This morning, Denny was trying to get Miles out of bed.  As usual, it was a challenge.

M:  I wish I had suction cups on my head.

D:  Why?

M:  So I could stick to my dudju [pillow].

After the major food-related holidays, it’s nice to do a little cleanse, even for just a couple-three weeks before the next holiday hits.  I stuffed my face full of all sorts of delicious things over the Thanksgiving weekend (my dad is a great cook and my mom is a great baker, and between the two of them, I’m a great bit logey).

Before we left, I made white chicken chili (navy beans, green chiles, onion, garlic, bay leaves, chicken stock, chicken, assorted spices including my newly beloved chipotle powder), which we munched on for a couple of days.  Now that we’re back, we’ve had tilapia with fruit salsa and this lemon-herb chicken I found on epicurious.com.  I didn’t have any fresh thyme, so I used a dried bouquet garni mix.  I served it with baked sweet potatoes and mixed veggies.

The tilapia is one of my old standards.  Denny mentioned that it’s a recipe almost as old as our relationship, because I invented it very early on.  It’s one of my most successful inventions (the short guys who live at my house notwithstanding).  I serve it with couscous and asparagus.

I make these every year, and every year I forget where I found them.  I’m finally just going to blog them so I can find them easily next Thanksgiving.  Original source.  Is that redundant?

• 1 cup of brandy (to soak the cranberries in, then saving 1 1/4 teaspoons of it for later)
• 1 cup of dried cranberries
• 1 cup (two sticks) of butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup of granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup of lightly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of white chocolate chips

1 Put the cranberries in a wide and shallow bowl, pour in a bit of brandy. Enough so they’re surrounded by it, but not drowning. Cover and place in the fridge for an hour or more. Afterwards, place a colander over a bowl and pour the cranberries and brandy through, putting the cranberries and the brandy they soaked in aside.

2 Preheat oven to 375°F. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugars and beat again until light, fluffy and well incorporated.

3 Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and add 1 1/4 teaspoons of the brandy that the cranberries soaked in (as for the rest, I suggest popping it in a glass and topping it off a bit for yourself). Beat well until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl midway through to ensure even mixing.

4 Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, then add to the mixture a bit at a time, beating until just mixed. Fold in the brandy soaked cranberries and white chocolate chips. Let chill for 15 minutes in the fridge.

5 Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (a baker’s best friend) and place rounded spoonfuls down on the sheet. Bake at 375°F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for a minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

*I find that adding the baking soda separately seems to form softer cookies. This is how my mom and grandmother taught me, and if there is actual science behind it, I’m not aware but it seems pretty consistent, and it won’t ruin the cookies if you try it this way.

I haven’t made anything new lately, but tonight I did.  This recipe is adapted from Taste of Home magazine.

Pecan-crusted Chicken

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 4 oz each—I actually horizontally sliced two enormous ones)
• 1 cup pecans, finely chopped in a food processor
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch, plus extra for dusting
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp Northwoods seasoning (or other seasoning blend of your choice—next time I’ll add more since the coating was a little bland)
• pepper to taste
• 1 egg, beaten
• olive oil and butter for frying

Combine pecans, cornstarch, salt, pepper, and seasoning blend.  Shake some cornstarch onto a plate.  Lightly but thoroughly coat the chicken cutlets.  Dunk in egg, then coat with pecan blend, pressing to help the coating adhere.  Cover and refrigerate for at least half an hour.  This really helps the coating from falling off.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Heat a heavy skillet to medium.  If you have a metal rack, place it over a baking sheet.  Add a little olive oil and butter, maybe a teaspoon each, to the pan.  Let the butter melt, then add as many chicken cutlets as can comfortably fit.  You may have to do two batches.  Brown on one side, then flip (watch them carefully, as the pecans burn easily).

Once all the cutlets are browned on both sides, put on the rack and place in the oven.  Cook until a meat thermometer reads 170F.

I served this with an easy honey-mustard sauce:  a couple of blobs of honey, a couple of blobs of dijon mustard, and some sour cream, all mixed together and warmed up.  We also had a quinoa/brown rice blend and mixed vegetables.

Miles thought he needed to poop, but when he got to the bathroom, it didn’t happen.

M:  Maybe it went into my butt and turned back into food.

I’ve made this so many times I figured I should blog it, just in case my original source (foodandwine.com) takes it down or something.

This is super-easy and very tasty.  You can adjust it to use whatever fruit is in season, though the original calls for peaches.  Today I’m using raspberries and blueberries arranged in the Obama logo, but that’s just because I’m all excited about the election.  It may well come out stupid looking, but I’m too cheerful to care.

Almond cream cheese tart

• 5 oz vanilla wafers
• 1/2 cup whole almonds, roasted but unsalted
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• 4 Tbsp butter, melted
• 8 oz cream cheese (reduced fat is ok)
• 1/4 cup sour cream (reduced fat is ok)
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp almond extract
• Fruit of choice

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a food processor, combine almonds, vanilla wafers, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and salt until a coarse meal forms.  Add butter and pulse until combined.  Press crust onto the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of a springform pan or tart pan with a removable bottom.  Bake for 10 minutes to set the crust.

Meanwhile, wipe out the food processor and add cream cheese, sour cream, egg, almond extract, and 1/4 cup of sugar.  Process to combine, then pour custard into hot crust.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Chill thoroughly.  Decorate with concentric circles of fruit (toss with remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar if desired).

What the heck did we eat last week?  I’m almost sure we ate something…

I’m having a hard time remembering the beginning of the week.  On Thursday I kicked off an attempt to eat no processed food.  This means no pasta, no bread, no white rice, no packaged crap—basically all those foods that taste good but don’t offer much for nutrition.  I’ve done pretty well with it.  I fell off the wagon both Saturday and Sunday evenings, but overall I definitely have less junk in my diet.  I’ve been eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, as well as nuts/seeds, meats, and some very dark chocolate with no dairy and not much sugar.

Monday and Tuesday are a distant blur.

Wednesday: We went out.  It’s very annoying when you’re trying to eat dinner and trick-or-treaters keep interrupting.  Besides, we were already downtown because Miles wanted to trick-or-treat in Denny’s office.

Thursday: Steaks, sweet potatoes, and steamed broccoli.

Friday:  Rotisserie chicken (pre-rotissed), roasted red potatoes, and apples.

Tonight Denny grilled chicken, and I served it with baked beans (not totally unprocessed, but I got organic ones) and really good roasted broccoli the Internet told me about.

Tomorrow night will either be vegetable beef soup or some sort of crock pot pork situation.  I have lots of fruits and vegetables to go with it.

For Wednesday night I am very, very tentatively planning a post-election celebration dinner of linguine carbonara.  That is about a million miles away from my whole foods diet, but you’ve gotta live 80/20, man.  If my guy loses, I will be too busy crying to eat anything anyway.

Miles has been talking a lot lately about being boyfriend/girlfriend and marriage.

M: Sometimes it’s a husband and husband or wife and wife.

A: That’s true. Jane and Linda across the street are wife and wife.

M: I thought they weren’t married.

A: No, I’m pretty sure they are.

M: But WHY wasn’t I THERE??

Poor dude loves a wedding and was so mad that he missed that one.

—

Shortly after…

M:  When you and Daddy were boyfriend and girlfriend, you dated?

A:  Yes.

M:  What did you do?

A:  Well, we went out to dinner, like to the Lincoln Café.  We went to movies…

M:  When you and I date, I want to go to movies, because I love movies.