… until Thanksgiving!

If you are hosting and you need help – then you need my “Thanksgiving Planning Guide and Sample Timeline” which I first posted 2 years ago. CLICK HERE to take you to that helpful page. Plus, today I have a special Thanksgiving bonus.  I found the most adorable vintage place cards on Pottery Barn’s website. CLICK HERE to download the place cards.

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Weekly Tip #5

When beating the eggs for your Thanksgiving pumpkin pie or any other custard pie, brush a little of the beaten egg over the pie shell and set it in the freezer for 10 minutes. This helps seal the crust and keeps it crisp.

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Before your tip of the week… a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my “birthday sister”, Laura Dileen Galloway Heffron! Laura and I have been friends since high school when we discovered our birthdays were only one day apart. Laura was my maid-of-honor 26 years ago and is Marissa’s godmother. I was a bridesmaid at her wedding and I am godmother to 2 of her 3 sons. Happy Birthday, Laura! I love you!

This picture is of Laura and me visiting my Aunt Beverly in Del Mar, CA back in the summer of ’78 or ’79. Laura and I were just high school girls standing there all awkward – while Bev poses all sexy… too funny! Bev’s birthday is Sunday, so I’ll take this opportunity to say Happy Birthday, Aunt Bev, I love you too!

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Weekly Tip #2

When making something with raw ground meats, such as meatballs or meatloaf, you need to know how the mixture tastes before you cook up an entire meal.

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I’m off to tape a television segment today for Channel 3-  Your Life A to Z.  It will air tomorrow, Friday, October 14th, at 10:100 AM.  So, instead of posting a recipe, I have some miscellaneous, fun, and important items to tell you about. 

For the last couple of days I’ve been sharing with you items from my weekend shopping extravaganza with Peggy. Both of us are in love with birdcages and we found the perfect one for Peggy’s house. She had an open corner in her dining room and we decided the birdcage would fit perfectly there. She will change it out throughout the year and create holiday and casual vignettes, using the cage as the canvass.  Above you can see what we did for her Halloween Birdcage Vignette and below is a closeup. Doesn’t that look great?!

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OK, you know how I am constantly talking about cleaning out my freezers? It’s not like I don’t try, I do! But this time, it is really happening. I have been cooking only from the freezer for the past 2+ weeks. Now, when I say that, it doesn’t mean I’m not using any fresh food or that I’m not grocery shopping at all, for shame! That would be impossible for me, BUT it does mean that the main dishes, the big stuff, is coming from the freezer.  Examples you ask? Let’s see, the duck, rib-eye steaks, puff pastry, more puff pastry, Kobe beef, ground turkey, shrimp… and today, this exotic chicken.

The chicken I’m talking about is a Silkie that I purchased frozen some time ago at an Asian market.  Here is was a 2007 New York Times article has to say about Silkies.

Pet a Silkie chicken and you understand how it got its name. The feathers are fine and flutter in wisps in the breeze.

… it’s a striking-looking bird that’s often raised for show. Breeders also like them because they will hatch other birds’ eggs.

 “They are such good moms,” said Frank R. Reese Jr., the founder of Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch in Lindsborg, Kan., who breeds Silkies for show. “They’ll sit on anything and hatch anything. They’ll hatch ducks, turkeys, chickens.”

…They have bluish-gray skin, pitch-black bones and dark beige flesh (they’re sometimes called black-skinned chickens). They’re a scrawny pound or two, plucked, and are usually sold with the head and feet attached (with five toes, not the usual four).

“It’s a scary-looking creature,” said Patricia Yeo, of Sapa in Chelsea. She said she has her staff describe it as a deeply flavored, lean, free-range chicken.

I agree, it is kinda scary-looking without its beautiful white feathers.  And just as described above, it comes packaged completely intact, with head and feet. That is one reason I was excited to try it, chicken feet make the richest and most gelatinous stock. And the flavor of the roasted chicken was wonderful, so much richer than your average chicken. Before you see the pictures of the naked chicken below, you absolutely have to go to THIS LINK and check out a Silkie or two in the most gorgeous and mind-blowing chicken coop you’ll ever see. (BTW, I was directed to this blog by my absolute favorite blog of all blogs, Vignette Design, of course, everything wonderful can be found at Vignette Design!) I find this coop so inspiring that I am actually tempted to raise chickens again!

Wow, right? OK, back to the chicken at hand – I took a photo of the packaged naked bird from the Asian grocery all spread out, but I’m fearful that some of you might be seriously disturbed by the image…. so if you want to see the picture, leave a comment saying so, and I’ll send the image directly to you in an email. For the rest of you, do not fear, the forthcoming photos feature the chicken after I cut off the head and the really (and I mean REALLY) ugly five-toed feet!

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For far too long, I have been discarding fennel fronds.  You know, those pretty dill-like leaves attached to the stalks of a funnel bulb.  Sure, I’d pick off a few fronds and use to garnish a dish, but then I’d toss out the remaining fronds still attached to the tough and inedible stalks. What a shame! I decided to see if the fronds could be made into a pesto, and sure enough, delicious! Use this vibrant pesto in a pasta, as a dip with crudités, or drizzled on a fennel salad.  Salad recipe to follow tomorrow. If the fennel you purchase does not have a full 2 cups of fronds, cut the recipe in half and use only 1 cup of fronds.

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When deciding what to serve for an appetizer party, it is important to think of all the various components:

hot and cold
meat and vegetarian
rich and mild
complex and easy-breezy
color on the table (you need to be careful that everything is not dark and brown)

I put out only four items for the Blog Anniversary Party, which is at least 3 less than I normally do. Taking that into consideration – all the above factors were especially important to keep in mind.

Here is what I offered and what purpose each served for the buffet:

Italian Guacamole with Ciabatta Chips – cold, vegetarian,  mild, colorful, easy-breezy, and diet-friendly

Bacon Lollipops – hot, meat, rich, complex, although lacking in color

Lamb Merguez Flatbread – hot, meat, rich, colorful, complex

Prosciutto, Melon, and Bocconcini Picks – cold, meat, mild, colorful, and exceptionally easy-breezy

(can be made vegetarian – substitute an heirloom cherry tomato for the prosciutto on half,  or all, of the picks)

The importance of having at least one easy-breezy recipe included in a party buffet can not be overemphasized. 

As the hostess, you need to know that there is at least one recipe that is no-fail, no-cook, and if all else falls apart, you could get your kid or spouse to complete it for you without too much direction. 

This recipe is exactly that, keep it in your repertoire!

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I thought I’d had good homemade hummus before, but then I had hummus made from dried chickpeas, instead of canned, and now I know what good hummus is!

Nick Malgieri, the former Executive Pastry Chef at Windows on the World and cookbook author, is a frequent teacher at Les Gourmettes.  The last session he made this recipe by another teacher and author, Paula Wolfert, who has three fabulous Mediterranean cuisine cookbooks.  The difference between hummus made from canned chickpeas and the hummus made from dried is incredible. It’s not hard to do, it just takes a little more forethought, since the beans need to soak overnight.

You can find dried chickpeas in bulk at Whole Foods and health food stores and I get the tahini at Smart and Final, but it too can be found at health food and Mediterranean stores.

Bonus:  There is a food processor tip at the bottom of the recipe.

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Remember last weekend when I told you we’d been to a graduation party for Megan, who is my BFF Laura’s daughter? What I didn’t tell you is that Laura’s husband and Megan’s dad, Jack, is a fabulous cook, especially when it comes to BBQ and smoked meats. 

Jack made the most delicious smoked brisket and sausages for the party. But there was something that actually rivaled Jack’s main course – Megan’s appetizer.  She put out these “out of this world” jalapeño poppers. Turns out the recipe is from The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond.

I had heard of Ree before, and of the cookbook, but I hadn’t made anything of hers. Big mistake!  After tasting and now making those poppers and looking over her blog, I am a fan!  And I’m not the only one, Gourmet Live (the recently shuttered Gourmet Magazine’s reincarnation) just named Ree as one of the “50 Women Game-Changers” of the food world. She is #21, well ahead of some big names you will recognize (Paula Deen, Ina Garten, Cat Cora, and Nigella Lawson).

So, thank you, Megan, for turning me on to the Pioneer Woman and these poppers!

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