This is what your life looks like when you are looking through puffy watery eyes.

All blurry and miserable. Puffs and NyQuil, that is what got me through a full week of a massive head and chest cold.  I did my very best to keep it to myself and not pass it along to Dave. I slept in another room every night and washed my hands like a criminal trying to wash away the proof. It didn’t work. I’m over it and he has it in full force.

Luckily for him, I know how to make chicken soup! Stat! Quick, easy, tasty, cold-curing chicken soup.  And just in case the bug travels from this keyboard, through the internet, and onto you… you can make it too.  Get yourself to Costco, stock up on Puffs and NyQuil, and pick up one of their huge-breasted five-dollar rotisserie chickens.

Seriously, these are huge chickens with the breast meat weighing in at more than the entire amount of meat you’d get from a grocery store chicken! One and a third pounds of breast meat in the case of this particular bird!

I was actually going to title this post – “Big Breasts”, but considering all the spam I already get (the post that gets the most spam is titled “Manly Man Salad”) … yeah, I just don’t want to attract any more of that sort of attention!

So, back to the soup. Put in any vegetables you like or have on hand. I can’t stand cooked carrots, but Dave loves them, and since this soup IS for him – in went the carrots. I also had leftover sliced potatoes and a roasted poblano pepper – in they went. I have previously spoken of my affection for the under-rated and overlooked broccoli stems, they are in there. You get the point, whatever suits you and your family’s taste – put it in.

As for the chicken itself, I put in mostly dark meat and save those big breasts for sandwiches and such, you do as you please.  See – there is nearly a pound of dark meat for the soup.

After you pull off all the meat, you’ll use the chicken carcass to enrich a box of purchased chicken broth. You will be on your way to feeling at least 90% better in no time.

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My technical issues have been resolved. My lovely webmasters have “increased my quota” – whatever that is. What it means to me is that I can get back to blogging and posting photos to go along with my recipes. Thank you, webmasters, you are the best!

I am going to be completely honest and straightforward with you about this recipe… it is NOT “easy-breezy”.  In fact, it’s a big pain in the backside.  Kinda makes you want to tackle it, doesn’t it?

No?!? Come on, a challenge is a good thing!  The cookie dough is the problem. Well not a problem exactly, it is just a tad soft and not exactly easy to work with. But, I think it’s worth it. These are tasty little treats and besides, all the pictures I am providing you with demonstrating the caramel-making process will make it all worth it! Now Keep Reading!

The cookie sandwiches were the dessert for the wedding shower cooking class I taught last weekend, and the same ingredients served as the makings for Valentine’s tart for my sweetheart.

To transform the cookie recipe into a tart; spray a tart pan with Pam, line it with the rolled-out cookie dough, refrigerate for 15 minutes, and then bake the crust for 10 minutes at 325 degrees. Let it cool, and fill it with the caramel. Make some ganache, top the tart with the warm ganache and refrigerate until firm. Finally, sprinkle the top with a little sea salt, just before serving.  The tart is a whole lot easier than rolling and cutting out all those cookies! But cookies are what I first made, so a cookie recipe is what I have for you today.

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Happy Valentine’s Day! And Happy Centennial to my Native State – Arizona – 100 Years Young today!

Yes, Arizona, “The Grand Canyon State”, “The Valentine State”, and “The Baby State” turns 100 today!  The “Baby State” because Arizona was the last state of the contiguous United States to join the Union, on February 14, 1912. To see a wonderful slideshow of our beautiful state, GO TO THIS LINK, and enjoy. That is from where I snatched all of the Arizona pictures I have here today.  As a special birthday bonus, there’s a little Arizona quiz and a fun name game at the end of the post – just in case you want to play along.

Oh, and I have a fruity salsa recipe to go along with the fruity guac from yesterday too.

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On Saturday night I taught a cooking class and served dinner at a wedding shower for Leah, the beautiful bride-to-be.  This is the darling and super creative invite that Jenny, Leah’s sister-in-law, sent out… attached to a real cutting board with a real whisk at the top ~ too cute! (and it was even cuter before I marked out the personal info…)

The guacamole I served reminds me of one of my favorite restaurants in Phoenix, Barrio Cafe, where Chef Silvana Salcido Esparaza’s guacamole is made table-side and is the first place I ever saw pomegranate arils added. Remember, they aren’t called pomegranate seeds. The correct name is arils. If you don’t remember, you can go back to THIS, my 100th post, where I tell you all about it (and even how to freeze the arils). Today marks my 834th post. We’ve come a long way baby!

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This quick, easy, and delish recipe comes from my Illinois BFF, Jennifer.  My girl knows how to throw together a fabulous dinner like no one else! With three busy sons, who run her ragged, she is the master. Love you, Jenni-Jen! xoxo

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I’ve shared with you my newfound love of Pinterest. That is where I found the idea for these adorable pearl cherry tomato hearts. If you and your loved one are going out for Valentine’s and leaving the kids at home, what a wonderful salad this would be to serve to your beloved children.  Or… just as a casual any night of the week with an extra special loving touch.

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How about a little Bundt pan history?

In 1950 Nordic Ware invented the Bundt® Pan; a ring-shaped pan with fluted sides.   The pan sold somewhat slowly until the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest winner used the little-known Bundt® Pan for her Tunnel of Fudge cake recipe. This prompted a mad rush for the pans, causing them to surpass the tin Jell-O mold to become the most-sold pan in the United States. Since their introduction, more than 50 million Bundt pans have been sold by Nordic Ware.

Oh, and by the way, National Bundt Pan Day is November 15th.  And do you remember the scene in the 2002 movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, when the mother of the groom-to-be comes to the home of the mother of the bride-to-be and presents to you a Bundt cake? Still makes me smile, HERE IS A LINK to a grainy video from YouTube.

This super moist yogurt cake is perfect for breakfast, brunch, or dessert. So simple to put together and pop in the oven… seriously delish.

FYI: I used a decorative sunflower Bundt pan in place of the traditional Bundt that has the tube in the center, so it took about 20 minutes longer to cook than this recipe states.

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This is the final recipe from the grand lobster bake I hosted a week and a half ago.

First off, a few disclaimers. The photo above and 2 more in the body of the recipe (you will easily spot them!) is not my own but from an article in Fine Cooking. This recipe is inspired by the recipe in that article, created by the renowned baker and cookbook author, Rose Levy Beranbaum.  The reason for the snatched photos – yeah, I didn’t take enough while assembling the pie and when I served it at the lobster bake, I was in such a rush, I didn’t get a quality photo of a sliced piece either. No matter, this is one incredible pie~

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Like just about everyone else I know, I love Mason jars! Check out my Mason jar Pinterest board to see just a few of the wonderful ideas clever people have come up with using these American icons. How about a little Wikipedia info on the beloved jars…

“A Mason jar is a glass jar used in canning to preserve food. It was invented and patented by John Landis Mason, a Philadelphia tinsmith in 1858. They are also called Ball jars, after Ball Corp., a popular and early manufacturer of the jars; fruit jars because they are often used to store fruit; “jam jars” or generically glass canning jars. While largely supplanted by other methods for commercial mass-production, they are still commonly used in home canning.”

I baked the cobblers for the clambake in wide-mouth (squat and fat) half-pint Kerr Mason jars and served homemade vanilla ice cream in regular-mouth (tall and thin) half-pint jars. Just as when using for canning, first sterilize the jars with boiling water – and when using for baking, place them in a water bath to prevent the jars from cracking.

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Succotash is a hot bean and corn dish that was  popular during the Great Depression because of the ingredients were more readily available than most other foods and relatively less expensive. I’m not a fan of traditional succotash… but turn it into a cold salad with basil dressing, and I’m all in!

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