I didn’t always put food in my books. Well, I did, but they were things like the nachos in Getting Rid of Bradley. Not exactly recipe-worthy. But then June in What the Lady Wants made my favorite chocolate chip cookies, and since the recipe was already out there as part of the Neiman Marcus urban legend, I decided to share June’s recipe with the world:
June’s Epicurean Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Cream together 1 c. brown sugar, 1 c. sugar and 1 c. margarine.
Beat in 2 eggs and 1 t. vanilla.
Stir together 2 c. flour, 2 1/2 c. blended oatmeal (powdered in a blender), 1/2 t. salt, 1 t. baking powder, 1 t. soda. Add to creamed mix.
Add 12 oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate chopped into chunks, one 7 oz. Hershey bar grated, 3/4 c. almonds, and 3/4 c. cashews.
Shape into 1″ balls and place 2″ apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 10 minutes at 375.
Makes 60 more or less depending on how much dough you eat before you can get the cookies made or if the dog gets the batter when you’re not looking.
Then came Mrs. Winthrop’s gift of gratitude in Charlie All Night. I think I’m going to experiment and rewrite this one because it’s not as good as it should be. It’s okay, I rewrite everything.
Mrs. Winthrop’s Grateful Almond Cookies:
Cream together 3 c. sugar and 2 c. margerine.
Beat in 4 eggs and 2 t. vanilla.
Stir together 6 c. flour, 1 t. salt, 1 t. soda, 1 t. cream of tartar. Add to creamed mix.
Shape into 1″ balls and flatten in a dish of sliced almonds.
Turn flattened cookies over and press into almonds again.
Add almonds to the tops of cookies if needed.
Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 375 for 8 – 10 minutes.
Makes 144 more or less depending on whether or not you’re grateful enough not to eat the dough before you give the cookies as thank-you gifts.
And then there was Min’s chicken marsala from Bet Me which it took me awhile to figure out. Fortunately even mediocre chicken marsala is pretty good, so even my mistakes were edible. But THIS version is the best:
Chicken Marsala (as it is made by Min):
- Chicken breasts
- Whole fresh mushrooms
- Shallots if you insist
- Florio Sweet Marsala
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
- Butter
- Flour
- Fresh Ground Pepper
- Kosher Salt
Put a chicken breast in a plastic bag. Pound the sucker flat with the back of your good heavy frying pan. Repeat for as many chicken breasts as you have.
Put flour, fresh ground pepper, and kosher salt in a plastic bag, possibly the same one you pounded the chicken in, depending on its lack of splits and holes after the pounding.
Drop the pounded chicken into the flour, one piece at a time, covering fully but not thickly. You’re trying to seal the chicken not bread it.
Put the coated breasts back into the bag so the cat doesn’t get them when you’re not looking.
Pour olive oil into a good heavy pan (see pounding above) over medium heat. You want it hot, not crackling; this is not deep-fried chicken marsala. Also throw in a pat of butter to help brown the chicken. And because butter tastes really, really good. If you want to flavor the chicken with shallots, you can throw those in now, too. Up to you.
Brown the chicken on both sides. Don’t dawdle and don’t let the optional shallots burn. When the chicken is golden, transfer it and optional shallots to a plate.
Scrape the good stuff off the bottom of the pan so it’s loose, not sticking. Slosh in the marsala before anything burns. Slosh in A LOT of Marsala. I can usually get three pans out of a bottle, but sometimes only two. You’re reducing this stuff to a sauce, so figure about four times as much as you want. Let’s recap here: the sauce is made of Marsala, olive oil, butter, possibly shallots, definitely great fresh butter-fried chicken scrapings. How much of that do you want? Slosh accordingly.
Throw in the mushrooms. You can slice them if you want, but then you don’t get those juicy fat mushrooms so I advise against it. If you want a lot of mushrooms, you’re going to have to slosh a lot of marsala to control the taste. I don’t know how much, several glugs.
Cook over medium low, scraping the bottom fairly frequently (like every minute or so) so that nothing sticks and the mushrooms are soaked in the wine. If you feel the urge, throw in another pat of butter to keep the wine sauce glossy.
When the marsala is almost completely reduced, put the chicken back in, flip it to cover completely, and then heat until you’re sure the chicken is cooked just through and the marsala has reduced to a thick, shiny glaze. Serve. How many depends on how big the people are and how much they like chicken marsala.
Don’t Look Down didn’t do much with food–Lucy was not a cook–but Agnes from Agnes and the Hitman was a major foodie. Most requested recipe: sour cream pancakes. I’m still working on that one. Back to you later.
Then Wild Ride was full of waffles and ice cream, neither of which I make, but Maybe This Time had banana bread. It took me weeks to perfect Andie’s Banana Bread. No, no don’t thank me, have at it:
Andie’s Banana Bread
(You can knock back the chips and nuts to half a cup or even leave them out, but Alice will not be happy.)Mix together:
3 overripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
½ c. white sugar
½ c. brown sugar
½ c. yogurtMix together:
1 ½ c flour
½ t. salt
1 t. baking soda
½ t. baking powderFold flour mix into banana mix and add:
¾ c. mini chocolate chips
¾ c. chopped pecansBake at 350 in four mini loaf pans (5.75 x 3.25) for 45 mins. or 2 regular loaf pans (8 x 3.75) for 55 to 60 min.
