Tarragon Mustard Chicken

My step-mom, Sharon, sent over this recipe for Tarragon Mustard Chicken, one of her go to dinners (as you can see by the delightfully well-loved recipe sheet). It looked yummy, so I made it. But it wasn't yummy. It was, as Cory puts it, "the best f***ing chicken EVER". Once swearing is involved in a meal critique, I'd say jackpot hit.

It may not be the prettiest chicken dish ever, but it really is very easy, and ridiculously delicious.

Tarragon Mustard Chicken
Recipe adapted from Chef Rodolfo

8 pieces Chicken Breast (or pork loin slices if you prefer)
1 tsp Yellow Mustard Seeds, crushed
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Grapeseed Oil (or Olive Oil)
2 tbsp Green Onions, finely minced
1 tsp Fresh Tarragon Leaves, coursely chopped
2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/3 cup Cream
1/4 cup Extra Dry White Vermouth

Season the meat with the soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper (mix it in a bowl and soak the meat in to soak while you gather and prepare the other ingredients). Rub meat with the mustard seeds and press the seeds in on one side.

In a fry pan, add the oil and butter and sear the meat, starting on the side with the mustard seeds. Keep cooking and turning them until fully cooked, about 5-8 minutes. Set aside and keep warm.

In the same pan, cook the onions for a minute, add the vermouth and whisk in the pan to release all the crusty goodness from the pan (technically, this is called deglazing the pan, but there is no need to get overly fancy). Add the remaining ingredients and simmer slowly until you have a nice smooth sauce for your chicken. Add the cooked meat, with any released juices, coat with the sauce and serve.




Enjoy!

Christmas Cookies

I love sugar cookies. They are easily my hands down favorite among cookies, and possibly among all baked goods! I love them so much that my usually fabulous husband made me cry when he said a few year back, "why do people even make sugar cookies? No one likes them anyway!"

I love the simple, sweet, vanilla taste. I love all the pretty shapes you can make depending on the season. I love spreading frosting on them and coating them entirely with colorful sprinkles. Quite frankly, I don't know what's NOT to love.

Each year, my little brother and I make Christmas cookies - really, they're sugar cookies in Christmas shapes, including a giant reindeer cutter that signals that Christmas is here. And we always use the same recipe, a Martha Stewart one from one of her entertaining books from the 80's. A true classic.

With all my love for this humble, classic, simple cookie, you can imagine my horror this fall when I realized I was pretty gluten-intolerant and my only shot at Christmas cookies would be to make them without flour. While I can get behind the idea of using flour replacers in more complexly flavored cookies, the sugar cookie has so few ingredients that I was afraid I wouldn't be happy with a flour-free result.

Lo and behold, Cup 4 Cup has saved my Christmas! I made both traditional and gluten-free versions with the same old recipe, and they turned out almost identical. Truth be told, the gluten-free ones were kind of annoying to roll out, but not impossible. And I'm happy to go through a little annoyance to have my favorite treat not make me sick. Can you tell which cookie is which? Neither can I (except of course that I can because I really don't want to eat the wrong ones!).



Enjoy these, either glutenous, or gluten-free!

Basic Sugar Cookies
from one of Martha Stewart's many books

2 cups flour (All-purpose, or Cup4Cup)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 stick salted butter, room temperature, cut into little pieces

Put the butter and sugar in a food processor and cream until you just have small clumps of sugar/butter. Then add the egg and vanilla, and blend until smooth. Add the baking powder and flour and mix until the dough is a big ball rolling around in the food processor. Or until it's all mushed together.

Wrap the dough in two separate chunks in some plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least half an hour. It helps the rolling out process if you wrap the chunks in round disk shapes.

Preheat the oven to 325. Roll out the dough to your desired cookie thickness and cut out whatever shapes you please! Bake on a cookie sheet for about 12-14 minutes.

Once they're cooked and cooled, mix together a cup of powdered sugar with just enough milk, cream, water, or lemon juice, to make it a soupy paste. Spread a thin layer on each cookie with a paint brush, and then sprinkle with abandon!

By the way, the cookies on the left are the old fashioned flour ones, and the cookies on the right are their gluten-free counterparts :)

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!!