Chili Chicken with Yogurt Sauce
Chicken Marinade
2 Pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 cup OJ
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon canola oil
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 garlic clove minced
Salt and Pepper (my own addition)
Yogurt Sauce
1 8 ounce container of plain low-fat yogurt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 tablespoons minced red onion
2 teaspoons chopped cilantro
2 teaspoons lime zest
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Combine marinade and chicken in a ziploc bag. Let sit at least 4 hours or overnight.
Make yogurt sauce and store in the airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.
To cook. Spray broiler rack and pre-heat broiler. Thread chicken and tomatoes onto 6 18 inch metal skewers. Broil 5 inches from from heat until chicken is browned and cooked through. About 6 minutes on each side.
Serves 6 people at 7 points each (if you follow points).
****I swapped the chicken thighs for breasts. I cooked the chicken on the stove top with a little cooking spray. I will roasted (cooking spray, salt and pepper at 375 degrees) the roasting veggies (red peppers, onions and yellow summer squash). I will weigh the chicken and count the weight as my points (but I will add a point because of the oil and sugars in the marinade). I will serve the chicken, veggies and sauce with rice.
As I was making a delicious WW marinade this morning, I realized I had the perfect tip for today's jar. The marinade called for 1/4 cup of honey. Before measuring out honey, spray your measuring cup with non-stick cooking spray. Then pour the honey in the measuring cup and it will slide right out without a sticky fuss. It works perfectly.
Now to tempt your taste buds, here's the marinade I made this morning:
Chili Chicken Kebabs with Yogurt Sauce
Chicken Marinade
2 Pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 cup OJ
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon canola oil
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 garlic clove minced
Salt and Pepper (my own addition)
Yogurt Sauce
1 8 ounce container of plain low-fat yogurt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 tablespoons minced red onion
2 teaspoons chopped cilantro
2 teaspoons lime zest
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pints cherry tomatoes
Combine marinade and chicken in a ziploc bag. Let sit at least 4 hours or overnight.
Make yogurt sauce and store in the airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.
To cook. Spray broiler rack and pre-heat broiler. Thread chicken and tomatoes onto 6 18 inch metal skewers. Broil 5 inches from from heat until chicken is browned and cooked through. About 6 minutes on each side.
Serves 6 people at 7 points each (if you follow points).
****I swapped the chicken thighs for breasts. I will most likely cook the chicken on the stove top with some cooking spray and chicken stock. I will roast (cooking spray, salt and pepper at 400 degrees) the tomatoes and add other roasting veggies (red peppers, onions and yellow summer squash) to the mix. I will weigh the chicken and count the weight as my points (but I will add a point because of the oil and sugars in the marinade). I will serve the chicken, veggies and sauce with rice.
I'm looking forward to it...hope the family enjoys. Perhaps I'll come back and post a photo tonight.
My attempt, with Try it Tuesday, will be to post a recipe every Tuesday.
This week's recipe is for cream cheese cookies. It's my Mom's recipe, and it is excellent. The hubs swears it the best cookie he's ever had and he's not fond of sharing them with anyone else. Unfortunately for him, I only make them once per year. For no reason in particular, these cookies only get made at Christmas time.
Dough
1 Block Cream Cheese, softened
2 Sticks Butter, softened
2 Cups Flour
Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the flour, slowly. Beat until combined and smooth. Remove dough from mixing bowl and form into disc. Wrap disc in wax paper and refrigerate at least 3 hours.
Filling
1 Cup Chopped Walnuts
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
3 Tablespoons Milk
Cinnamon
Combine all ingredients with a fork or spoon. This filling recipe makes enough for 2 batches of cookies. I have also substituted (for my allergic son) raisins for the nuts, and it worked just as well. The hubs liked both versions.
Putting the Cookies Together
1) Remove dough from the refrigerator and cut into quarters. Roll 1/4 of the dough in granulated sugar into a large, thin circle. Turn the dough as your roll, to keep the sugar evenly spread on crust. Once you have rolled the dough, turn it over one last time. Upon turning it over, wipe away some of the excess sugar from the pastry mat (trust me this will help when the cookies are baking).
2) Cut the dough into 16 triangles. I use a pizza cutter for this - works really well and makes a
long smooth cut.
3) Place a small amount of filling at the wide end of each triangle.
4) Roll, beginning with the wide end, each triangle to the center of the circle.
5) Place on lined cookie sheet. If you don't have a silpat, use parchment
paper. It is essential that you line your cookie sheet, as the sugar on the outside of the cookie caramelizes. All 16 cookies will fit on one cookie sheet; they don't spread much.
6) Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 15-17 minutes. The cookies will be slightly golden when done. Start checking them at 15 minutes.
7) Remove the cookies from the pan right away. The caramelized sugar will cause the cookies
to stick if you do not remove them right away. Scrap sugar from silpat (or discard parchment paper) and repeat the process.
Enjoy the cookies - so tasty! I wish I had taken a nicer picture of the cookies - perhaps on a nice dish - but the cookies were gone before I could think to do that!
If you want a cake to impress them all, try this one! My family has been making this cake for over 15 years. It came to us by a friend of the family who offered it to my Dad one holiday season. Try it for people once, and it will be the most requested dessert you take to a party.
Ingredients:
1 yellow cake mix, baked according to package directions for 2 9 inch round pans
2 pints heavy cream
2 Cans rolled wafer cookies - There are several brands out there. The most readily available at grocery stores are the Pepperidge Farm Pirouette cookies.
1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons of Bailey's Irish Cream
powdered sugar to taste
1 tsp vanilla
large chocolate bar
decorative, wired ribbon
With an electric mixer, beat 1 pint of heavy cream, halfway to whipped cream. At the half way point, add 1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream and powdered sugar to taste (I added about a 1/3 of a cup). Continue whipping the cream until it is stiff and the consistency of whipped cream.
Slice each round in half using unflavored dental floss (easiest way to slice a layer of cake in half).
Place one layer of cake on cake plate, cut side up. Drizzle layer with 1 tablespoon of Bailey's Irish Cream.
Repeat the process (drizzle with 1 tablespoon of Bailey's and top with whipped cream) on 2 more layers - a total of 3 layers should have the Bailey's drizzle and the Bailey's whipped cream. Don't forget to place the cake layers cut side up.
Clean out mixing bowl and make another batch of whipped cream, this time without the Bailey's. Whip the cream half way to whipped cream, then add powdered sugar to taste and a teaspoon of vanilla. Then beat the rest of the way to whipped cream.
Place the top layer, cut side down, on the top of cake.
Cover with fresh whipped cream (do not drizzle with Bailey's Irish Cream).
Cover the sides of the cake with fresh whipped cream.
While you want the cake to be smooth, do not worry about crumbs showing in the whipped cream - they will be covered.
Line the outside edge of cake with rolled wafer cookies, placing each cookie side-by-side. The cookies will be taller than the cake, which is okay.
Tie a wired ribbon around outside of cake and make a large bow. There are plenty of ribbon choices out there. Use whatever works for the cake's occasion.
Finally, shave chocolate curls with a vegetable peeler and add to the top of the cake. You should do enough chocolate curls to come to the top of the cookies.
This works best with room temperature chocolate. Just hold the chocolate in your hands. You'll find as the chocolate warms up in your hands the curls become easier to do.
Refrigerate the cake for several hours before serving. I typically refrigerate overnight.
This might be a time consuming cake, but it is so worth the effort. Since Christmas is past, might I suggest you make it for your love at Valentine's Day or make it for Easter. We have friends that are newly engaged. When they get around to having an engagement party, my plan is to make it for them and have the cake plate (a new one, of course) serve as the present for the bride that is a newly emerging baker.
I watch the food network a lot. It's my go to channel most days. Most of the shows use creme fraiche every-now-and-again. Some use it more than others. When the chefs use it, they say stuff like "you can find it in any grocery store these days" or "easy to find." Ummmmm....hello? It might be easy to find when you host a cooking show and are based in New York City. I have never, not one time, seen it in any of the grocery stores that I frequent. I've looked. Is it becuase I live in the backwoods of New Hampshire? Do larger metropolitin areas carry creme fraiche? Do the grocery store chains here assume that hicks like us wouldn't know how to use it?
I'm making a butternut squash gratin for Thanksgivng (sorry hubs...we are trying something new with our squash). It calls for creme fraiche. Well....crap! What would the holidays be without one manhunt for something. This year my manhunt was for this stuff that is (so I'm told) a slightly tangy, slightly nutty, thickened cream. I finally found it, but I had to drive to Hanover for it. Hanover is where all the less hickish, more refined well-off folks live. It's where Dartmouth College and Hitchock Medical Center are. They have a store there that is what I imagine Whole Foods to be (imagine? Yeah...we don't have Whole Foods here in the sticks).
Can you find it? Have you every wanted to find it? For a tub, which was rather small, I paid $5! $5!!!! Insane for fermented cream, if you ask me.
If you need it and can't find it, you can make your own. Here's an excert from O Chef:
"Most people make a facsimile of crème fraîche by adding a tablespoon of buttermilk to a cup of whipping cream, heating it gently to 110°F (45°C), then putting it in a loosely covered bottle in a warm place and letting it sit for anywhere from 8 hours to a couple of days, until thick. Store it in the refrigerator, where it will thicken further, and keep for about three weeks. You can also whip it like whipping cream.
But, Madeleine Kamman, whose formative years were spent in France, and who is one of the flavor mavens of our age, says the homemade crème fraîche is a poor substitute for the real thing. Since many people have not had the real thing, they won’t know the difference. But, Kamman says, if you run across real crème fraîche in a specialty shop — and are of adequate means — buy it."
Madeleine Kamman, whoever the heck she is, sounds a bit snobby to me.
I made these great little pilgrim hats for Little Man's Thanksgiving party at daycare.
Ingredients:
Chocolate Cake
24 Ice Cream Cones
3 Tubs Chocolate Frosting
Fruit Roll Ups
Spice Drops
Wafer Cookies
***hint, nabisco chocolate wafer cookies are too small - ignore my ingredients picture. You'll have to make your own - recipe follows
Wafer Cookies: 
1 Cup Soft Butter
1/2 Cup Whipping Cream
2 Cups Flour
Granulated Sugar
Blend butter and whipping cream thoroughly. Slowly add flour; mix until a ball of dough forms around your paddle. Form dough into 3 small discs. Cover and refrigerate. Roll dough on floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out circles larger in diameter than the top of the ice cream cone. I used a drinking glass as a cutter. Poke with a fork 4-5 times. Sprinkle with sugar, Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Cool completely.
To assemble the pilgrim hat cupcakes begin by spooning cake into the ice cream cones.
Frost the top of the ice cream cone, then cover the frosting with a wafer cookie. Turn cone 
upside down on a wire rack
****hint - place wax paper under your rack.
Melt remaining frosting in a pourable container (I used a 4 cup measuring cup) in the microwave for about 1 minute. Stir frosting, then pour heavily over each ice cream cone. You'll have to scrap up chocolate from under the cooling rack and re-heat several times to get through all the cupcakes.
Let the cupcakes set for one hour. Then wrap the base of the cone in a fruit roll-up strip and dot with a cut spice drop. I wasn't sure these would stick without more frosting as glue, but the melted frosting was still tacky enough to hold them.
The cupcakes were a big hit with the kids, parents and teachers. They were a lot of work, but the ahhhh factor made it worth while.
Not only are these mini cheesecakes delish, they are low in calories! If you count points, they come in at only 2 points each! I signed up for a 100 Days of Holidays newsletter from Parents.com and Better Homes and Gardens. Pumpkin recipes were the topic one day. This recipe is adapted from theirs.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 8oz package reduced-fat cream cheese
2 8oz packages of fat free cream cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup fat free milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla
Zest from one orange
1 15oz can of pumpkin
1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
1 envelope of unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup of orange juice
For the crust: Stir together crushed graham crackers and melted butter until crackers are moistened. Press mixture into bottom of 21 cupcake tins. Tip: do not use paper cupcake cups; I did and the filling is too wet. Buy the foil cups for this recipe.
For the filling: In a
food processor, combine the reduced-fat cream cheese, 1/4 cup of the sugar, 1/4 cup of the milk, the vanilla, and orange peel. Cover and process until smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl; set aside.
In a food processor, combine fat-free cream cheese, pumpkin, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, remaining 1/4 cup milk, and the pumpkin pie spice. Cover and process until smooth.
In a small saucepan, sprinkle the gelatin over the orange juice; let it stand for 5
minutes. Then cook and stir it over low heat until the gelatin is dissolved. Stir 1 tablespoon of the gelatin mixture into the white cream cheese mixture and the remaining gelatin mixture into the pumpkin mixture.
Using an ice cream scoop (I used the pampered chef large scoop), scoop one scoop of the pumpkin mixture into each cupcake cup. Using a large spoon, spoon one spoon-full of the white cream cheese mixture over pumpkin mixture. Using a narrow, thin-bladed metal spatula or a table knife, swirl pumpkin and white mixtures.
Cover and chill overnight before serving. I was able to make 21 mini cheesecakes with this recipe.
Chocolate Raspberry Martini!
3 Parts Vodka
2 Parts Chambord
1 Part Creme de Cacao
Chocolate Syrup
Shake vodka, chambord and creme de cacao in a martini shaker with ice. Coat the bottom of your martini glass with chocolate syrup. Pour in the martini. Drink up! Delish!
If you read my blog long enough, you'll know my infatuation with Rachel Ray. Below is a take on a recipe she did on her show last week. She used Talapia, I used Halibut. Either way, it was absolutely "delish!" And....it was the first meal I have made of hers that actually took less than 30 minutes.
Ingredients:
4 halibut fillets (or any other firm white flesh fish)
1/2 cup flour
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Pat the fish dry.
Season the fish with salt and pepper.
Dredge the fish with a light coating of flour and shake off any extra.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Cook fish 4 minutes on each side or until firm and lightly brown.
Removed fish from the skillet and cover loosely with foil.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the butter to the skillet.
Brown the butter- about 2-3 minutes.
Stir in the vinegar and simmer 1-2 minutes, until reduced by half.
Pour the brown butter & vinegar over the fish.
The fish received rave reviews from the hubs and Little Man. Enjoy!!!
One of our Wednesday Night Dinner guests, Metro, brought all the fixings to make this lovely little concoction on a recent Wednesday night. It was simply fabulous! If you're in the mood for something fun, funky and little saucy...then give it a try!
Ingredients:
Fresh Strawberries
Fresh Basil Leaves
Sugar
Water
Vodka
Ice
Make a simple syrup (boil 1 cup water with 1 cup sugar) and let cool.
Smash together the strawberries and basil until both are completely incorporated.
Mix together simple syrup, strawberry and basil mixture, vodka and ice in a martini shaker. Shake vigorously and serve.
I don't know the measurements of each, I was only a watcher. I suspect you can make it to your liking. In order for me to drink a martini, I need more of the "other" ingredients than I need vodka, so I would make this with more simply syrup and strawberry mixture.
This recipe is modified from one I saw of while watching the Food Network's Everyday Italian, Giada De Laurentis.
Ingredients:
8 Ounces Penne Pasta (Ronzoni Smart Taste)
3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
1 1/2 Pounds Asparagus, Cut in 1 Inch Pieces.
2 Cups Grape Tomatoes
1 Cup Frozen Sweat Peas, Thawed
1/2 Cup Chicken Broth (FF & Low Sodium)
1 Cup Parmesan Cheese (Reduced Fat)
2 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Basil
Salt and Pepper
Cook Pasta according to the package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta's cooking liquid.
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and cook until tender (about 1 minute). Add the asparagus, season with salt & pepper and cook until slightly soft (about 3 minutes). Add the tomatoes and peas, season with salt & pepper and cook another 2 minutes. Pour in chicken stock and bring to simmer. Cook mixture until tomatoes start to burst (about 3 minutes). Transfer mixture to a serving bowl.
Add the pasta and half the Parmesan cheese to the asparagus mixture and toss well. Add reserved pasta water, if needed to loosen the pasta. Garnish the dish with remaining Parmesan cheese and chopped basil.
Enjoy with a cold glass of chardonnay!
A friend of ours recently celebrated a birthday. He happens to be a huge fan of cake; as a matter of fact, I think both he and his son grow hollow legs in order to consume as much cake as possible.
This year, I made him a Caramel Toffee Cake.
Ingredients:
Yellow Cake
Vanilla Pudding Mix
Caramel Ice Cream Topping
Skor Pieces
Add powdered pudding mix to the cake mix, then prepare cake according to package instructions. I happen to like the way the cake looks as a bundt cake, but you can do any style cake.
Turn cake out after 10 minutes of cooling. Using a fork, poke holes on the top of the cake. Pour half the jar of caramel over the top of the cake.
When the cake is completely cool, pour remaining caramel over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with Skor pieces (use as much or as little as you like). I happened to use the chocolate covered pieces this time around, but you can just as easily use the regular pieces. Either way, it's delish. Serve a slice with whipped cream and be prepared for ohhhs and ahhhs!
