Welcome guest, Julie Hyzy!

YOU ALL KNOW JULIE! She used to be one of MLK's regulars.  She writes the fabulous White House Chef Mysteries and the Manor House Mysteries. You can find out more at her website: Julie Hyzy.

Welcome, Julie!

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It is so great to be back here in the kitchen! I loved being part of this amazing blog and interacting daily with my wonderful friends here. I miss you all so much, but I do stop by often and I love all the recent changes and additions. Such a fabulous lineup! Thanks to Avery for inviting me and thank you to you all for allowing me to be a guest!

I’m here today to talk about my newest book, and … Chicken Giardiniera.

What says Christmas better than Chicken Giardiniera? Okay, lots of things but the nice red and green (and, cough…orange) vegetables decorating otherwise ordinary chicken breasts are what make this dish special. It’s super easy but good enough for company. Even better, it made a giardiniera lover out of me. Our favorite local restaurant offers a dish similar to this one. My husband orders it almost every time we go there, and when he made me sample a bite, I understood why. I also understood that I needed to learn how to make this dish at home!

As I type this post, I’m putting the finishing touches on the sixth White House Chef mystery, and I’m eagerly awaiting the release of number five, Affairs of Steak, which comes out in about two weeks, January 3rd. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this particular story. In Affairs, Ollie is stuck working with her nemesis, Peter Everett Sargeant. If you’ve read any of the White House Chef novels, you’ll understand what a trial Ollie is in for. There’s fun, there’s romance (NOT with Sargeant! Gak!), and I hope a little heart tugging.

Oh, and there are murders, too (natch). I hope you’ll consider picking it up.

Found in the pickles section!

Avery (who asked me to be a guest) knows that I had a little problem with pictures for this recipe. I’d taken photos about a month ago because I wanted to share this recipe with you, but the photos must have been deleted from the camera – a fact I wasn’t aware of until I sat down to pull it all together. Because I’m facing a deadline and my husband always provides dinner during the final week before a book is due (he doesn’t cook, he brings in), I’m not able to recreate it for picture-sake again. My apologies.

No worries, though. This one is easy. And if you happen to own The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, you’re halfway there. I used their recipe for pan-seared chicken, but came up with my own idea for a personal sauce. If you don’t particularly care for giardiniera, try one of the sauces they feature on p 322 – 323 (third edition).

Chicken Giardiniera

 Ingredients:

½ cup flour

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and pounded to uniform thickness (medium-thin)

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

salt

pepper

1 jar prepared giardiniera

3 cloves garlic, sliced thin

1 onion, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200 F (warm)

After chicken is pounded to a relatively medium-thin thickness, pat dry with paper towels, season with salt and pepper.

Place the ½ cup flour in a shallow dish then dredge chicken breasts (one at a time) through, shaking off the excess.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the oil is just smoking. Add chicken and cook until golden brown on both sides, about 10 minutes each. Be sure to keep the chicken breasts separate in the skillet so that pieces don’t overlap as you cook. And keep in mind that you’re cooking the breasts all the way through, not just a partial cook. The first time I did this I made the mistake of pulling them off the heat too early.

Transfer the chicken to an oven-safe plate and place in warm oven. Do NOT clean skillet.

Add a scant bit of oil to the skillet, heat to medium-high again. Add chopped onions and sliced garlic. Sauté until soft, and until onions become translucent. Add about half a jar of giardiniera (we like to add more) and continue to sauté, and stir, scraping up the browned bits of chicken stuck in the bottom of the pan as you do so. When the sauce gets hot, pull the warming chicken from the oven. Juices have probably accumulated on the plate. Pour the juice into the skillet and continue over medium-high heat until just short of bubbling.

Place chicken on platter. Spoon mixture over chicken and serve.

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Julie Hyzy will be making many appearances in January to promote AFFAIRS OF STEAK. Check out her blog here for the full schedule.

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Thanks, Julie, for a delicious recipe ~Avery

Note: for those of you who can't find Giardineria in your grocery store (and I couldn't), here's a link to a recipe I found online, and it looks fabulous and not too hard to make:  from THE PARSLEY THEIF BLOG  You can click on that blog for a printable recipe.

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You can learn more about me, Avery, by clicking this link.

Chat with me on Facebook and Twitter.

And if you haven't done so, sign up for my mailing list

 so you can learn about upcoming events, releases, and contests!

And watch for CLOBBERED BY CAMEMBERT, coming out February 2012.

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BOOKSELLERS LINK

Brownie Bites and Contest Update

"Eggstra" Contest update...

I've received quite a few emails from readers who have spotted Eggsecutive Orders at bookstores. These, of course, are the early appearances.

Today is the book's official release date (woo-hoo!!) and your last week to enter the "Spot the Book" contest! I'm hoping to hear that it's everywhere -- please let me know! If you email me with where and when you spotted the book, you could be entered to win a $25 bookstore gift certificate. Details on this contest (and more about our Secret Ingredient contest) by clicking here.

And, while you're reading Eggsecutive Orders (how's that for a segue? Almost as good as Avery's yesterday) you may want to have a sweet snack.

Today's recipe is Brownie Bites featured in the second White House Chef mystery - Hail to the Chef.

Here's one issue I have with that recipe - in the book, it appears on pages 323 and 324. I don't like having the ingredient list split up like that. I much prefer having a recipe per page. Hoping to ensure that going forward...

These are *delicious* and very easy to make. One of my readers and friends (Hi, Cathy!!) told me she served them at her book discussion group with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream in the center. Chocolate or fudge drizzled on top and you have a dessert fit for fancy!

I made these twice over the holidays - once for Christmas, once for New Year's. I didn't serve them with ice cream, but used Hershey Hugs to top them. I also tried crushed peppermint sticks on top - these originally looked fabulous, but I probably should have waited until the bites were completely cooled. The peppermint pieces melted, just a little bit. Not so fabulous looking. Word to the wise - wait ;-)

Brownie Bites

(all on one page!)

3/4 cup good quality cocoa (I used Hershey's)

3/4 cup canola oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, beaten

1 tbsp vanilla

1-1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Garnish

Frosting:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup cocoa

1-1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup milk (don't add all at once)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the cocoa, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla into a large mixing bowl stir until the cocoa is fully incorporated, and the mixture is smooth and glossy. Add dry ingredients all at once and gently fold the wet and dry ingredients together. Stir only until the ingredients are mixed. Too much stirring makes the brownies tough.

Place foil (paper cups will shred, so using foil is important) baking cups into 2 12 cup muffin tins. Spray with cooking spray or grease with shortening. Fill the cups 2/3 full with the brownie mixture.

Place in oven and bake until the mixture is just set and lovely cracks appear on the surface of the brownie bites—about 15-20 minutes. Remove cups from tins and let brownie bites cool.

Meanwhile, make the frosting. Place the softened butter in a large mixing bowl. Add the cocoa, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla, and blend until the mixture is fully mixed. Add the milk, a tablespoonful at a time, and continue beating the frosting. When the frosting looks glossy and forms soft peaks, it’s ready to use.

Frost the brownies in their foil cups.

Garnish with pecan halves, or the garnish of your choice.

(Other options for garnishes include everything from mini-chocolate chips to a sprinkle of coconut to a fan of candy corn –cute in the fall—to white chocolate curls to chocolate covered coffee beans to peanut butter cups to peppermint patties to other chocolates. Tailor your garnish to your anticipated diners. If you’re feeding mostly adults, go for sophistication. If you’re feeding lots of kids, raid the candy store. The pecan halves are a compromise—both adults and kids like them, and the people who don’t like nuts can easily remove them. But the sky’s the limit as far as garnishing these goes.)

I love these... so pretty, so delicious.

Hope you enjoy!

Julie

Hey, by the way, did anyone watch IRON CHEF on Sunday? Was that fun, or what? To me it felt like I was watching my character, Ollie, up there competing with all the "big names" in the culinary world. First female White House Executive Chef. You go, Cristeta!!

www.juliehyzy.com