I’ve been craving Gruyere lately, especially Gruyere with Dijon mustard, so I picked up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts last night and whipped this up in no time this evening. Less than an hour from start to finish… actually quite a bit less, which is a good thing since I forgot Cat had to leave early for work tonight and I wound up with 30 minutes less prep time than I thought! This is one of those things for which I really have a hard time writing down a recipe, since I pretty much winged my way through it, but I’ll give it a shot.

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Sometimes simple things are really nice. Our schedules around here are often bizarre, given that Cat works nights, on weekends, and we’re homeschoolers. That means that meals here don’t always easily fit into the categories of “breakfast,” or “supper,” or whatever… so having breakfast foods for an early evening meal isn’t something we consider odd, or even rare. Sometimes, though, I’ll give “breakfast” little touches that hopefully make them special. In this case… herbs.

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This was so fun! If you like “Heath” bars, this is a great candy for you… and it’s not hard to make, either, even for a candymaking novice like myself. These are being given as gifts to Mom’s neighbor and mail carrier, who have come to expect treats from me at this time of the year.

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Ok, so it’s been almost a year since I have updated my blog… hopefully *some* of you are still out there! It’s been a crazy year for us… full of good, bad, and in between, but always busy!

I thought it would be appropriate to start back up here with a holiday treat I made tonight. Several weeks back, a friend from eGullet gave me a recipe for Cranberry Swirl Coffee Cake, which has been a hit the (several) times I have made it since. Today, after reading a request from another eGulletteer for a spiced apple “bread” made with those weird, bright green or red spiced apple rings you buy in a jar at the grocery store, I remembered a cake that someone in Memphis used to make with those apple things. So… I decided to adapt Merstar’s recipe to make what I have renamed Spiced Apple Swirl Cake! To be fair, I couldn’t find those bizarre apple rings at my local Kroger, so I bought a can of apple pie filling (shhh, don’t tell!) and doused it with green food coloring to make it look “authentic.”

I might add that in order to revert to Mer’s cranberry coffee cake, you need only substitute vanilla extract for the rum extract and 1 cup fresh cranberry sauce for the apples, then omit the spices. I was pressed for time, so I just bought apple pie filling; you could easily make your own, or try using the red or green apple rings (smooshed up.) I would highly recommend that you choose EITHER red OR green, however… mixing them together will net you something that will look like your cake is sporting a center of brain matter.

Either variation (except, perhaps, for the brain variation) is suitable for dessert, snack table for a meet-n-greet meeting, or even breakfast. Enjoy… and happy holidays!

Here’s the recipe…

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We needed something special for this dreary, snowy afternoon… the first day together that Cat and I have had in over two weeks! So, I decided to make some savory brunch waffles, filled with carmelized onion and smoked turkey, Monterey Jack and Parmesan cheese, then to top them off with some cheesy scrambled eggs.

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I wanted to try doing something interesting with some of the venison my neighbors so graciously shared with us, so I played fast and loose with my Mom’s Arabian schwarma recipe. My *only* regret is that I forgot to wrap one up for myself, to take to my Mom’s house this week.

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My picture-taking skills seem to have deteriorated lately, but this dish turned out so well that I decided to post it here anyway. You can’t really go too far wrong with pork, in my book, but this was a lot of fun, as well. Tishie loves the Orange Chicken we get at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Richmond, so I was going for something at least similar. What I wound up with was not a ringer, by any stretch, but it was good enough for the rest of the crew to ask about a dozen times, as they do when they love something I’ve made, “You DID write this down, right?”
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So it’s not the most original after-holiday leftover makeover, but at least I had fun with it. Mom suggested that I try her pie crust trick with the puff pastry… so what you see is (ahem) my (errr) interpretation of a turkey.

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What better holiday breakfast or brunch item is there?

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I’ll admit it… this is about as close as I can come to making a 30-minute meal; in that regard, I’m no Rachel Ray. However, when the mood strikes me and the ingredients are at hand, I have been known to put together some pretty nice dinner salads. This one was tasty (although Cat, as I’m beginning to find out, is not overly thrilled with roast beef of any type.) The greens: a mix of spinach and romaine. I had some really pretty button mushrooms, some shredded white cheddar cheese, and some leftover flank steak to buff things up, and for something interesting, I made “pickled” great northern beans. (Basically, I rinsed them, tossed with apple cider vinegar, sugar, and very thinly sliced white onion, cut into 1″ lengths, then set them aside to marinate for about an hour before assembling the salad.) I topped the whole thing off with some cracked black pepper, and drizzled a bit of the “marinade” over mine in lieu of dressing. Cat opted for homemade buttermilk herb on his. Light & easy… and rounded out with some toasted egg bread. Weird to eat in the dead of winter, I guess, but I love salads any time of year.