Coq Au Vin Blanc

Wine Country Chicken
Living as close as we do to The Napa Valley is a very cool thing for those of us who occasionally enjoy a nice sip of wine. Spending time amongst the vines and sunshine is always a great way to enjoy your day even if you’re not wine tasting. (Eating your way through the area isn’t a bad pastime either except, perhaps, for your waistline.)

While the Napa Valley is known for its big Cabernets and oaky Chardonnays, personally I prefer the lighter wines. I admit, I am a Sauvignon Blanc kinda gal. A crisp cold glass while relaxing on my patio after a long day at work sounds like heaven to me but I would not turn down a lovely Rosé either.

I am the same way when cooking with wine. I will almost always substitute a white wine for a red except for those recipes where you just cannot like this Beef Bourguignon https://piedmontgrocery.com/beef-bourguignon/. One exception to that philosophy that I have found is coq au vin.

I love coq au vin any time of the year, although most people think of it as a Fall dish. However, if you use a white wine or even a Rosé, this Coq au Vin Blanc dish lightens up considerably and transforms into a great meal for a warm spring evening. I mean, you really can’t ever go wrong with wine, chicken, and garlic together in any form. And, if you can find fresh morel mushrooms, even better.

I used rosé in the recipe below, but you can always swap it out for your favorite white just be sure to save a little for sipping as you wait.

Coq Au Vin Blanc Recipe
Yields 4 servings
Adapted from NY Times Cooking Read more…

Jalapeño Cheddar Scones

Hot Ones
The growing season in California this year has been bizarre, to say the least. It is the first week of October and my tomato plant is finally producing tomatoes at a rate that would normally happen in early August. On top of that, I have two chili plants that are producing Fresno and Jalapeño chilies that are nuclear hot.

I love jalapeños because they are relatively mild but still give you that spicy chili punch of flavor. The chilies that I am pulling off of my plant are volcanic. A few weeks ago, I decided to pickle some of them because we are a family that likes nachos and nachos are better with some pickled jalapeños. I will generally open the windows in my kitchen when I do this because the gases from the chilies can make your eyes water.

These chilies? We ended up opening every door and window in the house. It permeated every corner. It was like someone had emptied a can of pepper spray in the living room. The good news is that pickled jalapeños generally mellow once you process them and let them sit a bit…or so I thought.

Last week my husband was working from home and decided to use the canned chilies in a quesadilla. According to him, he didn’t use that many chilies. But, his idea of not a lot is other people’s pile it on. His text said that his entire mouth was numb. That lasted for an hour. And yet, a few days later, he went back for more. Feel the burn, indeed.

Since it’s been on the cooler side lately, I made a batch of chili to have on hand for the nights that I just can’t. I’m one of those people who can’t eat chili without some cornbread or something carb-y to go with it. I’m going to take a chance that baking with my chilies will result in good flavor and not harm my family. And, these Jalapeño Cheddar Scones are a perfect accompaniment to a hearty bowl of chili….

Jalapeño Cheddar Scones Recipe
Adapted from Bake It with Love
Yields 8 to 12 scones

These Jalapeno Cheddar Scones are big on flavor and loaded with cheddar and jalapeños. They are great at dinnertime—especially alongside a bowl of chili. Read more…

Strawberry Ice Cream

Strawberries and Cream
I had an ice cream a-ha moment this past weekend. Here’s how it happened. On Saturday I went with some of my family to Brentwood to see if there were any blackberries available to pick. I was in the mood to make some jam. Alas, there were no berries to be found so we settled for picking some lovely nectarines and headed home. I made some awesome scones for breakfast the next morning.

Since I wasn’t able to get the berries for jam from the source, I ended up going to the farmers market and buying a flat each of blackberries and strawberries. After using what I needed for the jam, I found myself with some wicked-good strawberries left over. I didn’t want them to go to waste. Sure, we could have just eaten them but where is the fun in that?

I thought of making a strawberry tart—but that didn’t excite me. I really wanted to make something that would work well with the 4th of July BBQ dinner I had planned and figured what could be more BBQ-friendly than ice cream? So I set out to make some fresh strawberry ice cream.

The a-ha moment happened when I decided to not use a custard base for the ice cream. I have lived most of my life under the assumption that a custard ice cream base produces a better and creamier ice cream. And, it does. But, I have struggled when using it with fresh fruit. The fruit flavor tends to get lost in the richness of the custard. Because I was feeling lazy and tired after jamming, I didn’t want to have to fire the stove again, so I found this recipe for strawberry ice cream that was just milk, cream, and strawberries.

The results were out of this world. Now it is possible that the strawberries are the reason because ingredients matter but I think it had more to do with the fact that the eggs weren’t there to dull the strawberry flavor. And thanks to the heavy cream and whole milk, the creamy mouth feel that I thought would be missing wasn’t. My mind is blown. From now on, if I make ice cream with fresh fruit, I’m doing it this way!

I know not everybody has an ice cream maker in their pantry. You could take a chance and throw this in the freezer without churning and see what happens. Chances are it will taste pretty good.

Strawberry Ice Cream
Adapted from Like Mother Like Daughter
Yields 12 servings

Please note the timing of the ice cream. You will need to freeze the bowl of your ice cream maker overnight, and then re-freeze the ice cream for at least 6 hours if you want firmer ice cream. For soft-serve, you can dish it out right after it comes out of the machine. Read more…

Curry Chicken Salad

Party Time
In our lives, we will attend many celebrations. (I know…such amazing insight!) There will be birthdays, holidays, and graduations. There will be happy celebrations and sad. What is interesting to me is the type of celebrations you attend in a lot of ways depends on your age and where you are in your life. Let me explain…

Not too long ago my husband and I were sitting around talking about how we really wanted to go to a wedding. It had been years since we attended a wedding and the two of us were kind of in the mood for a good party. The only problem is, at this point in our time on earth, all our friends are married and their kids as well as ours aren’t even close to thinking about marriage let alone doing it. So, alas, no party.

Same thing is true with bachelorette parties, wedding showers, and baby showers, though I’m pretty sure I couldn’t survive a bachelorette party at this point (It hurts just thinking about it.), I haven’t been to a shower other than the wet and soapy kind for almost 20 years. This is nuts because for about a five-year period of time it seemed like I was hosting or attending a shower of some variety at least once a month.

It got to the point that my sister and I became masters of the baby/bridal shower—mostly because my sister is just good that way. But, we got it down to a science. And, as long as the guest list was different, you just went with the same process, menu, and setup. Different colors of course. We were a well-oiled machine.

Our menu of choice included this Curry Chicken Salad that we served in a fresh papaya boat. But, you could also do it with half an avocado if you wanted to go smaller. The recipe came from a Junior League Cookbook of my mother’s that has given us several family favorites. The recipe below is the original. But, if I had to make this recipe today, 20 years later, I would make a few changes as my personal tastes and eating habits have changed significantly. I’ve noted them in parentheses in case you feel the same.

Curry Chicken Salad
Adapted from the Private Collection: The Junior League of Palo Alto Cookbook
Yields 8 servings Read more…