Kitchen Comforts

Deviled Eggs Two weeks in a row: D and E week tea time

This recipe is based on one in Baby Let's Eat! It's a healthier deviled egg that my kids really love. With more cottage cheese than mayonnaise, the protein goes up and the fat goes down.

6 large eggs
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon mustard
3 tablespoons cottage cheese
1/2 teaspoon fresh dill

Place the eggs in a large pot of cold water. Bring the water to a boil and then turn of the flame. Let the eggs sit in the covered pot until the water has cooled. Peel the eggs carefully.

Cut the eggs in half lengthwise. Gently scoop the yolks into a bowl. Set the intact whites aside. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, cottage cheese to the yolks and mash together. I give it a whirl in my food processor in order to make the cottage cheese really smooth.

Place the yolk mixture into the whites and sprinkle with a little paprika, if you like.

The recipe also calls for chopped black olives and sweet gherkin pickles. We skip those:-)

Birthday Breakfast

Decadent Donuts for "D" Week

This recipe rendition is definitely dedicated to the dear friends who ate donuts like these with me in the middle of the night at a diner called UD in a place called Charlottesville where we were all being educated and learning useful things like how to eat a day's worth of calories in one midnight sitting.

Begin with:

• a roll of refrigerated biscuit dough
• a bag of good chocolate chips
• a cup of heavy cream
• sugar and cinnamon
• premium vanilla bean ice cream (or whatever's on sale)
• oil for frying

Gently poke a hole in the middle of the biscuits and stretch a bit to get the right shape. The children can learn to do this easily. Fry the dough in hot oil.

While the biscuits are frying, warm the heavy cream until quite hot but not boiling. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and let a child stir until smooth.

Set a plate of sugar in front of another child and ask her to sprinkle with cinnamon.

Turn the donuts so they get golden on both sides.

Remove from the oil and briefly drain on a paper towel.

Dip in the sugar and cinnamon.

While still warm, top with ice cream and chocolate ganache.

Serve to a beaming child who wants it to be "D" week forever!

C is for Cranberry Chicken

2 lbs boneless chicken breasts

1/3 c. flour

1t. salt

4T. butter

11/2c. fresh cranberries

3/4c. sugar

1t. orange peel

3/4c. orange juice

1/4t. each cinnamon and ginger

Coat chicken in flour and salt and brown in butter.  Combine remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Pour over chicken, cover and bake at 350F for 45 min. to an hour.  Great served with stuffing or rice!

"P" is for Peach Chicken and Sparkling Peach Punch: Monday Night Football in Georgia

To celebrate Monday Night Football in Atlanta, we had a peachy dinner tonight.
This began as a skillet recipe but when I doubled it to feed my family, I recognized it wasn't going to work in my skillet. Also, I needed to do the prep early in the day because Monday afternoons are ballet driving afternoons. So, I adapted it to cook in the oven while I drove to ballet.

INGREDIENTS:

• cooking oil
• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon seasoned pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 12 fryer chicken leg quarters with thighs or chicken breast halves
• 3 cups orange juice
• 2 16 ounce bags of frozen sliced peaches
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoon dried leaf basil
• 4 cloves garlic, finely minced

PREPARATION:

Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Combine flour, salt, pepper, and paprika. While oil is heating dredge chicken in the seasoned flour. Brown chicken on all sides. While chicken is browning, combine orange juice with brown sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, basil and minced garlic in a saucepan. Put the chicken in two 11 X 17 baking dishes. Put one bag of frozen peaches on top of each pan of chicken. Pour the sauce evenly over the two pans. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about an hour, removing the foil for the last fifteen minutes.
  Makes 8 to 12 servings.

Serve with Sparkling Peach Punch:
Mix half a large can  of limeade concentrate with half can of peach daiquiri mix with rum and ice ;-) seltzer water to make a half gallon. Mix and pour over ice.