Chicken Breasts with Lemon Mustard Sauce

About 14 years ago I came across two lemony sauce recipes to use on chicken and have made them both numerous times over the years. One is extremely easy because it starts with a can of broccoli soup from Campbells, and the other is simple because it only has a couple ingredients but a nice strong lemon flavor that pairs so well with poultry.

Because I liked my two basic lemon sauces I don't typically look for other lemon based recipes but this one caught my eye and I decided to add it to my files. It's so simple with just a couple ingredients and the tang of the mustard blends with the citrus and chicken for a perfect Spring or summer meal.

Lemon Mustard Sauce for Chicken Breasts

4 boneless chicken breasts
2 T oil for cooking
4 T butter (half a stick)
1 T Dijon-style mustard
3 T lemon juice + thin lemon slices to garnish
2 T half and half

In a pan over medium high, heat the oil and add the chicken breasts. Cook, turn and continue cooking over medium heat, about 10-15 minutes until completely done. Remove the chicken breasts and keep warm. Turn the heat down to low. Add the butter to the pan and melt over low heat and add mustard, lemon juice and half and half while stirring with a whisk for about 2 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

Place a chicken breast on each plate, drizzle chicken with lemon-butter sauce and garnish with thin slices of lemon. Goes great with asparagus, green beans or baby potatoes with rosemary.

Recycle that Fruit Basket into a May Basket

In just a couple days you might return home from work or errands to find a basket left on your door step. Perhaps you will be home and hear the doorbell ring only to find there is no at on your front step. Looking down you might spy a little cone of flowers or a basket of popcorn and M&M's at your feet.

You know what that means... May Day! Halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice, the Northern hemisphere celebrates the first day of May as a day of spring, of flowers and of ribbons and surprises left on doorsteps.

As simple as a rolled piece of paper, construction paper or even beautiful scrapbook paper, or maybe it's a little bag, a basket or another container... how about surprising your neighbors or co-workers with a little Spring basket?

A simple idea that we've used many times over the years (with three children) is a simple fruit basket. Raspberries or strawberries that come in these little baskets can be threaded with paper strips, ribbons or pipe cleaners in bright colors and filled with cookies, popcorn, snack mixes or flowers... real or paper!


A quick glance into my files showed me that I apparently don't have any of our May Basket photos on this laptop. Instead I had to turn to g**gle to find a photo of a fruit basket May Basket... but this one from a general search shows you a simple version of a decorated fruit basket.

A couple of ribbons, a little flower and you are ready to surprise your neighbor or coworker with a tiny little basket to celebrate the first day of May.

Cheddar Ranch Bacon Mashed Potatoes

It's a Monday and... it's a Monday. Yep, a Monday through and through. When it comes to days like this I crave comfort food. Mashed potatoes are one of those! Doctored up with sour cream, bacon and cheese... fattening and comforting. Just what the doctored ordered.


1 small dry package Ranch dressing mix
1 cup sour cream
1 3/4 cups milk
6-7 large potatoes, cleaned, chopped, cooked until soft
6 cooked and crumbled bacon slices
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
sliced green onions


Mash the cooked potatoes (or use about 1 1/2 lbs. of frozen mashed potatoes or make from a box and reduce milk below). To the potatoes add 1 dry package Ranch dressing mix, 1 cup sour cream, and 1 - 1 3/4 cups milk to the consistency you want adding 1/3 cup as needed. Stir in 6 cooked and crumbled bacon slices and 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese. Garnish with sliced green onions or chopped chives. Serve!

Glitter Fondant Stars for Cakes - Shimmering and Fun!

This morning as I clicked on my laptop computer and prepared to post I remembered my dream from last night. Why would this be worth mentioning here, on my recipe and cooking website? Because the dream was of my boss making cookies at work for the staff. Granted, he's new and has only been there a month and I don't even know if he can cook or bake, and in the dream he was making them in the break room, which has a coffee pot and microwave but that's about it. The most important part of the dream however, is that he was making the shimmering gold fondant stars that I actually made last summer for my FIL's Birthday.

Which is why as I sat here in my kitchen sipping coffee this morning I decided to see if I still had the photos in a cooking file on this computer and if so, I would use that as the topic-of-the-day. And? I do!

These fondant stars are perfect for birthdays and weddings as well as graduations and even mother's day so get a package of fondant (unless you want to make your own... which you totally can do if you want) and let's get to producing some beautiful, fully edible shimmering glitter fondant stars and shapes to decorate cupcakes, cakes and cookies with!!



Shimmering Fondant Cake Decorations


Fondant - any color but white works best
edible glitter dust - only from the cake and cookie decoration aisle. Do not use regular craft glitter.
Vodka
small bowl
paint brush
cookie cutters or a knife to cut your shapes


Fondant is much like PlayDoh. Work it with your hands and roll out as if you were a child rolling dough again. I like to sprinkle powdered sugar on the working surface so it doesn't stick.


Cut out your shapes and lay them on parchment or foil to dry. High humidity is not your friend so it may take a day or two to dry stiff if you live in a wet environment.

Mix the glitter dust powder with a small amount of vodka in a bowl. paint this on to each of the fondant decorations and let them dry again. The vodka works well because it evaporates so quickly, doesn't make the fondant gummy like water, and doesn't leave any flavor or taste.

When dry, use to decorate your cakes, cupcakes or cookies!

Cream Filberts or Cream Nuts or even Mothballs or Snowballs

About two weeks ago my husband asked me about a candy he remembered from his childhood and wondered if it sounded familiar to me. He said when he was just 4 or 5 years old a family friend (an elderly man) would always have them and offer him one when he visited. I'm sure the man passed away 20 or 30 years ago but this candy he was known to love and hand out to small children lives on.

It was described to me by my husband as a pure white ball of sugar surrounding a nut... a whole nut, not pieces. He said it was basically a sugar ball surrounding an almond. That's all he remembered. It did not sound the least bit familiar to me but I tucked it away in my brain and spent about an hour online the other night trying to track it down. The nut inside wasn't an almond, but a filbert... but I'll forgive his memory lapse as a child he wouldn't know the difference!

The first thing I came across was a recipe to make my own... which I copied down in my files to surprise him with. But then I grinned as I found a company that still makes them!!! Difficult to find, but not impossible I ordered a pound of them and will surprise my husband with them when they are delivered later this week. Since they are a bit costly with delivery charges I'll be making them from scratch from now on.


Cream Filberts or Cream Nuts or even Mothballs or Snowballs

1 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup whole shelled filberts or hazelnuts
GLAZE:
2 cups confectioner's sugar
3 Tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Granulated sugar or about 60 crushed sugar cubes

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar, add egg and vanilla; mix well.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and add to creamed mixture. Roll heaping teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls; press a filbert into each and reshape so dough covers the nut. Place on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks. Combine first three glaze ingredients; dip entire top of the cooled cookies into the glaze. Roll in sugar.