Half-Point Chocolate Chip Cookies

I got this recipe from Weight Watchers since I'm on the plan. They are very satisfying and won't bust your point count for the day. If you're not on Weight Watchers, this means that they're low fat and low cal. That being said, you're not supposed to eat the whole entire batch.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp butter, softened
2 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp table salt
1 large egg white(s)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips, about 1/2 cup
1/4 tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Cream together butter, oil and brown sugar. Add vanilla, salt and egg white, and mix together thoroughly.
3. Mix together flour and baking soda. Add chocolate chips and stir to distribute evenly.
4. Try not to eat all the batter before baking the cookies.
5. Drop rounded half-teaspoons of dough onto a nonstick baking sheet. Bake cookies for 4 to 6 minutes, then cool on a wire rack. They're so delicious that I doubt you'll be able to cool them for that long before diving in.

Yields 2 cookies per serving (yes, that's 1 point for two cookies! Yeah!!) .

My Romance with Smoked Meat

Its been a few days of hectic eating! I think I've gained 5 pounds or more. Yesterday I rekindled my romance with smoked meat when I had a Jumbo at Moe's. It was delightful. If you've never had real smoked meat before, you're missing out on one of life's great pleasures.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Chicken Cordon Bleu

This is a classic recipe that I’m sure you’ve tried before. But if you’re like me its been years since you had it last. While the classic filling is ham and swiss cheese, this becomes even more interesting if you change the meat and cheese. For example last time we used grison and monterey jack. I would also suggest using the combination from Phyllo Coureur des Bois, gouda and prosciutto. You could give a little bit of an Italian twist by filling the chicken with provolone and capicollo.

Ingredients
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 per person)
Slices of swiss cheese or another cheese of your choice (enough slices to cover each chicken breast)
Slices of ham or another meat (enough to cover each chicken breast)
Flour
Paprika
Wine (optional)
Chicken stock (optional)
Cream (optional)

Required Equipment
Cutting board
Chef’s knife
Frying pan
Heat source (I would completely be impressed if you made this over an open fire, but I suggest using stove top and an oven)

Directions
Pour yourself a glass of wine and roll up your sleeves. I think this goes nicely with a chardonnay but if you’re using stronger cheese than Swiss and stronger meat than ham you might be able to get away with a light-bodied red wine. Although if you’re looking for an excuse to drink rosé, this would be it.

Remove filets from chicken (with a knife unless you just want to rip them off with your hands, this is why your sleeves are rolled up) and save them for another recipe. Consider making Buffalo chicken strips with them, or perhaps dumplings. Butterfly each chicken breast by placing the chicken on a cutting board and slicing horizontally away from you through the thickest part of the breast. You’ll be left with a large thin piece of chicken breast.
Lay a large slice of cheese on the breast and then put the ham (or other meat) on top. Roll the breast leaving the meat and cheese in the middle. Hold the breast closed with tooth picks. I suggest not using colored tooth picks, have you ever seen Bridget Jones Diary when she uses green kitchen twine to hold a bouquet garnis in her soup? Green toothpicks will bleed green coloring into your chicken- which I suppose is okay on St Patrick’s day.

Sprinkle flour and paprika on a plate or a piece of wax paper. Roll the chicken breast in the flour and paprika until coated. If you want to be more traditional, instead of coating in flour you can dip the chicken in some beaten egg and then cover with bread crumbs.


In a hot pan heat some oil and then add the chicken and brown on all sides. Remove from pan and bake in a 350 degree oven until cooked. Meanwhile you can deglaze the pan that the chicken was cooking in with ½ cup white wine (if you haven’t already finished the bottle) and some chicken stock to create a sauce. If you would like the sauce a little thicker, add some cream and then reduce to the desired consistency.

To serve you can either give each of your guests an entire breast, otherwise you can slice and give everyone a few medallions, which looks pretty attractive.

Winter Travel: Canadian Culinary Hot Spots

While surfing foodtv.ca earlier today I came across a great article titled Winter Travel: Canadian Culinary Hot Spots. The article lists some of the great cuisine that each province is known for. Indeed there are great things to eat from coast to coast.

The reason I am blogging about this article is that too often we don't appreciate what's around us. There are so many local ingredients and delicacies that we need to explore. I applaud the author for her attempt to educate us about our culinary surroundings. I challenge each and every one of you to try something from the lists that you haven't tried before.

Great weekend of cooking

It's Monday morning and I am refreshed because I had a fabulous cooking weekend. It all started off with a great meal on Friday night. B and I made classic Chicken Cordon Bleu and then made it with a twist by changing the ham for grison and the Swiss cheese for Monterey jack. Needless to say, it makes for an even more interesting meal. It’s also really easy to do so I suggest you try it.

Saturday night we were hosting B’s family for her Mom’s birthday dinner. We decided to make one of our new favorites roasted leg of lamb. It was a big hit! One person at the table commented that it was the best lamb he had ever had. We served the lamb with some roasted potatoes, steamed green beans and a simple green salad. We opted for a chocolate fondue instead of a birthday cake. If you haven’t had chocolate fondue you are missing one of life’s great pleasures. I’ll try to blog that one in the next few days as well.

The weekend finished off with tacos on Sunday night. Tacos are another one of our faves that is just so easy to do, has lots of veggies in it and helps clean out the fridge because almost anything can go into a taco and be delicious.

Phabulous Phyllo Gouda Appetizer

This was my greatest find of the Christmas season and I know you’ll love it as much as I do. Guests are always impressed by this appetizer and it is very easy to do. I got the inspiration for this recipe Phyllo Coureur des Bois from a book called A Taste of Quebec by Julian Armstrong. Although the recipe suggests a larger serving size I prefer as a bite-sized appetizer.

It is named after a cheese produced by the Fromagerie Bergeron called Coureur des Bois which is a gouda cheese infused with cumin. The recipe below uses regular gouda and cumin because I couldn’t find any of the cheese from Fromagerie Bergeron. Here's a picture of them just before I put them in the oven. Unfortunately there's no after picture because they never last long enough to take out the camera.

Ingredients
4-5 slices of prosciutto
6 ounces of gouda cheese
1 tsp ground cumin
8-10 sheets of phyllo pastry
2 tbsp melted butter

Directions
Follow directions provided on package for working with phyllo pastry (you can’t work with it when frozen). Don’t remove it from wrapping yet as it will dry out if left out too long.

Cut gouda into 1 inch square pieces.

Sprinkle cumin over gouda and toss to have even coverage.

Tear prosciutto into pieces and then wrap the pieces around the squares of gouda. Pieces of prosciutto should be just large enough to wrap around the cheese.

Once all the pieces of gouda have been wrapped with prosciutto you can start working with the phyllo pastry.

Cut the phyllo pastry sheets in 4 equal squares. Brush each square with melted butter. Place the prosciutto and gouda towards the bottom of the square of phyllo fold it over the gouda once then fold in the sides of the phyllo and then finish folding until you have a mini cigar. Brush the top with melted butter. Repeat with all the pieces of gouda.

At this point you can put these in the fridge until you are ready to bake them. They should be baked at 375 F for 7-10 minutes until the phyllo pastry packages are golden brown. Enjoy immediately!