauliflower tossed with olive oil and curry powder and roasted at 400 for about 45 minutes.

Served with Trader Joe's naan.

Wine: last of a bottle of Fratelli D'italia pinot grigio. Just okay.