Reality Check-Tuscan Chicken Thighs and Giada's Polenta

Since we have to watch our budget when we go grocery shopping, I have been cooking a lot with chicken thighs and besides, my daughter only likes dark meat. This recipe is simple and quick and a great Sunday dinner.

For the marinade:

4 large cloves of garlic chopped and put in a bowl

1 sprig of rosemary, which I get from my garden, but I make sure I only use the top of the rosemary plant, since I'm sure Henry the chihuahua has peed on the bottom of the plant. Take leaves off stem and roughly chop

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard

the juice on one lemon a couple of pinches of Italian seasoning

salt and pepper

whisk in 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil

pour over chicken and let marinade for an hour

put in oven at 350 for about 1 hour or until done

A perfect companion dish for this chicken is Everyday Italian's chef, Giada Delaurentis's easy polenta recipe:

2 cups of salted (1 teaspoon) water-bring to a boil

stir in 2 tablespoons of butter (she just uses 1, but I think it needs two)

stir in 1 cup of cornmeal (yellow or white, I used white)

continue stirring and cook for about 3-5 minutes, usually when it is starting to get stiff, I remove from heat and quickly spread out in butter 9x11 dish. Let cool slightly and cut into squares.

Put polenta on plate and add chicken with the sauce over the the polenta.

Sheer heaven! I lick my plate every time and my daughter loves it!-Single D

Martha Stewart-Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread

I love cookies, cookies in any form, shape, flavor and size. I do however tire easily over cookies. Like for example, I can't buy a bag of cookies in the grocery store without half the bag getting stale because I never finish it. I'm like a cookie tramp, I get tired of the same cookie after a few days. However, there is one kind of cookie that I really never tire of and that is the shortbread cookie done right. I have tried many shortbread recipes and I have found that the less sweet the better. When we were in Rome, the pastry shops there are crazy fantastic. Why is it that the pastry shops look so much more enticing in Europe than they do here. I do have to mention of a little pastry shop in San Francisco that I used to go to that reminded me of a Paris patisserie, Fantasia Bakery in the Laurel Heights section of town. More old fashion of yesteryear, but definitely European in flavor. I miss those days of buying their hot cross buns at Easter, napoleons and butter cookies. One of my favorite Italian cookie is the buttery shortbread cookie made with cornmeal, really delicious and not very sweet. So when I came across a Martha Stewart recipe for Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread I was in heaven and hoping it would be like the ones in Italy.

Take two sticks of butter out of the fridge and let stand at room temp. I left my two sticks out too long and just the heat of my Las Vegas kitchen made the butter too soft.

Put soften sticks of butter in kitchenaid:

Add 3/4 cup of confectioners' sugar

Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Grate over the bowl some orange zest mix well in bowl-

Then stir in 2 cups of flour + 2 Tablespoons of yellow cornmeal and 1 teaspoon of salt and mix until well combined.

Dough should be soft (if too soft at this point put in fridge until dough firms somewhat, dough should be nice to handle), flour counter top and take dough out. Halve dough and shape into two logs about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and wrap in plastic and refrigerate until cold, at least an hour.

Take dough out and cut into 1/4" rounds and roll in 1/4 cup of yellow cornmeal. Bake in a 300 oven for 30-35 minutes until golden.

These are delicious, crunchy and tender, and I could eat a hundred and that's saying a mouth full. -Single D

Reality Check-Real recipes

As an avid foodie from way back when, when we used to own our own cafe in San Francisco to now just being the plain mom in the kitchen and loyal Food Network fan, there are many recipes that I have tested and tried out on my unsuspecting family and friends. And it is here that I will try occasionally to share these successful and not so successful dishes. Life would have been so much easier back when with the advent of real cooking shows and food network websites. Last year I was given a cookbook for Christmas. I love it but I was a little baffled by it. Do they still publish cookbooks? It was Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook which I love, but with the proliferation of recipe websites, who needs cookbooks? I have to admit, I love looking at the pictures, but in reality, I still head for the computer for many recipes. I still have my favorite cookbooks in my repertoire, like Martha Stewart's cookbooks and the standard, Fannie Farmer with a couple of Wolfgang Puck's thrown in. Mostly, I have tossed many cookbooks out.

One of my favorite chicken recipes comes from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. You can so tell she loves her food! Lucky husband Jeffery, he comes home on the weekends to her cooking. Ina is my favorite Food Network chef who got her start by being friends with Martha Stewart. Hum, I wonder if they're still friends? Anyway, this is an easy recipe, make the marinade in the morning and let the chicken marinade in it all day, then for dinner cook it up. Everyone will think you slaved all day! Just a small disclaimer-I do tend to just throw the ingredients together-so some times the portions might be a smidgen off, but that's the spontaneous cook in me. For me it's not a science, it's just real cooking.

Indonesian Chicken:

I usually use a 2lb package of chicken thighs (my daughter only likes dark meat)

For the marinade:

Pour 1 cup of honey and 3/4 cup of soy sauce (I use light) into a sauce pan-heat until honey is liquefied-remove from heat

Add 8 to 10 cloves of garlic chopped finely

Grate one or two toes of fresh ginger root (you know how ginger looks like toes in the grocery store?) into pan.

Place chicken in baking pan and pour marinade over chicken. Let marinade for at least 4 hours in fridge.

Preheat oven to 350, pour off some of the marinade in a small bowl for basting, cook chicken until done around 45 minutes brushing sauce over chicken.

The picture of the dish above looks much drier (from Food Network), my chicken usually comes out brown with lots of delicious sauce.

Serve with rice and vegetables-chow bella!

Single D